• How Do Poker Tournaments Payouts
• Poker Tournament Payout Calculator
• Poker Tournament Payout
• Poker Tournament Payout Formula
• Poker Tournament Payout Chart
• Poker Payout Structure

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For the last eight years, the largest tournament in the world has been the World Series of Poker Main Event. With the exception of 1992, the US$10,000 buy-in tournament increased in prize pool year-over-year from its start in 1970 until 2007 (the latter a result of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, which reduced the number of players winning their seats via online play). In a typical tourney with 50 people, the fact that you’ve made it to the money means you’ve outlasted roughly 45/50 players. It also means that the pay-outs will go from roughly $170- $900 in a. Learn about our Multi Table payouts at WSOP.com. Tournament payouts will vary, depending on the on the number of entrants in a multi table tournament. WSOP2020 MAIN EVENT. PLAYER GUIDE; WSOP 2020 MAIN EVENT; WSOP 2020 MAIN EVENT FAQ. MOST TRUSTED BRAND IN POKER. For more than forty years, the World Series of Poker has been the most trusted. Divide the money among players who tie for a position. For example, if three players tie for third place in a $5 million event, add the percentages normally awarded for third through fifth places. First place gets paid 50% of the prize pool, second place 30%, and third place 20%. Six-handed Sit and Go's only pay the final two players with first place taking 65% of the prize pool and second place winning the remaining 35%. Payout percentages are approximate.

Have you ever wondered why payouts are different from the advertised tournament prizes? Unless there are only 2 to 4 entries, tournaments can’t be winner-takes-all games. Each cardroom has its payout structure when distributing their prizes, and it determines how much a player takes home from his participation.

The typical payout structure for a poker tournament depends on the number of entries. If it only has 28 participants, the winner takes home 33% of the pool. However, this percentage goes down as more players participate. In events with 350 to 500 entries, the winner gets 22.5% to 25.5% of the pool.

The tournament winner takes the most significant cut in the prize pool, but it’s not as simple as what many people think. We’ll talk about the tournament payout structure in great detail to help you understand how professionals make money in MTT.

Want to start crushing the tournaments? Here is a list of 3 great tournament poker books to become a crusher. Book 1 will teach you a solid fundamental tournament strategy so you don’t make any big mistakes. Book 2 shows you how to crush the final table and book 3 goes through 50 hands in detail when you are deep in tournaments:

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If on the other hand you already know how to play tournaments and want to make it to the high stakes then it will make sense to get in-depth advice from someone who has already won several WSOP bracelets. With over $23,000,000 in the tournament winnings, he is the right man to teach the advanced expert strategies (warning: this poker tournament course is not for beginners, but for those interested to beat high roller games).

Tournaments and Cash Games Comparison

Tournaments and cash games are very different when it comes to the money that a player makes. When you’re participating in a cash game, you join by using your bankroll. Any amount that you win goes directly to you as your actual money.

If you enter a game with a $500 buy-in, you spend $500. The casino takes out a percentage for each pot, and whatever amount you receive after that goes straight to your pocket. So, if you were able to accumulate $2,000 worth of chips, you’re betting $2,000 of your actual money. Your goal in playing cash games is to win as many games in the shortest time possible.

In a tournament, every player joins by paying the entry fee and rake. The rake is usually 10% of the entry fee, but it can go as high as 30% in smaller tournaments.

So if you participate in an event with an entry fee of $100 and a 10% rake, you’ll only lose $110, even if you’re the first player that gets eliminated. However, the prize that you’ll receive for your participation depends on how high your rank will be after the tournament.

Common Tournament Formats

Similar to cash games, tournaments have different formats that can affect the amount that the winner receives. 100% of the entry fee collected from all the entries go directly to the prize pool. The more entries there are in a tournament, the more money there is for the top players to split. To make it easier for you to understand a typical payout structure, let’s go through the different formats that tournaments take.

Freezeout

Freezeout tournaments are the most common format that you’ll find because it’s the simplest to manage. It’s also the easiest to set up because the cardroom only needs to have enough participants. When you participate in freezeouts, you only have to pay the entry fee and rake, and then you’ll receive the chips that you’ll use throughout the tournament.

Players can only join once, and when they run out of chips, they’re out of the game. These chips don’t have any monetary value, and the winner of the tournament will be the player who beats the other players and collects all the chips.

