Atlassino Academy · Poker in the room · Lesson 11 of 13
Tournaments: buy-in, structure and M
A tournament buy-in is split before the first card: part to the prize pool, part to the room. Here is how to read that split, the structure, and M, the orbits your stack covers.
A poker tournament costs $100 to enter. How much of that money ends up in the prize pool?
The short answer
Never all of it. The buy-in, the money you pay to enter, is split before the first card: at the Monday tournament of Casino du Lac-Leamy and at the tournament of the same price at Casino de Montréal, $78 of $100 goes to the prize pool, the money paid back out to the players who finish in the paying places, and the rest goes to the room and to a jackpot line. After that, a tournament is a clock: the blinds, the two bets forced before each hand’s cards, rise at every level, and M, your stack divided by what one orbit costs, counts how many orbits the stack covers without playing a hand. An orbit is one full trip of the dealer’s button, the marker that moves one seat each hand, round the table.
One buy-in split three ways: the largest part to the prize pool, a smaller part to the room as its fee, and the smallest part to a jackpot line.
- $78The prize pool.paid back out to the players who finish in the paying places.
- $20The room’s fee.kept by the room, once, at entry.
- $2A jackpot line.a line of its own, outside this course.
The split printed by Casino du Lac-Leamy for its Monday tournament and by Casino de Montréal for its tournament of the same price, as we read their pages. Amounts are in Canadian dollars.
Leoformer dealer · rules and maths
When I dealt tournaments, the first line I read on a tournament sheet was never the prize. The first line I read was the one that splits the buy-in, because that line says how much of the money in the room ever comes back to the players.
The second thing I watched was the level clock. The blinds go up on the clock whether anybody plays a hand or not, and a stack that looked deep at the start can be short a few levels later without losing a single pot.
Where the buy-in goes
In a tournament the players play against one another, not against the house, and the room is paid by the fee: its share of each buy-in, taken once, at entry. In a cash game the room takes its share out of the pots instead, and that share, the rake, is worked out in lesson 7.10. What reaches the prize pool is the buy-in with the fee and any other lines taken out.
| The buy-in | Total | To the prize pool | The room’s fee | Other lines | To the prize pool, of every $100 entered |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Casino du Lac-LeamyMonday re-entry tournament, on the room’s current page | $100 | $78 | $20 | $2 jackpot line | $78 |
| Casino de Montréalthe tournament at this price, on the room’s current page | $100 | $78 | $20 | $2 jackpot line | $78 |
| Casino du Lac-LeamyDeep Stack Turbo Tuesday, on the room’s current page | $120 | $94 | $24 | $2 jackpot line | $78.33 |
| Casino NiagaraWednesday tournament; the two parts are printed without names | $300 | $255 | $45 | none printed | $85 |
| Casino du Lac-Leamytournament in the rules dated 22 Aug 2019, not on the current schedule | $75 | $53 | $15 | $2 jackpot line, $5 named dealer tips | $70.67 |
Casino Niagara prints its buy-in as one amount followed by two amounts without names; we read the larger amount as the prize pool and the smaller amount as the fee. The row for the tournament in Casino du Lac-Leamy’s rules dated 22 Aug 2019 shows the split those rules set, including a line the rules name dealer tips; that tournament is not on the room’s current schedule.
Add the entries up and the arithmetic of the room shows. Take an example tournament of 30 entries at the Monday split: whoever finishes where, the prizes add up to the prize pool and nothing more, so the players as a whole come out behind in prizes by the fees and the jackpot lines; the jackpot itself is outside this course.
- Paid in by 30 entries.$3,000
- Paid back out as prizes.$2,340
- Not paid back as prizes: fees and jackpot lines.$660
An example field, not a forecast of any evening: before any re-entry or add-on, the money paid back as prizes is always the money paid in minus the fees and the jackpot lines.
Rooms word the split in their own way. Elements Casino Brantford says its prize pool is made of all valid tournament buy-ins, and its re-entry is a full entry with an administration fee as well; Casino Regina announces its registration fee per event with the date the fee took effect. Ask at the counter how much of the money you hand over reaches the prize pool before you register.
