Running a Poker Tournament Guide

1. Basics
2. Buyin/Rebuys
3. Chips
4. Blinds Structure
5. Payouts
6. Rules/Messages
7. Get Supplies
8. Setup Tables
9. Run the Tourney!
10. Share Results

Chips
Tables
Cards
Dealer Buttons

How to Play
How to Deal
Hand Rankings

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Guide to Running a Poker Tournament

There are many, many ways to run poker tournaments, and much has been written about this on the internet. The purpose of this guide is not to provide a comprehensive set of instructions for all types of poker tournaments, but rather to share with you the way I run tournaments that I have found to be the most efficient and fun over the years. I frequently get questions from customers asking how I recommend setting up tournaments, and this guide will tell you what we have found to work well.

Obviously I use the Poker Tournament Manager program to run my tournaments, so references to Poker Tournament Manager Deluxe version will be found throughout this guide. Please read on and I welcome feedback!

Follow the 10 step guide to setting up and running a poker tournament:

1. Basics
2. Buyin/Rebuys
3. Chips
4. Blinds
5. Payouts
6. Rules/Messages
7. Get Supplies
8. Setup Tables
9. Run the Tourney!
10. Share Results

Did you catch a bad beat and were eliminated in a live poker tournament? Do you still have the urge to play some more? Logon to your favorite online poker room and try again. Just make sure that you download a poker calculator that can handle the poker odds and pot odds for you. This way you'll know that you didn't make any mathematically incorrect decisions. The online poker room doesn't really give you enough time to calculate the poker odds, but that won't be a problem with an auto-reading poker odds calculator by your side.