A useful starting point.
Formats, short stacks, ICM, registration and live-event preparation.
Start with a question
- Prepare for a first live tournament
- Read the structure and total cost
- Study how prizes change chip decisions
All 11 guides on this topic
- Understand the tournament context
- Know which tournament you are watching
- Short stacks beyond the chart
- Chips, prizes and ICM
- Your first live tournament, without the guesswork.
- Read the structure before choosing the tournament.
- Registration, re-entry and the cost of another attempt.
- From the first seat to the end of the day.
- Read the preflop chart before trusting the colors.
- Keep a hand note you can actually review.
- Poker rules and fair play: find the right authority.
Selected outside sources
ICM basics
An introduction to tournament prize equity, risk premiums, and the independent chip model's limitations.
Before you use it: A model explanation is not a verified answer to an incompletely recorded hand.
Satellite strategy: equal-prize tournament decisions
Compare ordinary tournament incentives with equal-seat satellites using explicit stack and payout examples.
Before you use it: Covers multi-seat satellites, not winner-take-all or target-stack formats. Examples are model-dependent; follow event timing rules.
Poker TDA rules and procedures
Tournament rules, recommended procedures, and examples from the association that publishes them.
Before you use it: Directly read the official 2026 rules, version 1.0 dated September 7, 2026, including procedures and the addendum. TDA rules supplement house rules; applicable agency rules take precedence.