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Texas Hold’em Tournament Rules

Texas Hold’em Tournament Rules
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Alex Sakuta Content Editor
  • Fact Checked by: PokerListings
  • Last updated on: November 25, 2024 · 10 minutes to read

It’s poker at its most scintillating and every single day thousands of poker players try their luck against friends, family and strangers in both online and live Texas Hold’em tournaments. Want to learn the ins and outs of Texas Holdem Tournaments so you can play a few yourself? Read on below for a full walkthrough of all the most important Texas Holdem tournament rules!

What is a Texas Holdem Tournament?

The idea behind tournament poker is simple: Every player puts up a buy-in and gets a set number of tournament chips. Unlike a cash game, where players can buy in for different amounts and leave the table at any time, Texas Holdem tournaments have a set beginning and end.

Players can only buy-into the tournament in the first few levels up to the end of the “late registration period.” And receive the same starting stack. All of the tournament buy-ins are collected into a total prize pool which is then paid out according to a finishing positions.

A single table tournament is called a “Sit-and-Go” (SnG) and begins when all the seats at a single table have been occupied. A Multi-Table Tournament (MTT) spreads tournament players over multiple tables and gradually narrows the field as players are eliminated. A Texas Holdem tournament is over when one player has acquired all of the tournament chips and is declared the winner. 

Usually around 10-20% of the field “makes the money” in a tournament with a “min-cash” being the smallest amount a player who cashes can win. It’s typically a little more than the original buy-in while the prizes for the players at the final table make up the majority of the payouts. The winner of a Texas Holdem tournament takes home the largest share of the prize pool. In most tournaments this is hundreds to thousands of dollars; in the bigger buy-in events the winner’s share can be well into the millions!

Many online poker sites now also offer one- or two-week long online poker tournament series where they run multiple tournaments a day of all different varieties at at various buy-in levels. The series usually culminates in a Main Event (or multiple Main Events) with huge guaranteed prize pools.

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Texas Holdem Tournament Rules

When players sit down for a cash game they pick a table with a set blind level (eg $1/$2 or $2/$5). Those blind levels don’t change as play goes on. For a change in blind levels, players have to get up and move to a different table with different limits.

In a Texas Holdem tournament, the blinds (required bets from two players before the start of each hand) increase at set intervals to both force the action and adjust for players accumulating chips by eliminating other players.

Play in a Texas Holdem poker tournament proceeds hand-by-hand with the blinds going up in small increments in regular intervals. Anywhere from minutes to hours. Players can’t then just sit around and wait for big hands as they will run out of chips as they pay higher and higher blinds. When you’ve run out of chips, you’re out of the tournament. Where you are eliminated is where you finish in the tournament and determines if you win money and how much. 

In a standard Hold’em tournament, as mentioned, 10% to 20% of the field is paid out with most of the money reserved for the top spots. Because you can win so much more than your initial buy-in, big tournaments attract both pros and amateurs trying to make a big score. Each Texas Holdem tournament’s rules vary slightly so it’s always a good idea to brush up before the tournament starts.

Standard Texas Holdem Tournament Rules

Field

Each poker tournament has its own set of rules that will govern play. Whether you’re playing in your own local card room or stepping up to the World Series of Poker, the tournament rules will be prepared by the Tournament Director beforehand and posted/distributed for all to see.

It is VERY IMPORTANT before you sit down in a Texas Holdem tournament that you read the local rules beforehand. These will guide you to all the standard rules that will apply in the tournament. 

While a lot of the rules will be consistent across venues and TDs, minor variations will always exist and it’s important to know how rulings will be made.

Different types of tournaments – eg Bounty Tournaments, Heads-Up Tournaments, Freezeout Poker Tournaments – will all have different rules variations as well so it’s critical to know exactly what type of tournament you’re playing in.

Here are some of the most standard rules that will apply when paying most Texas Holdem tournaments.

