How Long Do Poker Games Last? (Hands and Tournaments)

If you’ve never played poker, you might wonder how long do poker games last? The answer might surprise you — because there isn’t an exact answer.

Poker games last as long as there are players still playing. Some poker rooms close for at least a few hours every day. So, the games in these rooms end when the room closes. But in private games and in poker rooms that don’t close, a poker game goes as long as there’s a dealer available and players willing to play.

Here are some additional questions and answers about poker games and time limits.

Is There a Time Limit in Poker?

Whether you play poker in a casino or stand-alone poker room, in general, there’s no time limit in live poker. But there are a couple of possible time limits to be aware of in poker.

The first time limit to be aware of in poker is on each hand. Poker rooms and dealers don’t usually enforce a time limit on a poker hand unless an opposing player requests it. And this doesn’t happen often.

About the only time you see a poker player request a time or clock on an opposing player is in a tournament when a player is taking a long time to make a decision. Most players are hesitant to call for the clock because they don’t want an opponent calling the clock on them in the future.

I’ve seen a few poker tournaments using a time clock on each hand, but this isn’t a common practice.

The other type of time limit you need to know about in poker is the schedule when the blinds and antes go up in tournaments. The blinds and antes go up on a strict schedule in poker tournaments.

The blind and ante schedule isn’t the same thing as a time limit, but it does force players to be aware of the schedule. As the blinds and antes go up, players are forced to increase their stack or risk busting out of the tournament.

When you play online poker there are time limits. Your time counts down every time you must make a decision and resets as soon as you make your play.

How Long Should a Poker Tournament Last?

To determine how long a poker tournament should last you have to consider a couple of factors. Some poker tournaments last less than an hour and others last three days or longer.

The two things that influence how long a poker tournament lasts are the number of people entered in the tournament and how fast the blinds and antes go up. Another thing that can influence how long poker tournaments last is the size of the starting stacks. And finally, if a tournament has a re-buy period it can make the tournament last longer.

On the low end of poker tournament length are sit-and-go tournaments. These tournaments are usually single table fields with eight to 10 players. The blinds in most of these tournaments go up quickly, so these games tend to last an hour or less.

On the other side, large poker tournaments like the main event at the World Series of Poker run for several days. The starting stacks are high compared to the blinds, and the blind and ante schedule is slow. The number of entrants also runs in the 1,000s.

You can find many poker tournaments that fall between single table and large multi-day events. Many small tournaments last two to four hours and some larger tournaments last all day.

If you’re worried about how long a tournament is going to last, here’s what to do. Look for single table tournaments or tournaments with a low number of entrants.  But if you want to play in poker tournaments with the largest prize pools, be prepared to play for several hours, or even days.

Can You Leave a Poker Game at Any Time?

You can technically leave a poker game at any time. But there’s a difference between cash games and tournaments.

If you’re playing in a cash game, which is also called a ring game, you can pick up your chips and leave the table whenever you’re finished playing. You don’t have to tell anyone you’re leaving, but it’s polite to inform the dealer so they can tell the desk they have room for a new player.

When you’re playing in a cash game and need to leave for a few minutes, tell the dealer you’re stepping away and plan to be back. For example, if you’re headed to the bathroom, tell the dealer you’re going to be back in five minutes.

If you’re going to be gone for longer than 10 minutes, consider taking your chips and finding a new seat when you return.

When you enter a poker tournament you should plan to keep playing until the end. If you leave your seat during a poker tournament, the dealer will place the blinds from your stack and deal your cards while you’re away. Your hand will be considered dead until you return.

Some poker rooms have a rule that you can’t take money off the table until you’re finished playing. In this case, you can’t leave a table and come back in a short time with less money than you left the table with.

How Long Does a Poker Hand Last?

Poker hands don’t usually last long. I’ve played poker hands that lasted less than 30 seconds. But some hands can last for five minutes or more.

Most poker hands last an average of somewhere around two to three minutes. Online poker hands don’t last as long on average as live poker hands because the software shuffles and deals the cards quickly.

When you play poker online there’s a clock on each player when it’s their turn to act. This keeps the pace faster online than in land-based poker rooms.

The length of poker hands also varies from table to table. Some players are slower than others, and if you’re at a table with a couple of slow players it can seem slow. Some online poker sites list how many hands per hour each table is playing, so you can look for fast or slow tables.

When Does a Poker Game End?

Poker tournaments end when only one player remains. But cash games don’t tend to have set end times.

If you’re playing poker in a poker room that closes, the poker games end at closing time. But if you’re playing in a poker room that doesn’t close or in a private poker game, the games end when the players stop playing.

As long as two or more people are willing to keep playing and there’s someone to deal the cards, a poker game can go on forever. Players leave the game and players join the game, but the game can continue as long as players want to play.

Live poker rooms open and close tables based on how many people want to play. A busy poker room can have 20 or more tables running at certain times, and only have two or three tables open at other times.

How Long Do Poker Games Last Online?

Online poker differs from live poker. The poker rooms don’t need to have dealers available, and the software takes care of seating players and the chips.

Unless the online poker room has to close for maintenance or because of a technical issue, an online poker game can run for as long as the room is open. Online poker rooms are open 24 hours every day, and as long as there are players the games keep running.

At the low limit tables at big online poker rooms, there are always plenty of tables running. If you play for several hours you see most of the people you started playing with leave and be replaced by new players.

And you can leave and come back several hours later and the same table is probably still running.

Conclusion

Poker games don’t have time limits. Cash poker games run as long as people want to play. And most poker tournaments don’t have set time limits, but they eventually end because the blinds force players to play.

Poker is one long playing session for everyone who plays. The playing session is broken up with everything else you do in life, but it’s never over until you stop playing forever.

So the question should be how long do you want to play poker, not how long do poker games last.