It is also very easy for a casino to calculate how many poker chips are needed for the tournament, as it knows exactly how many people are participating and each of them gets the same amount of chips.

Rebuy

Rebuy tournament is the most complicated of the three because participants have the chance to replenish their chips before a rebuy period ends. In all cases the rebuy period ends before the players are in the money and often an add-on is often possible during the last break, after which rebuys aren’t possible anymore.

In the past, rebuy tournaments are the favorite of many deep-pocketed players because they can join the game with so much advantage.

Nowadays, cardrooms enforce different policies to keep parity and prevent deep-pocketed players from dominating their table.

The most common rule for rebuy tournaments is that players can only rebuy at the start of the game and only when their chips fall below the threshold.

For example, if the rebuy threshold is 20% of starting chips, a player can’t rebuy unless they reach it, or get eliminated from the game. Even if they reach it, they still can’t rebuy in the middle of the game, they need to wait until the current hand is over. Most organizers also prohibit players from rebuying more than the entry amount.

Reentry

Reentry is similar to rebuy, but it’s more straightforward and easier to understand. Players can buy back into the tournament only if they get eliminated. However, instead of allowing the player to continue his game, the organizers will treat it as a new entry, and they will assign the player to a different table (not always the case).

You can buy back into the tournament as many times as you want (but sometimes it is limited to only 1 re-entry), but as it progresses, it’ll be less appealing for anyone to want to re-enter. That’s because players can only buy the same number of chips that they had when they started, while the other players accumulate chips and the blinds increase.

It gets harder for reentries to make a difference in the tournament, especially when the chips that players get is only enough to cover the blinds.

Calculating the Prize Pool for Tournaments

We had to go through the different tournament formats because they directly correlate with the prize pool. Remember, the more entries a tournament gets, the higher the prize will be, and the more money there’ll be for the top players to split.

Each format has its pros and cons, so to help you gain a better understanding of the tournament payout structure, let’s discuss how these formats affect the money that the winners receive.

Pros and Cons of Freezeout Tournament Prize Pool

Since players can’t re-enter the tournament, you can calculate the prize pool as soon as it starts. There will be no changes with the structure, and you already know how much you’ll receive as the winner. When you participate in a freezeout tournament, the organizers will often announce the payout structure at the beginning of the game.

Unfortunately, the prize pool will remain the same throughout the tournament. Although cardrooms will adjust the payout structure depending on the number of participants, a low prize pool will remain the same if they don’t get enough traction at the start. A $100 tournament will only have a $5,000 pool if it only gets 50 participants.

Low prize pools often discourage players from participating, so some cardrooms have a guaranteed prize as a way to entice players to join.

It means that if the number of participants doesn’t reach their target number, the cardroom will cover the difference and still distribute prizes according to the guaranteed amount.

Pros and Cons of Rebuy and Reentry Tournament Prize Pool

If you’re going to participate in a rebuy or reentry tournament, the prize pool will always be higher than the number of initial entries. When organizers use these tournament formats, many players will buy back into the game for another chance to be part of the prize pool.

Since 100% of the entry fee goes straight to the prize pool and players will buy back into the game more than once, the top players will receive more. Despite the complexities that rebuy and reentry tournaments have, cardrooms still use this tournament format to encourage more players to join their event.

Unfortunately, since rebuys and reentries happen in the middle of tournament games, no one can know how much the winner will actually receive. Even if the organizers limit the number of times each player can buy back, it’ll still be impossible to determine how many players will spend more to get back into the game.

Tournament Payout Structure

Now that you’re aware of the factors that can affect the prize pool, let’s talk about its payout structure. Tournaments rarely use the “winner-takes-all” approach when organizing, and they’ll always split it to favor the top players. In fact, a typical tournament will award 60% to 70% of the pool to the top 5%, while the remaining 30% to 60% goes to the top 10% to 20%.

Top-heavy payout structure and many participants mean it might take a while before you realize how good you are at tournaments. And furthermore, you need to be okay with certain things in order to be a professional tournament poker player.

We understand that it can be difficult to visualize the payout structure, so here’s a table to help you figure out how much the top players will get from participating in STT and MTT:

Typical STT Payout Structure

Typical MTT Payout Structure

Of course, these tables don’t represent the structure that different cardrooms use when splitting the prize pool. These will only provide you with an idea of how cardrooms split the prize. However, if there’s one thing that will always remain, it’s that these structures will favor the top-ranking players.

