Entry Fees and Play Money for Online Poker Tournaments

Online Poker tournaments have various entry fees, that each poker player needs to pay before being allowed to enter the tournament. The payment for the tournament is the same for everyone and is called the buy-in.

In return for the buy-in, each player receives a stack of chips which are used in the poker tournaments. You will see this happen in the World Series of Poker and on Poker TV shows such as Late Night Poker.

Once the online poker tournament starts, players cannot exchange or refund their chips, and they also cannot buy more chips, if they run out. The exception for this rule applies for re-buy tournaments, where players have the option of purchasing more chips if they run out but only during a certain period. Not all poker tournaments offer re-buy options, and sometimes re-buys are conditional. This means only some of the tournament players, the lowest ranked players for example, are offered the re-buy.

Knowing When a Online Poker Tournament's Fees are Fair

There are several factors that determine if the online poker tournament's buy-in is worth your while. Because there are literally hundreds of poker tournament online, you should be meticulous about choosing the tournament you enter and check all the tournament information.

Entry Fee Percentage - Tournament entry fees are usually 10% of the pot for the lower-stakes poker tournaments. The entry fee for bigger poker tournaments is typically less than 10%. Before you enter a poker tournament make sure the entry fee is in the right ratio to the buy-in. After you'll gain experience in poker tournaments you'll know which entry fees are fair and which are not.
Special Tournament Entry Fees - Some online poker tournaments have special entry fees, offered to all or some of the players. You will want to avoid tournaments that offer only some of the players free-roll entry fee options. Some poker tournaments, such as the PPT, have special entry fees, that allow winning players from other tournaments to join the game with no initial fee.

Before you enter a online poker tournament, review the terms and conditions of the site, and make sure exactly what the tournament entry fee is about.

Todd Sanders.
Senior Editor

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