Running a Poker Tournament — FAQ
Answers to the questions card-room operators and home-game hosts ask most often when setting up tournaments. Software choices, structure tuning, payout math, and a few legal pointers. Not legal advice — when in doubt about commercial-gambling rules, consult a local attorney.
What software should I use to run a poker tournament?
The two long-standing options are TournamentDirector (Mac/Windows desktop app, around $79 one-time) and BlindValet (web-based, free with paid tiers). Marquee Poker is the newer entrant — TV-agnostic phone-controls-TV approach with a generous free tier (one active tournament) and Pro at $9.99/mo for multi-tournament + multi-display use. For a single weekly home game, BlindValet's free tier or Marquee Poker's free tier both work fine. For card rooms running multiple events with leagues and seasons, the paid tiers of any of the three handle it.
What starting stack should I give players?
10,000 chips is the standard for most home games and weekly card-room tournaments. 20,000–30,000 for deepstack events where you want more play. 50,000+ for championship main events. The key metric isn't the absolute chip count but the ratio of chips to starting big blind — aim for at least 100 starting big blinds (e.g., 10,000 stack with 25/50 starting blinds = 200bb, deep enough for skill to matter). Use a chip allocation calculator to figure out how many chips of each color each starting stack needs.
How long should blind levels be?
15 minutes for turbo tournaments, 20 minutes is the standard, 30+ minutes for deepstack championships. Longer levels = more decisions per level = more skill expression. Shorter levels = more variance, more all-ins, faster tournament. Most home games run 15–20 minute levels; weekly card-room tournaments run 20–25 minutes; multi-day events use 40–60 minute levels. The blind structure generator picks the right number of levels for your target tournament length.
How do I calculate the prize pool?
Total prize pool = (Entries × Buy-in) + (Rebuys × Rebuy cost) + (Add-ons × Add-on cost) − (Total × Rake per entry) − (Entries × Bounty). Subtract the rake (the house's cut) and bounties (the per-elimination amount that goes to the player who knocks someone out, not into the prize pool). If you set a guarantee, the house covers any shortfall (the 'overlay'). Easier to just use the prize pool calculator.
How many positions should I pay?
Top 10% of the field is the most common rule. So 30 entries = top 3, 50 entries = top 5, 100 entries = top 10. Deepstack events sometimes pay top 15%. Small fields under 50 entries often pay just the final table (top 9). The percentage split between positions follows a power-law curve — 1st place typically gets 30–35%, 2nd around 20%, 3rd around 14%, with each subsequent position getting roughly 60% of the previous one.
Are home-game tournaments legal?
Legality varies by state. Most US states allow social poker games where no one profits beyond their winnings (no rake, no admission fee that exceeds costs, no commercial element). Some states (CA, FL, IN, KY, MN, NY, PA) have explicit social-poker carveouts; others (UT, HI) ban all gambling including home games. Charging rake or running tournaments for profit moves into commercial gambling territory and requires licensing. When in doubt, consult a local attorney — this is not legal advice.
What's the difference between a freezeout, re-entry, and rebuy tournament?
Freezeout: one buy-in, busted = out. Re-entry: when you bust during a specified period (often through level 6 or until the first break), you can pay another buy-in for a fresh starting stack and rejoin. Rebuy: when you fall below the starting stack threshold, you can buy more chips without losing your seat. Most modern tournaments use re-entry rather than rebuy — re-entry feels more fair (rebuy lets short stacks 'top up' indefinitely) and is easier to track.
How do bounty tournaments work?
Each player has a dollar amount 'on their head' that goes to whoever eliminates them. Three variants: Standard (full bounty to the eliminator), Progressive / PKO (half goes to the eliminator immediately, half adds to their own head — so big stacks become valuable targets), and Mystery (a random envelope is drawn from a pre-defined pool on each knockout, used by the WSOP Main Event). The bounty pool is funded by part of each buy-in — typically $20 of a $100 buy-in goes to bounties, $80 to the prize pool.
Do I need a TV display for tournaments?
Not strictly — players can follow the clock on a laptop or phone. But for any tournament with more than ~8 players, a TV display that shows the clock, blinds, payouts, and player count from across the room is dramatically better. Players don't have to walk over to check; everyone sees blind changes simultaneously; the operator can run announcements through it. Marquee Poker is built TV-agnostic — display.html runs in any browser on any HDMI-connected screen, no Chromecast or Apple TV required.