As you can see, most of the participants won’t receive anything, but the prize consolidates as the rankings move toward the top. In single table tournaments, only a third of all the participants will receive their cut in the pool, while in MTTs, it can go anywhere from 10% to 30% of the participants.

The winners’ prize comes from the entry fees of the remaining 67% to 90% of the players. When you’re playing cash games, the money goes straight to your account, and you can take down as many players as you want. Winning the tournament is the same, but you’re managing the risks because you can never lose more than the amount you spent to join.

The prize for winning MTT may seem very small compared to the money that you can make from cash games. In a $100 tournament with 50 participants, the winner only takes home $1,450. In cash games, you can get the same amount for winning one pot. However, comparing the two in terms of the money that you can make is wrong.

One reason is that in cash games, you’re using your actual bankroll to fund your bets. To make $1,450 in a one on one game, you’ll have to risk $1,450 of your money. Even in 9-max games, you still need to risk more to build a $1,450 pot.

In tournaments, the entry fee is the only money that you risk. If you get eliminated, you only lost $100, but you stand a chance to win the same amount.

MTT isn’t for everyone because it’s about managing the risks while maximizing your chances of winning a large pot. It also takes a lot of skills to succeed in tournaments, and you need to protect your stacks to avoid getting eliminated until the money round starts.

If winning $1,450 for an entry fee of $100 isn’t that appealing, you may want to consider a much bigger tournament. The calculation that we provided is only for the typical cardrooms, which only gets a handful of players. However, with the popularity of poker, it’s not that hard to find tournaments with over 500 entries! There are even some events that get thousands of participants.

The payout structure will, almost, always depend on the number of entries. The more participants a tournament gets, the more complicated the payout structure becomes. That’s why most cardrooms only use the freezeout format to limit the number of entries that they get. This format also makes it easier to calculate the amount that each player receives.

The table below will demonstrate how organizers distribute the prizes when there are 500 to 2000 participants. To make it easier for you to visualize the payout structure for large tournaments, we’re only going to look at a structure that pays the top 10% of the players.

MTT Payout Structure to Compensate the Top 10%

If you’re participating in a $1,000 tournament with a 10% rake, you only need to pay $1,100 to join. If you are in the top 10%, you start playing for money. 0.11% of the prize pool may not seem much, but it’s equivalent to $2,200, which doubles the amount you spent to join the tournament.

The payout structure for tournaments varies, depending on the number of players that they’re getting. But the initial goal for anyone is to stay in the game until 90% of the players get bust.

How Do Poker Tournaments Payouts

When a tournament has the same structure and gets 2000 participants, your first goal should be to reach the top 200 players—that’s where the money round starts. It guarantees twice the amount you spent, and from there, the cash prizes that you get will increase as more players get eliminated.

That’s the reason why MTT players have a different approach when playing poker. If you’re playing cash games, your goal is to win as much as possible in the shortest time. With that approach, players tend to be more aggressive than if they’re in a tournament.

In tournaments, your skills in playing your hand will determine whether you win the biggest prize. It is a good strategy to take the advantage of your skill early in the tournament when there are still many weak players and you are playing deep. The deeper you are, the bigger your advantage is. Just keep in mind that a mistake can easily cost you, and the next moment you can be out of the tournament.

Conclusion

Tournaments have different formats that can affect the prize pool and ultimately affect the payout structure. That’s why it would be best to understand these formats to help you find a tournament with better compensation.

Regardless of the format that you participate in, the goal when playing MTT is to manage your stack and make sure that it lasts longer than most players. You also need to consider the value that you’re getting from your hands because if you play too tight in the early stages of a tournament, it’ll be tough for you to keep up on the next round.

Tournaments are popular. Other than High Stakes Poker, all that’s shown on TV is MTTs.

We think what makes tournaments sexy are the large prize pools. People like seeing people play for hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars. And you don’t get that that often with cash games.

It happens often with tournaments, though.

Of course, it depends on the buy-in and game, but many of the events shown on TV are the large ones with a $5,000, $10,000 or even $100,000 buy-in. These tourneys create prize pools that often reach the 7-figure mark. And that creates a lot of buzz.

So, naturally, a lot of people are curious about tournaments.

• What are they?
• How do you get started?
• Where do you play?
• What can you play?

We thought it’d make sense to create a page that answers those questions – and many others.

