Is this an OK structure or does it suck?

[Baatzu]

Hello All,

We have a small group that gets together about once a month to play poker. We play NLHE. We play a tournament structure which we like. We have been tossing sround the idea of playing a limit HE tournament style game though and I was wondering if this structure is ok or if it is really bad.

Here goes: Minimum 7 players

Buy-in $40.00
House Rake: $10.00
$48.00 2 cases beer and ice
$10.00 snacks
$12.00 water
=$70.00 for house any left over goes to bad beat/best hand pot.

Prize Pool:

Pay Top Three
1st $100.00
2nd $60.00
3rd $50.00

If everyone wants to bring own drinks and snacks no house rake and payout is as follows

Prize Pool:
1st $130.00
2nd $80.00
3rd $70.00

If more players want to play up to 10 payout goes as such. With rake add $10.00 to each place per player. Without rake add $10.00 to 2nd and 3rd per player and $20.00 to 1st per player addd up to 10 players max.

Blinds start at $5/$10

Betting structure is as follows: 3 bet max
First round players can call for big blind around.
pre-flop three raise max $20-$40-$60
flop $20-$40-$60
turn $40-$60-$120
river $40-$60-$120

When down to final 3 blinds increase to $25/$50 to get game over and people out of my house /images/graemlins/grin.gif and betting structure changes as follows

pre-flop players can call around for big blind
pre-flop three bet max $100-$150-$200
flop $100-$150-$200
turn $200-$400-$600
river $200-$400-$600

Starting chips
$150 in $5
$300 in $10
$550 in $25
$1000 in $50
total $2000.00 start chips.

Thank you for input and flame away if this structure really blows. Would appreciate any input to adjust to make better.

[pukenpete]

Hmmm. There's nothing horribly wrong for your game, but the pot odds will change significantly if you have a higher 4th round bet so it might be strange for someone used to playing limit poker. Also, 7 guys in 2 cases of beer might make remembering to play with this betting structure difficult. You can try a timed blind structure increase to move the game along. Check out:

http://www.homepokertourney.com/

Seems to be the site of choice of home gamers at this forum.

[grandgnu]

Who wants to play a tournament where first place is only 2.5 times the buy-in? Pay only two places if you've got 7 players. If you get 9-12 players payout to 3 players, 13+ payout to 4 places. Good luck!

[emonrad87]

I think the point of their playing is for fun not profit...

my home games all are. Only 3 bets per street is a little odd to me, but i don't play limit tourneys so i could be wrong.

[grandgnu]

[ QUOTE ]
I think the point of their playing is for fun not profit...

my home games all are. Only 3 bets per street is a little odd to me, but i don't play limit tourneys so i could be wrong.

[/ QUOTE ]

For fun? Poker FOR FUN?????!!!!! Incredulous!!! Blasphemer! *gets out a torch*

Um, lessee.....well, their buy-in is 40 bucks and there's a house rake of 10 bucks per person? Doesn't sound like it's all fun and games to me. 25% rake? A "fun" game would be 5 bucks, 10 tops I would think. When you get past that then you're looking to make some sort of profit. IMHO

[Baatzu]

Thank you for the replys. The idea of the rake is not to make the house profit. Its just to buy the the stuff for the guests, any left over rake goes back to the game for a big hand/bad beat pot. Am I wrong with the 3 bet structure? I was under the impression that alot of limit games have a 3 bet cap. Seems like I have some tweeking tp do. Thanks again.

[Fins]

Frequently it's a bet & three raises (or a 3 raise max - 4 bets total) which is why in limit hold 'em it's best not to play with less than 12 BB:
Pre-flop 4 small bets
Post flop 4 small bets
Turn 4 big bets
River 4 big bets

... with small bet at half big bet total is 12 BB. If you play with less & get a great hand you could be loosing money so best to never go below 12 BB in limit.

Your structure seems odd to me... why not look into playing Pot Limit... or I guess you could use a max bet??. You wouldn't be able to make the correct plays to keep out draws with a typical limit structure.

If your set on it why not play regular limit...
* bet & 3 raise max
* first two betting rounds at small blind (pre-flop & flop)
* last two rounds a big blind (turn & river)
* increase blinds every x minutes or x times around the table
* play until one has it all


- Fins

[AlphaMeridian]

My thinking is on the rake issue is to simply ask the guests. For me, I _prefer_ that the game is just potluck - everyone brings food and or drink and shares, or, they just bring something for themselves so then you never have to think in the back of your mind "where is my rake money going to?", even though, you seem to itemize it very well. But if they're fine with the rake, go through with it, but you may not be able to pull any outside players because (it is after all) a 25% rake.

-Alpha