Chips, levels and the extra bet
For the buy-in you get a starting stack of tournament chips, and the blinds rise at fixed steps called levels. Casino du Lac-Leamy prints the starting stack of its Monday tournament and how long a level lasts, and Casino de Montréal prints how long a level lasts too; neither page prints the blinds of its levels, and Casino du Lac-Leamy says the full conditions of its current tournaments are at the poker room counter.
| The detail | Casino du Lac-Leamy, Monday, current page | Casino du Lac-Leamy, rules dated 22 Aug 2019 |
|---|---|---|
| The starting stack | Printed | Printed |
| How long a level lasts | Printed | Printed |
| The blinds at each level | Not printed | In an appendix not reprinted here |
Under Casino du Lac-Leamy’s rules dated 22 Aug 2019, a starting stack was tournament chips that cannot be cashed, the levels came at a fixed interval and the breaks were announced at the start of the tournament. What tournament chips are worth in money is lesson 7.12.
Some tournaments add an ante: an extra bet that goes into the pot before the cards, in addition to the blinds. Under the same rules dated 22 Aug 2019, the two players to the left of the button pay the small blind and the big blind, and a required additional bet equal to the big blind goes in as well, rising when the big blind rises. Today Elements Casino Brantford and Casino Regina both run their tournaments with a big blind ante. As we read the name, one player, the one in the big blind, puts in a single ante for the whole table each hand, instead of every player putting in a small one; neither page spells that out, and how a hand is dealt and who posts the blinds is lesson 7.2.
M: how many orbits your stack covers
M is your stack divided by what one orbit costs: the small blind, plus the big blind, plus the ante. Over one orbit every player pays each blind once and, at a big blind ante table, the ante once, so M counts how many full orbits the stack could pay for if you played no hand at all. Where every player puts in an ante each hand instead, the ante in M is all the antes of one hand. A reference work describes volume 2 of Harrington on Hold ’em as introducing the M-ratio; the formula on this page is our own arithmetic.
Your stack divided by what one orbit costs, the small blind plus the big blind plus the ante, makes M.
M can carry a fraction, and the full orbits are M rounded down. At blinds of 75 and 150 with no ante, the same stack gives an M of 44.4, which pays for 44 full orbits.
Keep the same stack and let the levels rise, and M falls even though not a single chip has been lost.
- Level 1 · 25/50M 133.3
- Level 2 · 50/100M 66.7
- Level 3 · 75/150M 44.4
- Level 4 · 100/200 + ante 200M 20
- Level 5 · 150/300 + ante 300M 13.3
- Level 6 · 200/400 + ante 400M 10
- Level 7 · 300/600 + ante 600M 6.7
- Level 8 · 400/800 + ante 800M 5
- Level 9 · 500/1,000 + ante 1,000M 4
- Level 10 · 600/1,200 + ante 1,200M 3.3
An example structure, not any room’s: the same stack of 10,000 tournament chips met at each level. At the first level with an ante, the cost of an orbit jumps.
No Canadian document we could read prints how many hands a live table deals in an hour, or how long one orbit takes, so M here is counted in orbits and never in minutes. M tells you how much room the stack has; M does not tell you which hands to play, and nothing on this page does.
How the prize pool is paid out
The prize pool is split among the paying places by a table the room publishes. At Elements Casino Brantford the table changes with the number of entries, and Casino Niagara says its prizes are adjusted to the number of entries in each tournament. The payout table on page 3 of the Elements Casino Brantford tournament sheet pays three places when 30 or fewer entries were made:
- First place: 50% of the prize pool.
- Second place: 30% of the prize pool.
- Third place: 20% of the prize pool.
The first column of that payout table. Casino Regina prints the shares of five places in one line.
In the example tournament of 30 entries at the Monday split, the prize pool of $2,340 would be paid out like this:
- First place.$1,170
- Second place.$702
- Third place.$468
Every amount comes out of the prize pool, and the places outside the paying three get nothing back. What a stack is worth in prize money at the final table, and when players may agree a deal, is lesson 7.12.
Re-entry, late registration and the dealer add-on
A freeze-out allows one entry per player. A re-entry tournament lets a player who has lost every chip pay the whole buy-in again and start over, and late registration lets players enter after the first level has begun. Elements Casino Brantford runs freeze-outs unless it says otherwise, keeps late registration open for the first few levels as a rule and gives late entrants a full starting stack; Pickering Casino Resort makes every tournament a re-entry event, with re-entry only during late registration; Casino Regina lets a player re-enter for a full buy-in and registration fee; Casino du Lac-Leamy calls its Monday tournament a re-entry tournament.
- One entry.$100
- One entry and one re-entry.$200
- One entry and two re-entries.$300
An example buy-in of $100, not a suggested one.