A poker tournament is a game with a fixed format. Everything is predetermined – the blinds, buy-in, stack sizes, antes, structure and time limit.

The buy-in can vary from free (freerolls) to .05 to $20 to $100,000. There’s always a cut for the poker room, too, which is easier to see online. Most tournaments will be labeled $X+$Y where X goes to the prize pool and Y is the amount the poker room gets.

Once you’re entered you’ll want to log in or show up when the tournament is supposed to start. For sit and go’s (SNGs), that can be whenever, as they start whenever the tables are full. But for MTTs it’s a set time and place. If you’re online the poker room will automatically seat you (randomly) at a table.

From there you’ll have a stack of chips to play with. You’ll have the same amount as everyone else, unless the tournament offers re-buys and add-ons. Then the tournament will start.

Poker Tournament Payout Calculator

A tournament will play very much like a cash game. Once every one posts their blinds, antes, etc., each player is dealt their cards. Then they play according to that game’s and variation’s rules.

But unlike cash games, tournaments have levels. Each level will be a predetermined length – it can be 1 minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 1 hour, and so on. Each tourney will be different. But after the time’s up, when the next level starts the blinds will be higher.

For example, in a turbo 18-man on PokerStars, the blinds start at 10/20. After 5 minutes they go to 15/30, then 25/50, 50/100, and so on.

This is important to pay attention to, because if you don’t continue to add chips to your stack, eventually the blinds will be large enough that you’ll be blinded out. Then your tournament is over.

The tournament continues like this until one player remains with all the chips in play.

Players are then paid according to the structure set from the beginning – although this does change a little in the beginning if the tournament allows late registrations (players can sign up and pay to play after the tourney starts).

The number of players paid will depend on the number of players in the tournament. SNGs are always fixed. For example, in a 9-10 man SNG 3 players are paid. In an 18-man SNG four players are paid. It’s seven in a 45-man and 9 in an 180-man. It just depends on the tourney.

When you play online any money you win will be put into your account balance automatically. We think some sites reserve the right to pay the next day on larger tournaments and payouts, but none that do this come to mind.

And that’s basically a tournament and how it works in a nutshell.

You’ll find tournaments online, in live casinos (not all are major “events” either), and even played in homes. They’re a great way to get LOTS of entertainment and value out of a fixed amount of money.

What Types of Tournaments Can You Play?

There are LOTS of tournaments you can play. The most popular game played is Texas holdem.

But since the “poker boom” more and more games are played in tournament form. And that includes both online and live (and shown on TV too).

That means you can play games like omaha, stud, razz, HORSE, other mixed games, and others, in tournament format. No limit is obviously the popular betting limit, but depending on the game, limit and pot limit is used, too.

And, as we mentioned earlier, stakes vary wildly. Online you’ll find stakes starting from free to .05 to around $500. There are some larger ones (including SNGs), but that’s where the bulk of tournaments fall. The Sunday Majors (the biggest tourneys of the week online) usually fall between $200 and $500.

Offline, you’ll find many tourneys starting at $20 to $500. It just depends on the room. But for the larger “events” they’ll start around $500 or $1,500, and then climb from there.

Other than the game and stakes, one other choice you’ll have to make is the type of tournament you’ll play. There are LOTS of them.

Here are the most common options:

• Freezeout – Most tourneys fall into this category. Once you bust you’re out of the tourney.
• Rebuy – Like a freezeout, except that for a short period (usually the first couple of levels) you can buy into the tourney again when you bust.
• Turbo / Super Turbo – The levels are much faster. Instead of 20+ minutes, they’re something like 3-10 minutes. This requires a big change in strategy. And the faster the blinds the more luck that’s involved.
• Guarantee – This is any tournament where a prize pool is guaranteed, no matter how many players show up. This is great because if the players don’t make up the prize pool, the room will. This is called an overlay.
• Satellite – These are tournaments where the prize are seats to a more expensive/higher value tournament.

For example, several years ago we played a 5-table shootout for $15 that awarded a few seats to the Sunday Million, which you could buy into directly for $215.

Another good example is Chris Moneymaker – he won a $40 satellite to a higher dollar satellite, which then awarded him a seat to the WSOP Main Event which has a $10,000 buy-in.

