When you sit down at a table at an online Poker room, ready to play your chosen tournament, you are allocated a specific number of chips. The amount can vary greatly but it's the same for each player, giving each an equal start. Typically you receive around 500-2000 in chips and your aim is to try and win chips from your rival opponents whilst at the same time trying to avoid going broke. If you run out of chips and there are re-buys you can stay in the game, but if the re-buy period has ended you must leave the game and are eliminated from the competition. If you survive long enough, your finishing position determines how much money you have won.
Tournament play is sub-divided into levels which are defined either by a pre-determined number of hands to be played (say 10 or 20), or more commonly by a fixed period of time (from 5 to 30 minutes). Each level is differentiated from the previous one by an increase in the blinds being played.
The Blinds are the two forced bets placed by the two players immediately to the left of the dealer (or button) position. They typically double or increase by 50% from one level to the next and ensure that players are unable to simply sit at the table without playing any hands. The blinds also generate some initial action. In reality they act as forced bets and the smaller one of the two is called the Small Blind which is to the immediate left of the dealer whilst the other one is called the Big Blind. The Big Blind is usually double in size to the Small Blind but sometimes it is only one and half times its size.
When play begins you can bet any amount from the size of the Big Blind up to the total amount in front of you (your chip stack size) and this is why the game is called No Limit Poker (as compared to Limit or Pot Limit Poker when there are limits on how much you can bet). Any time you put all your chips into the pot you are said to be "All In." Needless to say, if your bet is called and your opponent has more chips than you, the only chips you can win are those up to the size of those chips you yourself have put into the pot. Furthermore, should you lose that hand against an opponent with more chips than yourself, you are eliminated.
Two cards are dealt to each player face down and these are known as the players' Hole Cards. A round of betting then follows after which three cards are placed face up in the middle of the table (this is referred to as The Flop). Another round of betting follows and then a fourth up card in the middle of the table called The Turn or Fourth Street is exposed. Another round of betting takes place followed by a final fifth up card on Fifth Street or The River, as it is more commonly known. A final round of betting then takes place after which we have The Showdown, where all the cards are exposed and the best hand wins.
The winning hand is the one that contains the best hand made up from any five cards from the seven cards available from the five cards in the middle of the table (the Board Cards) and each player's two hole cards. A player may use one, two or none of his hole cards to make his best possible hand and where there is a tie the pot is split between all the joint winning hands.
Any time a solitary player is left at the table with uncalled or uncontested bets - he/she is declared the winner and does not have to show his/her cards.
These are the basics to the game and now we'll move on to how we can actually best play the game.