Tournament Buy-ins
There is money to be won playing tournament poker. But before you win, you have to enter. So let’s talk about how entry fees are paid and divided in tournament poker. When you check on a tournament you are likely to see the event advertised like this;
No Limit Hold’em tournament $100 + $20. 1500 starting chips, 30 minute rounds.
We discussed chips and rounds in our last post. Let’s focus on the buy-ins. In this case the $100 + $20 means that $100 will go to the prize pool and $20 goes to the casino or card room. Most tournaments buy-ins are listed in this manner. Some casinos are now going to a flat rate tournament charge, for instance the World Series of Poker main event is now a $10,000 buy-in with no added charge. The WSOP charges 4% of the entire entry pool, so the prize pool is 96% or $9,600 of the $10,000. Either way you should know how much of your buy-in is going to the house.
Another tournament listing you might encounter might read:
Hold’em Tournament $80 + $10 + optional Dealer Bonus $5
Here, $80 to the prize pool, $10 to the house and an optional $5 that will go to the dealer’s. Now the key to such arrangements is how many chips you receive. If the $80 + $10 gives you 3,000 starting chips and the $5 dealer bonus gets you 2,000 more; then I think you can see that everyone is going to take pay the $5. Those 2,000 extra chips are just too cheap not to play. Think about that a moment. If $90 gets you 3,000 chips, then each of those chips costs 3 cents; the $5 dealer bonus gets you 2,000 more chips at a cost of one-quarter of a cent each.
Is this “dealer bonus” a gimmick? Yes it is and you will encounter various extra or bonus or special buy-ins in various poker rooms. All you need to know is how much these offers are how good the value is based on cost and added chips. What you need to know about the entire buy-in cost is simply, how much goes to the house and how much to the prize pool. Those numbers will help you evaluate and compare the various tournament offerings before you play.
-This is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #88
