by: Eric Madsen
So, you want to play in a poker tournament?
Well, you are not alone! Tournaments are growing bigger all the time.
Before we really get started, let's define "poker tournament." Tournaments are poker competitions where all of the players play at the same time and continue to play until only one player is left. The player that is left is the one to take home all the loot!
Tournaments Are Hot!
Why are tournaments such big events? They
Types of Tournaments
While there are many different types of poker games played at casinos and online rooms, tournament play is usually reserved for Texas Hold'em, Omaha, and 7-card Stud because these games have a large following.
Poker tournaments can have as few as 6 players (single table tournaments) to thousands of players for larger events. Large tournaments consist of many tables, each table having 8 to 10 players. The tables are slowly removed from the tourney as players are eliminated, and players are balanced from table to table as needed. (These are known as multi-table tournaments). Finally all but the last table will be removed and these last 8 to 10 players play until only one of them remains.
Tournament Basics
To play in a tournament players have to pay two fees.
1. They have to pay an entry fee to the poker room hosting the tournament to cover the expenses involved. This gives the player an assigned seat and a set quantity of tournament chips with which to play (these chips have no cash value).
2. Players also pay a buy-in fee. The buy-in fee is held and paid out as prizes. The prize payout differs from tournament to tournament but typically it all goes to the few players fortunate enough to make the final table.
The object of a tournament is to win all of the chips. All tournament players start out with the same quantity of chips to play with and all start playing at the same time. Players play until they lose all of their chips and are then removed from the tournament. A tournament continues non-stop, often for several hours, until only one person remains.
As playing progresses the stakes rise, making it more and more difficult for players with short stacks to remain in the game.
Players are awarded prize money based on their finishing position in the tournament. The top finishers earn the most money with the 1st place winner usually receiving about 30% of the total prize money, the 2nd place winner about 20% and so on.
The number of winners and the size of the payouts depend upon the rules for the tournament being played and the number of people playing.
Re-buys and Add-ons
Some poker tournaments allow players a re-buy option. This re-buy option allows players to purchase more chips if they run out of them at the start of the tournament. A player can purchase the same number of chips that he/she started the tournament with. Some poker tournaments allow unlimited re-buys during the first hour of play, while other tournaments allow only a single re-buy.
An add-on option is similar to the re-buy option. Add-ons differ in that they are usually only offered once at the end of the re-buy period and can be purchased regardless of how many chips you have. As the name implies, these chips are added on to your stack of chips.
All proceeds from re-buys and add-ons are added to the prize pool less house fees (if applicable).
Betting
Tournament betting is structured with the betting limit increasing regularly. The changes in betting limits occur differently depending on the tournament