Poker tournament
The winner of the tournament is usually the person who wins every poker chip in the game and the others are awarded places based on the time of their elimination.
Commercial venues may also charge a separate fee, or withhold a small portion of the buy-in, as the cost of running the event.
Typically, the amount of each entrant's starting tournament chips is an integer multiple of the buy-in.
Player with no chips remaining (and who have exhausted or declined all re-buy options, if any are available) are eliminated from the tournament.
For example, some invitational tournaments do not have buy-ins and fund their prize pools with sponsorship revenue and/or gate receipts from spectators.
Rather than risk losing their winnings, as one of them would if the game were continued, these two players may be allowed to split the prize proportional to their in-game currency (or however they agree).
Multi-table tournaments involve many players playing simultaneously at dozens or even hundreds of tables.
Top players in this event, in lieu of a cash prize, are awarded seats to the main tourney, with the number of places dependent on participation.
Chris Moneymaker, who won the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event, was able to afford his seat by winning an Internet tournament with a $39 buy-in.
Greg Raymer, 2004 World Series of Poker champion, acquired his seat via a $165 Internet tournament.
After this so-called "rebuy period", the play resumes as in a standard freezeout tournament and eliminated players do not have the option of returning to the game any more.
A player is not allowed to rebuy in-game if he has too many chips (usually the amount of the starting stack or half of it).
At the end of the rebuy period remaining players are typically given the option to purchase an "add-on", an additional amount of chips, which is usually similar to the starting stack.
Shootouts are also a common format for large heads-up multi-table tournaments, although these may feature double or triple elimination instead of the standard single knockout method.
A recent innovation is the "mix-max" or "mixed max" tournament, in which the table sizes vary during the course of the event.
[2] Betting in tournaments can take one of three forms: The betting structure is one of the most defining elements of the game; even if other aspects are equivalent, a fixed-limit version and its no-limit counterpart are considered to be very different games, because the strategies and play styles are very different.
The stakes of each round, as well as blinds, bring-ins, and antes as appropriate per game, typically escalate according either to the time elapsed or the number of hands played.
Hosts of larger poker tournaments will often hold the event in the convention center of a casino; for example, the 2022 World Series of Poker was in the convention centers of both Bally's Las Vegas and Paris Las Vegas.
[3] The largest and most well-known tournament in the USA is the World Series of Poker, held in Las Vegas.
The Crown Australian Poker Championship, also known as the Aussie Millions, is the largest tournament in the Pacific region.
WSOP owner Caesars Entertainment and Aussie Millions host Crown Melbourne teamed up to launch the World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific, which held its first edition in 2013.
Atlantic City hosts The United States Poker Championship at the Trump Taj Mahal casino, which has been broadcast by ESPN in recent years.
