Lesson overview
Cash Games and Tournament Basics
Know what your chips mean before you sit down
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Inside the full lesson
Does doubling your chip stack mean doubling your money?
In the full lesson, you work through this scenario with interactive examples.
Cash chips have a money value. Tournament chips keep you competing for prizes. Compare the two formats before choosing a seat.
What you’ll learn
- Distinguish cash value from tournament chips
- Convert stacks to big blinds and identify effective depth
- Read entry fees, re-entry rules, blind levels and payouts
From the full lesson
Measure depth in big blinds
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Stack ÷ current big blind = depth in bb. A $200 stack at $1/$2 is 100bb. A 12,000 tournament stack is 60bb at 100/200, but only 30bb after the big blind rises to 400. Antes add to the cost of an orbit; they are not the divisor.
Heads-up effective depth uses the smaller starting stack. With 150bb against 45bb, each player can match at most 45bb. Multiway hands can have different effective amounts against different opponents, creating side pots.
From the full lesson
Reference: entries, fees and the event clock
Referenced activities and other examples are available in the full lesson after sign-in.
A $110 tournament entry might put $100 into the prize pool and $10 toward fees. A 20,000-chip starting stack has no fixed cash redemption value during play. Prizes depend on the published payouts and finishing position. Only the specified places are paid, with larger prizes usually concentrated at the top.
Losing all your chips normally ends that entry. A freezeout allows no re-entry. A re-entry event may let you pay for a new entry before registration closes. Rebuys add chips to the same entry during a specified period; an add-on is a separate optional chip purchase under the event's terms.
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