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Texas Holdem Tournament Rules

If you're looking to setup your own Texas Holdem tournament and need to know general rules you've found the right article. Or, if you're looking for clarification of a few specific rules in Texas Holdem tournaments you are also in the right location. We cover both below.

For the purposes of this article we're going to assume that you know the very basics of poker. If you don't that's also ok. We've got articles that cover the basics for you.

• See What Wins in Poker for a refresh of the winning poker hands.
• See How to Play Texas Holdem for detailed rules.

Basic rules in setting up your own Texas Holdem Tournament:

In a Texas Holdem tournament every player is given a set amount of chips and then play begins. The basic Holdem rules apply and when it is your turn you can bet up to all of your chips at any point in the hand. Once a player loses all of his/her chips they are out of the tournament. Play continues until one player has all the chips. Naturally this sounds simple. However, a fun and successful Texas Holdem tournament takes a bit of planning. You will need to set some ground rules before you begin. Below are key bullet points to take into consideration.

1.) What's the buy in for your tournament?

Obviously this must be determined before you begin. In fact, it should probably be determined before you even invite the players. You should find an amount that everyone can afford but will still be worth playing for. In order to analyze what is worth playing for you should consider the total pot size if a specific amount of people attend. Then you will need to breakdown the payout system for 1st-3rd or perhaps more spots if there are a lot of people attending.

If you would like to run a quick and dirty tournament and not deal with a large amount of details here is what I recommend. If you have anywhere from 9-20 players I would pay out the top 3 players at most. Now determine the buy in amount. Next, take the total pot (note: The total pot is equal to the buy in multiplied by the total players) and divide that into 1st through 3rd place. I would give 50% of the money to first place, 30% to second, and 20% to third. This should be a nice little tournament with prize money heavily weighted toward first place.

2.) How many chips should your tournament start with?

As a general rule of thumb for Texas Holdem tournaments you want a nice even number of chips that is easy to distribute. 150 or 1000 or 2000 should be fine. The blinds are a more important factor than how many chips each player starts with. For example, if you start every player in your tournament with 100 chips and set the blinds at 1-2 you have the same game as if you started everyone with 1000 in chips and made the blinds 10-20. The lower the blinds are in relation to the amount of chips you have the longer your tournament will last.

3.) How often should you increase the blinds?

Unless you want your tournament to last for many days you're going to have to increase the blinds at designated points in time. (See Poker Blinds for more details on what the blinds are.) Unless you want arguments to occur you should set a rule for when you will increase the blinds. I recommend every 10 minutes doubling the blinds up until a certain point. If you don't set a rule before hand arguments will naturally occur. For example, if I am short stacked (meaning I don't have many chips left) I won't want the blinds to increase because it will mean that I will have to play more hands or risk losing all my chips as every time I post the blinds my stack becomes significantly smaller. However, the chip leader will want the blinds to increase rapidly because he can sit back and wait for players to bust themselves out because they have to start playing more hands as the blinds increase.

A quick and easy tournament structure is to have each player start with 100 chips and have the blinds start at 2-4. If you then increase the blinds every 10 minutes you can have a tournament last about 2-3 hours. Try setting the blind increases to 3-6, 4-8, 5-10, and then begin doubling them up until you reach 30-60 and lock them there. That tournament structure will give you a nice 20 person game that will last about 2-3 hours. If you find that this is taking too long or too short then change either the step increases in the blinds or the amount of time between increases. For example, if you would like to shorten the time it takes to complete your tournament, set the blinds at 2-4 and double them every ten minutes. (ie. From 2-4 to 4-8 to 8-16.) Or you can increase the blinds every 5 minutes instead of 10. In this way you can find the optimal time limit for your specific tournament.

Conclusion

By following these general rules you should be able to set up your own Texas Holdem tournaments with little trouble. After a few tournaments you will get a good feel for the structure and length of time it takes to complete one. Then you can begin to adjust depending on the amount of money you'd like to involve, the amount of players, and the amount of money.

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Raising Rules for Texas Holdem tournaments:

You would think that since you can bet any amount of chips that you wish in Texas Holdem no limit tournaments that betting and raising would be simple. However, I've found that there are a few scenarios that often arise where there is some confusion. The section below should add some clarity around raising and reraising rules in no limit Texas Holdem tournaments.

In order to raise the amount of chips that you wish to raise by must be at least as large as the last raise in the same round. If you are playing in a no limit Texas Holdem tournament with 5-10 blinds that means if you are the first to enter the pot in order to raise you must put in 20 chips. Since the big blind is 10 and you wish to raise then you must put in at least 20 (The 10 big blind is considered the raise that you must match).

If someone has already raised before you then your raise must be at least as large as his/her raise. This is not to be confused with the need to match the last bet with your raise. For example, if the blinds are 5-10 and player A sends in a bet of 50 chips, he is raising by 40 (calling the 10 chips in the big blind + raising 40 chips = 50 total chips bet). If player B wishes to raise he/she must raise by at least 40 chips (a total bet of 90 chips). Many players and even dealers make the mistake of thinking that player B must raise by 50 chips(total bet of 100 chips) thinking that player B's raise must double the last bet. This is incorrect as the player need only match the raise (40 chips in our example).

Now let us consider when a player has gone all in with a partial raise. Other players may not reraise on a player’s all in raise unless it is a full raise. This is complicated so let’s use an example.

Suppose we have players A, B, and C in a Texas Holdem tournament where the blinds are 5-10. Player A opens with a raise to 50 total chips (he matches the 10 chip blind and raises by 40 chips). Player B reraises all in for a total of 70 chips (he calls the bet of 50 chips and raises 20 more). Player C cold calls the 70 chips. Player A can not reraise since Player B did not put in a legal raise. Player B raised by only 20 chips when he needed to match a raise of 40 total chips.

Now let us consider an example of when player A could reraise. Again we have players A, B, and C with the blinds at 5-10. Player A raises to a total of 40 chips (he matches the blind of 10 chips and raises by 30). Player B pushes all in with 70 chips (calls the 40 chip bet by Player A and raises by 30 chips). Player C then cold calls. Player A can reraise as much as he wants because Player B has sent in a legal raise. Player B has matched the original raise amount of 30 chips.

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