A tournament is poker played for a prize pool rather than for the chips in
front of you. Everyone buys in, everyone gets the same stack, the blinds go up
on a clock, and players are knocked out until one has every chip. Most of the
rules of an ordinary hand still apply (Betting action betting, Blinds, antes and bring-ins blinds and antes, Showdown
showdown); this chapter covers what a tournament adds.
This chapter summarizes the Poker Tournament Directors Association's 2026
rules (Version 1.1) and notes relevant differences in the World Series of
Poker's 2026 rules and Robert's Rules of Poker. The source citations give the
full wording. Each event's house rules and structure sheet, which lists
levels, breaks, and payouts, take precedence where they differ.
Your buy-in buys a seat and a stack of chips, but the chips are only a way of
keeping score. You can't cash them in, sell them, swap them into another
event or take them home. What you win is a share of the prize pool, decided
by the place you finish. In a cash game, by contrast, every chip is money.
The WSOP's 2026 rules call tournament chips non-value chips that belong to
the house, and penalize anyone who passes them to another player or takes
them out of the event. Robert's Rules says chips taken off the table are
removed from the event.
Every paid entry gets the event's starting stack, whether the player is in
the seat or not when play begins. Robert's Rules puts the chips on the table
for every paid entrant at the start. The TDA gives late entrants and
re-entries a full stack too (80.8).
A player who has any chips at all is still in the tournament, however short.
The TDA's rule is that having chips means you are in, and that a player with
chips who isn't yet seated must go straight to the assigned table. A player
too short to post a full blind posts what they have and plays for it; under
Robert's Rules a short blind that wins doesn't have to be made up.
A tournament is played in levels: a set length of time at each set of
blinds and antes, posted on the structure sheet. When a level ends, the next one's bigger blinds apply. Rising
blinds are what make a tournament finish: the stacks don't grow, so the
pressure on them does.
Robert's Rules simply says the limits and blinds go up at regular intervals.
How long the levels are, and how big the jumps, is the house's choice; a
home-game guide suggests planning the levels so the event lasts about four
hours.
When the clock runs out on a level, the hand being played finishes at the old
blinds. The new blinds and antes apply from the next hand dealt. The TDA's
rule is that the new limits apply to the next hand once the level change has
been announced; Robert's Rules marks the start of a new hand at the first
riffle of the shuffle.
Most tournaments stop for a few minutes every so often, on a schedule posted
with the levels. At a break the house often "colors up": it takes the
smallest chips out of play once the blinds no longer need them. Leftover
small chips are raced off: under the TDA's rule the race starts at seat 1,
nobody gets more than one new chip from it, and nobody can be knocked out by
it (a player who would lose their last chip gets one of the smallest chip
still in play). Robert's Rules runs the race by dealing a card for each odd
chip, with the high cards winning the new chips.
Most big tournaments now collect the ante from one player instead of from
everyone: the player in the big blind posts an ante for the whole table, as
well as the big blind. A big-blind ante is
the same money in the pot, collected faster and with fewer arguments about
who has paid. The TDA's 2026 rules take it for granted: its order-of-finish
rule is written for big-blind-ante games (80.21), and the WSOP's rule on
dodging blinds mentions it.
80.8 Late registration gets a full stack and a random seat
Many events let you enter after the start, until a level named on the
structure sheet. Under the TDA's rule a late entrant pays the full buy-in,
gets a full stack and draws a seat at random from the same pool as everyone
else. They can be dealt in straight away anywhere except between the small
blind and the button. The WSOP keeps late registration open to the end of
the level its structure sheet names.
In a re-entry event a player who is knocked out may buy in again, as a brand
new entry: full price, fresh stack, new random seat, under the same rule as a
late entrant (80.8). The first entry has already finished in its place. The
structure sheet says how many times you may re-enter and until when. Where an
event lets a player give up a live stack to buy a fresh one, the TDA's rule
takes the old chips out of play.
80.10 Rebuys and add-ons are whatever the event says
A rebuy buys more chips for a player who has busted
(or, in some events, who is at or below the starting stack), usually only in
the early levels. An add-on is one extra purchase of
chips, offered to everyone still in, usually at the break that ends the rebuy
period. Neither has a standard form: the price, the chips, who qualifies and
until when are all on the structure sheet.
