Tournament clock

[Peter_rus]

My friends and I always argue during our home tourneys when to change the blinds and the exact structure, etc. I know that "The Clock" is not available for home purchase. Any other clocks out there that people like? Are there any clocks that are not computer based and are an actual device?

[TenPercenter]

[ QUOTE ]
My friends and I always argue during our home tourneys when to change the blinds and the exact structure, etc. I know that "The Clock" is not available for home purchase. Any other clocks out there that people like? Are there any clocks that are not computer based and are an actual device?

[/ QUOTE ]

I highly recommend Tournament Director (http://www.thetournamentdirector.net/).

Lots more info here. (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=home&Number=1111386&Forum= f10&Words="Tournament%20Director"&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Main=748397&Search=true&whe re=bodysub&Name=&daterange=1&newerval=1&newertype= y&olderval=&oldertype=&bodyprev=#Post1111386)

Ten

[ericslagle]

DD Tournament Poker is awesome. I got it at Best Buy for $20 and it's perfect. I use a Mac so I haven't been able to run other programs, but it's perfect for me. It allows you to do custom blinds, antes, duration of rounds, payouts, rebuys, etc. It tells when to color up too. I run a cable from my laptop to the TV and I've run tournaments with 4 tables and everyone sees just fine. The only complaints I have are that you can't scroll the payouts (opens in new window) and you can't insert breaks. It's worth $20 for sure though.

[pistol78]

If you do not want to use a software program a cooking/egg timer works great. YOu set it to whatever time you want *they usually go to 60 minutes and it rings when the time is up. And they only cost around 3.00 at your local Jewel/Osco

[Etaipo]

I've been using PokerClock (http://www.pokerclock.net/) (free demo available for download)

Works and looks great.

http://www.pokerclock.net/images/ss5.jpg

Also broadcasts over a network, so if you've got tables in two rooms, you can still run the same clock and display it in both rooms (as long as there's a network connected PC, thx 802.11 + laptop)

My demo version just expired, so I believe I'm going to have to plunk down the forty bucks for it.

[italianstang]

[ QUOTE ]
I run a cable from my laptop to the TV and I've run tournaments with 4 tables and everyone sees just fine.

[/ QUOTE ]

I cannot believe I am asking this given that I work in the computer programming field but how the hell did you hook up your laptop to your computer. When I got a hold of a good tournament poker software thing I had the same idea, hook up the laptop to the TV. So I went to Circuit City to get a cable that went from the monitor output plug to RCA jacks or something and they looked at me at the store like I was nuts. "Hook up computer up to your TV screen? Gee, I dont know, I never heard of that."

So I shook my head and went to BestBuy, Radioshack and a few other place with no luck. eBay has a cord that goes from monitor out to S-Video but I would rather just buy the damn thing in a store, I can't believe in 2004 this is such a hard thing to accomplish.

[wingsfan]

I've looked into this before too and a lot of it depends on your chipset. My laptop motherboard has an S-video plug on it so I can just go S-video to S-video for it. However, my desktop is just a standard desktop so that's a little trickier. They sell signal conversion kits to do the job (example (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00006B70W/qid=1102187030/sr=8-5/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i5_xgl23/102-0396391-8359336?v=glance&s=electronics&n=507846)) , but I've never wanted to plunk down the money to see how good they work. Look over your laptop and see if it has an S-video plug on it. I hope that you do. If not, you might want to check Office Max or Staples instead of Best Buy. These things are usually sold for business presentations and the like.

[italianstang]

I am such an idiot, there is an S-Video plug on my laptop, thanks for the reminder.

[wingsfan]

I understand completely. I'm a software developer myself and sometimes we get so bent on thinking outside of the box that thinking inside of the box eludes us.

[maryfield48]

Ten, I'm disappointed that as proficient a poster, and capable a person as I think you are, you would not avail yourself of tinyurl.com (http://www.tinyurl.com) and save us the horrible fate of horizontal scrolling.

