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These rules apply to tournaments on our platform.
The Tournament Rules as listed here are intended to complement the Terms of Service, not replace them. In the event of a discrepancy between the Tournament Rules and Terms of Service, the Terms of Service shall take precedence.
1) We will, at all times, consider the best interests of the game and fairness as the top priority in the decision-making process. Unusual circumstances can, on occasion, dictate that decisions in the interest of fairness take priority over the technical rules.
2) All tournaments will begin promptly at the scheduled time stated in the Tournament Lobby. We reserve the right to delay or cancel a tournament without prior notice.
3) Important information about each tournament, including the blind structure, length of rounds, rebuy and break information, can be found by selecting the tournament in the lobby and double-clicking on it (desktop), and by clicking the tournament itself via the Lobby (mobile). We reserve the right to change the parameters of any tournament at any time without notice.
4) Seats are assigned at random. Seat changes are not permitted.
5) The button will be positioned at Seat 1 to start play.
6) A bet and three raises are permitted in Fixed Limit tournaments. There is no limit to the number of raises permitted in Pot Limit and No Limit tournaments.
7) Prizes will be awarded as stated in the Tournament Lobby, except when a deal is made (see Rule 8.1 or the tournament is cancelled (see our tournament cancellation policy below). The prize structure is not finalized until registration has closed and the rebuy and/or add-on period is over.
8) In order to be eligible to rebuy in a rebuy tournament, you must have the funds available in your account. Funds currently in play in other games, or held in a currency not matching the tournament currency are not considered to be available.
9) Late Registration: Late Registration is available in most tournaments. The length of the late registration period varies, but will always be shown in the tournament ticket in the Quick Seat lobby, in the details panel of the Tournaments tab, and in the header of the Tournament lobby for that tournament. Late registration time is measured in clock time (as opposed to tournament play time). For example, if a tournament starts at 09:00 and has 90 minutes of late registration, registration will close at 10:30. Late registration will close early if enough players are eliminated to begin payouts.
Please note that players are only allowed to participate in a tournament once, unless re-entry is permitted, as specified in the tournament lobby. One player using multiple accounts to enter multiple times into a single tournament is not permitted, and may result in penalties including a warning, disqualification from the tournament (with partial or full forfeiture of winnings), and barring from our platform.
10) Unregistration: Most tournaments allow unregistration until a time specified in the tournament lobby of each tournament, which may vary from event to event. Players who have won their seats through a satellite may unregister if the event allows it; however, they will receive tournament money (T-Money) or an entry ticket in exchange for their seat. T-Money can be used to buy in to our other tournaments.
Note that some satellites will end after the start of the target tournament but during Late Registration. In such cases, the satellite winners will be seated directly into the target event at the conclusion of the satellite.
Note: Registration and unregistration times may vary, and not all tournaments allow unregistration. Check the Tournament Lobby for the exact registration details for each tournament. We reserve the right to alter registration and unregistration times without prior notice.Players who self-exclude themselves during a tournament will nevertheless still be able to complete any tournament already in progress in which they are playing.
This also means that players who request to be self-excluded from playing on our platform after qualifying for Day 2 of a Multi-Day Tournament or Phased tournament will still be able to play in that tournament on any subsequent day of that tournament, even after their period of self-exclusion begins. Players who choose not to play on subsequent days will receive no compensation.
The tournament ends when one player accumulates all the chips in play, or when all remaining players will receive the same prize (for example, if the tournament awards 5 identical prizes, the tournament may end when there are 5 players left).
If two or more players are eliminated on the same hand, a player with more chips at the start of the hand finishes higher than a player with fewer chips. If all players started the hand with an identical number of chips, all players tie for that rank, and any prizes due to those players will be equally distributed between them. During hand-for-hand play (as described in rule 2.3), two or more players eliminated during a single ‘synchronized’ hand are treated as having been eliminated simultaneously, even if they are at different tables. Finishing order is then based on comparing stack sizes.
At certain stages of the tournament (for example, where the prize money jumps significantly with the next few players eliminated) and when there is more than one table remaining, the tournament may be played ‘hand for hand’. This means that if one table finishes its hand before the other table(s), that table waits for the other table(s) to finish before the next hand is dealt.
