[pzhon]

In a normal tournament, you will have a nearly full table of opponents until the final table or two. When players bust out, tables are broken and players are moved to fill the seats.

In a shootout tournament, the players at one table play until someone has all of the chips, and then the winner moves on to the next round. In a typical full double shootout on PokerStars, there may be 9 tables of 9 players. Each table plays until someone has accumulated all of the chips, and then the 9 survivors play at the final table. PokerStars has also run three round shootouts with 64 players starting with 16 tables of 4.

In normal tournaments, there are prizes for second and lower places. Some shootouts only pay first place, which might be something big like a WSOP package. Some shootouts may pay a small flat amount to everyone who makes it to the final table. The value of chips is closer to linear in shootouts than in regular tournaments. It's more important to be able to play well short-handed in a shootout than in a normal tournament.