A tournament is a single or multi-table poker game that starts when all players are seated and ends when there is only 1 player remaining with all of the chips. Tournaments have a fixed buy-in amount which is deducted from the player's account balance when they register for the tournament. Each player gets the same number of starting chips and that amount is not necessarily equal to the buy-in amount. Prizes are awarded in chips credited back to their account. The total prizepool is the sum of all the buy-ins. The payout schedule depends on how many players entered the tournament and the total prizepool. For a single table tournament, the payout schedule is as follows:
The Tournaments tab contains a list of tournaments that are available on your poker site. A toolbar of commands just above the list is used to manage the tournament properties as described below. There is no limit to the number of tournaments that you can add to the list. However, only one table (ring game or tournament, but not both) can be put online at any given time in the Lite and Trial versions of Poker Mavens. To run multiple tables simultaneously, you must use Poker Mavens Pro.
Add - Click the Add button on the toolbar to add a new tournament to your site. An input form will be displayed as shown below. Click in any field and a description of that property will be displayed in the yellow box.
Tournament Properties
Name - Enter a unique name for this tournament or accept the default name, up to 25 characters in length.
Game - Select the game type, either Limit, Pot Limit, or No Limit Texas Hold'em.
Password - Specify a password to make this a private tournament or leave this field blank for an open table. Players cannot observe or join a private game unless they know this password.
Tables - Select the number of tables in the tournament, from 1 to 100 (Pro Version only).
Seats / table - Select the number of seats at each table, from 2 to 10.
Start full - Select Yes to have the tournament start automatically when all seats have been registered.
Start min - This is the minimum number of registered players that must check their "Start Now" box to start the tournament immediately. Select 0 to disable this feature.
Start code - This is a code (1 to 999999) that can be entered in the player module lobby window (Options menu) to start the tournament. Enter 0 to disable this feature.
Buy-in - Select the buy-in for this tournament, from 0 to 1000000 chips. The default value is 1500.
Starting chips - Set the number of starting chips for each player, from 0 to 10000 chips. The default value is 1500.
Turn clock - This is the number of seconds that the player has to act on each turn. The default value is 30.
Time bank - This is a reserve of time (seconds) available to each player on request. This value does not reset as long as the player remains in the tournament. A "Request Time" button is displayed when the player's regular turn clock is about to expire.
Level duration - This is the length of each blinds level, expressed in either minutes or number of hands. The default value is 10.
Level units - Select Minutes or Hands for the level duration.
Auto online - When this box is checked, the tournament will go online automatically whenever the game server is started. Otherwise, the tournament will not be visible to the players until you manually put it online via the Action button on the toolbar. If you have the Lite or Trial version of Poker Mavens and you check the auto online box for more than one table, you will get an error when you try to start the game server. Only the Pro version of Poker Mavens supports running multiple tables simultaneously.
Blinds schedule - Edit the values in this list to specify a schedule of increasing blinds and antes for the tournament. When Limit Hold'em is selected, the small and big bets are calculated automatically. Use the buttons below the list to add, insert, or remove levels. Or click the "Reset All" button to fill in the default schedule.
Edit - Click this button on the toolbar to edit the properties of the selected tournament. If the game server is running and the selected tournament is currently online, the Ok button on the input dialog will be disabled. You must first take the tournament offline to edit any of its properties.
Delete - Click the Delete button to delete the selected tournaments from your site. You cannot delete tournaments that are currently online.
Message - Click the Message button to send a short popup message to all players seated at the selected tournaments.
Action - Click the Action button on the toolbar to display a menu with these commands affecting the selected tournaments:
Put online - puts the selected tournaments online. The game server must already be running. Only 1 table can be put online in the Lite and Trial versions of Poker Mavens. Use the Pro version to run multiple tables simultaneously.
Take offline - takes the selected tournaments offline, either immediately or after the current hand is complete at each selected table.
Start - this command will manually start all selected tournaments, if they have at least 2 players registered to play.
Pause - this command will pause the action at all selected tournaments.
Resume - this command will resume the action of selected tournaments that are paused.