hello welcome to pokar learn I'm spraggy and after watching this video you'll know exactly what to look for when playing a pokker tournament so what is a tournament put simply it's a poker game with a very clear beginning middle and end it's a competition where you aim to become the last player standing a bit like a battle royale video game you'll pay an entry fee and receive a certain number of chips which have no direct cash value they're basically just used to keep score you keep playing until you either lose your chips in which in case you're out of the game or you have all of the chips in which case you're the winner but in most tournaments you don't have to be the champion to make money the prize poll is traditionally shared amongst the top 10 to 15% of finishers and the higher you finish the more money you make as the game progresses the blinds go up forcing you to play hands it's important to be aware of your stack size the number of chips you have and how that translates to the number of big blinds you're playing for example let's say you start a tournament with 20,000 chips and the big blind is 100 you have 200 big blinds that's a very healthy stack in fact anytime you have more than 50 big blinds you're in a comfortable position in a tournament you can calculate how many blinds you have at any point by dividing your stack by the value of the big blind when the big blind is600 and you don't know your 1600 times tables you might need to whip the calculator out obviously as the blinds increase the number of big blinds you have will decrease and this can put your tournament life at risk for example if the blinds are 400 800 and you still have 20,000 chips you no longer have 200 big blinds you now have only 25 big blinds not so healthy not so comfortable and then there's the anti to worry about antis are additional Force bets in poker tournaments usually introduced after the first few blind levels they put pressure on the shter stacks increase the size of the pot and drive action online each player pays the anti before any cards are dealt most live tournaments now use a big blind anti where the player in the big blind pays a large ante on behalf of the rest of the table this is just designed to speed up play the antes and the blinds go up at regular intervals look at the structure of the tournament to find out how frequently they're increasing online blind levels can be anywhere from 3 minutes to 30 minutes live poker plays slower so blind levels are likely to be longer anything from 20 minutes to 2 hours if we look at online poker specifically the three main tournament speed types are regular turbo and Hyper Turbo regular tournaments have blind levels that increase every 8 to 15 minutes with a starting stack of between 50 and 400 big blinds these tournaments can last anywhere between 3 and 8 hours in Turbo tournaments the blind levels increase more frequently every 5 or 6 minutes and the starting stack is 50 to 200 big blinds these tournaments normally last between 1 and 1/2 and 4 and 1/2 hours then there are the hypert turbos expect 3 minute blind levels a starting stck of between 20 and 200 big blinds and a run time of about an hour to 2 and 1 half hours it's easy to find the tournament you're looking for on Poké Stars head to the toury section and use the drop- down menus for example if you want to play a No Limit holder low buy regular speed tournament just apply those filters if you double click on a tournament the lobby window will pop up there's so much useful information including the structure where you'll see the starting stack the blind levels and how frequently they increase let's talk a little bit of strategy now in regular tournaments with longer blind levels you'll have more time to wait for big hands this also gives you more time to observe how your opponents are playing and build up a stack slowly without taking big risks in Turbo tournaments the blinds increase faster you can't be as patient you'll need to take a few more risks in hyper turbos you can't wait around with 3 minute blind levels it won't be long until you're hovering around 10 big blinds and have a simple decision fold or move all in let's put this knowledge into practice you're in a turbo tournament with 11 big blinds you've been dealt King ten off suit on the button the actions been folded to you what's the best move fold call the big blind make a small raise or move all in the correct answer is move all in if we fold and the blinds increase again our stacked dwindles further and a better opportunity may not come along if we just call or make a small raise one of the players in the blinds could re ra all in now we have the choice of calling risking our tournament life life or folding leaving us with an even shorter stack moving all in gives us the best chance of forcing the players in the blinds to fold and we pick up the blinds and anes if they call we could be eliminated but we could also double up I found myself in a similar situation where all I wanted to do was steal those blinds and anties very good hand for us here blindly blind oh it's time your bluff we got seven bigs and 87 Su rolling blind vers blind of course hold that's a great flop I got to tell you that's a great little double up all right back in the game it's important to highlight that you don't have to join at the very start of a tournament late registration is nearly always an option for a limited period it's possible to late reg meaning you can enter during the first few blind levels some players like me like to Reg to late they may consider the first few blind levels to be inconsequential dare I say boring or want to face fewer competitors as some players will have already been eliminated but there are negatives attached to this approach you won't start the tournament with as many big blinds for example if the starting stack is 10,000 chips and you join a few levels in when the big blind is already 500 you'll have just 20 big blinds you're going to be below average stack in fact you'll be starting as a short stack you'll also have no idea how the rest of the table is playing for example who's just suffered a bad beat or who's only been showing down strong hands so if you're new to tournaments it might be worth playing from the very start finally many tournaments give you the option to Reby or re-enter if you're eliminated during the first few levels again this is only available for a limited amount of time normally when late registration closes a tournament becomes a Frieza that means once you're knocked out you're out all right I've been spraggy this has been a beginner's guide to tournaments don't forget to like the video subscribe for more poker videos and thank you for watching