A dealer add-on is extra tournament chips bought with money in addition to the buy-in, offered at seat selection or at registration; the terms of Elements Casino Brantford describe a version of the same purchase under another name. Despite the word dealer in its name, a dealer add-on is a purchase of chips, and none of the pages we read says where that money goes. Nothing here works out whether an add-on is worth buying.
Casino du Lac-Leamy’s rules dated 22 Aug 2019 also set who may enter its tournaments: a minimum age, and no one registered in a self-exclusion program. That is a condition of one room’s tournaments, not the age for entering a casino, which is on the line further down this page; how self-exclusion works in each province is in the guide to self-exclusion.
Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks
A re-entry is a new buy-in, the whole of it, and an add-on is money paid in addition to the buy-in too. Decide at home how many buy-ins the evening gets, re-entries included, and register with that number already decided.
A tournament prize is not income. On one evening, the cards decide far more of what happens than skill does, and the fee is paid whatever happens.
If it stops being fun
If gambling stops being entertainment, help is available. 19+ in most of Canada; 18+ in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec. More on responsible gaming.
Practice: how many orbits?
Each step of the practice run is one level of an example structure: a stack of tournament chips, the two blinds and, from the first level with one, the ante. You work out either M or the number of full orbits the stack can pay for without playing a hand, and the answer shows how much an orbit has grown since the first level.
Nothing is bet here. The chips are tournament chips in an example structure, not any room’s levels, and no money is involved.
Lesson done
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The practice table needs JavaScript. Here is one level from it, with the answer.
An example level with an ante
An example level, not a room’s structure · level 8 of 10
With 10,000 tournament chips at this example level, what is your M?
- An M of 12.5 That is the stack divided by the big blind alone. Every orbit also takes the small blind and the ante, so the stack pays for fewer orbits than that.
- An M of 6.3 That counts the big blind and the ante and leaves out the small blind, which every orbit also takes.
- An M of 8.3 That counts both blinds and leaves out the ante of 800, which goes in once every orbit at this example level as well.
- An M of 5 One orbit costs 2,000 chips: the small blind of 400, the big blind of 800 and the ante of 800. 10,000 chips divided by 2,000 chips gives an M of 5.
One orbit at this example level costs 2,000 chips; at the first example level an orbit cost 75 chips. The levels keep rising whether you play hands or not, so a stack that does not grow covers fewer orbits at every level.
Every level in the practice run is worked out the same way: one orbit costs the small blind, the big blind and the ante, and the stack divided by that cost is M.
How the practice run works
Where the answers come from. Every level is three numbers from an example structure, the small blind, the big blind and the ante, and a stack; one orbit costs the three numbers added together, and the stack divided by that cost is M, worked out when the page is built. The wrong answers come from the same numbers, and each one is a named mistake: the stack divided by the big blind alone, by the small blind alone, with the small blind left out, or with the ante left out.
One strip, and no rounds. Every square on the strip is one level of this lesson, and all of the squares are there from the start. Your first answer fills the square it belongs to. This lesson has a single level, so when its squares are full no next level begins by itself: the summary of the run appears in its place, with no button in between. Practising a level you got wrong turns its cross into “fixed in practice” and does not change the count, because only first answers count.
Your progress stays in this browser, and nothing is sent anywhere.
Check yourself
Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks
Three quick ones. Pick an answer, then check it. No timer, no points: just whether it stuck.
Back to the question we opened with. Of a buy-in of $100 at the Monday split, $78 reaches the prize pool; the rest goes to the room’s fee and a jackpot line, and no finishing place brings that part back as a prize.
Tournaments, help and further reading
19+ (18+ in AB, MB, QC) · Play responsibly · the helplines are further up this page
Further reading
- Texas Hold’em Poker tournament rules (dated 2019) · Loto-Québec, Hôtel-Casino du Lac-LeamyWhere a tournament buy-in goes, the starting stack, the button’s extra bet and tournament chips that have no cash value.
- Poker tournament terms and conditions · Great Canadian EntertainmentLate registration, re-entry, what makes up the prize pool, and when players may agree a deal.
How it’s worked out
Numbers, readings, sources and hosts
Where this happens. Every tournament on this page is played at a table in a room you can walk into. The rooms’ buy-ins, stacks and payout tables are their own, and each one is named with the room that prints it; a rule of one room is not a rule of every room.
