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There
is still one other world of Poker beyond all the different table
games that have been described. Any Poker game can also be played
in a TOURNAMENT form. How does a Tournament work? Well, for starters
each player is given and equal stack of what are called "Tournament
Chips". These chips are NOT REAL MONEY, they just represent money.
You cannot buy food in a casino or tip waitresses with Tournament
chips. At the end of a Tournament the casino collects all the
chips and just puts them back. When a player loses all of his/her
chips they are OUT and must leave. The top 10-20% of the players
left in the Tournament are paid accordingly from highest payout
to lowest payout. Most Tournaments keep going until only one player
remains but sometimes they are stopped short and the players just
split the money.
For
example in a $100.00
63 person Tournament (9 players on 7 different tables)
the top 9 players or "The Final Table" get paid. Bellow is a
typical payout structure.
|
| 1st:
$2,079
|
2nd:
$1,323 |
3rd:
$756 |
4th:
$567 |
5th:
$441 |
| 6th:
$378 |
7th:
$283 |
8th:
$252 |
9th:
$220 |
|
| The
above Tournament prize pool was $100.00 times the 63 players
or $6,300.00. The percentages from the $6,300.00 which the casino
used to give the chart above are below. |
| 1st:
33% |
2nd:
21% |
3rd:
12% |
4th:
9% |
5th:
7% |
| 6th:
6 % |
7th:
4.5 % |
8th:
4 % |
9th:
3.5% |
|
Now
you may be asking how the casino makes any money here since
it looks like the players took all the of the prize pool. In
actuality there is a small "Casino Fee" on top of the entry
fee which is collected. In this case it was $15.00. So for $115.00
you received $1000.00 in Tournament chips and a chance at the
Final Table.
The
Tournaments
themselves don't really make a great deal of money for the casino,
they are mainly for the notoriety and publicity of the casino,
plus the attraction of star players and television shows. But
here is how they indirectly make a great deal on money for the
casino. In Tournaments there is no tipping the dealer and there
is no 'rake' or 2-5% taken from each pot but on the live tables
there are. So why would a casino give up 5, 10, 20 or even ALL
of it's poker tables for a Tournament? Well if you have a 400
person Tournament which costs $1,500 to play and pays the last
36 players or the "FINAL FOUR" tables, you are now left with 364
pokers players inside a casino who are down $1,500.00. Obviously
they are going to be staying a little while. (Especially the guy
who got out in 37th place!) There are very, VERY few people who
have switched to playing ONLY Tournaments. However I am one of
those people myself. I like the fact that there is a beginning,
an ending, and a time to go home. When I played live it seemed
like there was no such thing as time. But don't get me wrong some
people are horrible Tournament players and are only cut out for
live play strategy while the opposite may be true as well.
The
biggest catch to Tournaments is that the small blind and the
big blind are raised after every round. A round can be as short
as 5 minutes to as long as the World Series of Poker Finals
with 2 hour
rounds. The amount of the blind raise can be from 25% up to
200%. They are what determine the pace of the Tournament along
with your strategy. As you can see each Tournament will be very
different in it's skill vs. luck ratio. The shorter the rounds,
and greater the blind increase increments are the more luck
will be involved. This is why EVERY Tournament has what's called
a "STRUCTURE SHEET". You should look this over if your not a
veteran so you can have a better idea about what your getting
into.
For
example, a $10.00 Tournament with 300 in starting chips (1 hundred
chip , 2 fifties, 2 twenty fives, and 10 fives) with 10
minute rounds and the blinds going up 150% per round would be
a 90% luck and 10% skill contest. However, ONE
HOUR rounds and a $2000.00 buy with 2000 in starting
chips and blind increases of 75%/round would be a much different
story. Most
Tournaments over $100.00 will give you a pretty fair shake and
the cheap ones are still fun and are a great way to learn a
game without going broke at the tables. Instead of losing over
$100.00 every session until you learn a game it would be in
your best interest to just play some $20-$60 Tournaments. I
knew a guy who spent over $10, 000.00 month just to learn how
to play Hold'em at the highest stakes table in the casino. If
you have that kind of money I guess you don't need the Tournaments
but most people don't live off their interest.
I
personally learned how to play ALL the high low games by playing
$13.00 Tournament every other day. Since the high-low pots involve
players betting their low hands while others bet there high
hands, the pots are usually larger so I didn't want to learn
the expensive way.
Some
Tournaments also include what are called "RE-BUYS". Re-Buy Tournaments
give you a taste of 'live' table poker along with the Tournament
experience. A Re-Buy simply means that you can buy your chips
again if you lose them all or if you dip below a certain point.
So a $20 Tournament may have $20 Re-Buys for the first 4 rounds.
Then at the end of the last round of Re-Buying there will usually
be an "ADD-ON". An Add-On is the same as a Re-buy exec pt you
can have any amount of chips to get one. So if you never did a
Re-Buy and started with 500 in chip, even if by the end of the
4th round you had 2000 in chips you could still do a Add-On. The
Torment director can also always explain anything you like plus
the Re-Buy details involving how much you get for how much will
also be on the structure sheet.
Below
are a few actual structure sheets from tournaments in California
casinos.
|
| SUNDAY
10:00am Limit Hold'em Tournament
$25.00
Buy in + $5.00 Entry Fee
Players
start with 600 in chips, Limits increase every 15 min.
|
|
One Re-Buy is allowed for $10.00 anytime during first 4 rounds
regardless of chip count and 1000 more in chips received . |
| LEVEL
|
BLINDS |
LIMITS |
| 1.
