Poker Tournaments and Prizes
Poker tournaments are events that provide poker players with an opportunity to compete and in most cases for high amounts of money. Poker tournaments can be played by 2 players at the same table, this situation is usually referred to as “heads up” and but during the tournaments thousands of players take part in the game. The person who wins these tournaments is usually the one who can win all poker chips in any game and the rest of the players will only be awarded places usually depending on the time they were eliminated from the tournament. In order to arrange this, most tournaments usually use blinds that are usually raised over the time the tournament is being played. In poker tournaments players are not allowed to cash out their chips for money like in ring games or cash games as they are only used for determining the player’s placing.
Prizes
In order to qualify for any poker competition, a player is supposed to pay a fixed amount of money in order to start playing and this will then result in the player being given a specific amount of poker chips meant specifically for that tournament. In some commercial events the players may also be charged a fee which is usually the cost used for running that tournament. The tournament chips usually have a notional value meaning that they don’t have any cash value thereby meaning that they cannot be cashed out.
Poker tournaments are also not supposed to be playing using hard cash. Usually the amount each player pays for a tournament is an integer multiple of the buy in. in some tournaments however players will be provided with options of re buying or buying back as this will give them the option of purchasing additional chips. It is however important to keep in mind that some re buys usually come with conditions for example in some cases the re buys will only be offered to the players that have a low count or are running out of chips while in some cases the re buys will be availed to only the players who only ask for them and this is usually referred to as add ons. In cases where some players have run out of chips and they have also declined or exhausted all their re buy options if there are any available then they will be eliminated from that tournament.
The number of players at each table in many poker tournaments is kept even and this is usually done by moving players from one table to another or by switching players or even by taking a specific table out of play then distributing all the players from that table amongst the other poker tables. There are also variants of poker tournaments for example the shoot outs where the last few players at a table are moved on to a second or even a third round which is akin to a single elimination tournament that is found in other games. The prize of poker tournaments is usually derived from the buy ins although in some cases outside funds may also be entered such as sponsorships or gate receipts from spectators.
