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Win the Poker Chips -- Win a Multi-Table Tournament
Poker rooms often hold different types of tournaments. A tournament is where poker players get to play against each other. One of the larger and most attended poker tournaments are multi-table tournaments.
Seat at a multi-table tournament has to be purchased. There is a buy-in that a player has to pay in order to play poker. In exchange for the buy-in, a player is given chips valued at certain amount. Chips are the currency of the tournament.
The player must also pay an entry fee to the hosting poker room.
The player may then play poker in any of the several tables that will be occupied during a tournament. The number of tables may run to as many as a hundred or more depending on the number of participants.
To retain one's seat in a multi-table tournament, a player's chip count must never equal to zero. Once a player's chips are gone, the player is dropped from the tournament and has to leave one's table.
As tables thin out in time, players are re-seated at various tables to either keep a table occupied in full, or to keep a balanced number of players in all tables.
The re-arranging of remaining players around tables is done until only one table remains. Here, the last few remaining players battle to keep oneself from being eliminated. The tournament proceeds until every player but one is dropped from the game.
Prizes for multi-table tournaments are generally sourced from the entrants' buy-ins. Prizes may be fixed or may be proportional.
Fixed prizes are independent of the number of buy-ins. For instance, if first prize is a thousand dollars in a $200+20 multi-table tournament, this figure doesn't change regardless of whether the sum of all buy-ins would enough to cover the promised prize money or exceed the prize money.
When prizes are proportional, they are dependent on the number of buy-ins to the tournament. The more entrants there are, the higher the size of the prize. In short, the prize is not fixed. If there are 20 entrants to a $200+20 multi-table tournament, the prize that will be spread in various proportions among top ranked players will be $8,000. If there are only 10 entrants, the prize to be proportioned will only be $2,000.
To play poker in a multi-table tournament, one pays the buy-in plus the entry fee. To remain seated in a table, a player must never run one's chip stacks dry. When other players are eliminated, one gets to be re-seated in other tables. This is done to balance the number of players in every table as players are slowly eliminated from every table. This is the pattern observed by a multi-table tournament. Re-settlement of players in tables only stops when there is one table left. And where one player stays uneliminated at that final table, there rests a multi-table tournament.