The Poker Blinds

There are two types of blinds: small blind and big blind. These are essentially forced bets that ensure there is a starting pot. The value of the small blind is half of the big blind. Blind values go up periodically in tournaments, at a predetermined level and time delay.

Tournament Blind Structure

During a tournament the blinds will increase incrementally. Eventually, they get very expensive and force players to be more aggressive. It also ensures that a tournament doesn't go on forever because a player that doesn't play and folds every single hand will find himself out of chips as the blinds go up.

Tournament Buy-In

This is the amount required to enter a tournament. It is normally broken down by the contribution to the prize pool plus the house fee (per player). So in a $10+$1 tournament, $10 will go towards the prize pool and $1 will be paid to the poker room for arranging and hosting the tournament.

Common Abbreviations Used in Poker Games

1. NL - The game is “No Limit”
2. L - The Game is “limit”
3. PL - The Game is “pot limit”

So when the lobby shows NLHE, this means no limit Hold'em. When it shows PLOM, it means pot limit Omaha.

Final Table in Poker Tournaments

In a multi-table tournament, when enough players have been eliminated and the remaining players can all sit at the same table, it is called the final table. This is where the battle for the top prizes takes place.

Hand by Hand

When you have multiple tables in a tournament, 'hand by hand' play means that a new hand at a table will not be played until all tables finish the current hand. In other words, every table plays hand #1, and then waits for every other table to finish the hand before being allowed to play hand #2, and so on. This ensures that all tables are playing at the same pace, and while this is fair, it's also much slower. A lot of poker rooms will not play hand by hand, but some will force all tables to wait for everyone else to finish when blinds go up. At least this way, everyone starts playing the new blind level at the same time.

Heads Up Poker Tournament

A Heads Up tournament is played between just two people.They each play a buy-in and start with the same ammount of chips. There are blinds that go up over time. It works the same way as a regular tournament, except there's only two contenders. It's a winnar takes all event.

House Fee or Rake

Otehr than freeroll tournamnets, where there are no fees to register and play, a tournaments fee is taken to host the event. The amount taken as a fee is always clearly shown in the buy-in. A $10+$1 tournament has a $1 house fee. Another term for this is “the rake”. In non tournament play, the rake fee occurs on every hand played. The poker room takes a small percentage of each pot on every hand that is played. Many rooms now offer a no flop no rake policy so be on the lookout for those. Essentially, if someone manages to make everyone else fold preflop, he or she takes the entire pot without paying the rake.

Multi-table Poker Tournament

Any tournament in which more than one table is required. This is because of the total number of registered players exceeds the capacity of oen table. (you can't play with 50 people on the same table).

Player Points or Player Rewards

Pretty much all poker rooms has its own way of naming these points, but they are essentially all the same. They are rewards given to you in the form of points and this is based on a percentage of how much you are spending in the poker room. The points accumulated can then be exchange for free tournament entries, for merchandize, converted to real cash, etc. Each poker room offers its own unique programs which determine how you earn points and how you can spend them.

Poker Prize Pool

The prize pool makes up the tournament prizes that can be won. The prize pool consists of the buy-ins (minus the house fee) for all players plus anything else that maybe added by the house such as cash and tickets to other events. Sometimes, prize pools can include trips, cars, electronics or other products.

Poker Re-buy

Some tournaments allow players the option to buy more chips during a preliminary time period. These are called re-buy tournaments. Purchasing the additional chips is called re-buying. Sometimes the purchase of the extra chips is called an add-on. You can normally only rebuy once you've ran out of you initial starting chips, and the ammount of chips that you can rebuy is usually predefined.

Re-buy Period

The allowed timeframe to make a re-buy. Sometimes, the re-buy option is only available up to a certain blind level so you must make your purchase prior to reaching that level.

Registration

To play in any tournament you must first register for it. Registration for a scheduled tournament is typically available one hour before its scheduled start time, although that varies from one poker room to another, and sometimes from the type of tournament. For some special events, poker rooms will allow players to register days in advance. When you register to a poker tournamanet, your buy-in is held to reserve you a seat. You can always unregister prior to the registration period being over, and when you do you will be refunded your buy-in.

Short Handed Poker

This refers to a game ro situation in which less than ten players are sitting at the poker table. Usually in a short handed games and tournamanets sit six players. You can also be in a regular 10 player per table tournament, but have many players eliminated at the same time. This can result in a temporary short handed situation where you play a few hands against fewer opponents than normal, untill the vacant seats are filled up again.

Single Table Tournament

Any tournament in which only one table is used. Usually this means a game where you have only 10 player or less.

Starting Stack

This is the amount of chips that each player is given when they begin a tournament. Everyone starts with equal amount of chips. It only takes a few hands for that balance to shift however!

Tournament Lobby

This is the place where you can find information on the tournamanet itself. It incldudes the number of players, their position and location, the number of tables, the blinds and other related info

Tournament Ticket

A tournament ticket will get you into a tournament without the need for a cash buy-in. Tournament tickets are sometimes awarded as parts of promotions or as prizes in qualifier tournaments. Normally, you can also purchase certain tournament tickets with your player Points.

For a complete list of poker terms, please check out this PDF of poker terms, courtesy of my friends at Party Poker.

Now that you're comfortable with the terminology used by online poker rooms, try out one of our sponsored online poker rooms today!

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