These rules apply to tournaments at PalaPoker.com. Additional rules that relate to the site as a whole can be found under House Rules.

1.    General

• Important information about each tournament, including the blind structure, length of rounds, rebuy and break information, can be found in the tournament lobby. PalaPoker.com reserves the right to change the parameters of any tournament at any time without notice.
• Seats are assigned at random.
• The button will be randomly assigned when the tournament starts.
• 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.
• In order to be eligible to rebuy in a rebuy tournament, you must have the funds available in your account. Players without sufficient funds remaining in their account will be eliminated from the tournament. Funds currently in play in other games are not considered to be available.
• 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 lobby.
• Unregistration: Most tournaments allow unregistration until a few minutes before the event begins.

2.    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 three identical prizes, the tournament may end when there are three 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.
• 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.
• 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. 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’.

3.    Breaks

• The break schedule for a tournament can be found in the tournament lobby.
• 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.

4.    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. PalaPoker.com 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, PalaPoker.com makes an effort to protect players who are disconnected during the final stages of a real money tournament, by allowing extra time to reconnect.
  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.
  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.

5.    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.

6.    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. PalaPoker.com routinely reviews 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.
• 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 PalaPoker.com.

7.    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 PalaPoker.com’s tournament cancellation policy.

8.    Bounties

• 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.

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