How Do Poker Tournaments Work? A Beginner's Tutorial

What You Need to Know

Tournament Basics: Learn the structure, rounds, and chip stack concept of poker tournaments, and how they differ from cash games.
Blind Structure: Learn how blinds increase with time in tournaments, influencing game speed and strategy.
Survival Strategies: Learn strategies for surviving longer in tournaments, including playing tight in the beginning and taking risk decisions towards the end.
Positional Advantage: Understand the strategic value of position and how it affects betting strategy in tournament poker.
Bankroll Management: Discover how to handle tournament entry fees and balance risk versus reward to maintain your poker tournament action.

There's no feeling quite like the rush of winning a poker tournament. As exciting as cash games may be, winning a poker tournament is an actual high—with a big score to boot!

Cash poker games are a grind every day. And, depending on the payout scheme, winning a multi-table poker tournament can often yield 100x returns.

Poker was turned on its head when a amatuer player by the name of Chris Moneymaker (whose name is indeed "Chris Moneymaker") turned a $40 satellite tourney buy-in into a $2.5 million dollar prize.

From this article, you'll be learning how to play poker tournaments! You can watch poker tournaments ratings on Gambling-Sites.pro.

What is a Poker Tournament?

Tournament poker is an elimination game. Play until the last player standing.

Before the game starts, everyone must buy in a flat buy-in fee that contributes to the group prize pool. Everyone has the same amount of chips to start off with, and it gets increasingly difficult and difficult as the blinds increase (meaning it costs more and more chips to play a hand).

Only the top 10-15% of players are typically paid according to the payout chart. The rest depart with $0—saving the juiciest prizes for the final remaining few.

Poker Tournaments vs. Cash Games

Tournaments and cash games are two different beasts:

Cash Games: Players can join and leave freely, and real money is used in betting where 1 chip = $1. Mistakes are less costly since you can rebuy chips.
Tournaments: Make one error, and you're eliminated. Lose your chips, and you're eliminated. The position you're higher up in the finishing list, the larger your pay.

You could win $100 entry fee that is worth 20,000 chips, but the money is based on eliminations because chips cannot be exchanged for currency.

How Do Poker Tournaments Work: Types of Poker Tournaments

There are variations in tournaments, especially in online poker tournaments.

Freezeouts: No rebuys are allowed. Once you’re out, you’re out.
Turbo and Hyper-Turbo: These have faster blind level increases, leading to shorter events and more variance. Luck plays a bigger role.
Bounty Tournaments: Players earn an additional payout for eliminating an opponent.
Mystery Bounty: Players earn a mystery, raffle draw payout for eliminating an opponent.

Freezeouts are less and less because the rebuy option will increase the prize pool. Turbo and hyper-turbo are words applied mostly to online poker tournaments, but a few live events are not so slow.

A common daily casino tournament will probably take anywhere from 5-7 hours. Big series events like at the World Series of Poker will take roughly 10 hours and over several days!

How Poker Tournaments Work: What You Receive If You Win

Victory in a poker tournament feels like just reaching Cloud Nine! Not only do you get a generous payout, but triumph is accompanied by bragging rights and glory.

Sometimes there isn't a definitive winner and players will chop a "deal" or "chop." Maybe, rather than first place taking home $2,000 and second place taking home $1,000, the two players will chop and split and get to win $1,500.

How to Track Progress

Use poker tracking software for internet tournaments or keep a journal of your live game histories. If you have reliable poker friends, it is advisable to record key hands and discuss among peers.