Beginners Tournaments
Introduction
As you get more experienced player in online poker or at regular poker tables there’ll come a time when you fancy trying your hand at a tournament. The problem with tournaments is that we’re all so used to seeing and reading about the big tournaments worth hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars – that finding one we can actually afford to compete in can be quite a challenge.
That first tournament buy-in
Going to your first poker tournament you might fancy some comapny?
How much you want to spend on that first poker tournament buy-in is, of course, a matter of personal preference. However, the higher the buy-in the more experienced most of the players there are likely to be. You’re just starting out on the tournament trail so, like most things in life, don’t try to run before you can walk. Look for a local tournament with buy-ins around the $1000 to $1500 mark. How local you choose to go is again a matter of personal choice, for some players that could be in their county/state or it just could mean in their own country. One thing to remember here is that if you choose a tournament a long way from home you’ll need to add travel and accommodation costs into your overall expenditure for the tournament, not to mention taking someone with you, meaning your buy-in could easily end up being just half of the total outlay!
Online tournament entries
One way to keep the cost of entering a poker tournament down is, of course, to enter it via one of the many online poker competitions. Getting a free roll of winning one of the numerous and relatively cheap online satellites is a great way to get into your first casino/poker room tournament. Even better, if you’ve won your place through an online poker satellite then you’ve the bonus of having added confidence from your online winning position.