During the 1970s, a handful of players contested the WSOP – the World Poker Championships. Nowadays, thousands line up is Las Vegas each May – paying the $ 10,000 entry fee – wondering whether this year will be their year to land the “Big One”. Long before that, hundreds of thousands of players have completed in qualifying events, or Satellites, trying to win a seat in the big tournament final itself. The WSOP final now runs for five days and the winner will not only have been skilful and lucky but will also require enormous powers of concentration and stamina.
Thankfully, there are many, less stressful tournaments in which to compete and to hone one’s skills. The big advantage of tournament play is that you pay one fee and that is usually all you stand to lose. This means that you could enjoy hours of exciting poker action all for a $5 of $10 entry fee. If you happen to win, or even reach the final table, you will be in the money.
Whether you play in a club or casino – or arrange your own home tournament – or even online, the structure will be the same. Each player pays an entry fee and receives 1,000 or 1,500 chips in exchange. Once you lose your chips, you are out. There are, on occasions, tournaments where, if you go bust within the first hour, you can re-buy – when you pay the entry fee again and get more chips. Other players like re-buys because they boost the prize pot. Sometimes, after an hour, you can add-on to your chips by paying a premium price to top up your total. Many serious players do this, but it is far from compulsory. Usually, however, you get your chips and it’s your duty to try to add to them until, ideally, you have everybody else’s chips in front of you in one big – either actual or cyberspace – pile.
Unlike cash play where the Blind bets stay the same and you are able to stay in the game for as long as you like, tournament poker ups the action with what are called Blind Levels. Rhis simply means that, after a given time (perhaps every ten minutes, perhaps every hour), the Blind bets are increased to higher and higher levels. For example, they might start at 10/20, then to 20/40, then to 50/100, and then on to 200/400 and so on. This forces players to gamble on sub-standard hands because, if they just sat there, eventually they would spend all their money on the Blind bets and get wiped out. So, the action in a tournament starts slowly (when the Blins are low) and then builds and builds, becoming increasingly frantic as the Blinds begin to get higher until all but the most successful players are knocked out. Because of this system, two characteristics come to the fore in tournament poker: aggression and luck. Without these two, you will be doomed. The good news is that because luck plays a greater part than usual in any given tournament, even a modest player has a chance to do well. However, take note: the same group of the world’s top players regularly make it to the final tables of major events. That, clearly, is far more than luck.
Online, you can play in tournaments 24 hours a day, with low entry fees and with anywhere six to 6,000 entrants. In poker clubs and casinos, the card-room manager will be to able to tell you when their tournaments take place.
