A new trend has taken America by storm, poker tournaments played in the home. Rather than having just the standard poker night, people are starting to prefer the challenge of poker tournaments. Poker tournaments have become so successful because they hold many more advantages that the simple poker game.

First of all they are much more predictable, in that the player knows how much money they will possibly lose in advance because there is only the entrance fee that needs to be paid. Secondly, it is much easier to convince novices or completely new players to sit and play because they know in advance that they are only risking the cost of the entrance fee and therefore see it like any other cost for a night out. In addition to the first two reasons, it is always easier to sit down and play for the first time with a group of friends rather than with people they do not know who may try to cheat them and teach them wrong rules just to win.

There are two possible types of tournaments, limit and no limit. No limit tournaments are what you see the professionals playing on the television. If the player makes one error they are out of the tournament and this makes the game high stakes and very exciting.

Limit tournaments are much better when played at home among friends because it enables people to stay in the game longer. When a player errs they are penalized, but not kicked out of the game. Another benefit of having a tournament in your home is that you and your friends can set the entrance fee at whatever amount you would all like to spend. As far as refreshments sometimes people choose to take money out of the entrance fee to pay for them or others make the tournament BYOB, bring your own bottle. Food as well, of course.

Players are paid out on a ratio of percentage to person. For example if ten players had entered the tournament and each paid thirty dollars then the pot would equal the sum of three hundred dollars. To make the game more exciting rather than just the first place winner winning the entire pay out some people pay the first three positions. In this case the players get paid out as follows: one hundred and fifty dollars goes to the first place contestant, the second place contestant gets ninety dollars and the third place contestant gets sixty dollars. The number of people and the percentages paid out can increase with the number of contestants.

Before the game begins decide how many chip colors to use and what their values will be. It is not so important which colors you use as long as their values remain constant. Every entrant should begin with at least two thousand dollars worth of chips. For example if you choose to use Orange, Blue, and White chips and their values respectively are twenty five dollars, one hundred dollars and five hundred dollars. The next step is to make sure that each player is given an equal amount of chips, so for example if you chose two thousand dollars as your initial starting amount each player should commence the game with eight Orange pieces, eight Blue pieces, and two White pieces. As previously stated it is unimportant which color pieces are used for betting some people also choose the simple and ordinary Black, Green, and Red pieces. The following explanation is how to format a limit home tournament. The only difference between a limit and a no limit tournament as far as structure is that in a no limit tournament blinds should be used at twenty five and fifty dollars whereas in the limit tournament you can add them whenever you want depending on whether you want to speed up or slow down the game.

When hosting a tournament always have at least twelve rounds and include a ten minute break between the third and fourth round. In the first and second round the small blind will be set at twenty five, but the big blinds will differ. In the first round your big blind will be twenty five, then in the next round double it to fifty. The limits for each round respectively will be twenty five to fifty and fifty to one hundred. In the third round set your small blind at fifty and your big blind at one hundred. Your limits in that round will range from one hundred to two hundred.

After the ten minute recess move on to level four. The small blind will be set at one hundred and the big blind at two hundred. Your big blind will always be double your small blind. The limit will always be your big blind number and the maximum will be that number doubled. For example in the fifth round the small blind number will be one hundred and fifty therefore double it and you get three hundred which will be your big blind number and your minimum limit. Double three hundred and you end up with the sum of six hundred and that is your maximum number for the limit in this round and your formula for the future rounds.

In the sixth round your small blind number will be two hundred. In the seventh round it will be three hundred. In the eighth round the small blind number will be five hundred. In the ninth round it will be one thousand. In the tenth round the small blind number will be one thousand five hundred. In the eleventh round it will be two thousand five hundred and in the final round, the twelfth round the small blind number will be five thousand.

The levels will usually run around twenty minutes and therefore your limit tournament should be approximately three to four hours in length. In order to ensure that you do not lose track of the time it is wise to buy a small timer or if one of the players has a wristwatch with a timer on it, use it. At the end of every level it is also important to remember to initiate the blinds.

When the tournament starts every player should get the opportunity to be the dealer. Mark who is the current dealer using a button, or a can, or some other agreed upon marking that way you can remember easily who the next dealer will be. As players lose and become eliminated one of the eliminated players rather than being bored will most likely want to be the permanent dealer.

As the number of people involved in the tournament shrinks begin to eliminate tables as well. In order to keep the game constant the host of the tournament should decide when players need to be moved in order to close another table. You should attempt to move players to the same position he or she was previously sitting in or if there are simply too many people at one table then play a game of high card and the high card should move.

After a few rounds it is wise to cash in your Orange chips or whichever other color you have chosen for your lowest denominator. At this point people will have collected a lot of these chips so it is good to trade them in for the higher denominator pieces. People usually do this when they have more than twenty players at the game because otherwise the tables get crowded with green chips. If there is an odd amount of chips then you should race off for them. This means that each player is given the same number of cards as the number of odd chips they have. The person with the highest cards gets the chips and therefore gets to trade them in for the Blue pieces. However, in each race a player cannot hold more than one high card therefore if he or she has the two highest then they win one and they other high card and chip goes to another player.

The most important thing to remember when hosting a home poker tournament is to keep it fun and exciting. It is also important to discuss all the rule and regulations in advance, so that there are no disagreements because after all what is worse than a disagreement between friends over something as simple as the rules of a poker game? Well now that you know the structure get out there and host a game. Have a night of poker fun with all your friends. In poker tournaments, players compete against each other to attempt to accumulate all the chips in play. Unlike normal casino games, a player can not cash out and play must continue to only one winner remains.

There are three main types of tournaments:
"Elimination", "Rebuy", and "Shootout" tournaments.

Elimination Tournaments

Rebuy Tournaments

Shootout Tournaments