Here are the most common options:

• Bounty/Knockout – In these tournaments you pay a little extra. That little extra goes to a “bounty” which is paid whenever you or someone else knocks a player out of the tournament. For example, if there’s a $5 bounty on each player’s head, and someone knocked you out, they’d get your $5 chip.
• SNGs – We mentioned these a bit already, but these are smaller tournaments with fixed fields that start once all the seats have been filled. These are great to play between tournaments or as a variance buster.
• Deep Stacks – You start with a deep(er) stack than normal. Instead of 1,500 chips it might be 3,000. Or instead of 5,000 you might start with 10,000 or 20,000.
• Shootouts – With these each table plays until there’s one player left. Then all these players play a final table. For example, in a 5-table shootout, the winner from each table would play a 5-handed final table for the prize(s).
• Steps – This is common online. It’s sort of like a satellite tournament, but broken down even more. You might have 6 steps, starting from the lowest stakes (

For example, you buy in directly to step 4, and if you win, you get to play step 5. Once you get to the last level the prize is usually a seat to a higher value tourney.

The great thing about these is if you lose, often times you get to play the step over or move down a step depending on where you finished. Even if you win nothing you get LOTS of value out of these.

Those are the most common tournament variations. But depending on where you play you’ll find other variations.

One unique thing about poker tournaments is you’ll find many events and series to join.

A series is simply a set number of tournaments hosted by a poker site or venue. They’ll have higher buy in tourneys, satellites to all the series tourneys, and maybe give out jewelry to the winners.

Here are the major tournament series in both online and live poker.

World Series of Poker (WSOP)

50+ events with a bracelet and money going to the winner. Played in Las Vegas once per year starting in May/June. The Main Event final table plays in November.

World Poker Tour (WPT)

Similar to the WSOP. Played throughout the year. The winner of each tourney gets a bracelet.

Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP)

One of PokerStars’ online series.

World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP)

Another PokerStars’ series. Played in the fall.

Aussie Millions

A smaller event held in Australia. Known for having some of the highest buy-ins in history.

European Poker Tour

Owned and sponsored by the Rational Group (previous owner of PokerStars). Similar to the WPT, but held in different venues throughout Europe.

Those are the major events which are held once or twice per year. But you also have the Sunday Majors which are held once per week.

We say this as if you’ll find a major tournament series every Sunday at every poker site online. But that’s not really the case. PokerStars really has a monopoly on this. Right now they have 12 events running every Sunday with buy-ins ranging from $1+re-buys to $11 to $530 – and satellites running to all of them. Guaranteed prize pools for each event vary from $25,000 to $1,000,000.

Many sites run a (much) smaller version of PokerStars’ Sunday Majors. Sometimes they’ll host several larger tournaments throughout the week instead of all in one day. It just depends on the site.

How to Choose a Tournament to Play

Choosing a site to join for tournaments can be tricky. You could go a few different ways.

Poker Tournament Payout

For example, you could join a new site where they’ll have smaller guaranteed tournaments. These often have overlays. You’ll have less players to fight through for the same prize pool.

However, these tournaments don’t get very big. And there’s not very many of them offered. On top of that, many sites have shut down tourneys when too few players show up instead of honoring the guarantee.

We prefer to go the other way. Look for sites that are established with lots of traffic and tournaments. We believe there’s more value in that. Not only will tournaments run more often, but there will be tournaments of all shapes and sizes. Tournaments with different games, variations, buy-ins, and blind levels/structures.

Poker Tournament Payout Formula

We would also look for a poker site that offers lots of live/online satellites. Often times the competition for the higher dollar buy-ins isn’t much greater than the lower stakes – it’s just a matter of who can afford it. Satellites give you a way to afford it.

Poker Tournament Payout Chart

From there choosing a tournament is rather straightforward. You want to choose a game and variation that you like and/or are good at. You might want to look at the blinds too, to make sure you choose a speed (normal to fast) you like and the structure jumps up in blinds at a comfortable pace. But we don’t think most players need to worry about stuff like that.

They should just find a game and get signed up instead.

Conclusion: Get More Out of Your $5 Than Just a Latte

There you have it – an overview of poker tournaments, how they work, and different types of tourneys you can play.

From here it’s a matter of choosing a game and getting started. If it were us, we’d choose a $5 or $10 turbo MTT with a starting stack of 1,500 and 3,000. Maybe find one that offers bounties – which can be lots of fun.

Poker Payout Structure

WAY more fun than you’ll get out of your $5 latte from Starbucks.