Entry Fees and Prizes in Poker
In a typical poker tournament, each player will pay a fixed entry fee which is called a buy-in and receives, in exchange, a quantity of the in-game currency, which is called play money which is always represented in the form of poker chips.
Usually, an integer multiple of the buy-in is the amount of play money given to each player. Real money cannot be used in the game, only the in-game play money. Also, the real money and the play money cannot be exchanged at any time.
In other tournaments, players have the option of purchasing more chips. This is called a re-buy or buy-back. In other cases, re-buys are available to all players but in some, it is offered only to players low on or out of chips. A player is eliminated from the game if he has no more remaining chips and has done in or declined all re-buy options, if any are available.
The players on each table are kept even either by switching one player or as the field shrinks taking the entire able out of play and dispense its players amongst the remaining tables. In other tournaments, they do not do this, it is called shoot-outs, wherein the last player, at times the last two or more players at a table, move on to a second or third round, similar to a single-elimination tournament that is found in other games.
Outside funds can be entered as prizes but oftentimes it is obtained from entry fees. In some tournaments, they get their prizes from sponsorships and from the entrance fees of the audience.
The last player in the game will be the first place winner, the second to the last the second winner and so on. This rule of the game prevents the chances of a tie for the first place since only one player must contain all the chips at the end of the game. There are times that the remaining players end the game by mutual consensus.
Ways of awarding the prizes to the winners:
• Fixed: Each placing corresponds to the certain payoff. For instance, ten players, $20 buy-in will award $100 to the first place, $60 for second and $ 40 for the third place while there are no prizes for the others.
• Proportional: In the percentage based scale, the payouts are determined by the size of the total buy-ins. Therefore the number of players will be the basis of the percentages. As the participation increases, so do the payout positions. Most of the time the top three wins is more that the other players combined.