Online Poker Tournament Rules

1. Tournaments will begin at the time designated in the tournament details.  Unless otherwise noted in the tournament lobby notes, a minimum of 5 players is required for any multi-table tournament to start.

2. Players are assigned seats randomly and are not allowed to choose or change their seats.

3. Late registration is allowed and will vary from 10 to 60 minutes depending on the tournament. For details regarding a specific tournament, please refer to the Scheduled Tournament lobby or contact Bodog Customer Service.

4. Players may unregister from a tournament up to 10 minutes before the start of the event.

5. There is a deal for the button at the start of the tournament - high card plays the button for the first hand.

6. The button moves in the conventional clockwise manner so that no player receives the button twice in a row. Occasionally a player will become the button without having played in the blinds due to other players being eliminated. This occurs commonly in online tournaments and is due to technical software reasons. This may happen to any player during the course of a tournament, and therefore creates no long term advantage.

7. If two players should be eliminated simultaneously, then the player with the largest stack size at the beginning of the hand will be designated as having finished higher.

8. When a tournament is down to the last two players, the button will post the small blind and be first to act in the initial round. The big blind will then be first to act in the following rounds.

9. The tournament finishes when one player has won all the tournament chips and is declared the winner.

10. Internet Connection Issues and disconnections are a reality of online poker. Bodog will do its utmost to limit any kind of interruptions during a tournament, but does not assume responsibility for any problems unrelated to the performance of the game server. Bodog acknowledges that certain Internet issues may be unavoidable and allows extra time for disconnected players to reconnect in the later rounds of a tournament. If players choose to sit out or are unable to reconnect, they will still have cards dealt to them and will automatically post blinds and antes. Players that are unable to reconnect during the allotted time will have their hands automatically folded. In the event a player is disconnected during a hand where the action is checked to the said player, the hand will be checked unless a specific action is required by the player.

11. In the event of a server interruption all hands will be “rolled back” to the start of the interrupted hand, and all chip stacks will reflect the original amounts that existed before the hand started. In the unlikely event that the tournament must be canceled, participating players will be compensated based on the Bodog Tournament Cancellation Policy.

12. Any play that is deemed unethical, such as team play, soft play, or chip dumping, will result in a player(s) being disqualified from the tournament.

13. As players are eliminated over the course of the tournament, tables will be consolidated to keep a full complement of players. Players may be forced to post the blinds when arriving at a new table. Table reassignments are an inherent and random part of tournaments, and apply equally to all players.

14. Players and observers are asked to use the chat function in a friendly and considerate way. At no time are players and observers allowed to discuss or comment on live hands.

15. All prizes will be distributed according to the specific details of each individual tournament. All details concerning a tournament may be found in the Tournament Lobby.

16. All decisions made by Bodog regarding any aspects of a tournament are regarded as final.

Exceptions to the above rules:

*** Any rules pertaining to the button or button movements apply only to Texas Holdem and Omaha.

*** Sit and Go tournaments do not begin at a specified time, but rather when there are enough players to fill a table.