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By Matthew Winnington
Poker Tournaments are poker competitions
where all of the players play at the same time and
continue to play until only one player is left.
Tournaments are fun to play , have a low entry fees
and offer a large prize pool to be won. For these
reasons they are a very popular. They are inexpensive
way for novice poker players to learn how to play the
game, as well as a providing a place for more
experienced players gain experience.
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 / also known as
a Sit and Go tourney) 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.
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). 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 (Blinds are doubled
on a timed interval), 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;
some are timed while some increase the limit after a
set number of rounds are played.
Balancing and
Collapsing Tables
Larger tournaments start out with more than one table,
each having 8 to 10 players. As the tournament
progresses players will be eliminated and the number
of players at each table will not remain the same. For
the tournament to be fair the number of players at
each table should be the same, so the organizers move
players from table to table in an attempt to keep all
the tables equally populated.
Balancing is the practice of moving
players from full tables to less full tables when the
difference is 3 or more players.
Collapsing tables is the practice
of removing tables once there are enough empty spaces
among the rest of the tables to do so. Thus with 10
player tables when there are 10 empty spaces the
players from one table are moved to empty spaces and
that table is taken out of play.
Matthew is an aspiring poker player
provides tips and who shares his experiences playing
poker online at
http://www.playrealpokeronline.com
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