The TDA's one rule is about timing: you can't miss a hand while deciding, and
once you say you'll rebuy before a hand, you're playing those chips and must
pay for them. Robert's Rules says the same. A home-game guide suggests one
rebuy per player, for an hour or two.
Your table and seat are assigned at random, by a draw or by the house's
computer, and you can't change seats once play starts unless the director
moves you. The TDA's rule covers satellites too, and moves a player who
starts in the wrong seat to the right one with whatever chips they have.
80.12 Tables are kept balanced, and the next big blind moves
As players are knocked out, the house moves players from full tables to short
ones. In flop games the player who would be the big blind next is the one who
moves, and takes the worst position open at the new table, which can mean
posting the big blind again straight away. The small blind is never treated
as the worst seat. The TDA halts play at a table three or more players short
of the biggest table once the blinds are affected. Robert's Rules keeps
tables within two players while there are more than six tables, and within
one after that.
Stud is different: there's no button, so the TDA moves players by position
and fills the last open seat, and the WSOP draws a high card to pick who
moves.
80.13 Breaking a table: a new seat anywhere but between the small blind and the button
When the field needs one table fewer, a table is broken in an order the house
has set, and its players go to the open seats at the other tables. A player
arriving this way takes the seat with all it brings: it may be the big blind,
the small blind or the button. The one place a newcomer can't be dealt in is
between the small blind and the button, where they'd skip the blinds; they
wait until the button passes. The TDA places players from a broken table by
a two-step random draw, and doesn't post its breaking order.
Big events redraw every seat as the field shrinks, so nobody keeps a seat
advantage they happened to draw on the first day. Robert's Rules redraws at
three tables, two tables and the final table (three is optional in small
events). The WSOP redraws at the same points for fields of 100 or more, and
draws for the button with three, two and one table left.
When a player is knocked out, the button doesn't jump to the next live player.
It moves so that the big blind goes round in order, and that can leave the
button on an empty seat for a hand: a "dead" button. The point is that nobody
skips a blind and nobody posts the big blind twice in a row. Tournaments use
the dead button. The TDA permits moving the
button over empty seats where that keeps the blinds in order.
80.16 An absent player is dealt in and blinded off
A tournament seat is never skipped because its player isn't there. The
dealer deals the hand, the blinds and antes come out of the absent player's
stack, and the hand is killed (80.17). A stack left alone long enough is
blinded off: the forced bets eat it. Robert's
Rules deals a hand to every absent player, no-show or not. The WSOP's 2026
rules put a pre-registered player's chips in play from the first hand,
whether or not they turn up.
80.17 You must be at your seat to have a live hand
To play a hand you have to be at your seat when the last card of the deal
goes out. "At your seat" means close enough to touch your chair. If you're
not, your hand is dead, though your blinds and antes stay in the pot. The
TDA, the WSOP and Robert's Rules all have this rule.
Once a player is all-in and the betting is over, every hand still in is
turned face up before the rest of the board is dealt, side pots included. No
player who is all-in, or who has called one, may muck. The point is to
protect the rest of the field: everyone can see the hand was played straight.
The TDA, the WSOP and Robert's Rules agree.
How the prize pool is split, and how many places are paid, is set and
announced before play starts. A home-game guide's example pays half the pool
to first and a quarter to second. The bubble is the
last place before the money: in an event paying nine places, the player who
finishes 10th "bursts the bubble" and wins nothing.
Near the bubble, a player at a slow table could wait for others to go out
while a fast table plays three hands to their one. Hand-for-hand
play stops that: every table finishes its hand, then every table deals one
hand and waits until all have finished, so each hand counts the same
everywhere. It goes on until enough players are out to reach the money.
The WSOP spells the procedure out, takes two minutes off the level clock for
each hand, and starts paying from the moment hand-for-hand is announced. The
TDA's numbered rules don't set a hand-for-hand procedure.
80.21 Two out in the same hand at one table: the bigger stack places higher
When two or more players are knocked out in the same hand at the same table,
the one who started the hand with more chips finishes higher. Four left,
paying $1,000, $600, $400 and $200: two players go out in one hand, one
having started it with 8,000 chips and the other with 3,000. The 8,000 stack
finishes 3rd ($400) and the 3,000 stack 4th ($200).
The rulebooks agree on that, with differences at the edges:
(a) Robert's Rules gives players who started the hand level the same prize money: in the example, $300 each.
(b) The WSOP applies the chip-count rule to players out at the same table.
