All players must have a PSLive Account to participate in any EPT* tournament. If you don’t have one you will be able to Sign-up onsite at the tournament venue with our live events staff at a PSLive Sign Up Desk. Any questions? Contact us.

In Limit Poker, the minimum buy-in is equal to 10-times the big blind. There is no maximum buy-in. For example, in a $5/10-limit game, the big blind value is $5, so the minimum buy-in is equivalent to 10 x. The amount of money that a player is restricted to using when joining a particular table, including a minimum requirement, maximum amount, or both a minimum and maximum. EXAMPLE: 'For the table I joined, the buy-in was $200. Buy on Amazon A simple game of poker only needs a few things: chips, people, and some cards to pass around. A good deck of cards might seem too obvious as a gift, but you should never underestimate. 9 hours ago  This is a discussion on Do you think big buy-in is easier than small buy-in tour? Within the online poker forums, in the Tournament Poker section; big buy-in, limited rebuy, 1 or no add-ons. A buy-in is the initial amount of money a player exchanges for chips when they sit down at a poker table to start their session.In a tournament, this money is exchanged for some amount of tournament chips.

EPT Buy-in Options

You can buy into upcoming events using the following methods:

EventCashChipsCOM/EU Stars AccountCredit CardDebit CardCasino Online ShopCasino Wire Transfer
EPT SochiXXX*X*X
Monte-CarloXXXXXX
EPT BarcelonaXXXX*X*X***X**
EPT Open SochiXXX*X*X
EPT PragueXXXXXX

*Credit/Debit Cards won’t be accepted at the Registration desks. Players need to purchase chips at the Casino Cashier and then proceed to the Cash Registration desks.
**Players who wire funds will need to collect them at the Casino Cage and then proceed to Cash Registration desks.
*** Register via the casino's website here.

Read on for more details regarding each option.

Cash and chips will be accepted at the Registration desk at each event. Visit the Registration desk with your PSLive Card to buy-in.

For EPT Sochi, players wishing to register using cash should first purchase chips and then buy-in using chips at the registration desk.

COM/EU Stars Account holders can buy-in before an event by going to the ‘Events’ > 'Live' lobby in the game client. Online registration will be available from around six weeks before an event until the end of late registration for the respective event. There is no need to visit the Registrations Desk onsite if you register online – just head straight to the Ticket Collection Desk.

Please Note: there are regional restrictions regarding online buy-ins. Please contact our Registrations Team if you are unsure.

Casinos will accept credit and debit card payments, either directly for tournament registration, or to purchase chips from the casino cage. Casinos will only accept nominative cards, and there maybe restrictions on what cards are accepted.

Please check each Casino's website for details.

For EPT Barcelona, the Casino will offer an online buy-in page via their website. This is not offered for other EPT events. You can register via the casino's website here.

Casinos will offer a wire transfer service, and players can transfer funds to the venue for cash games and tournament registrations. Contact our Registrations Team for further information.

The wiring process is subject to change per event and regional restrictions may apply.

General Information

  • Registration desks will be clearly signposted at each event.
  • Registration desk will open daily, from one hour before the start of the first tournament of a given day. Main and National events will open two hours before. Registration desks will stay open until the late registration period for that day's last tournament has ended.*
  • Registration hours for specific tournaments are listed on all tournament schedules.
  • Pre-registered players can collect tournament tickets from the Ticket Collection Desk once each tournament's registration has opened.
WorldFor

*Subject to change

Please Note:

  • Unregistration is not permitted after tournament start times, and buy-in funds will be added to the overall prize pool.
  • Buy-ins are only accepted through one payment method. For example, you cannot buy in to a tournament with part cash and part Stars Account.

EPT Payout Options

You can choose to be credited your winnings by one payment method, or by a combination of different payment methods. Here's what options are available at upcoming events:

TermWhat Is The Buy In For Poker
EventStars AccountCasino Wire TransferCash
EPT SochiXX
Monte-CarloXXX
EPT BarcelonaXXX
EPT Open SochiXX
EPT PragueXXX

Read on for more details regarding each option.

Regional and Stars Account status restrictions may apply.

Where applicable, casinos will offer wire transfers. Restrictions may apply. For more information, contact us.

What

*Players can ONLY wire tournament winnings back to their bank account via casino wire transfers. Casinos will verify that funds are legitimate tournament winnings.

A maximum amount may apply.

SPECIAL NOTICE REGARDING PSLIVE WALLET SERVICE

PSLive Wallet is no longer available as a buy-in option or a payout option.

If you still have a balance on your PSLive account please contact us to make a withdrawal.

Got questions about our events? Click here for answers.

Buy-In

Buy-in is the dues (usually cash) every player pays to play at a poker tournament . These dues are put in a prize pool to pay the tournament winner(s).

