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Poker Tournaments

Poker tournaments have become one of the most popular ways to play poker. Mostly due the amount of tournaments aired on TV. It started with the World Poker Tour in 2002 where the audience get to see the player's hole cards and get instructed by expert commentators. Another major factor was the growth of online poker and the win by online qualifier Chris Moneymaker in the World Series of Poker in 2003. In poker tournaments players can win a big prize without having to risk much money.

Luck factor is important in poker tournaments, a beginner can win a tournament but as in all forms of poker skill we play a decisive roll in the long run. This may be deceptive for a beginner who wins a tournament and through the hard way finds out that it isn't easy to win tournaments. Not many players succeed in winning tournaments regularly year after year.

Poker tournaments are a highly competitive form of poker. The goal is to win and to do that you'll need to be the last remaining player left, having outlasted all the other players. At the start all players pay the same buy-in plus the house fee which goes to the hosting casino or club. The house fee or tournament fee is normally 10 % of the buy-in. All players start with the same amount of starting chips and as the tournament progresses the stakes increase in time intervals to knock out players more rapidly. Depending on tournament the intervals will be of different length, the more expensive tournaments usually have longer intervals. Long intervals usually benefit better players since they have time to outplay their opponents. The fast tournaments can become a lottery when the blinds increase and players are forced to play weak hands with the remaining chips.

The pay-out structures of tournaments vary a lot; there are flat and steep structures. In flat structures there are many prizes but less money for each spot. In steep structures prizes are higher but less money spots. Normal pay-out structure is that one player out every ten gets prize. That means if there are 100 entrants the top ten of those will be paid. As the tournament progress and players get knocked out tables will be closed until only one table remain. That is final table which is played until one player has all the chips.

In tournaments each player knows exactly how much they will loose (the exception is re-buy tournaments where a player can buy-in again if he/she looses all the chips and wants to continue play) compared to ring games where a player can refill each time he/she goes broke. The stakes increase constantly in tournaments forcing players to not be eliminated and an eliminated tournament player has to leave the game. The approach to the game varies depending on the size of the player's stack, if it is short, medium or big. Big stacks can bully the other players around by scaring them and the short stacks need to double up fast and have to play hands. The medium stacks should try to become big stacks without risking to get knocked out by a big stack so playing against short stacks is better for them.