What Are Tournament Dollars?

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Tournament Dollars (also referred to as T$) are a parallel currency offered by several online poker rooms, most notably PokerStars. Tournament dollars are generally earned by players when they win a seat to a tournament in a satellite and then unregister from that tournament. Instead of refunding the buy in amount in cash, rooms award tournament dollars, which can typically only be used to buy in to tournaments.

A Brief History of Tournament Dollars

The tournament dollar currency was introduced by PokerStars as a way to offer players more flexibility in satellite play. Prior to tournament dollars, players who won a seat to a larger tournament via a satellite were forced to play that tournament or essentially forfeit their winnings.

Several rooms offer some form of T$, but PokerStars is unique in that they offer players a mechanism for buying and selling T$ from other players. This allows players who win T$ but want to cash them out an avenue for doing so. Full Tilt also allows you to convert tournament dollars to cash, but charges a fee for doing so.

Selling your PokerStars Tournament Dollars

There are several marketplaces online where you can sell your PokerStars tournament dollars. We run a site for selling your Stars T$ called psmoney.com. Several other communities also offer T$ sales, including pokernews, 2+2 and so on.

Commonly, the rate for T$ is about 97%. If you’re not getting 97%, just shop around – you’ll be able to find that rate at a ton of major trading sites for tournament dollars. Very few sites sell tournament dollars, however – in fact, I haven’t come across one for a year or so – and the ones that do generally sell them at only a microscopic discount, so it might not be worth the time to search.

More about PokerStars W$

PokerStars had another class of tournament currency, called W$. That currency has been discontinued.