  1. Entrance Fees – All entrance fees are usually paid before play begins. Generally the house takes a 5%-10% fee for providing the tables and dealers and administering the game. This is true both live and online. For example in a $200+$20 tournament, $200 goes to the prize pool and $20 would go to the house.
  2. Seat Assignment– Your seat will randomly be assigned to you. You will usually be given a card with your table and seat number on it. That is your seat until a tournament director tells you otherwise. Unlike in cash games, there are no seat changes until your table is “broken” as players are eliminated and the remaining players are consolidated.
  3. Starting Stacks– When you arrive at the table your starting stack will be at your seat.
    • Tournament chips have no cash value and you cannot cash out at any point during the tournament.
    • It’s always a good idea to double check your chips against the posted starting stack to make sure you have the correct amount of chips.
    • The total amount of your starting stack varies from tournament to tournament.
  4. Blind Levels – The way tournaments differ from cash games is that the blinds increase at regular intervals.
    • This is to force play and get the action going. You can usually get a sheet from a floor person that tells you the schedule of blind increases and what the blinds will be.
    • Online you can find this information in the tournament lobby.
    • It’s a good idea to get familiar with the blind structure before playing. If the blinds increase and your dealer has already cut the cards, the blinds will increase on the next hand.
  5. The Deal – The deal proceeds exactly as it does in a cash game. The two players to the left of the button are the small blind and the big blind. After each hand the button moves one seat to the left. The button is determined in the first hand completely randomly.
  6. Absent Players – All players must be dealt into the hand and their blinds/antes forced into the pot whether they are at the table or not. If the player is not present by the time his second card is dealt, his hand will be ruled dead.
  7. Breaking Tables – As players are eliminated the tournament director will start breaking tables in a pre-determined order. If your table breaks, you will be assigned randomly to an empty seat at one of the remaining tables.
  8. All-in Bets – A player who declares himself all in plays for all of the chips in front of him. If the other player has more he is only entitled to an amount equal to his own stack. The same goes for an all-in player that has less than his required blind. He is only entitled to what he put in.
  9. All-in confrontations – When two players are all in and the action is completed, both hands must be exposed face up before the rest of the board is run.
  10. Calling the Clock – A player can request the pit boss to force a player to choose an action in a set amount of time (typically 90 seconds). If the player fails to act in that time, his or her hand is folded. Only a player seated at the table at the time the current hand was dealt can call the clock.
  11. Multiple Busts – If two players go broke on the same hand the player with the greater amount of chips at the start of the hand finishes in the higher position.
  12. Showing Cards – Intentionally exposing a card is illegal in tournament play and a hand can be ruled dead as well as a time penalty issued.
  13. Inappropriate play– Inappropriate play such as swearing and or throwing cards is punishable by a penalty.
  14. Coloring up – The lowest chip denomination in play will be removed from the table when it is no longer needed in the blind or ante structure.

    All lower-denomination chips that are of sufficient quantity for a new chip will be changed up directly. I.E if you have five $25 chips you would get one $100 chip and have one odd chip. The method for removal of odd chips is as follows:
    • Starting at seat 1, (if there is a professional dealer, this will be the player directly to the dealer’s left) deal this player one card face up for every odd chip they hold. Continue clockwise around the table until all players have one card for each of their odd chips.
    • Add the $ amount of all odd chips together. You want to replace the odd chips with chips of the next lowest denomination. For example: If there are eight $25 chips, you want to replace them with two $100 chips.
    • If there are an odd number of odd chips on the table: If the amount of the final chips is equal to half, or more, of the value of the next lowest chip, these chips are replaced by the higher value chip. If the total value is less than half, the odd chips are simply removed from the table.
    • Give the first replaced chip to the player with the highest value card by rank. With every player only eligible to receive one chip, continue giving a chip to the player with the highest value card until all chips are gone. This is known as a chip race.
  15. Hand-for-hand play – As play approaches the bubble (when the money starts) play may go hand for hand. This means that all tables will deal a hand and the next hand will not be dealt until all tables have completed their hand.
  16. Heads up – When two players are left you have reached heads up play. In this scenario the small blind is the button and acts first before the flop but last on all ensuing streets.
  17. Deal-making – In most circumstances players are allowed to make a deal to distribute the remaining prize money at any point. All players must be in agreement as to the altered payouts, which are usually distributed according to ICM or each player’s remaining amount of chips. Tournament directors typically ask players to leave a small percentage of the prize pool aside to play for and to determine an ultimate champion of the tournament. Total payouts are divided entirely at the players’ discretion so a player who finishes third or fourth can feasibly take home more money than the eventual tournament winner.

It is up to you to know the basic Texas Holdem Tournament Rules when playing in a tournament. Not properly educating yourself can cause you to unknowingly commit an infraction and get penalized or even disqualified!

Texas Hold’em Sit-and-Go (SnG) Tournament Rules

holdemtournamentrules

A Texas Holdem Sit & Go tournament (SnG) is a tournament that is typically played on a single table. Play begins when all seats at the table are full. Players pay a fixed buy-in and get the exact same amount of starting chips.

Play proceeds hand-for-hand with the blinds rising incrementally at set intervals. When a players loses all of his or her chips, he or she is out of the tournament. Play proceeds until one player is left with all the chips. The top 3 players are usually the only players paid with the winner getting the majority of the prize money.

Texas Holdem Jackpot SnG Rules

Texas Holdem Jackpot SnGs like PokerStars’ Spin & Gos and 888poker’s BLAST tournaments have become extremely popular over the last few years.

