Poker tournaments

As poker in general and online poker in particular are slowly growing up to be the most popular card game ever played in the world, more and more organized poker events start to surface in greater and greater numbers.
Die-hard players are no longer satisfied with cleaning out a table, they aim for more. Kickin rookie behind is satisfactory to a certain extent but beyond that point one realizes he/she needs more of a challenge or probably just more money to win. This is the reason poker tournaments are organized. Tournaments are the proving grounds of great champions, it's the place where the rookies are fast eliminated leaving only the cream of the crop to do battle.
To qualify for one of these tournaments ( online or offline) players need to pay a fixed entry fee called the buyin, or be allowed to play if they've previously won a sanctioned satellite tournament. In exchange for the buyin, each player receives a stack of chips, the amount of which is usually a multiple of the buyin sum. In the simplest case scenario everyone plays using the same amount of chips. When a player runs out of chips he gets eliminated from the tournament, thus those who stay in it end up playing with more and more chips and with higher and higher stakes.
There are cases when the tournament rules allow for players to buy additional chips, thus raising the stakes and letting losing players have a second shot. Usually there are special rules as to when a player may acquire a second chipstack. Sometimes only players who have run out of chips beforehand can request new chips, most of the time though, supplementary chips are available from the get go for those who reckon they'll need them. In these tournaments as the players start thinning out from around the tables, remaining players are usually re-seated to another table, thus the field keeps on getting tougher and tougher. Another way of selecting out the winners is to wait until there are but one or two players left at each table, then let them rip into each-other at a final, Winner's table.
Other than paying up the fixed buyin, there are other ways to gain access to tournaments, many - financially less endowed - players make great use of, specially when it comes to getting into prestigious tournaments where the buyin can be rather high. Satellite tournaments are regular poker tournaments in all but one respect. The prize of the winner is to gain access to a more prestigiuos tournament. Satellites are becoming more and more popular, especially in online poker, and as such they're more and more widespread. Some satellites themselves have grown to have satellites of their own.
This system presents some obvious advantages for talented poker players and the day when a big ( WSOP – like) poker tournament will be hald exclusively for satellite entrants is probably not far off.
One thing is certain, talent gets filtered a lot more thoroughly through satellites, and there's no better example to prove that point than poker pro Chris Moneymaker, who entered his first WSOP from a satellite tournament and ultimately went on to win the big prize.
Prizes in poker touraments are usually a fixed percent of the total amount resulted from the buyins, as the organizers also need a share of it to cover their costs. There are "freeroll" tournaments too, where there is no buyin whatsoever, entry is invitation-based and prizes are provided by sponsors or by the spectators who buy tickets.
Prizes among winning players are distributed proportionally or in a fixed manner.
In fixed-prize tournaments each finishing position is awarded a predetermined percentage of the buyin total, those who classify low, do not receive anything, first place gets the most with the runners up getting less and less.
In proportional tournaments there's a more ellaborate reward system in place. When going by this algorithm usually only about one in ten players get some amount of payout, the first place will walk away with the lion's share of the winnings.
Poker tournaments are also classified by the betting system they allow the players to use.
Fixed limit, is when the amount of bets and raises is limited to a pre-set amount, which will usually increase as the tournament progresses.
No limit tournaments are the ones in which there are no limits on bets and raises starting from the very beginning.
Play limits are a factor that can fundamentally influence a game, the types of strategy required by the two versions are so different that some even consider them to be two entirely separate games.

All articles written by (c) James West.