Microgaming online casinos offer slots tournaments on a continuous basis. These are extremely popular. New players can get a bit confused with the terminology used to describe the rules of these slots tournaments. Some of the terms are common across all software providers, whereas some of them are peculiar to Microgaming. This article explains a few of these terms.

Prize pool is the total amount of money that is distributed in the tournament to the winners. There are two types of prize pools. One type of prize pool is a guaranteed amount put up by the online casino irrespective of the number of participants in the slots tournament. The other type of prize pool is the total of the entry fees paid by the online casino players. This prize pool is larger in online tournaments where there is larger participation.

There are two different time periods specified for online slots tournaments. The duration of the tournament is the period over which the tournament lasts. For example a monthly tournament would start on the first day of the month and end on the last day of the month. Within this duration online casino players are allotted a play time. The play time per cycle could be ten minutes. This means that anytime during the duration of the tournament the player will get ten minutes to complete his cycle and register his score. If the player decides to buy additional cycles then he can extend the playing time. The playing time need not be availed at one stretch but can be broken up as desired by the player.

Continue play options are peculiar to Microgaming slots tournaments. For a specified fee you can buy additional cycles and continue playing. With each cycle you will get a new set of coins and additional playing time. You will be able to use the coins or time left over from your earlier cycle as well. The coins won in the new cycle will be added to the score that you have already accumulated.

Rebuys options are somewhat similar in structure to continue play options with one major difference. Your existing score is set to zero and you start playing the tournament all over again. If after the rebuy you are able to register a higher score then the higher score will stand. However if your earlier score is higher, then the online slots tournament will record your earlier score. The rebuy fee is the amount you pay for purchasing one cycle of rebuy.