A poker tournament is a contest in which two or more individuals play poker until a winner is declared.
The players in a tournament pay a fee called a "buy-in" to participate in that tournament. In return, they are given a certain quantity of chips that they will use for betting. Some tournaments offer additional options for purchasing chips (add-ons and/or rebuys) that are available to players that have purchased a buy-in. A portion of the fee for each type of chip purchase may go to either a house rake or a league fund. The remainder of the entry fee contibutes to the tournament prize pool.
When a player has no chips remaining, that player is eliminated from the tournament. Some tournaments allow players to rebuy back into the tournament after being eliminated. The number of times and when players may rebuy varies by tournament.
Depending on the size of the tournament, the tournament may have multiple tables where players sit. A normal tournament will try to keep the number of players per table equitable as the tournament progresses. This is done by balancing and consolidating tables as players are eliminated.
Players are ranked in the tournament standings in reverse elimination order: The last person out finishes in 1st place, the second-to-last person out finishes in 2nd place, and so on. Ties at any position are possible.
The prizes for winning are derived from the funds collected from entry fees or other contributions. Prizes are awarded according to the tournament's payout schedule.
To ensure the tournament ends within a reasonable period of time, the minimum bets typically escalate throughout the tournament. The tournament's betting schedule details the exact plan for raising the bets.
Typically, a tournament will consist of only one type of poker with one type of betting limit (fixed-limit, pot-limit, no-limit, etc.). Still, many tournaments have mixed games and betting limits. The betting schedule also details the exact plan for changing games and betting limits.
Tournaments may also have various side-bets in play such as bounties, bad-beat awards, etc.
Everything above describes a "traditional" poker tournament that you might see on television. There are various other types of tournaments such as shootout tournaments, Bracketed Heads-Up Standard Tournaments and round-robin tournaments, to name a few.
Tournaments managed by Dr. Neau's Tournament Manager can be broken into two main categories:
Examples of differences between standard and simple to further distinguish them.
Event | In a standard tournament | In a simple tournament |
A player hands you money to buy-into the tournament | You select the player on the roster and hit the "buy-in" button | You increment the tournament buy-in count by one |
A player is eliminated | You select the player on the roster and hit the "eliminate" button. The player is automatically placed in the standings. | You decrement the tournament remaining player count by one. If you wish to denote where the player finished, you go to the standings and type their name into the appropriate spot. |
See the component table below for more details on the differences between "Standard" and "Simple".
Now that you hopefully understand the difference between "standard" and "simple", this will make a bit more sense.
Dr. Neau's Tournament Manager is architected to handle different types of tournaments. The tournament types currently supported are:
Tournaments in Dr. Neau's Tournament Manager have the following attributes:
In addition to the above attributes, tournaments have the following components:
Component | Description | Where managed | Notes |
Betting schedule | The plan for escalating the bets and changing the games and limits throughout the tournament. Also helps define which console dashboards will be displayed during the tournament. | Managed in the betting schedule designer | |
Cash flow | The detail behind all tournament incoming and outgoing funds | Managed in the cash flow panel | |
Checklist | A checklist of tasks that you can use for ensuring all tournament logistics are handled | Managed in the checklist designer | |
Chip case | The set of chips used for the tournament. Also defines how those chips will appear on the console. | Managed in the chip case panel | |
Chip distribution | Closely related to the chip case. Defines how many of each type of chip each player will receive to start the tournament | Managed in the chip distribution panel | |
Chip leaders | The current chip amounts of all active players in the tournament | Simple tournaments: Managed in the payouts/standings
panel. Standard tournaments: Managed in the payouts/standings panel. |
Only applies to traditional and shootout tournaments. For standard, the chip leaders panel automatically includes all active players. For simple, you must type in the player names yourself. |
Chip purchase options | The definition of all buy-in, add-on and rebuy options available to players in the tournament | Managed in the chip purchase options panel | Essentially the same for all tournaments, except for the way current counts are managed. In standard tournaments, the counts are automatically updated based on the actions you take (buy-in, add-on and rebuy). In simple tournaments, you simple set the purchase count to the correct number. |
Event log | The history of what occured during the tournament | Managed in the event log panel | |
Expense summary | A listing of all expenses incurred in running the tournament | Managed in the expenses panel | |
Floor | The definition of all tables used for playing tournament and who is sitting in which seats | Managed in the seating panel | Simple tournaments do not manage seating. |
Knockout log | An ordered list of all tournament eliminations. Used by any sidebets that depend on elminations. Also used by the tournament event log. | Managed in the knockout log panel | Simple tournaments do not have a knockout log. |
Payout schedule | The plan for how the top finishers in the tournament will be rewarded | Simple tournaments: Managed in the simple
tournament payouts/standings panel. Standard tournaments: Managed in the standard tournament payouts/standings panel. |
|
Roster | A listing of all players who are participating in the tournament | Managed in the roster panel | Simple tournaments do not have a roster. |
Shootout plan | The plan for table consolidation in a shootout tournament. | Managed in the shootout planning panel | Only applies to shootout tournaments. |
Side-bets | The plan for all side-bets in play for the tournament | Managed in the side-bets panel | Simple tournaments do not have side-bets. |
Standings | The current finishing order of players in the tournament | Simple tournaments: Managed in the simple
tournament payouts/standings panel. Standard tournaments: Managed in the standard tournament payouts/standings panel. |
Both can manage standings. In a standard
tournament,
standings are automatic. In a simple
tournament, you must type the
player names into the correct finishing positions. Note: Both types allow you to display the finishes with player names on the console...it's just more automatic with a standard tournament. |
Tournaments are listed in the tournament library panel. If a tournament is part of a league, it is also listed on the league's tournament panel.
From the tournament library panel, you can activate (open) a tournament to manage it.
Tournaments are created using the Tournament Creation Wizard.