Poker Tournament Basics: How A Tourney Works

A poker tournament is a game where the winnings are used aspoints, where the players play by specific rules and one, two orthree player get to actually win money in the end. The number ofwinners and the rules are specific to every tournament and theyare made public before the enrolment for the tournament begins.

Every one who wants to enter the tournament pays a fee, the sameamount of money that is to be used as the bankroll of everyplayer for that specific tournament, and it is called the buy-in.Next to the buy in the casino, online or offline, will takeitself a fee from all players called the entrance fee, fee usedto sustain and entertain the tournament. Let's say the buy-in is$300, and then the casino might take an extra $30, so in orderto enter that tournament you will have to give the house a totalamount of $330. All the money gathered fro the buy-ins iscollected for the prize fund and it will be the buy-inmultiplied by the number of players. If in our example if it isa tournament with 200 players, then the total prize will be of$60.000. Players can be paid for their games only after thetournament is over and only if they qualify among the topplayers. Usually there is a price for every top 10 player, butthis depends on the casino and tournament too. The prices areannounced before and they are calculated as percepts from theprice pool gathered. For example 40% first price, 30% second,10% third, 8% fourth, 7% fifth and 5% sixth for a tournament inwhich the top 6 players receive prices.

In a tournament all players start out with the same amount ofchips. It is usually played at different tables, splitting upthe players equally and from that on every player will leave thetournament as soon as he or she goes broke. A tournament can befast or slow, depending on the skill and chips amount theplayers start with. Professional players prefer tournaments thatare slow so they have time to weight their decisions, to observetheir opponents and to play a while before growing that enormousstack that will make them gamble too much. Poker tournaments areplayed until one player collects all the chips that were in thegame.

To be first depends not only on your poker skill, but on yourluck also. To be in the first ten is a clear statement that youdefinitely are a threat for any poker player of that level.