Numbers. The split of each buy-in is worked out from the line the room prints, part by part; the amount of every $100 that reaches the prize pool follows from that split. M is the stack divided by the small blind, the big blind and the ante added together, and the full orbits are M rounded down. The payout shares are the first column of the payout table on page 3 of the Elements Casino Brantford tournament sheet, and the prize amounts apply those shares to an example prize pool. Every figure carries a machine-readable key and is recomputed by the same engine on every build. Nothing on this page is counted per hour.
Our readings. Casino Niagara does not name the two parts of its buy-in; we read the larger amount as the prize pool and the smaller as the fee. What a big blind ante is, one ante put in by one player for the whole table each hand, is our reading of the name; neither page that uses the name explains it.
What is deliberately absent. The blinds of Casino du Lac-Leamy’s levels are not printed here: its rules dated 22 Aug 2019 carry a table of levels that we have not reprinted, so every level in the illustrations and the practice run is an example. Who pays the extra bet under those rules, from which level, and how big the bet is at a short table are not printed either. No page we read says where the money for a dealer add-on goes, and no document we could read prints what players tip a dealer; the line named dealer tips belongs to the 2019 split. The jackpots behind the jackpot lines are outside this course. There is no advice here on what to play at a given M. How a hand is dealt, the blinds and the button are lesson 7.2; the room, its waiting list and the buy-ins of cash games are lesson 7.3; the rake of cash games and how far results swing are lesson 7.10; what tournament chips are worth in money, and deals at the final table, are lesson 7.12; tilt and when to leave are lesson 7.13.
Sources. Every claim on this page carries a button with the sentence it rests on, the publisher who wrote that sentence and the date we read it. Everything taken from Casino du Lac-Leamy’s tournament rules is marked with their date, 22 Aug 2019; newer rules were not found, and the room gives the conditions of its current tournaments at its counter. The note on where the name M-ratio comes from rests on a reference work; the book itself was not read.
Hosts. Leo and Maya are illustrated characters. Their backstories, a former dealer and a former floor supervisor, are written for the course: neither is a real person, and neither speaks for any casino. The rules and numbers on this page come from the sources it cites, not from their experience.
No promise. In a poker tournament the players play against one another, and the room is paid by the fee whatever happens. Whatever skill counts in a tournament counts only against the other players at the table, and on one evening the cards decide most of what happens; nothing on this page makes the fee smaller, and nothing here says how a tournament would end.
Where the buy-in goes
For seventy-five-dollar ($75) tournaments, an amount of fifty-three dollars ($53) will be allocated to the prize pool, fifteen dollars ($15) to administrative costs, two dollars ($2) to the Bad Beat tournament jackpot and five dollars ($5) to dealer tips.
Buy-in: $100 = $78 (prize pool) + $20 (fee) + $2 (Bad Beat)
Buy-in: $120 = $94 (prize pool) + $24 (fee) + $2 (Bad Beat)
Loto-Québec, Hôtel-Casino du Lac-Leamy · Poker — tournaments · read
Buy-in: $100 = $78 (prize pool) + $20 (fee) + $2 (Bad Beat)
Loto-Québec, Casino de Montréal · Poker — tournaments · read
Wednesday $300 ($255+$45) NLH Poker Tournament (12:30 Start)
Casino Niagara · Wednesday tournament structure sheet · read
The prize pool is comprised of all valid tournament buy-ins.
Attention poker players, effective November 25, 2025, the weekly tournament registration fee will be $25.00 per event.
Where the name M-ratio comes from
Volume 2: The Endgame
focuses on strategies used in poker tournaments, particularly on how to change playing styles depending on how large a chipstack is compared to the blinds. It also introduces related concepts such as the M-ratio and the Q-ratio.
A big blind ante
The two players to the left of the button pay the small and big blinds, respectively.
The amount of the required additional bet is equal to the amount of the big blind and increases at the same time.
Featuring Big Blind ante.
Great Canadian Entertainment · Poker tournaments at Elements Casino Brantford · read
All events will utilize a Big Blind Ante structure.
Where the buy-in goes
For seventy-five-dollar ($75) tournaments, an amount of fifty-three dollars ($53) will be allocated to the prize pool, fifteen dollars ($15) to administrative costs, two dollars ($2) to the Bad Beat tournament jackpot and five dollars ($5) to dealer tips.
Buy-in: $100 = $78 (prize pool) + $20 (fee) + $2 (Bad Beat)
Buy-in: $120 = $94 (prize pool) + $24 (fee) + $2 (Bad Beat)
Loto-Québec, Hôtel-Casino du Lac-Leamy · Poker — tournaments · read
Buy-in: $100 = $78 (prize pool) + $20 (fee) + $2 (Bad Beat)
Loto-Québec, Casino de Montréal · Poker — tournaments · read
Wednesday $300 ($255+$45) NLH Poker Tournament (12:30 Start)
Casino Niagara · Wednesday tournament structure sheet · read
The prize pool is comprised of all valid tournament buy-ins.
