Tournament Poker Table, Re Buy and Betting Structures

Tournament poker comes in different forms and with varying rules. It takes some adjusting to from the ring games played at home and casinos. This page looks at some basic tournament poker rules about re buy, tables, and betting structures. These are generalizations. When you join a tournament, please do read the rules and guidelines carefully as they vary from one to another.

Objective

In a poker tournament, the objective is to be the last player sitting in the table as the sole winner. All other players must be eliminated. A player is eliminated when they run out of chips to play. This means the final winner or champion gets all the chips. But usually they receive only about half or less the prize money the chips represent; the rest are divided among the other top finishers according to set rules.

Table Structure

A tournament can be either multi-table or single-table. In multi-table tournaments or MTT, all players who bought in are divided equally among as many tables as it takes to accommodate them. In a single table tourney, known as Sit N Go or STT, players sit at a table and play begins as soon as the seats are all taken up (hence, "sit and go.")

As players bow out of a MTT, the remaining players are again moved around and divided among the tables. Tables are removed as the player pool gets smaller.

A variation, known as a shootout, the players are not moved around. Instead, each table come up with a single winner before the next round of the tournament begins.

Chips and Re Buy

When a player buys into a tournament, their money is exchanged for play chips just like in a casino. All players start off with an equal amount of chips. When someone goes broke, they are eliminated from the event.

Some tournaments allow re buys. This means you can buy more chips if your initial buy in runs out. Add ons are similar to re buys but they can be bought anytime even when a player still has chips left.

When a player loses all their chips and either declines or exhausts all replenishing options, they must leave the tournament.

Poker Games

The most popular poker games are well-represented in the major tournaments. Or should we say, the games featured in these majors rise in popularity as a result of the exposure they get. A case in point is Texas Holdem. This community card game has become the face of poker for many fans due to the television coverage it gets.

Several poker games may be played throughout a tournament. The games may be played with different betting structures. For example, the 2007 World Series of Poker schedule includes: Limit Holdem, Pot Limit Holdem, No Limit Holdem, Pot Limit Omaha with Re Buys, Seven Card Stud, HORSE, Seven Card Razz, etc.

Betting Structure

Betting structure is a defining element of poker games, but especially in tournament poker.

- Fixed. Bets and raises are capped. A $10/20 Limit Holdem game fixes early round bets at $10 and double in later rounds to $20. One bet and three raises by all players are allowed.

- Semi-limited. These have minimum raises, usually at least the size of the first raise. The maximum raise is the size of the pot if it is Pot Limit. If it is Spread Limit, the bets and raises must fall between the minimum and maximum bets.