Texas Hold'em Poker Tournaments

The Rules in Short

• The deal: every player gets two hole cards. Two players post the small and the big blind, and in tournaments often an ante.
• Four betting rounds: before the flop, then after the flop (three community cards), the turn (the fourth) and the river (the fifth).
• The hand: players make the best five-card hand from any combination of their two cards and the five on the board.
• The showdown: if more than one player is left after the river, the best hand wins the pot.

No-Limit, Pot-Limit and Fixed-Limit

The betting limit changes the game more than anything else. In no-limit hold'em (NLH) a player can bet all their chips at any time, which is why it is the tournament standard. Pot-limit caps a bet at the size of the pot, and fixed-limit allows only set bet sizes; both are rare in tournaments and appear mostly in mixed games.

Hold'em Tournaments in Asia

Hold'em is the backbone of every festival schedule: the Main Event, most side events and nearly all satellites. Formats such as turbo, bounty, high roller or six-max are variations of a hold'em tournament. The lists on this page come from our festival database.