TOURNAMENT PLAY

Online poker tournaments can be exciting, lucrative and a useful learning curve. Players "buy-in" for a relatively small sum and can "cash-out" with a big prize pool. Below are six essential tournament facts and tips to whet your appetite:

Facts

• Players begin with an equal amount of chips that they buy or trade for credit points (i.e. your costs are fixed)
• You may not buy extra chips (except in special "rebuy" tournaments)
• Whoever accumulates all the chips is the winner, although portions of the prize pool may be allocated to runners-up
• When a player loses his chips, he is eliminated
• Players must stay in the game until they are either knocked-out or win the tournament
• The more players that enter a tournament, the larger the prize pool (and the slighter your chances of winning!)

Learn more about tournaments

Tips

• Adjust your style of play, or change gears, in a tournament and play to your stack size
• 'Read' other players by paying attention to their stack sizes - people with fewer chips are less risk-averse; be ready to expose their bluff
• Don't go mad too early on - you'll need chips towards the end of the tournament!
• Most players tighten up as they reach final table; try playing more aggressively to exploit this
• Stay calm, cool and collected at all times!

Get more tips

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