15 min |
25-25 |
25-50 |
| 2.
15 min |
25-50 |
50-100 |
| 3.
15 min |
50-100 |
100-200 |
| 4.
15 min |
100-200 |
200-400 |
End
of Re-buy Period 5 Minute Break. |
| 5.
15 min |
200-400 |
400-800 |
| 6.
15 min |
300-600 |
600-1200 |
| 7.
15 min |
500-1000 |
1000-2000 |
| 8.
15 min |
1000-2000 |
2000-4000 |
| 9.
15 min |
2000-4000 |
4000-8000 |
| 10.
15 min |
3000-6000 |
6000-12000 |
| 1st:
30% |
2nd:
18% |
3rd:
14% |
4th:
10% |
5th:
7.5% |
| 6th:
6.5% |
7th:
5.5% |
8th:
4.5% |
9th:4.0% |
|
| (This
particular Tournament usually ends between the 7th
and 9th round which is why only ten rounds are shown.
All structure sheets show at least 2 or 3 rounds
over just to make sure.) |
|
| SUNDAY
2:00pm No Limit Hold'em Tournament
| $75.00
Buy in + $15.00 Entry Fee
Players
start with 1000 in chips, Limits increase every 30 min.
|
|
One
Re-Buy for $60.00
anytime during the first four rounds if chip count is below
1000.
(Minimum
bet must be equal to the big blind.) |
| LEVEL
|
BLINDS |
ANTE |
LIMITS |
| 1.
30 min |
10-15 |
none |
No-Limit |
| 2.
30 min |
15-25 |
none |
No-Limit |
| 3.
30 min |
25-50 |
none |
No-Limit |
| 4.
30 min |
50-100 |
none |
No-Limit |
End
of Re-buy Period 5 Minute Break. |
| 5.
30 min |
100-200 |
none |
No-Limit |
| 6.
30 min |
100-200 |
25 |
No-Limit |
| 7.
30 min |
200-400 |
50 |
No-Limit |
| 8.
30 min |
300-600 |
75 |
No-Limit |
| 9.
30 min |
500-1000 |
100 |
No-Limit |
| 10.
30 min |
1000-1500 |
200 |
No-Limit |
| 1st
- 34% |
2nd
- 18% |
3rd
- 14% |
4th
- 9.0% |
5th
- 7.0% |
| 6th
- 6.0% |
7th
- 5.0% |
8th
- 4.0% |
9th
- 3.0% |
|
| (This
particular Tournament usually ends between the 7th
and 9th round which is why only ten rounds are shown.
All structure sheets show at least 2 or 3 rounds
over just to make sure.) |
|
After
you merely learn how to play a Tournament decently you must also
understand that the deep level overall strategy of a Poker Tournament
is much different than when you playing a 'live' game at the casino
tables or at home. A very easy example would be to just look at
the payout table of the Tournaments above. If there were 10 players
left and you were one of them with the second or third lowest
stack, you might want to FOLD ALMOST ANYTHING and just wait. The
other shorter stacks will just get "Blinded Out" and eliminated
before you, then when your in the money and have "made it" you
can go back to playing normal. If it was a limit Hold'em Tournament
you should throw down Ace-Jack, Ace-Nine-Suited, 8-8...ect. Those
would normally be fine hands but given the situation it wouldn't
make any sense to play one of those and get knocked out 10th and
thus wasting ALL of the time you spent getting to the final. You
can see how this is much different than any 'live game' play.
The opposite situation would also be true. If you have a HUGE
amount of chips and it's getting very close to the Final Table,
you also might want to put on some breaks.
If
you have a huge stack and only a couple people are left before
the money you could go play against them with marginal hands since
you can't get hurt. What I mean by that is that if you play something
like a Queen-Ten against them and lose you will only lose a small
percent of your stack and still be in position to place in the
top 9, but if you knock out the short stacks your immediately
in the money plus your in position for placing in the top three
with your even larger stack.
This
is a very unusual example but it will get the point across. In ANY
live table Texas Hold'em game there is not one person in the world
who wouldn't play pocket Aces or (A-A) BEFORE the flop for any bet
right? You only get 2 cards and those or Aces so there is no better
hand before the flop has come. You can raise someone who has raised,
you can call for deception, you can bet ALL you money if it was
a no limit game. Any move you make you are still a mathematical
favorite against any one hand. So throwing them away before the
flop cannot be argued. Now what if you were at the Final Table in
a No Limit Tournament and the first place was 2 million dollars,
2nd was 1.3 million, and 3rd was $750,000.00. You are in last position
, or 'on the button' when SEVEN PLAYERS GO ALL IN. You look down
and you have AA! What happened? Is that good?
Well
you are only a mathematical favorite against any ONE hand not
seven. Plus if that really ever happened you know that one of
the other players would also have AA, so now would could only
tie him or lose to the others. But the main thing you should understand
about this example is that if those seven players had the same
amount if chips, just by folding and watching the seven become
one you would now be guaranteed 3rd place money. In a live game
you can NEVER have ANY money given to you by folding let alone
750k. If it were a live no limit game and you had like $400 in
front of you there would be no problem to try to get seven to
one for all you money with Aces, but if you were to get paid to
fold why risk anything. Remember ONLY in a Tournament could a
situation arise in which you could get paid to fold.
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