Texas holdem tournaments are a different animal. Here, every pays an entrance fee, then gets a number of chips (which dont correspond to money in the way they do in ring games). For instance, a buy-in for a texas holdem tournament may be only $50, but a player might get $5,000 in chips. This is because texas holdem tournaments are decided by when players go out, or lose their stack.

The last person standing wins the texas holdem tournament grand prize, which is not equal to the money he has in chips, but a portion of the pool funded by the buy-in. Thus a winning player might end up with $4 million worth of chips, but only win a first-place prize of $40,000. Places in hold em tournaments are decided by the order in which players lose their stack. The last player to lose her stack, for instance, finishes second, and often wins a big prize (lets say $10,000, for the sake of argument). The player who went out before her finishes third, and so on. In big texas holdem tournaments like the main event of the WSOP, tournament payouts may go hundreds of players deep. (The man who finishes 162nd might win $500, for instance.)

Obviously, because players are playing to stay in, tournament games are a bit different than casino or online ring games. First, to discourage overly tight play, the blinds are increased at intervals, to hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Whats more, here there is no refreshing your stack with the cashier. This leads players to be more careful, but, as the only way to eliminate other players (and keep the blinds from killing you) is to take their stack, it also leads to dramatic all-in moves.

Many texas holdem tournament participants thrive on this kind of action--they often bet wildly (all they have to lose in their tournament fee--the thousands of dollars of chips in front of them mean nothing). These aggressive players must be approached carefully--on some hands they will be holding good cards, or even the nuts. One of the best ways to win in tournament hold em, especially for players just starting out, is to take careful aim at these aggressive players, setting them up with a semi-bluff here or there, then capitalizing on big pocket hands. Separating over-betting players from their stack is one of the best ways to build up your stack for the later rounds of a tournament, where youll meet up with some truly skillful opponents.

As texas holdem tournament play continues, the number of tables (which may be in the hundreds) is slowly reduced over the course of a day or days, until there is only one table left. Action at the final table is magnified, amplified, and intense. Just to reach it is an honor and a big success. Remember, only one person will walk away a winner, but generally everyone at the table will walk away with a nice monetary prize.