Emerald00671: As the tournament starts, the system checks to see the status of the player & should kick him out of the tournament since he will not have enough free game slots left.

Since he signed up for the tournament while he was a member, it will still show him in there - in case he does get a membership before the tournament starts, it will still start as normal.

One of the "bonus" of being a member is you can continue to play in all games/tournaments already started when your membership goes away, but NEW tournaments should not start.