Re-entry, rebuy and add-on: three different extra payments

A £22 tournament entry can become a £66 bill without the advertised entry price changing. That happens in an invented event where a player pays £20 towards the prizes plus a £2 fee, loses all their chips and buys two further entries at the same price. The original payment and two re-entries make three payments.

Re-entry, rebuy and add-on all involve extra tournament chips, but the purchase happens under different conditions. PokerStars' public rules provide the examples below. The cash figures and chip quantities are ours, not an advertised PokerStars tournament or evidence that the service is available in any particular country.

Re-entry starts another attempt

PokerStars' re-entry help requires elimination first. A player who still has chips cannot use re-entry to increase that stack. If the immediate offer is skipped, registration can still be available within the event's late-registration period, subject to its entry limit.

The standings count total entries. A name followed by [3] means a third entry, including the first attempt, rather than three additional purchases. The event lobby sets the permitted number.

In our £20 + £2 example, one original entry and two re-entries cost 3 × £22 = £66. Of that, £60 goes towards prizes and £6 pays the assumed fees. This model charges the same fee on each entry; it does not establish the charging policy of a real event.

Assume each attempt starts with 5,000 chips. The player receives 15,000 chips across those attempts, but never carries the eliminated stacks into the next entry. Those issued chips are not a single 15,000-chip starting stack.

PokerStars' tournament-format description makes the seat distinction explicit: a rebuy preserves the seat, whereas a re-entry assigns a new one, usually at another table.

A rebuy adds chips within the existing entry

Under the same provider's published description, rebuys belong to a specified early period. Eligibility can depend on the current chip count and the permitted number of purchases. PokerStars describes a usual threshold at or below the starting stack, while warning that individual event details can differ.

A rebuy therefore need not wait for elimination. A player can still have chips and qualify. Once the period closes, a low stack does not keep that purchase window open.

An add-on has its own timing. PokerStars' add-on help places it at the break after the rebuy period and allows it regardless of the player's stack. The help describes it as optional unless Auto Add-On is enabled. A tournament with an add-on is not offering that purchase throughout play.

For a separate invented rebuy event, assume an initial £20 contribution plus a £2 fee, two permitted £20 rebuys and one £20 add-on. Assume those extra purchases carry no fee in this example. The outlay is £22 + £40 + £20 = £82: £80 towards prizes and £2 in fees. If the actual event charges for extra purchases, those charges must also enter the bill.

Suppose the original stack and each rebuy issue 5,000 chips, while the add-on issues 10,000. That is 25,000 chips issued over the event to this entry. Its current stack also reflects chips won and lost; it cannot be reconstructed from the purchase receipts alone. The different quantities do not demonstrate that an add-on is a profitable purchase.

The lobby price still needs a breakdown

PokerStars' commission page distinguishes money withheld from cash-game pots from charges taken through tournament buy-ins. It says the tournament amount varies and appears in the buy-in details. A headline entry price alone cannot tell us the fee on every later purchase. Our poker rake explainer covers those collection models separately.

The provider's Tournament Rules, sections 1.3 and 1.7, direct readers to the event information and say the prize structure is not final until registration and the rebuy or add-on period have ended. Its general description is not a substitute for the chosen event's prices, deadlines or chip allocations.

These sums measure money paid, not expected winnings. Buying another stack commits more money without recovering the earlier payment. The £66 re-entry bill and £82 rebuy bill describe two different invented structures; neither is the price of a real tournament, and neither predicts what the player takes home.