Fri, 09/16/2011 – 04:27 – PokerPages Staff

If you’ve mastered the cash ring games at PokerStars, you’re probably ready to get started on some tournament play.  In tournaments there can be some very serious money up for grabs, sometimes with very little outlay.  Freerolls and satellite tournaments even allow players to win seats at big money events without even spending a cent.

Your Entry Fee is All You Pay

On entry to a tournament you will pay a single entry fee, also known as a ‘buy in’.  Your buy in gets you a chipstack, from which all of your bets will be taken.  Each player entering the tournament will be given the same amount of chips, ensuring everyone starts off on an even footing.  Chips have no monetary value in a tournament; players are awarded prizes based on the order in which they are eliminated.  This could be if you finish in the top five for single table tournaments, or a hundred players or more in larger tournaments.

Rakes Explained

The buy in from each tournament will have a rake specified, which goes to the house.  This will be the case in live poker as well as online poker.  A $10+$1 tournament will cost you $11 to enter, with $10 going to the prize pot, and the $1 rake going to the house to cover costs and overheads.

Seating Plans

Whether playing online or live, your seats throughout the tournament are allocated at random.  As players are eliminated, new tables are created until there are only enough players to fill a single final table. When playing any scheduled tournament, be sure to arrive on time, as your buy in may not be refunded if you miss the start.

For more advice on poker tournaments and other poker information, visit PokerSchoolOnline.

August 30 2011, Donnie Peters

Las Vegas isn’t the only place for poker tournaments. Coming up in September, some good events are going on with some small buy-ins on the East Coast. Foxwoods is holding its Labor Day Holiday Special and the Borgata is hosting the World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open.

During Labor Day weekend, Sept. 2 through 5, Foxwoods is canceling all regular daily tournaments and substituting some special holiday events: four tournaments held everyday. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the events will be at 9 a.m., and 12, 6 and 8 p.m. On Monday, the events will be at 10 a.m., and 2, 6 and 8 p.m. The buy-ins for these events won’t break your bankroll since they range from $60 to $400 and there are a variety of different events on the slate from turbos, to bounties, to deep stacks.

The biggest event of the series takes place on Monday at 10 a.m. It’s a $350+50 deep stack event where players will get 20,000 in starting chips and a slower structure with 30-minute levels. All of the other events have the regular daily blind structures. You can find the entire schedule of tournaments at Foxwoods.com.

For poker tournament information at Foxwoods, contact Jeffrey.Toth@foxwoods.com. For general information about poker at Foxwoods, contact MRathbun@foxwoods.com.

A couple of days after the event at Foxwoods wraps up, the Borgata will begin the World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open series on Sept. 7 with a multi-day, $300,000 guarantee, $400+50 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) event. The series itself lasts from Sept. 7 through 23 and is highlighted by the $3,300+200 WPT Championship.

The Championship Event will use Borgata’s “Double Play” format in which players are allowed to enter Day 1b if they bust on Day 1a. The event will also boast a prize pool guarantee of $3,000,000 and a great, deep structure with 30,000 in starting chips. On top of that, they event will be televised for the WPT.

The schedule is complete with 24 events and there’s plenty of action to be had. Who can argue with buy-ins from $230 to $$3,500, a wide variety of tournaments and plenty of guarantees? We can’t and that’s why we’re letting you know all about it. You can head to the Borgata’s poker page to check out details of the event.

For full tournament details, call 609-317-7412.

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Follow Donnie Peters on Twitter – @Donnie_Peters

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