tournament buy-ins what do they mean?

so i pretty much only play full ring and i have only recently started doing that. i have been looking at the different tournys just seeing how the payouts are and whatnot. but i was curious if the tourny is

" $2 + $0.25 " what does that mean? i know the $2 is the buyin but whats the .25?

the 2ND part is the house cut basically, its like the rake in a ring game, it is the money that goes to the host of the tourney

yeah basically you pay $2.25, $2 goes into the prizepool and $.25 is taken by the house as rake.

yep. straight to the house.. and imagine what those numbers are grossing a day?! with rake and like you say additional tournament fees im guessing big sites like full tilt and pokerstars are taking in hundereds of thousands a day...Multi-billion dollar companies.....stealin all our cheese~

they also have many different structures , get to know those before you join , turbo , super turbo , limit , NL , etc . etc .
you have Multi-table tourneys that can have as many people as wants to join and Sit -N - Go's that have a set number 6, 9 , 18 , etc. etc.

with the "rake" being $0.25, you will also recieve points for every $ that the house gets. Points vary from site to site so you may want to check your sites "Terms and Agreements". Points can be used for buyins into Tourneys, converting Bonus's into Cash or buying promotional gear.

yep thats the rake baby...

but to the post above...how does the points pay out actually work?

I was wondering about that.....

Like for a how many points do you receive for each level of buy in???

Exactly how many points you get for what depends on the site, but they're usually directly linked to the amount of rake you pay.

Full Tilt, for example, gives you 7 player points for ever $1 you pay in tournament rake. So you'd get 1.75 points for playing a $2+0.25 tournament, or 14 for playing a $20+2 tournament.

Reference: Online Poker at Full Tilt Poker - Real Money: Full Tilt Points

So it's like the sunshine that shines down upon you from the sky that makes all things possible. ITS THE BUY IN TO THE HOUSE!!!. They gotta make their money somehow :-)

The 25 cents goes to the poker site - how come u think they are soo rich!

they are so rich from the rake off the tables not the tourneys.

i monitor FT limit tables from .25/.50 full and 6 max and the .50/1 in the last 60 days they have made a touch over $75,000 just from those tables. i use the info for my PT but the rake info is kinda interesting.

Guess they have to make some money to make it all worth it.

i would not be surprised at all if pokerstars made more than a million a day from rake.

everybody told you what the buyins are, but look for the Guaranteed Tourneys, it will say $ 2,000 Guarantee, that means the prize pool is at least $2,000,, thats what i look for, they have them from $1. to $1,000 and above, theres a good one at Bodog everyday at 11am. EST, $2,000 guarantee and you start with 5,000 chips, it costs $12. to get in,pays 63 places and theres usually about 150 players,, they run everyday,,,gl,,,buck

i guess the house gets about 20 percent but id like too know why it seems they must make a killing at these sites is this the same at casinos also

Yes and no.

"Standard" rake online is actually more like 10%. The reason it seems inflated based on these figures is that a lot of sites bump it up for the very lowest stakes. Full Tilt charges 25% on a $1 SnG, for example. Play a $10 game, however, and you should only be paying $1 in rake.

Live casinos work on pretty much the same basis. Tournaments will include an entry fee, depending on the casino these can be pretty high and they're typically higher than online*. From memory, casino tournaments I've played in here (Melbourne Australia) have charged $50+$15, $200+$30, $150+$25. So 15-30% and again, they charge more at lower stakes.

Cash games work by either:

1 - Charging time (everyone pays a certain amount per hour to play in the game - some places just take it on the hour, others use a "collection pot" system, as seen on Live at the Bike)

2 - Raking the pot, same as online

Of course, some places do both. My local casino charges $5/hr at $2/$3NL and rakes the pot.


* Makes some sort of sense, I guess - online sites don't need to pay anywhere near as much in rent and staff, nor do they need to buy actual cards, tables or chips.