Typical amount of buy in range from $5/player (small house games) to $10,000/player (world series of poker main event). Sometimes the buy-in is in the form of $50+$5. This means that every player will have to pay $55 to get in the game. However only $50 of it goes toward the prize pool and $5 goes to the “house”. The $5 fee is usually to pay for the host’s costs and profit.

If you are hosting a poker tournament you need to specify the amount of the buy in before the game. Use the following points to choose the best buy-in amount:

  • How large (number of players) you want your tournament to be. A larger buy-in translates into fewer players. Therefore, if you want to host a large tournament (Ex. a charity poker tournament), you’ll be better off with a smaller buy-in.
  • The amount you and other poker players at the game are willing to lose.
  • If you are offering dedicated dealers at every table, free food, or for your own profit, you can add a 10% fee to the buy-in amount.

Advice on Buy-In:

What Is The Buy In For Poker Real Money

Following are some Buy-In advice and notes to help you run a smooth and organized poker tournament:

  • If you are playing for a large amount, it’s better to set longer blind periods such as half an hour. When players pay a considerable amount of money, they want to at least stay in the game for a while. Long blind period stretches the length of the game.
  • Players play tighter when the buy-in amount is large. So if you are hosting an expensive tournament with 3 tables or so expect a long tournament (at least 5 or 6 hours).
  • As a rule of thumb take cash only for the buy-in money. There will always be players that “forgot” to bring cash with them or want to play on a loan. Keep in mind that YOU (the tournament host) are responsible to pay the winner at the end. So make everyone pay up front. You can simply tell players in question that you “don’t have enough cash at home to cover them”.
  • Write down the name of all players and mark their names “Paid” once you take the buy-in money from them

Rebuys

Imagine you’re hosting a tournament with 15 players and your friend busts out early. He has to sit around and watch everyone play until a new game has started. This is where rebuys come in. The rebuy allows the player who just lost all of his chips to buy back in the tournament.

Imagine you’re hosting a tournament with 15 players and your friend busts out early. He has to sit around and watch everyone play until a new game has started. This is where rebuys come in. The rebuy allows the player who just lost all of his chips to buy back in the tournament.

  • The rebuy amount should be the same amount as the original buy-in amount.
  • Players who rebuy should get the same amount of chips as they received in the beginning of the game.

What Poker Hands To Play

Advice on Rebuys

A rebuy tournament has it’s own rules and constraints. Following are the most important ones:

  • The number of times that players can rebuy should be set before the game starts. It can be 1, 2, 3 or unlimited.
  • Rebuys are only allowed in a limited amount of time in the beginning of the tournament. This time is usually set by the number of times that the tournament blind has increased. For example 2 rebuys per player can be allowed during the first 3 blinds.
  • Rebuys can be allowed when a player loses all of his chips or the his chip count goes under a certain level. For example in a tournament where players start with 2500 in chips, rebuys can be allowed when a player’s chip count goes under $500. This rules has to be set prior to starting the tournament.
      • Players can only add enough chips to make their stack the original amount. In the above example if a player loses his chips down to 400, he can do a rebuy, but only receive 2100 in chips from the tournament manager.

What Is The Buy In For The Us Poker Open

      • If the player wants to rebuy when he still has chips (less than 500 in the above example) he will still have to pay the full amount for rebuy.
  • If you do allow rebuys in your poker tournament, make sure you write down the name of players who rebuy with the number of time they have re-bought.

Once you decide to have rebuys at your tournament, you need to decide how many re-buys you want to allow per player. There are two different ways that you can handle this:

  • Limited rebuy: A limited rebuy is when each player can rebuy only certain number of times. After rebuying that many times, he/she is out of tournament.
  • Unlimited rebuy: In an unlimited rebuy tournament, players can rebuy (buy back) as many times as they want, until the rebuy period is over. A good tournament structure would be to allow unlimited re-buys during the first two/three blinds. Unlimited rebuy also creates larger prize pools.

A poker tournament that does not allow rebuys is called a freezout tournament.

Effects of rebuy on the game:

  • Once rebuys are allowed in a tournament players know that they can buy back if they bust out so the game tends to be looser than normal. This varies by the amount of buy-in and rebuy, but in general you are going to have a looser game with rebuys than without rebuy.
  • Rebuys tend to create large prize pools. Let’s say if you have a $10 buy in with unlimited re buys for the first hour with 16 players. Without the rebuy you will have $160 in the prize pool. With the rebuy your prize pool usually doubles or triples. The reason for that is $10 is not much and once people lose they want to get back in the game so they spent another $10 and mostly don’t keep track of how many times they’ve bought in.

Basic Strategy Tip

If you are playing at an unlimited rebuy tournament, try to double and triple up fast, but don’t play too loose, and keep in mind if you are doing a rebuy for the fourth or fifth time, you probably should call it the night. After your fourth or fifth rebuy, other players stacks are going to be much larger than the original stack (which is what you would get if you rebuy). This makes it every hard (if not impossible) for you to catch up and be able to make plays if you are re-buying late in the tournament.