[Hedge Henderson]

[ QUOTE ]
If you do not want to use a software program a cooking/egg timer works great. YOu set it to whatever time you want *they usually go to 60 minutes and it rings when the time is up. And they only cost around 3.00 at your local Jewel/Osco

[/ QUOTE ]

We're using a digital kitchen timer for our tourneys, too. It's simple and idiot-proof. It goes up to 9 hours, though we've never needed more than one. It beeps at ten minutes left/five minutes left. We've had no problem with using it.

For blinds and antes, I use a dry-erase board. There's also enough room on it for seat numbers, payouts, chip demoninations, and special rules. Even people at the far end of table two can read it, assuming they brought their glasses.

[TenPercenter]

[ QUOTE ]
Ten, I'm disappointed that as proficient a poster, and capable a person as I think you are, you would not avail yourself of tinyurl.com (http://www.tinyurl.com) and save us the horrible fate of horizontal scrolling.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm sorry I disappointed you Mary. You may notice that UBB hosed my post though. You were never meant to see that long URL. You were only meant to see the words "Lots more info here."

Ten

[TenPercenter]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I run a cable from my laptop to the TV and I've run tournaments with 4 tables and everyone sees just fine.

[/ QUOTE ]

I cannot believe I am asking this given that I work in the computer programming field but how the hell did you hook up your laptop to your computer. When I got a hold of a good tournament poker software thing I had the same idea, hook up the laptop to the TV. So I went to Circuit City to get a cable that went from the monitor output plug to RCA jacks or something and they looked at me at the store like I was nuts. "Hook up computer up to your TV screen? Gee, I dont know, I never heard of that."

So I shook my head and went to BestBuy, Radioshack and a few other place with no luck. eBay has a cord that goes from monitor out to S-Video but I would rather just buy the damn thing in a store, I can't believe in 2004 this is such a hard thing to accomplish.

[/ QUOTE ]

As an aside, I don't have this predicament since I run Tournament Director on my Media Center PC that runs to my plasma. Next tourney that spans two rooms, I'll try to run a second monitor off the video card so the other room can see it.

I'm surprised to hear that Poker Clock can display on other PC's on the network, that's a really great feature. I could wave my tablet PC around and show people the current status at will. /images/graemlins/smile.gif I hope "Tournament Director" adds that feature, since I've already donated to him...

Ten

[smoore]

I have thought about this, Ten and I'm pretty sure that you could display Tournament Director in another room via two methods:

1 - VNC. it's a free desktop control program ala pcanywhere that has a "watch only" mode. The last one I used was TightVNC and it was very good.

2 - Your house's coax system. If you have cable through the house you should be able to get a splitter to push from your mediapc into your coax system... now any TV in the house can see it.

I have tested neither solution.

[TenPercenter]

The VNC would be best for me. I have a notebook with wireless, and that could be on/near one table. Then the tablet PC (notebook with no keyboard) works the same way. I could stand that up like the NB in a third location. Very cool. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Ten

[Mojo Tooth]

[ QUOTE ]

1 - VNC. it's a free desktop control program ala pcanywhere that has a "watch only" mode. The last one I used was TightVNC and it was very good.


[/ QUOTE ]

This is exactly the mechanism I use (except I don't use view-only, I allow full control from the client-side). Let me describe my tourney system.

- Two rooms, Three tables. Two tables in the dining/living room, one in the family room. They are kinda around the corner from each other, you can see part of the dining room from the family room and you can certainly shout from one to the other, but other than that they're kinda isolated.

- Family room has the entertainment center in it, including a stereo. There is a set of ceiling speakers in the living room that I can pump sound into from the entertainment center.

- I run two laptops, one personal lappy and one that is assigned to me at work. I'm a little squeamish about installing 3rd party software on the work lappy, fortunately the VNC package is used extensively at work so it's a no-brainer.

- The family room lappy runs the actual Tournament Director software that Ten linked (badly;)) to. Running a VNC server. Headphone jack is wired into the entertainment center.