Attention poker players, effective November 25, 2025, the weekly tournament registration fee will be $25.00 per event.
Starting stack and levels
At the start of a Tournament, each player will receive non-cashable tournament chips in the amount of:
Five thousand dollars ($5,000) for recurring seventy-five-dollar ($75) tournaments.
at twenty-minute (20) intervals for seventy-five-dollar ($75) recurring tournaments
Breaks are announced at the start of the tournament.
8,000 chips
Blind betting time: 20 minutes
Other conditions apply. Complete details available at the poker room counter.
Loto-Québec, Hôtel-Casino du Lac-Leamy · Poker — tournaments · read
Blind betting time: 20 minutes
Loto-Québec, Casino de Montréal · Poker — tournaments · read
The extra bet and the big blind ante
The two players to the left of the button pay the small and big blinds, respectively.
The amount of the required additional bet is equal to the amount of the big blind and increases at the same time.
Featuring Big Blind ante.
Great Canadian Entertainment · Poker tournaments at Elements Casino Brantford · read
All events will utilize a Big Blind Ante structure.
Where the name M-ratio comes from
Volume 2: The Endgame
focuses on strategies used in poker tournaments, particularly on how to change playing styles depending on how large a chipstack is compared to the blinds. It also introduces related concepts such as the M-ratio and the Q-ratio.
Payouts by place
1st 50.00% 37.00% 35.00% 32.00% 32.00% 32.00% 31.00% 28.00% 26.00%
2nd 30.00% 27.00% 25.00% 22.00% 21.00% 21.00% 20.00% 18.00% 16.00%
3rd 20.00% 22.00% 20.00% 18.00% 17.00% 16.00% 15.00% 14.00% 12.00%
1st: 32.8579% | 2nd: 23.1530% | 3rd: 17.5860% | 4th: 14.2456% | 5th: 12.1577%
PRIZING WILL BE ADJUSTED BASED ON THE NUMBER OF ENTRIES PER TOURNAMENT
Casino Niagara · Texas Hold’em poker tournament — Wednesdays · read
Re-entry and late registration
Registration will be on a first-come, first-served basis.
Late registration: This is permitted at the discretion of the Site, and subject to seating and staffing availability, and can generally remain open until the conclusion of the fourth blind
These players will receive a full starting stack of tournament chips.
All tournaments will be Freeze – Out tournaments unless stated otherwise.
Re-buys/Re-Entry: Re-buy/Re-Entry is defined as the option to re-enter into the same tournament by paying another full entry plus administration fee after being depleted of all their tournament chips.
Registration will remain open on the tournament date until the end of the first break.
All tournaments will be re-entry events.
Re-entry is not guaranteed and only available during the late registration period for the event
Great Canadian Entertainment · Pickering Casino Resort — weekly poker tournaments · read
No resupply will be permitted during a Tournament.
Players may surrender their chips after the last hand of re-entry period and re-enter by paying a full buy-in and registration fee.
Regular Re-entry Monday
Loto-Québec, Hôtel-Casino du Lac-Leamy · Poker — tournaments · read
Same-day tournament signup starting at noon
Loto-Québec, Casino de Montréal · Poker — tournaments · read
The dealer add-on
During seat selection the day of the tournament, the option to purchase a dealer add-on for ten dollars ($10 CAD) to receive an additional two thousand (2,000) chips in the starting stack will be available.
Great Canadian Entertainment · Poker tournaments at Elements Casino Brantford · read
At the time of registration players will have the option buy a dealer add-on for $10 which will get them an additional 5,000 in their starting stack.
Great Canadian Entertainment · Pickering Casino Resort — weekly poker tournaments · read
The Site reserves the right to offer a Dealer Tip Top-Up, which will increase the players’ starting stack, as outlined in the event breakdown.
If this option is included, the cost will be no more than 25% of the entry and will get the player up to 5,000 additional tournament chips.
Who may enter the Lac-Leamy tournaments
Only individuals who are eighteen (18) years of age or older can take part in the Texas Hold'em Poker tournaments held at the Casino du Lac-Leamy
are not registered in a self-exclusion program operated by Loto-Québec through its online gaming site, gaming halls or casinos.
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