A poker tournament is a game where the winnings are used as points, where the players play by specific rules and one, two or three player get to actually win money in the end. The number of winners and the rules are specific to every tournament and they are made public before the enrolment for the tournament begins.

Every one who wants to enter the tournament pays a fee, the same amount of money that is to be used as the bankroll of every player for that specific tournament, and it is called the buy-in .Next to the buy in the casino, online or offline, will take itself a fee from all players called the entrance fee, fee used to sustain and entertain the tournament. Let's say the buy-in is $300, and then the casino might take an extra $30, so in order to enter that tournament you will have to give the house a total amount of $330. All the money gathered fro the buy-ins is collected for the prize fund and it will be the buy-in multiplied by the number of players. If in our example if it is a tournament with 200 players, then the total prize will be of $60.000. Players can be paid for their games only after the tournament is over and only if they qualify among the top players. Usually there is a price for every top 10 player, but this depends on the casino and tournament too. The prices are announced before and they are calculated as percepts from the price pool gathered. For example 40% first price, 30% second, 10% third, 8% fourth, 7% fifth and 5% sixth for a tournament in which the top 6 players receive prices.

In a tournament all players start out with the same amount of chips. It is usually played at different tables, splitting up the players equally and from that on every player will leave the tournament as soon as he or she goes broke. A tournament can be fast or slow, depending on the skill and chips amount the players start with. Professional players prefer tournaments that are slow so they have time to weight their decisions, to observe their opponents and to play a while before growing that enormous stack that will make them gamble too much. Poker tournaments are played until one player collects all the chips that were in the game.

To be first depends not only on your poker skill, but on your luck also. To be in the first ten is a clear statement that you definitely are a threat for any poker player of that level.

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