We use a ‘forward-moving button’ rule in tournaments. According to this rule, no player ever receives the button twice in a row; at the completion of every hand, the button is moved clockwise. The implication of this rule is that when players are eliminated, there may be players who get a reprieve from one or both blinds. Since these are basically random occurrences, no player will receive any long-term advantage.
When two players remain at the final table, the button will post the small blind, and act first on the opening round.
As players are eliminated from the tournament, the software will “break” tables to fill available empty seats or balance tables to ensure all tables have an equal (or as close to equal as possible) number of active players. The re-seating of players at broken tables is performed randomly and, although rare, may result in a player having to post multiple big blinds in a row. Players moved individually to balance tables will, when possible, be moved to similar positions relative to the blinds. When enough players have been eliminated, all players are brought together at the ‘final table’.
1) The break schedule for a tournament can be found in the ‘Tournament Information’ section of the ‘Structure’ tab in the Tournament lobby. Break length and timing may vary from one event to the next. We offer two varieties of breaks:
1a) Tournaments with synchronized breaks will go on break at 55 minutes past the hour. For example, a tournament which begins at 07:25 will go on break at 07:55, 08:55, 09:55 and every hour thereafter until the tournament ends. There can also be tournaments where the synchronized break only takes place every two hours. For example, a tournament like this, starting at 08:35, could go on break 08:55, 10:55, and every other hour thereafter. In rebuy tournaments of this type where add-ons are permitted, there will be an additional short break (usually 3 minutes) at the conclusion of the rebuy period, to allow for add-ons to be made.
1b) Other tournaments will go on break at regular intervals throughout play. For example, a tournament beginning at 07:25 may go on break after every hour’s play, in which case the first break would begin at 08:25.
In all cases, the tournament will wait for hands at all tables to complete before the break period begins. This means that at some tables, the break will last slightly longer than at other tables.
Note that not all tournaments offer breaks (for example, Hyper-Turbo and some Heads-Up or Shootout-style events).
While each user is responsible for his or her own Internet connection, we make an effort to help a player if he is disconnected during the final stages of a tournament that has a buy-in. We give the player disconnect extra time (DET) to act before his hand is folded.
For regular multi-table tournaments, the DET is available only at the final table. The DET is as follows:
For sit and go tournaments with fewer than forty-five players, the DET is available when you are down to the number of players that will be paid plus one. The DET is as follows:
For heads-up tournaments, the DET is available throughout the tournament. The DET is as follows:
For all actions above, the player will remain in “sitting-in” state after being folded, and will therefore be given the indicated amount of time when action returns to them.
Note that for all tournaments, the DET is reset each time the user reconnects. So suppose a player is at the final table of a multi-table event, disconnects, and is down to 30 seconds per action, then reconnects. If they disconnect again, they’ll start with 240 seconds for their next action.
During any time that the system is waiting on a disconnected player, the tournament clock (that raises blind levels) is stopped.
Note: The rules described above may vary between tournaments. DET may not be provided for each tournament; we reserve the right to change these rules without prior notification.
Poker is an individual (not a team) game. Any action or chat intended to help another player is unethical and is prohibited. Unethical play, such as soft-play (playing less aggressively against a partner) and chip dumping (intentionally losing chips to a partner), may result in penalties, including seizure of funds from the offender’s account and/or termination of the account. We routinely review game play to look for violations of our rules and to ensure the integrity of our games. It may be necessary to withhold player winnings until the completion of game play reviews.
With some exceptions (described below), a player may play on only one account during a tournament and may not ‘hand off’ his seat in mid-event to a different player. Violation of this rule may result in penalties including a warning, disqualification from the tournament (with partial or full forfeiture of winnings), and barring from our platform.
Examples of permissible exceptions that we give below are intended to describe examples of unplanned but serious events which are beyond your control.
Examples of things which are not beyond your control and therefore prohibited include:
Examples of things which are beyond your control and therefore allowed, subject to us being able to corroborate with evidence, include:
Deal making is allowed in tournaments, unless otherwise specified in the tournament lobby.
If all remaining players in a tournament agree to split the prize money according to a formula of their choosing, we will accept this agreement, and alter the originally published tourney payouts to reflect the numbers agreed to in the deal.
