General Tournament Rules

1. Our tournaments exist in two formats:
   • Scheduled Tournaments- tournaments that begin according to a set schedule
   • Sit & Go Tournaments - tournaments that begin when a certain number of players have signed up
     

   Should you fail to log-in at the time the tournament commences, you are considered to be 'away', which means that you pay the blind and fold. You will be 'check/folded' until you actively join the tournament or until you have no remaining chips.

2. It is not possible to change seats during a tournament. You may, however, be moved due to table balancing which ensures that all tables have as equal numbers of players as possible.
   
   
3. At the start of all tournaments, seating is assigned randomly.
   
   
4. In order to decide where the blinds start, the players are high-carding for the button.
   
   
5. Tournaments will end when one player accumulates all the chips in play or the remaining prizes are the same.
   
   
6. Should two or more players be eliminated in the same hand, the player with more chips at the beginning of the hand will be placed higher. If the players started the hands with identical amounts of chips, then ranked hands decide, then position at table, and then random at multi-table tournaments.
   
   
7. When players supposed to post blind in the next hand are eliminated, the blinds move and the button is placed according to where the blinds are, that is, the button may stay put.
   
   
8. With only two players remaining, the player who has the button will post the small blind and act first on the opening round.
   
   
9. As players are knocked out, the tournament tables will be balanced to ensure that all tables have as equal numbers of players as possible.
   
   
10. Prizes will be awarded in accordance with the prize list.
    
    
11. Unethical play, including collusion, players using more than one account in tournaments, chip dumping and checkdown may result in disqualification and the termination of the offender's account.
    
    
12. Players are not allowed to discuss a hand until the hand is finished.
    
    
13. HollywoodPoker reserves the right to cancel tournaments due to technical issues. Upon such cancellation, the following refund policy applies: See Tournament Refund Policy.

Detailed tournament rules

Rebuys

During a tournament, if you run out of chips, you are usually knocked out of the game. In some tournaments, however, you are allowed to Rebuy to get more chips. Rebuys are setup at the tournament creation and can be limited through, time, chip stack, cost and chips received.

In the new P5 Poker Software Rebuys have changed slightly. If there is a chip stack limit on rebuys, it is evaluated at the start of the hand and not the end of a hand. Therefore, in P5, you can perform a rebuy at any time; your chip stack limit will be checked against your chip stack at the start of the hand. However, you will not be debited his funds or credited his chips until after your current hand has finished.

Massive Disconnect

If you lose connection, you will have an extra 30 seconds, according to the time kept by our servers, on top of the regular time allotment to reconnect and select a desired action.

If more than 50% of the players in a tournament are disconnected, the tournament will be on a "break".

If there are still more than 25% disconnected players after 4 minutes the tournament will be FROZEN.

If there are 25% or fewer players disconnected after the 4 minutes then the tournament will continue as if nothing had happened.

Exception: If there are 10 players or fewer remaining in a tournament, the same pause will occur when 80% of the players are disconnected. However, after the 4 minute pause, the tournament will require that 80% of the players reconnect in order for the tournament to resume.

Breaks

During a multi-table tournament there is usually a 5 minute break time for every hour played. A message will pre-empt a break and a break will not start until all tables have finished their hands. During the break period no hands will be dealt at the table.

Moving players to other tables

As players are knocked out, the tournament tables will be balanced to ensure that all tables have as equal numbers of players as possible. The balancing of the tables is carried out according to a special software algorithm designed to ensure only certain players will be moved in the interests of fairness. The algorithm takes into account a player's position in accordance to the blind and towards the end of tournament the algorithm also considers the table's average chip stack.

Tournament Refund Policy

First, it's important to note HollywoodPoker will always endeavour to issue tournament refunds as fairly as possible.

We have developed our refund policy with the understanding that not all refunds will be fair to all players. At present we have three fairest possible refund options; each option can be selected on any tournament and previewed for the fairest refund possible.

Refund Option #1
Buy-in will be refunded to all players. If a player bought-in with a ticket then they will get their ticket back, if they bought-in with cash then they will get their cash back. If a player made a Re-buy then their Re-buy funds will be refunded as well. The refund 'pool' is the actual tournament prize pool. Any guaranteed cash, added cash or guaranteed tickets are not covered in this refund; only the direct buy-in will be refunded.

Refund Option #2
Fee will be returned to the remaining players. 50% of the prize pool will be equally distributed to all remaining players. The other 50% of prize pool will be distributed to the remaining players according to their chip stack in comparison with the tournaments total chip pool.

Refund Option #3
If remaining players are in the money then a different refund rule could be used. Fee is returned to all remaining players. All the remaining players will get the next positional prize from the payout structure. Then 50% of the remaining prize pool will be equally distributed to all the remaining players. The other 50% of remaining prize pool will be distributed to the remaining players according to their chip stack in comparison with the tournament's total chip pool.

Here are some examples.

The Tournament Scenario
A $10+1 buy-in tournament has 100 players.
Each player has 1500 chips making a 150,000 tournament chip pool.
The $1,000 prize pool pays out the top 10 positions.

How Refund Option #1 works
The tournament has only been played for a little while and no one has busted out.

In this case, Refund Option #1 is most applicable. Each player is refunded the total buy-in amount. If they bought-in with a ticket they will get a ticket instantly refunded to their account. If they bought-in with cash, they will get cash refunded instantly to their account. Should any player have made a Re-buy during this time the player will also receive a refund of Re-buy money in their account.

How Refund Option #2 works
Some players have busted out of the tournament but the prize money stage has not yet been reached. There are 50 players remaining, you have 5000 chips and you are in 16th place.

In this case Refund Option #2 applies and players will be refunded so:

• The tournament fee is refunded to all 50 remaining players, you get $1.
• 50% of the $1000 player prize pool is refunded evenly to all 50 remaining players = 50% of $1000 is $500, divided by 50 players, you get $10.
• The $500 of the remaining player prize pool is distributed between the remaining players based on their current chip stack vs. the total tournament chip pool. You have 5000 chips. So, you get $500 X 5,000/150,000 = $16.68.
• Therefore, in total, you will receive a cash refund of $1+$10+$16.68 = $27.68.

How Refund Option #3 works
A lot of players have been knocked out and the remaining players are in the money. There are 8 players left and you are in 4th place with 20,000 chips.

In this case Refund Option #3 applies and players will be refunded so:

• The tournament fee is refunded to all 8 remaining players, you get $1.
• The next prize to be handed out in the payout structure is $50 and this same prize is given out to the 8 remaining players, you get $50.
• The remaining prize pool is now determined by deducting 8th position $50 refunds to 8 remaining players and 9th and 10th position payouts of $30 and $20 respectively. This leaves a remaining prize pool of $1000 - (8x$50) - $30 - $20 = $550.
• 50% of the remaining prize pool gets distributed evenly to the remaining 8 players. (50% of $550) / 8 = $34.38, you get $34.38.
• The remaining $275 of the prize pool is distributed between the 8 remaining players based on the chip stack vs. the tournaments total chip pool. You have 20,000 chips, and the total tournament chip pool is 150,000. Therefore, $275 X 20,000/150,000 = $36.67, you get $36.67.
• In total, your refund for this tournament would be, $1+$50+$34.38+$36.67 = $122.05.

In all cases, the players who have already been knocked out do not receive compensation. For these players there is no disruption to their tournament, they played out a normal tournament and were knocked out without any negative effect from the tournament.