- Dining room lappy is running VNCviewer and connecting to the other lappy over my wireless network.

- Sound from the entertainment center is also being wired through the ceiling speakers in the living room.

- Cue the Unreal Tournament voice template I whipped up. I load that template into TD so I get that big booming voice to announce the timer milestones and the end of levels.

- Now everyone can see the blind timers very clearly and hear the warnings regardless of which room they're in. Since I play in the tourneys I run, it makes things a LOT easier on me because now I just ask people that rebuy or get eliminated to go to whichever lappy is closest and hit "x" for eliminations and "v" for rebuys. In either case the main family room lappy gets the input and everyone can instantly see the results.

I've gotten several compliments on this system. Except for one guy that told me the timer voice gives him nightmares. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

VNC is definitely the way to go, because this way you don't need the timer software to support any particular networking feature.

We do, however, come back to my one lone complaint about Tournament Director, that it doesn't handle player movement the way I would like. But it's a small price to pay for all the rest of the features. Actually, I donated some money to the guy, but that's STILL a small price to pay for the software. I'd probably kick in a bit more if he released a patch to add an option to do the player movement the way I want.

[TenPercenter]

[ QUOTE ]
- Cue the Unreal Tournament voice template I whipped up. I load that template into TD so I get that big booming voice to announce the timer milestones and the end of levels.

[/ QUOTE ]

Mojo, this was a huge hit at my last game. /images/graemlins/smile.gif On the first few rounds I had the whole house laughing. It was great, thanks.

[ QUOTE ]
We do, however, come back to my one lone complaint about Tournament Director, that it doesn't handle player movement the way I would like. But it's a small price to pay for all the rest of the features. Actually, I donated some money to the guy, but that's STILL a small price to pay for the software. I'd probably kick in a bit more if he released a patch to add an option to do the player movement the way I want.

[/ QUOTE ]

Tell me more about what you want. The one thing re: movement that I want is to LOCK a player in a seat, and leave the rest open for movement. I designate a dealer for each table, so Me and 3-4 other guys should never get moved.

Ten

ps: Updated link to the Tournament Director (http://www.thetournamentdirector.net/).

[jalsing]

anybody tried Dr. Neau's Tournament Manager (http://home.comcast.net/~jneau/TournamentManager.htm)? I started using this with good success because I couldn't get TD to work because of the disappearing timer issue (since fixed). Dr. Neau has client/server built in, but you can only stop/start timer from any clients, all parameters/rebuys/eliminations must be done from the server PC.

[Mojo Tooth]

[ QUOTE ]

Mojo, this was a huge hit at my last game. /images/graemlins/smile.gif On the first few rounds I had the whole house laughing. It was great, thanks.

[/ QUOTE ]

Awesome! I'm glad.

[ QUOTE ]

Tell me more about what you want. The one thing re: movement that I want is to LOCK a player in a seat, and leave the rest open for movement. I designate a dealer for each table, so Me and 3-4 other guys should never get moved.


[/ QUOTE ]

When I "x" out a player and it results in players moving, I want the following to happen:

- TD asks me who has the button on the table where the player was just eliminated, during the eliminating hand in question.

- TD selects a table to move a player from. TD asks me who has the button on the hand about to be finished on the table where a player is to be moved from.

- TD then selects a player that is in the same position relative to the button as he will be on the table he is getting moved to.

That way, no player can ever get double-slammed with the blinds, or skip them entirely. Fair-fair.

[mrmookid]

I'm currently using Poker Clock in our games. This morning I found the Poker Tournament Manager software. Has anyone used it? I can't find any online reviews.

http://www.pokertournamentmanager.com/

[Mojo Tooth]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm currently using Poker Clock in our games. This morning I found the Poker Tournament Manager software. Has anyone used it? I can't find any online reviews.


[/ QUOTE ]

After a cursory reading of their feature set, it looks to be pretty nice. However I just can't bring myself to pay $60 for a piece of software when I can get something even roughly equivalent for free, or even for a small donation to the author.