If all players remaining wish to make a deal, they should check the ‘Discuss A Deal’ box in the ‘Info’ tab of the Chat Box on the table. When all remaining players have checked this box, the table will automatically pause at the end of the current hand, and our customer support team will be notified. A staff member will come to the table to ensure a smoothly arranged deal. We cannot guarantee that a staff member will arrive in a timely fashion although every effort will be made to avoid delays.
Deal making is not available in all tournaments, but when deal making is available the ‘Discuss A Deal’ checkbox will be available in the ‘Info’ tab at the final table.
We will not participate in the deal making process, but will serve as a facilitator to ensure that everyone is in complete agreement before executing the transfers per the above conditions.
We reserve the right to require that any deal leave some money ‘on the table’ as the first place prize. This money required to be left in play will usually not be more than 5% of the total tournament prize pool, and ensures the integrity of the tournament’s finish. The amount of money required to be left in play, if any, will usually be specified in the tournament lobby message.
Players may agree to leave more money ‘on the table’ for first or for other finishes.
It is the players’ responsibility to determine total agreement. In the absence of oversight at the table by our support personnel, chat records alone will not necessarily validate an agreement. However, we may enforce a deal if it was clearly agreed to by all parties.
Only players at the final table may deal for the money, and all deals must include all remaining players.
Deals will only be enforced for real money tournaments.
Players may discuss any deal they wish. If the players request it, our staff will provide ICM, Chip Count or Even Split numbers to the players as possible deals.
All deal numbers provided by our staff are not final until clearly agreed to by all players in Chat. Players may discuss variations on those numbers if they want; our staff will then repeat the agreed deal in Chat and ask the remaining players to all confirm their agreement.
Players are obligated to play out their heads-up matches in a normal way, regardless of the identity of their opponent. Any ‘flipping’, chip dumping, or other activity classified as ‘abnormal’ game play is prohibited. Violation of this rule may result in penalties up to and including barring from our platform with forfeiture of funds. This rule does not apply to the final match of a scheduled heads-up tournament.
Dealing for Tournament Leader Board or Sit & Go Leader Board points is not allowed. Doing so may result in the revocation of all awarded Leader Board points for the deal-making players in the tournament.
1) In some specially designated tournaments, a cash ‘bounty’ will be placed on some or all of the tournament participants. A player who eliminates such an opponent wins the cash bounty.
There are three types of Bounty Tournament:
A bounty is placed on every entrant. You win a cash prize for each opponent you eliminate. There are also Progressive Knockouts, where your bonus increases as you eliminate players.
Team Pro Bounty: A bounty is placed on every member of Team SupremeKing who enters the tournament.
Fixed Bounty: A bounty is placed on a specific player in the tournament.
The bounty is awarded to the player who wins the ‘relevant pot’ for the hand in question, which may be the main pot or one of several side pots. ‘Relevant pot’ means the pot in which the bounty player was all-in for their final chips.
2) In a split pot poker variant, such as Omaha High/Low or Stud High/Low, the bounty will always be awarded to the high hand. This is because a player cannot be eliminated by a low hand only.
3) In the event that two players show identical winning hands and therefore split the ‘relevant pot’ (or, in the case of a split pot poker variant as described in rule 9.2, split the high half of the ‘relevant pot’), any bounty awarded will be divided equally between the winners. Odd cents will be awarded in turn to the players in the earliest positions.
4) If a bounty player wins the tournament:
5) If a tournament advertises a bounty on a particular player, but that player does not register for the tournament, no bounty will be paid for that player.
6) Players may not make any agreement amongst themselves to eliminate a particular player in order to claim their bounty award. Such agreements are considered collusion, and are grounds for disqualification from the tournament or other penalties. For more information, see rules 6.1 and 6.2 above.
If we have to cancel a tournament for any reason, we make a concerted effort to compensate players in the fairest and most equitable way possible. There are three different possible compensation methods, depending on the exact circumstances and timing of the cancellation. Which method is applied is the sole discretion of the tournament Management.