When should I 'chip up' during a tournament?
Chip-up means collecting the smallest-denomination chips at a designated break and exchanging them for larger denominations. Most tournaments chip up the smallest denomination twice during a long event — once when the smallest chip is no longer needed for blind payments or change-making, and again later when the second-smallest becomes redundant. Schedule chip-ups during break levels so they don't interrupt play. As a rule of thumb: chip up when 10× the smallest chip exceeds the small blind.
How do I handle late registration and re-entries?
Late registration is the window during which new players can buy in to a tournament that's already started. Standard practice is to allow late reg through the end of level 4 or 5 in a typical structure (roughly the first 60-100 minutes of play). After that, new entries would join with too few chips relative to the blinds and the play becomes weird. Re-entries are different — a player who's already busted can buy in again for a fresh stack, also subject to a cutoff (usually the same as late reg). Communicate the cutoff clearly at registration AND announce a 10-minute warning before it closes. Software like Marquee Poker closes late reg automatically based on the level you configure, displays a countdown on the TV, and warns operators if they try to add a player after the cutoff.
How do I manage table balancing as players bust out?
As players bust, your tables become uneven. Once one table has 2+ more (or fewer) players than another, move the player who's been at their seat the longest from the heaviest table to the lightest open seat. Most operators move the small-blind position to avoid disrupting that hand's blind progression. When the field shrinks to fit on one table (typically 9 or 10 players), break the remaining secondary table and consolidate everyone at the final table — usually called a "redraw" with fresh random seats. Tournament software automates all of this: Marquee Poker's auto-balancer suggests seat moves as soon as a table is +2 over the lightest, flags the bubble + final table thresholds, and handles seat locks for sponsored / VIP players.
What should I do when there's a chip count dispute?
Chip count disputes are rare but inevitable in long events. Three rules: (1) The tournament director's count is the final word — settle disputes before the hand continues. (2) Always count chips in stacks of 20 or 25 (whatever your largest chip is divisible by) so disputes are easy to verify. (3) Players are responsible for protecting their own chips — a folded hand can't be reconstructed from accidentally mucked cards. For high-stakes events, take a chip count at every major break (or when the field shrinks below ~20% of starting field) and record it. Marquee Poker's Set Chip Counts modal makes this easy: enter every player's count at a break, see the running total + variance vs. the expected pool, surface anomalies before they become disputes.
How do I deal with collusion or angle-shooting at a home game?
For home games and small card rooms, prevention beats enforcement. Set clear house rules before the game starts: (1) no soft-play between friends ("checking it down" against a third player), (2) one player per hand (no coaching from busted players watching over a shoulder), (3) declare deal-making at the final table publicly, never sidebar. If you suspect collusion, the right move is private conversation between hands — not a public accusation. Two-time offenders don't get invited back. For card rooms, you have the additional weapon of refusing service. Maintain a notes field on each player profile (every roster row in Marquee Poker has one) so floor managers can see history when a name is flagged. Document specific behavior, not vibes — "raised river with 7-high after partner check-raised" is actionable; "felt off" isn't.
How do I get more players to my tournament?
Three things move the needle, in order of impact: (1) Consistency. A weekly tournament at the same day/time/stakes builds an audience that returns every week. One-offs draw friends; recurring events draw regulars. (2) Discoverability. If you're a public card room, list your tournaments on directories like Marquee Poker's free directory, PokerAtlas, BravoPokerLive — any player searching "poker tournament near me" should find your event. (3) Player-facing details. A clear write-up of the structure (starting stack, level duration, late reg cutoff, payout structure, food/drink, parking) sets expectations + filters out players who'd be unhappy at your event. Both your phone display and your TV display should make today's tournament information visible without a player asking. The first 3-5 events are slow; the curve compounds if you don't quit.
Want to skip all this math?
Marquee Poker handles every question above automatically — picks reasonable structure defaults from your tournament profile, computes payouts live as players register, manages chip-up announcements via the TV display, and keeps everything in sync across multiple operators. Free tier covers one active tournament; Pro at $9.99/mo for multi-tournament use.
See Marquee Poker