Tournament Rules

These rules apply to tournaments at PokerStars. Additional rules that relate to the site as a whole are available for viewing online here, and those that relate to ring games only are available for viewing online here.

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.

Note: Rules 5, 14 and 15 are relevant only to tournaments which use blinds and/or a dealer button.

General

PokerStars 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.
All tournaments will begin promptly at the scheduled time stated in the Tournament Lobby. PokerStars reserves the right to delay or cancel a tournament without prior notice.
Important information about each tournament, including the blind structure, length of rounds, rebuy and break information, can be found by clicking the ‘Tournament Info’ button in the tournament lobby. PokerStars reserves the right to change the parameters of any tournament at any time without notice.

Seats are assigned at random. Seat changes are not permitted.
The button will be positioned at Seat 1 to start play.
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.
Prizes will be awarded as stated in the Tournament Lobby, except when a deal is made (see Rule 23) or the tournament is cancelled (see PokerStars' tournament cancellation policy).
In order to be eligible to rebuy in a rebuy tournament, you must have the funds available to you in your account. Players without sufficient funds remaining in their account will be eliminated from the tournament. Funds currently in play in other games, or held in a currency not matching the tournament currency are not considered to be available.
Late Registration: Late Registration is usually available for 20 minutes after the tournament start. However, registration will terminate if all tables allocated at the time of seating are full. In most tournaments, registration closes when the first elimination takes place.

Some events offer Extended Registration, which remains open beyond the first elimination, up to the maximum time allocated or until there are no seats remaining. If extended registration is offered, the amount of time allocated is shown in the 'Tournament Info' dialog, which can be opened from the tournament lobby.
Unregistration: Most tournaments allow unregistration until a few minutes before the event begins. The exact time at which unregistration closes is specified in the ‘Tournament Info’ dialog for each tournament, and 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), events money (W-Money) or an entry ticket in exchange for their seat. T-Money and W-Money are credits which can be used to buy in to other PokerStars tournaments. For more information on T-Money and W-Money click here.

Note: Registration and unregistration times may vary between tournaments of different types. Not all tournaments allow unregistration – such tournaments will usually be denoted at the time of registration. Check the tournament lobby and tournament info dialog for the exact registration details for each tournament. PokerStars reserves the right to alter registration and unregistration times without prior notice.

Eliminations

The tournament ends when one player accumulates all the chips in play, or in some tournaments, 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 #13), two or more players eliminated during a single 'synchronized' hand are treated as having been eliminated simultaneously, even if they are at different tables.
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. During this hand for hand period, all eliminations during a ‘synchronized’ hand (even at different tables) are treated as having happened simultaneously, for purposes of determining finish order. Finishing order is then based on comparing stack sizes per rule #12, and not on who lost their chips earlier.
PokerStars uses a ‘forward-moving button’ rule in its 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, and the rule is necessarily fair for all players.
When two players remain, 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. 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. On occasion, the software may balance tables to ensure all tables have an equal (or as close to equal as possible) number of active players. 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’.

Breaks

The break schedule for a tournament can be found in the ‘Tournament Info’ dialog, which can be opened from the tournament lobby. Players are encouraged to study the break schedule for each tournament they wish to play, as break length and timing may vary from one event to the next. PokerStars offers two varieties of breaks:
1. Tournaments with synchronised 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.
  
  Tournaments of this type can be identified by the phrase 'The tournament goes on break at 55 minutes past the hour', found in the main lobby information panel, the ‘Tournament Info’ dialog, and in some cases the tournament lobby message.
  
  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.
2. 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).