1) Rollback: In this case, we are “rolling back” the tournament as if it never happened – if you were registered for the tournament, you get your buy-in and fees (including rebuys, add-ons, and knockout entry if any) refunded. Also, the buy-in is refunded in exactly the same format with which you bought in. For instance, if you bought into a tournament using T$10 and $15 cash, then you would get back T$10 and $15 cash
2) Roll Forward (No Players in the Money): If a tournament is cancelled and we do a “roll forward” before the players are in the money, we refund each remaining player his tournament fee (and knockout bounty if appropriate), and then divide up the prize pool based on the following formula: 50% of the award pool is distributed evenly among all remaining players, and 50% of the award pool is distributed proportionally according to the chip count.
3) Roll Forward (Players are in the Money): When a tournament is cancelled, and players have already reached the money, we refund each remaining player his tournament fee (and knockout bounty if appropriate), and then divide up the prize pool based on the following formula: each player receives the minimum prize not yet awarded at the time of cancellation, and the remainder of the award pool distributed is distributed proportionally according to the chip count.
Heads-up Sit & Go tournaments (HU S&Gs) are handled differently because of their special nature. Particularly if one player stays connected while the other player does not, the first player can effectively win the tournament while the second player is disconnected. For that reason, we reserve the right to do a chip count distribution of any HU S&G that we believe was substantially affected by our site’s downtime.
4) If a tournament with a guaranteed prize pool is cancelled, we will refund only the total buy-ins, not the guaranteed amount.
5) If a tournament with Fixed or Team Pro bounties is cancelled, we will refund only the regular prize pool (and knockout pool if applicable), not the Fixed or Team Pro bounties.
6) Tournaments which award tickets, satellite entries, or material prizes in addition to cash will only include the cash in the refund amount. Non-cash prizes will not be included in the roll forward or rollback equation.
7) We reserve the right to alter cancellation payouts or to alter this policy
In a Heads-Up tourney players compete in a multi-round event against a series of opponents until they are eliminated, or defeat the last player standing. Exact details of tournament structure and prize pool can be found in the tournament lobby.
Early payout tournaments work the same way as regular tournaments with one important exception:
By making that initial tournament prize immediately available, players will have more options at their disposal to use their winnings.
There are many things that a player can do to improve their chances in a poker game. For instance, they can play a lot and gain experience, or they can read a book about poker. Both of these techniques are clearly appropriate. At the other end of the spectrum, they can use a tool that informs them exactly what action to take in real-time. This is clearly cheating.
In between those two extremes are many tools – some of which we consider to be too close to cheating. For example, there are people building databases with profiles of many players online, and they are sharing access to these databases. A player with access to such a database can call up detailed information about their opponents without ever playing against those opponents themselves. We believe this gives that player an unfair advantage against others at their table.
The policy we have developed over the years follows thorough discussions internally and with poker experts, including our team of professionals. It is designed to be an appropriate compromise between allowing the use of tools and services that might enhance the playing and learning experience for the user, while prohibiting tools and services that give the user an unfair advantage.
We encourage feedback from our customers and take constructive feedback into consideration in future updates to our policy. However, knowledgeable people will disagree over what is appropriate and what is not.
Our policy groups tools and services into three categories:
The following are generally acceptable:
1) Tools and services that simply report basic game state information, such as pot odds or absolute hand strength.
2) Reference material that is static and basic in nature, such as simple table-based starting hand charts advising on what hands to play or not in unopened pots.
3) Tools or services that monitor and display numerical-based statistics in-game, but make use of only information that you have accumulated through your own play. Furthermore, there are qualitative limitations on any statistics displayed in-game, such as not being able to be split based on card values. There are also feature limitations of tools and services displaying statistics in-game, such as not being able to automatically change displayed statistics based on game state or opponent tendencies.
4) Macros and Hotkey programs for gameplay efficiency that do not reduce the requirement of a player having to make a decision. The player must decide what action to take and the exact relative size of any bet or raise, with the macro or hotkey merely executing this decision. For example, a hotkey that bets half the pot is permitted. A hotkey that bets a randomised amount between half and three quarters of the pot is prohibited.
In addition, tools and services that have features prohibited for use, but can reliably detect the poker client and restrict the prohibited functionality (either by disabling prohibited features or terminating the software) are generally permitted.
