Betting Formats In Poker Tournaments

In different poker tournaments, different betting formats are standardized. The three forms of the betting format in any poker tournament are structured betting system, semi-structured betting system and unstructured betting system. Structured betting format is also called fixed limit betting format. In this format of poker tournament, bets and raises are limited and restricted to a fixed amount. But these amounts increase after the tournament proceeds. For example, if in a seven-card poker tournament, the stakes are set at 10/20, which means that raises would be $10 for first three rounds and $20 for all the later rounds.

Betting Formats In Poker Tournaments (Image Reference)

In semi-structured format of the poker tournament betting system, certain ranges are provided for the raises allowed to the players. For example, if a player raises $20, the rule says it will be illegal for any other player to raise an additional amount of $5. In semi-structured format, the value of raises cannot be more than size of the pot. While spread limit in semi-structured limit says that bets must be between the minimum and maximum amount.  And the third format that is usually followed by some poker tournaments is unstructured betting system. In unstructured betting format of poker tournaments, there is no limit applied on bets and raises. That is why such format is also called no-limit format. In this format of betting, all blinds, antes and buy-ins are fixed, but the player has choice to bet as much as he can.  

The betting format of the poker tournaments defines the elements of the game. Although the game rules are same for all the formats, but fixed-limit format and no-limit betting system are considered to be most different formats of the poker tournaments. This is because the game strategies and styles in both the poker tournament betting systems are different. For example, it is very easy to bluff in no-limit format, while in fixed-limit or structured betting system there is no aggressive betting. No-limit format is informal betting format and depends on the personal strategies and style of the player. Although these formats differ in some features, but they make the game interesting and more player take part in the game.

Different Variants Of Poker Tournaments

There are different variants of poker tournament. Some of the poker tournaments are mix games in which different other games are also the part of the tournament. One such poker tournament is HORSE. The other similar events in which players have choice to choose the game of choice include Hold’ Omaha, dealer’s choice events etc, all these tournaments are featured tournaments. The community that features such poker tournament includes stud card poker or community card poker. The poker tournaments that are offered commonly include fixed-limit, pot limit and no-limit. 

Different Variants Of Poker Tournaments (Image Reference)

 The other popular poker tournaments that have different menus of games include sit and gos tournaments. These tournaments have specific schedules and many players can take part in the tournament. Sit and gos tournament is similar in structure to other regular poker tournaments. The main difference between them is that sit and gos start with certain players who register for it. The standards set for sit and gos are two players, six players, nine players, ten players, 12 player’s and so on maximum 180 players. The format for such poker tournaments is similar to standard poker tournaments in which players buy chips using buy-in amount and number of chips are equal. After the elimination of player from the game, the eliminated  player gets some money or no money depending on the round in which he gets eliminated. The player who stands unbeaten in the tournament gets the most money and the others get lesser than that.  Some of the sit and gos poker tournaments are called winner-take all. In such tournaments, the player who stands first gets all the money and all the other players get no money. But in such tournaments, two players stand against each other.   

The venues of the poker tournaments are different. It has been the most popular game in Europe, Asia and Latin America. It is usually organized by group of countries. But in colleges, poker tournaments are organized by group of friends. The largest poker tournaments are usually held in Las Vegas and the largest poker tournament was held in 2009 and 2010 in conventional center Las Vegas. There are other large centers too where such tournaments are held.

Different Formats Of Poker Tournaments

There are many formats followed by online poker tournaments and the most popular format of poker is knock-out. This format is also called freeze out format. All the players who are part of this tournament form a dynamic pool. If any player loses all his chips, he is eliminated from the poker tournament and his table also shrinks. In order to make all the shrinking of tables equal, players are shifted from one table to the other table. This movement is arbitrary and any player can be shifted from his place to another table. All the unnecessary tables are removed from the poker tournament after one by one as players’ eliminate. When few players left in the poker tournament, all the remaining players are shifted to single table. This table is usually known as final table. Most of the poker tournaments are knock-out tournaments.

Online Poker Tournament (Image Reference)

There is another poker tournament in which player can re-buy his chips after losing all his ships and can maintain his position by avoiding the elimination. Such poker tournaments are called re-buy tournaments. But this elimination stops for specific period of time and after that time player eliminates from the game automatically and there is no option for the player to come back and re-buy chips. This period of time in which player avoids elimination from poker tournament is called re-buy period. In such tournaments, there is option available to the players to re-buy chips although they have some chips left with them. In such cases, the re-buy amount is simply added to the stack of the player. According to the rules, if a player has too many chips, he is not allowed to buy more chips.
There is another format of the poker tournament in which game is divided into different rounds. Such a tournament is called shoot out tournament. In standard format, two to ten players sit on one table and table roster remains same till the elimination of first player. After all the players are eliminated except the last one from each table, they are shifted to the final table and the winner of the final table becomes the champion of the poker tournament. Shoot out tournament consists of multiple rounds and elimination of the players is usually done using single knock out method.

Poker Tournament Buy-ins

A poker tournament is the type of tournament in which different players from all over the world play poker game. A poker tournament may consist of at least two players and maximum of thousands of players can play at a time. The winner of the poker tournament is the player who wins every chip of the poker and the player who eliminates in the middle are awarded prizes depending on the round of elimination. A specific period is set for the poker tournament and money of the player cannot be taken out of the poker account.

Poker Tournament ongoing (Image Reference)

A player has to pay certain fixed charges to be part of the poker tournament and poker chips are awarded to the player for this cash payment. If the poker tournament is held at commercial places, venue charges are also added to the cost. The poker chips given to the player has only notional value and during the time of play player cannot use cash. The entrance amount of the poker tournament depends on the buy-in value and it is usually the integral multiple of agreement value. In some poker tournaments, re-back and cash-back facility is available to the players which make it easy for the players to buy more and more chips. When there are no chips left with the player, the player is eliminated from the poker tournament automatically.  

In most of the poker tournaments, tables are kept even by moving the players from one table to the other or removing the tables. Such poker tournaments are called shoots-outs. In such tournaments, usually one player eliminates after three or four rounds. The players in poker tournaments are ranked in chronological order. The last player left after the elimination of all the players stands first in the tournament and so on all the other players are ranked in the same way. There is always a possibility of tie between two players for certain place and to remove ties, sole tiebreakers are taken into account and one player eliminates from the poker tournament. These poker tournaments are the source of revenue for many people around the world.