There has been a definite trend in the poker world away from rebuy tournaments and towards re-entry tournaments. Today in addition to Freezeouts and Rebuy Tournaments, Blind Valet now supports re-entry tournaments.
What’s the difference?
Traditionally in a rebuy tournament, during the rebuy period, a player can rebuy more chips whenever they are at or below the starting stack of the tournament. Then after the rebuy period, they can choose to take an addon, more chips for an additional fee regardless of their current stack. In rebuy tournaments, if a player loses all their chips, but chooses to rebuy, this is NOT an elimination. They stay in their current seat and just reload with a new . This should not be considered a knockout for the player that took their chips.
In a re-entry tournament, during the re-entry period, if a player loses all their chips they are eliminated from the tournament. The player that took their chips earns a knockout and the player gives up their seat. They can then decide if they want to buy back in to the tournament. They can do it immediately or wait until later in the re-entry period. At the end of the re-entry period, some tournament structures will also offer an addon, but it depends on the tournament.
How does this affect league scoring?
In a rebuy tournament, it doesn’t matter if a player rebuys twenty times during the rebuy period, they can still win the tournament and win the top prize for league points. This is because, as we stated above, they were not eliminated from the tournament.
However, in a re-entry tournament, if they lose all their chips, it counts as an elimination. For this reason, only the first entry for each player counts towards the league standings. The player can re-enter the tournament and still be in competition for the top spot in the tournament payouts, but not for the league points.
How are re-entry tournaments supported in Blind Valet?
Instead of just a checkbox for Rebuy Tournament, there is now a new Tournament Type field where the tournament organizer can select Re-entry Tournament
Then you just run the tournament as you normally would. You eliminate players when they lose all their chips, and if the player chooses to they can register again for the tournament. Both entries will show on the tournament leaderboard, but only the first entry will show in the league points results. The addon option is available, to be used or not at the discretion of the tournament director.
