Tournament Poker

Poker tournaments are similar to sports tournaments: the goal isn’t simply to win some money but to beat all the other players. Unlike cash games, in which you can cash out at any time, in tournament poker you must play until you either have no more chips left or have won.

In the most common type of tournament, all players pay a certain buy-in and receive an equal number of chips. The players are then arranged into different tables—if there are 100 players, for example, the tournament may start with 10 tables of 10 players each. Play at each table continues until one player at the table has won all the chips and all the other players have been eliminated. As players are gradually eliminated, remaining players are reseated at fewer tables until all the players who are still in the game can fit at just one table. The last player standing at that table wins the tournament.

Tournament Rules

Tournament rules can vary widely, but these are the most common:

Distribution of money: A predetermined number of players will be “in the money” at the end of a tournament. For instance, for a $10 buy-in tournament with 20 players, the winner might receive $120, with $50 for the second-place finisher and $30 for the third-place finisher.
Ante or blind increases: The amount that players must pay to be in the hand goes up regularly throughout the tournament. It starts reasonably low, but after a round or so, which can take from 15–45 minutes, it increases at a faster and faster rate. These increases are designed to speed up the game. But even with this rule in place, tournaments can still take a very long time to finish.

Tournament Strategy

Tournament strategy differs from cash-game strategy in several ways:

Play while it’s cheap: The blinds at the beginning of the game are far smaller than the blinds at the end. Therefore, it’s important to give yourself a chance to win money and build up your stack while the risk is comparatively low. When the blinds go up, you’ll need to risk a greater and greater number of your chips in order to stay in the hand.
Playing a short stack: If you’re the short stack at the table, meaning you have fewer chips than anyone else, you need to go all in at some point while you still have a reasonable amount. If the big blind is $100, you should go all in with a decent hand before you get below $500 or so. This strategy is the best way to get enough chips to have a chance at winning, or at least to be in the money.
Playing to win vs. playing for money: If you’re one of four players left in the tournament and only three will be in the money, you might want to play conservatively to give another player the chance to lose and go out. On the other hand, if your only care about winning first place, then play normally.