Disconnects and Sitting Out

By participating in a tournament, a player accepts the risk of Internet disconnection, due to problems with the connection between their computer and the servers, lag or freeze or some other problem in the player's computer or the Internet.
1. PokerStars does not accept any responsibility for a player disconnect except in the case of a server crash.
2. While each user is responsible for his or her own Internet connection, PokerStars makes an effort to protect players who are disconnected during the final stages of a real money tournament, by allowing extra time to reconnect. The rules for activating Disconnect Extra Time (DET) are outlined here.
3. If a player times out during a hand, whether connected or disconnected, his or her hand will be folded if facing action, or may be checked if facing no action.
4. If a player is not connected before a hand starts, he or she will be dealt cards, and a blind and/or antes will be posted. There is no rule against a single player choosing to sit out; the player doing so will continue to have blinds and antes posted and cards dealt. Two or more players may not make any agreement to sit out simultaneously, whether at the same table or different tables.
5. In shootout and heads-up events, if all players at a table are disconnected and / or sitting out for a large number of hands (typically 250 hands or more in real money tournaments), the match will end and the player with the most chips will advance to the next round.

Chat

Note: This rule is intended to supplement, not replace, the Cardroom Rules, which contains more information on acceptable and unacceptable chat.

Players, whether in the hand or not, may not discuss the hands until the action is complete. Players are obligated to protect the other players in the tournament at all times. Discussing cards discarded or hand possibilities is not allowed. A penalty may be given for discussion of hands during play.

Note: The purpose of this rule is to protect the interests of players who are still in the tournament but not in the current hand. Please see our Prohibited Tournament Chat examples for further information. More specifically, this rule does not apply to situations where only two players remain in a tournament, or the tournament began as a heads-up match.

Unethical Play

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.
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 ranging from a warning, to disqualification from the tournament (with partial or full forfeiture of winnings), to barring from PokerStars.

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:

Going to bed and letting someone else finish the tournament.
Entering a tournament then getting on an airplane, or embarking on any other pre-planned trip, while asking a friend to play your account while you change location.
Deciding that it would be fun to finish the Sunday Million at Joe's house then asking Joe to take over your account, while you make the 30-minute trip to his house.
d. You and a friend are playing in the same tournament. You agree that if he busts out before you do, he will take over playing your account.
Your husband is out of town for the weekend, but gives you his password. You log into both his account and yours and play both accounts in the same tournament.
You have progressed to the final few tables of a tournament and somebody offers you cash equity for your seat. You allow the other player to sign into your account, or you continue to finish the tournament following the explicit instructions given by him.

Examples of things which are beyond your control and therefore allowed, subject to PokerStars being able to corroborate with evidence, include:

A thunderstorm strikes your location and takes the power down for the surrounding area, so you call a friend to take over your account while you make alternative arrangements.
Your child is taken ill and you have to attend hospital, so you call a friend to take over your account.
You are playing in a tournament and lose internet access in your home due to a failure of your ISP. You call a friend and he takes over while you make alternative arrangements.

Server Issues

In the event of a server crash, the hands in progress at every table will be restored by rolling back those hands. Each player's chip count will be reset to the amount at the beginning of the hand. In special circumstances, when a tournament needs to be cancelled because of a crash or some other reason, players will be compensated according to PokerStars' tournament cancellation policy.

Deal Making

Deal making is allowed in PokerStars tournaments, unless otherwise specified in the tournament lobby.
1. If all remaining players in a tournament agree to split the prize money according to a formula of their choosing, PokerStars will accept this agreement, transfer the funds upon completion of the event, and send transfer receipts to all parties to the agreement.
2. If all players remaining wish to make a deal, please email support@pokerstars.com with the subject line: ‘URGENT Tournament # (insert tournament number) chop’ and a PokerStars staff member will come to the table to ensure a smoothly arranged deal. PokerStars cannot guarantee that a staff member will arrive in a timely fashion although every effort will be made to avoid delays.
3. All players must indicate their willingness to take part in a deal negotiation before PokerStars will pause the tournament clock.
4. PokerStars 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.
5. PokerStars reserves 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.
6. It is the players' responsibility to determine total agreement. In the absence of oversight at the table by PokerStars support personnel, chat records alone will not necessarily validate an agreement. However, PokerStars may enforce a deal if it was clearly agreed to by all parties.
7. Only players at the final table may deal for the money, and all deals must include all remaining players.
8. Deals will only be enforced for real money tournaments.
9. 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.

In case of disputes, PokerStars’ management decision will be final.