Tricks to raise tournament payouts

There are a few ways that a casino can boost the payouts at a poker tournament to make the tournament and the casino more attractive to players.

The first way is for the casino to contribute money to the tournament payout schedule.

The second way is to raise entry fees. A third way is to allow for rebuys and add-ons which can give players with deep pockets an unfair advantage.

A new way -- and more casinos are doing this -- is to have multiple entries allowed over multiple days. These prize pools can swell tremendously.

Hollywood Park Casino has just announced a tournament that is guaranteed to have a $50,000 prize for the winner with just an entry of $100. But the tournament allows for players to enter and re-enter over nine days. So when players try and try again and try again and keep trying for up to 9 days, the tournament pay pool swells.

I wrote about it here: http://www.alanbestbuys.com/id145.html

I don't like multiple entry or even rebuy tournaments. I like tournaments where you can buy in once and only once without rebuys, add-ons, or re-entry. I consider those to be true tournaments.

When you have multiple entries, multiple rebuys and multiple add-ons it almost turns the poker tournament into a lottery.