We do not make any guarantees regarding the functionality, reliability, or safety of any of these tools or services.
The following are prohibited at all times:
There are some tools and services which have legitimate uses for analysing your game, but are not appropriate for use during play. As such, their use when any of our clients, apps or software are open is prohibited.
Typically, these fall under the following categories:
These tools and services include:
We do not make any guarantees regarding the functionality, reliability, or safety of any of these tools or services.
To enforce our policy, we primarily:
We do not see your internet browsing history, documents or other private files and information. We take your privacy very seriously and comply with relevant Data Protection laws. We do not collect personally-identifiable information, other than that provided by the player during account registration and routine security verifications. It is not possible for any member of our staff to read or copy private data from your machine. For more information, see our Privacy Policy.
It is also not possible for our staff to remotely modify any file on your computer, or send any file to your machine.
We may, at our discretion, prevent our client program from running on your machine, or require players to upgrade the client program.
While we reserve the right to withhold funds of somebody running a prohibited tool or service, we are not going to do this lightly. Our goal is to educate players who are found to be using prohibited software that is publicly available for download.
However, we will likely deny services and/or withhold funds if a player:
As stated, our policy has developed over time. Occasional updates are required to adapt to changing sentiments of our player base and experts, as well as the changing features of the tools and services that are available. We assume no responsibility to notify players of changes to this policy. Players should regularly check this page for changes.
The rake is defined below for each game which we spread. We do not charge rake if the hand ends on the first betting round (before the flop in Hold’em or Omaha, before Fourth Street in Stud variants, or before the Draw in Draw variants).
The HORSE mixed game includes only Limit games in the rotation, and therefore will be raked according to the Fixed Limit structures.
We offer mixed games that have parts of game rotation which are Fixed Limit, and other parts which are No Limit and/or Pot Limit. Hands played at these tables are raked according to the type of game dealt in a particular hand.
‘Number of players’ in the tables below refers to the players who were dealt into that particular hand, not the number seated at the table.
The tables below also represent the rake for both regular ring game and Zoom tables.
Ring game rake is calculated as a true percentage using the ‘round half to even’ method of rounding.
The caps for non-USD games are subject to quarterly review and may be changed due to fluctuations in the exchange rates.
| Stakes | % Rake | 2 Player Cap | 3-4 Player Cap | 5+ Player Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $0.01/$0.02 | 3.50% | $0.30 | $0.30 | $0.30 |
| $0.02/$0.05 | 4.15% | $0.50 | $0.50 | $1.00 |
| $0.05/$0.10 to $0.08/$0.16 | 4.50% | $0.50 | $1.00 | $1.50 |
| $0.10/$0.25 | 4.50% | $0.50 | $1.00 | $2.00 |
