In the typical tournaments, a player pays fixed fees of entry (called a purchase) and receives, in the return, a certain quantity of currency of in-play, called the money of play, invariantly represented in the form of pieces of poker. Typically, the amount of money of play indicated each player is a multiple of whole number of the purchase.

Only this money of "play" of in-play can be employed in the play, true money cannot. Moreover, money of truth and play cannot be exchanged constantly. Some tournaments, however, offer the option of Re-buy; this gives to players the option to buy more pieces. In certain cases, Re-buys are conditional (for example, offered only to the bottom of players on pieces) but in others they without conditions, or are offered to all the players.

When a player does not have any piece remaining (and exhausted the whole Re-buy the options, if are available) it or it is eliminated from the tournaments. The prices to gain are usually derived from the fees of entry, although external funds can as well have entered. For example, some rare tournaments of invitation do not have fees of entry. One eliminates the play continues, in the majority of the tournaments, until all except a player, however in situations of some tournaments, particularly them without ceremony, of the players have the option of the end by consensus. The players opposite are arranged chronologically -- the last person in the play gains the 1st place, the second-with-last gains 2nd, and so on.