Poker tournaments are great. Especially when you only have a few hours to play. Cash games can go on forever and your profits or losses can be erratic since there’s no limit to how much you can put on the table.
Tournaments by contrast have a more or less exact time frame and your losses are limited to your buy-ins and re-buys. In addition, you’ll often find that a cash game breaks out on the side for people who bust out early. It’s a great way to have a poker night without worrying that it’ll go on into the wee hours of the morning.
So how do you get started with a tournament? Are there some rules to go by? Here are some points to help you get set up.
Supplies
If you don’t already have one, you need to get a poker chip set now! Cash may be fine for cash games, but well run tournaments require players to chip up to keep things moving. A good poker chip set will also have a dealer button. This button will keep your game moving by eliminating the delays caused by the constant “who’s deal is it?” question.
You’ll also need two decks of cards. With two decks, the dealer-to-be can shuffle his deck while the current dealer is sending out the cards. This also helps keep things moving. Remember to have a blank card on the bottom of each deck so no one can sneak a peak at the bottom card.
Next you should consider a good quality card table. This will help to prevent damage to your chips from hard surfaces. If you purchases clay ones you should try to look after your investment.
Finally you’ll need an egg timer to signal when it’s time to raise the blinds. Now you’re ready to set up your game.
The rules
Primarily you must decide how payouts will be made and blind levels estimated. Regular home games will have a different system, depending on how many people are present. Tournaments are usually set up in the following manner. First place 50% second 30% and third place will get 20%.
Blinds increase every fifteen minutes according to a predetermined table and we chip up when the small blind reaches 100 and then again when the small blind reaches 400.
There you have it. Tournaments are really more enjoyable and more money can be made than in regular poker games. Plus it is nice for people to know how long they will be playing for.