| $0.25/$0.50 | 5.00% | $0.75 | $0.75 | $2.00 |
| $0.50/$1 | 5.00% | $1.00 | $1.00 | $2.50 |
| $1/$2 | 5.0% | $1.25 | $1.25 | $2.75 |
| $2/$4 | 5.0% | $1.50 | $1.50 | $3.00 |
| $2.50/$5 | 5.0% | $1.50 | $1.50 | $3.00 |
| $3/$6 | 5.0% | $1.50 | $1.50 | $3.50 |
* Excluding No Limit and Pot Limit Omaha and Omaha High/Low Micro Stakes
| Stakes | 2 Player % / Cap | 3-4 Player % / Cap | 5+ Player % / Cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| $5/$10 | 4.5% / $1.50 | 4.50% / $1.50 | 4.50% / $3.00 |
| $10/$20 | 4.5% / $1.75 | 4.50% / $1.75 | 4.50% / $3.00 |
| $25/$50 | 4.5% / $2.25 | 4.50% / $2.00 | 4.50% / $3.00 |
| $50/$100 | 4.5% / $2.50 | 4.50% / $3.00 | 4.50% / $5.00 |
| $100/$200 and above | 4.5% / $3.00 | 4.50% / $5.00 | 4.50% / $5.00 |
| Stakes | % Rake | 2 Player Cap | 3-4 Player Cap | 5+ Player Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $0.01/$0.02 | 3.30% | $0.30 | $0.30 | $0.30 |
| $0.02/$0.05 | 3.90% | $0.50 | $0.50 | $1.00 |
| $0.05/$0.10 | 4.25% | $0.50 | $1.00 | $1.50 |
| $0.10/$0.25 | 4.25% | $0.50 | $1.00 | $2.00 |
| Stakes | 2 Player % / Cap | 3-4 Player % / Cap | 5+ Player % / Cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| $0.02/$0.04 | 4.5% / $0.01 | 4.5% / $0.01 | 4.5% / $0.01 |
| $0.04/$0.08 to $0.05/$0.10 | 4.5% / $0.04 | 4.5% / $0.04 | 4.5% / $0.04 |
| $0.10/$0.20 | 4.5% / $0.10 | 4.5% / $0.10 | 4.5% / $0.10 |
| $0.25/$0.50 | 4.5% / $0.16 | 4.5% / $0.16 | 4.5% / $0.16 |
| $0.50/$1 | 4.5% / $0.40 | 4.5% / $0.40 | 4.5% / $0.40 |
| $1/$2 | 2.0% / $0.50 | 3.0% / $0.70 | 4.0% / $0.80 |
| $2/$4 | 2.0% / $0.50 | 3.0% / $0.70 | 3.0% / $1.25 |
| $3/$6 to $5/$10 | 2.0% / $0.50 | 3.0% / $2.00 | 3.0% / $3.00 |
| $10/$20 | 2.0% / $0.50 | 2.5% / $2.00 | 2.5% / $3.00 |
| $15/$30 | 2.0% / $1.00 | 2.0% / $2.00 | 2.0% / $3.00 |
| $20/$40 to $100/$200 | 1.0% / $1.00 | 1.0% / $2.00 | 1.0% / $3.00 |
| $150/$300 and above | 1.0% / $2.00 | 1.0% / $5.00 | 1.0% / $5.00 |
| Stakes | % Rake | 2 Player Cap | 3-4 Player Cap | 5+ Player Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| €0.01/€0.02 | 3.50% | €0.25 | €0.25 | €0.25 |
| €0.02/€0.05 | 4.15% | €0.50 | €0.50 | €0.75 |
| €0.05/€0.10 | 4.50% | €0.50 | €0.75 | €1.25 |
| €0.10/€0.25 | 4.50% | €0.50 | €0.75 | €1.50 |
| €0.25/€0.50 | 5.0% | €0.70 | €0.70 | €1.80 |
| €0.50/€1 | 5.0% | €0.90 | €0.90 | €2.25 |
| €1/€2 | 5.0% | €1.15 | €1.15 | €2.50 |
| €2/€4 | 5.0% | €1.35 | €1.35 | €2.75 |
| €2.5/€5 | 5.0% | €1.35 | €1.35 | €2.75 |
| €3/€6 | 5.0% | €1.35 | €1.35 | €3.20 |
| €5/€10 | 4.5% | €1.35 | €1.35 | €2.75 |
*Excluding No Limit and Pot Limit Omaha and Omaha High/Low Micro Stakes
| Stakes | % Rake | 2 Player Cap | 3-4 Player Cap | 5+ Player Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| €0.01/€0.02 | 3.30% | €0.25 | €0.25 | €0.25 |
| €0.02/€0.05 | 3.90% | €0.50 | €0.50 | €0.75 |
| €0.05/€0.10 | 4.25% | €0.50 | €0.75 | €1.25 |
| €0.10/€0.25 | 4.25% | €0.50 | €0.75 | €1.50 |
| Stakes | % Rake | 2 Player Cap | 3-4 Player Cap | 5+ Player Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £0.01/£0.02 | 3.50% | £0.20 | £0.20 | £0.20 |
| £0.02/£0.05 | 4.15% | £0.30 | £0.30 | £0.60 |
| £0.05/£0.10 | 4.50% | £0.30 | £0.60 | £1.00 |
| £0.10/£0.25 | 4.50% | £0.30 | £0.60 | £1.25 |
| £0.25/£0.50 | 5.0% | £0.50 | £0.50 | £1.40 |
| £0.50/£1 | 5.0% | £0.70 | £0.70 | £1.40 |
| £1/£2 | 5.0% | £0.90 | £0.90 | £1.95 |
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