These are turbo (or hyper turbo) SnG tournaments with blind levels that increase very quickly. Most ore played with just 3 or 4 players per tournament.

Players pay a set buy-in and get the same amount of starting chips but the total prize pool – which is usually just the sum of all the buy-ins less the fees – is multiplied by a random multiplier before the tournament begins.

This can mean the prize pool is anywhere from 2x to 10,000x the total buy-ins. The largest ones on PokerStars, for example, pay out $1m to the 3 players with the winner taking $600,000 or more for just just a $5 or $10 buy-in.

FAQ

What are the top Texas Holdem Official Rules?

1. BUY-IN – In a cash game, there is a minimum buy-in to enter, but you can reload or buy more chips at any point outside a hand. In a tournament you buy-in once, with the possibility of re-entering. Your starting stack is typically 100 big blinds or more.

2. DEALER BUTTON – This represents the ‘rotating’ dealer which moves after each hand. To choose the first dealer, each player picks a face-down card from the deck and the one with the highest value card is the dealer.

3. BLINDS – There are two ‘blind’ players after the button (clockwise) – Small and Big Blind. The big blind is the call price of the round and small blind is half of that. These are forced bets that the players in question need to put out to build a pot, irrelevant of their hand.

4. DEALING – You need to deal clockwise around the table, starting from the small blind. Each player gets one card at a time for a total of two hole cards. After a round of betting here, you deal 3 cards for the flop followed by another betting round. Then one more card for the turn, more betting, then one more river card and final betting. Before dealing each round, the dealer must ‘burn’ the card at the top of the deck

5. ACTIONS – Every time cards are dealt or turned on the board, there is an action. Choose to check (do nothing), bet (add chips to the pot), call (match someone’s bet), raise (add even more chips than the bettor), or fold (discard their hand and exit the round). A bet must be at least worth two big blinds. Or if you raise, it must be at least double the previous bet. Each round is only over when all players have acted – either placed their chips, folded or checked around.

6. BETTING / RAISING RULES – You need to declare your intent to raise or the amount before making an action. Or bring their chip raise amount into play at the same time. You can’t place chips gradually – This is known as a string bet and would be considered a call.

7. SHOWDOWN – Unless everyone folds to one player, the best hand at showdown (showing cards after last betting round post-river) wins the pot. The player who bet on the river should reveal their hand first. The other/s can show or muck/fold their hand and give up the pot.

8. THE BEST HAND – Poker hand rankings are as follows, with the best ranging from top to bottom:

Royal Flush
Straight Flush
Quads
Full House
Flush
Straight
Three of a Kind
Two Pairs
One Pair
High Card

How many Texas Holdem betting rounds are there?

There are FOUR Texas Holdem betting rounds:
– pre-flop
– post-flop
– after the turn
– after the river (showdown)

How should the Texas Holdem layout be?

Note that the Texas Holdem layout includes three flop boxes, one turn box and one river card box on the felt table. You may also have a play section marked on the table where your bets are made, away from your stack

How many players for Texas Holdem?

A Texas Holdem cash game is played on a single table with 2 to 10 players. The goal in a cash game is to win as many chips as you can. A multi-table tournament will have a number of players divided into multiple tables with 9-10 players on each table. As players run out of chips and are eliminated, the number of tables reduces until the final table (9-10 players). Play continues until heads up (2 players) and then the final prize winner.

How do blinds work in Texas Holdem?

There are two ‘blind’ players after the button (clockwise) – Small and Big Blind. The big blind is the call price of the round and small blind is half of that. These are forced bets that the players in question need to put out to build a pot, irrelevant of their hand. This is to induce more action from these players because they have the worst position. Otherwise they’d never play!

How many cards do you get in Texas Holdem?

Texas Hold’em combines your two hole cards with the five community cards. The player with the best 5-card hand (out of 7) including BOTH hole cards wins the pot for that round.

What’s the most common winning hand in Texas Holdem?

The hand rankings are placed in that order for a reason. The more valuable cards are the ones that are harder to get. So by default, since High cards and single pairs fall at the bottom, these are the most common hands to hit. Therefore, Ace or King high cards, or pairs – most likely a pair of face cards since they’re played more.

What’s the worst starting hand in Texas Holdem?

72 off-suit is mathematically the worst starting hand you can have in Texas Holdem. In fact, many home or cash games on TV have a bonus for winning with this hand to induce action.

Do you shuffle after EVERY Texas Holdem hand?

It’s called the Shuffle and Cut – and it’s done after every hand. When a round is over and the pot is won and distributed, the deck must be shuffled. Live card rooms will alternate decks between hands. The deck must also be cut with minimum four cards with the bottoms of the decks hidden from players. Only then can dealer deal the next hand.

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