"The guy who invented poker was bright, but the guy who invented the chip was a genius"

"Eep. It's been 30 minutes. Guess that makes me the sucker!"

Usually the name of the game (hmm....too much TV) is No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em. On occasion we do hold tournaments for other games such as Omaha, Omaha8 (Hi-Lo Split) and 7-card stud but if this is the case you will have been given direction in advance by your game's host. 

In tournament games we typically have a £10-£20 buy-in. Other than *sparkling* conversation and perhaps some free crisps this buys you $2500-$10000 in Tournament Chips (unless specified otherwise by the Game Host). Below is a typical chip split for T2500. 

                           Number      Chip Value       Total Value

                              20                $25                   $500

                              20               $100              $2000      

Tournaments are generally freezeouts (i.e. there is NO rebuy available). Re-buys and add-ons/top-ups may be an option on the night occasionally, but if in doubt just ask the host on the night. Typically if a rebuy has been decided on this will normally be available until level 4 or level 8. You can not normally rebuy unless you have fallen below 50% of your original buyin (i.e T1250 or below if the starting chip count was T2500).

If we opt to play a mini freeze-out tournament we usually adopt the following blinds structure. Antes kick in at level 6. This is the structure for our typical £10 buy-in (T2500) tourney, with 8-10 players. Levels moves up every 15 minutes or as specified by the host on the night.

       Level             Ante           Small Blind             Big Blind               

• 1                                             $25                       $50
• 2                                             $50                     $100
• 3                                             $75                     $150
• 4                                           $100                     $200

                                                    - BREAK - 

• 5                   $25                  $100                    $200
• 6                   $50                  $150                    $300
• 7                   $50                  $200                    $400
• 8                   $50                  $250                    $500
• 9                   $75                  $300                    $600

                                   - BREAK & Colour up $25 chips - 

• 10                $100                $400                   $  800
• 11                $100                $500                   $1000
• 12                $200                $600                   $1200
• 13                $200                $800                   $1600
• 14                $300                $1000                 $2000
• 15                $400                $1200                 $2400*

                                   - BREAK & Colour up $100 chips - 

• 16                $500                $1500                 $3000
• 17                $500                $2000                 $4000
• 18                $500                $2500                 $5000

                                   - BREAK & Colour up $500 chips - 

• 19                $1000              $3000                  $6000
• 20                $1000              $4000                  $8000
• 21                $1000              $5000                $10000
• 22                $2000              $6000                $12000
• 23                $2000              $8000                $16000
• 24                $2000            $10000                $20000

                             * Predicted end if T2500 per runner

Our structure is alomost identical to that used at the World Series of Poker, but with the addition of a 75/150 level, as clearly we know better than those clods over at the WSOP. Following the above structure (and 15 minute levels) a typical freezeout tournament WITHOUT REBUYS would last 3-4 hours (i.e. at level 15-ish). The clock is always reset immediately. Levels 16-24 are really only there to accommodate re-buy tourneys or those tournaments where the buy-in is for a larger number of chips (i.e. T5000 or T10000).

In a full game (8-10 runners) we would typically pay the top three spots:

       1st place - 50% of prize pool, 2nd Place - 30%, 3rd Place  - 20% 

Less than 8 runners would normally be a 65/35 split for first and second, and in the larger tournaments we pay down to 4th spot for 14 runners or more, where typically 4th would get their buy-in back.

                         - "Behold the power of the Beer Hand!" -