(c) The TDA's 2026 rule is written for games with a big-blind ante, once the event is in the money: the player with more chips after posting the ante places higher, and takes the bigger bounty prize too.
(d) Some home-game guides simply share the places' prizes equally among everyone out in the same hand, whatever their stacks.
80.22 Out at different tables in the same hand-for-hand hand
Here the rulebooks split. Ten left, nine paid, and two players go out in the
same hand-for-hand hand at different tables, one with 6,000 chips and one
with 2,500.
(a) The WSOP ties them: they share 9th place and its prize, and nobody finishes 10th with money.
(b) Robert's Rules' stack rule (80.21) doesn't separate one table from another, so read plainly it puts the 6,000 stack 9th and the 2,500 stack 10th.
(c) The TDA's rule doesn't address it outside big-blind-ante games in the money.
80.23 The floor decides, and its decision is final
When something goes wrong, the dealer calls the floor (the tournament
director or a supervisor), whose ruling is final. The TDA lets the floor put
fairness and the best interest of the game ahead of the strict letter of a
rule in an unusual case. Raise a problem at once: under the TDA a dispute
about how a hand was read must be raised before the next hand starts, and
Robert's Rules lets the result of a hand stand once the next deal has begun.
Near the end, the remaining players may agree to divide the prize money
differently from the payout list. This is a deal or chop, and every player
left must agree. If anyone declines, the players can propose another deal or
play on. Robert's Rules calls a deal that excludes a remaining player
improper.
Card rooms differ on how far they take part. Robert's Rules says management
needn't rule on private deals, doesn't approve of them, and may choose to pay
out an agreed deal; it also calls a deal that leaves no prize money to play
for unethical. In practice, a PokerNews guide notes, most rooms go along with
whatever the players agree. Neither the TDA's 2026 numbered rules nor the
WSOP's 2026 rules set a procedure for deals. If you want a deal paid by the
house, ask the director before you agree it.
80.26 Chip chop and ICM: the two common ways to price a deal
Three players left; the prizes still to pay are $1,100, $600 and $300
($2,000), and the stacks are 50,000, 30,000 and 20,000.
(a) A chip chop pays each player their share of the chips: $1,000, $600 and $400.
(b) An ICM deal (the Independent Chip Model) works out each player's chance of finishing in each place from the stacks, and pays the value of those chances: about $802, $652 and $546.
(c) An even chop pays everyone the same: about $667 each.
A chip chop favors the big stack; ICM moves money toward the short stacks,
because a short stack is already sure of at least the lowest prize. Players
can also agree a deal that leaves some of the money to play for. None of
these methods is a rule; they're starting points for an agreement.
80.27 No agreement may hurt players who aren't in it
In a tournament every player's result depends on everyone else's, so
players at one table can't help each other at the field's expense. Soft play
(agreeing not to bet against a friend), chip dumping (losing chips on
purpose to someone) and checking a hand down to knock out a third player who
is all-in are all forbidden. The WSOP treats them as collusion and can
disqualify for it; the TDA's ethical-play rule penalizes them; Robert's Rules
lists checking down against an all-in player as improper.
Players at a table speak a language everyone can follow while a hand is in
play, so nobody can pass information the others can't understand. The WSOP
enforces English only while cards are in play. The TDA leaves the choice to
the house, which must post and announce which languages are allowed.
Robert's Rules bans a foreign language during a deal.
The TDA bans phone calls at the table, wants devices silent and off the
table, bars anyone in a live hand from using one, and bans strategy tools and
AI helpers. The WSOP lets a player who has folded text at the table, but not
to anyone else at it, sends phone calls at least a table's length away, and
tightens the rules at its final tables. Robert's Rules lists using a phone at
the table as improper.
A satellite is a tournament whose prizes are
entries into a bigger one. Every seat won is worth the same, so a player who
qualifies with the most chips wins no more than one who scrapes in. Seating
is random as in any tournament; Robert's Rules lets a one-table satellite
leave the seat cards face up for early arrivals, since the button is drawn
anyway.
80.31 Bounties: knocking a player out pays a prize
In a bounty event part of each buy-in is set aside as
a prize on that player's head, paid to whoever knocks them out. The WSOP
gives every entrant a bounty marker that goes into the pot when they're
all-in, and the player who wins that pot takes the marker. With several
players all-in, the smallest stack's marker goes in the main pot and the
others in the side pots each can win.