This website edition (and the ebook edition) is a revision of the orginal work which is still available in paperback.

Contents

• Preface
• Chapter 1. Introduction
• Part 1
• Part 2. Why play poker?
• Unique features of poker
• Chapter 22. Tournaments
• What is a tournament?
• Very large fields

A tournament is a poker game where everyone starts with the same number of chips and usually plays until only one player remains with chips. Generally the blinds and limits of the game are raised at fixed times in order to force the action and ensure that the tournament ends within a reasonable time. The exact structure differs from event to event.

In some cases you can buy more chips within the first hour or some other specified period. Sometimes you have to lose all your current chips to be eligible to buy more, sometimes not. Some tournaments don't allow re-buys at all.

The payout schedule differs from event to event. Seldom does that last player get all the money, a certain percentage goes to second place, third place, etc.

A winning strategy for tournament play is not the same as a winning strategy for a regular poker game. Tournament strategy depends on the particulars of the event - the rebuy policy, the payout schedule and the escalation of blinds and limits. I'm not going to talk about specific tournament strategy in this book. Just a little about tournaments themselves.

You can find tournaments with buy-ins as low as $10. Small buy-in tournaments can be an excellent way to learn a new game while keeping a limit on your risk. They are different from ring games (the term for a regular, full game) but the mechanics of the play is the same in tournaments and ring games.

In a tournament you can't pick your seat and you can't pick your table. Since these are the two most important factors in determining whether or not you're a winning poker player, the skills needed to win at tournaments are very different from the skills needed to win in ring games, but tournaments do provide an excellent training ground for the aspects of play that involve picking your cards.