Poker tournament guides

Practical guides for anyone running live poker tournaments, at home or at the club.

• How to run a live poker tournamentFrom choosing the format to paying the winners: the steps for a tournament that runs smoothly, at home or at the club.
• Blind structure for a poker tournamentLevel length, blind increases, antes and breaks: how to build a balanced structure, with a ready-made example.
• How to split the prize pool of a poker tournamentHow many places to pay, which percentages and what to take off first: payouts explained with an example.
• ICM deal: how to split the prizes at the final tableWhen the remaining players want to end the tournament by splitting the prizes, ICM tells you what each stack is really worth.
• The blind timer for your poker tournamentThe blind timer tells every table how long until the next increase. Here is what it should do and what it should show.