Need HUGE help with tourney setup - I'm totally lost!

[tdko]

Our weekly poker group is throwing a tournament and the guy running it backed out. Now I'm stuck running the show and I don't have that much experience with playing in NL tournaments. I need all the help I can get! Everyone's given me their suggestions, so I'm left to decide what's in and what's out. Here's the plan so far:

$20 entry fee covers buy-in and food. There'll be one hour of structured limit hold em (blinds not changing), with the option of one $10 re-buy. At the end of the hour, we break for food.

We start up no limit play. Blinds go up every fifteen minutes. We have a limited chipset at our disposal (we might be able to scrape up 1,000 total for 10-15 people), so I'm figuring everyone gets about 50. Blinds start at 1/2, then 2/4, 3/6, 4/8, 5/10, 15/30, and so on.

I got some great ideas from the forum for seating and prizes. My biggest concern is the re-buy. I've never played at a card room so I don't know how that's usually handled. The thought was that allowing a rebuy gets more money in the prizes and more people staying in. Only one rebuy so that no one can throw down $100 and require another 500 chips or whatnot.

The hour of structured play was suggested as a "warm up" and to get the chips flowing a little. But we have to eat sometime and don't want to order the pizza before we know how many people there are. But then we're stuck with people having to keep track of their chips for an hour till the NL game starts.

Any suggestions would be a huge help!

--jamie

[grandgnu]

[ QUOTE ]
Our weekly poker group is throwing a tournament and the guy running it backed out. Now I'm stuck running the show and I don't have that much experience with playing in NL tournaments. I need all the help I can get! Everyone's given me their suggestions, so I'm left to decide what's in and what's out. Here's the plan so far:

$20 entry fee covers buy-in and food. There'll be one hour of structured limit hold em (blinds not changing), with the option of one $10 re-buy. At the end of the hour, we break for food.

We start up no limit play. Blinds go up every fifteen minutes. We have a limited chipset at our disposal (we might be able to scrape up 1,000 total for 10-15 people), so I'm figuring everyone gets about 50. Blinds start at 1/2, then 2/4, 3/6, 4/8, 5/10, 15/30, and so on.

I got some great ideas from the forum for seating and prizes. My biggest concern is the re-buy. I've never played at a card room so I don't know how that's usually handled. The thought was that allowing a rebuy gets more money in the prizes and more people staying in. Only one rebuy so that no one can throw down $100 and require another 500 chips or whatnot.

The hour of structured play was suggested as a "warm up" and to get the chips flowing a little. But we have to eat sometime and don't want to order the pizza before we know how many people there are. But then we're stuck with people having to keep track of their chips for an hour till the NL game starts.

Any suggestions would be a huge help!

--jamie

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't see the point in doing limit hold 'em and then switching to NL Hold 'Em, since I believe the strategies one would use would be different. I would recommend choosing one and sticking with it.

Also, don't do rebuys. Offer one optional $10 add-on after the first hour. You may only get the add-on if you still have chips and are "alive" in the tournament.

As far as chips, blinds, etc. I can't really tell what you have for colors, denominations, total chips, etc.

Usually you would give players something like 1,000-2,000 total starting chips and blinds somewhere around 25/50 and going up from there.

My events I actually start at 5/10, but most places do the 25/50.

[pukenpete]

I'm not sure I fully understand all of the problems. But I'll take a shot. First of all, download tournament rules from this site and see if it works for your game:

http://www.homepokertourney.com/

1000 chips and everyone gets 50? Uh, these are different colored chips, right? You can make different denominations for each chip and say everyone starts with 1000 or 1500 chips or so. I would NOT switch from limit to no-limit. Those are two different games and even if the ppl at this tourney are not serious players, they will be happier to play no-limit since that's what they see on tv. You don't need a warm-up as I predict most of these guys will be ready to go... and the rest will never be ready no matter how much time.

Make sure you're clear on the breakdown of the $20 fee and they know what's going to the pot. If you're having trouble with the rebuy already, then just don't do it at all.

[tdko]

[ QUOTE ]

http://www.homepokertourney.com/


[/ QUOTE ]

That website is awesome. Thanks for the recommendation. I was confused about chip count; I thought you meant number of physical chips, not value. The guys I play with use only one denomination which makes for brutal games. $10 buy in, $0.25 chips with 25/50 blinds.

So I have about 300 chips in four colors, which is a little shy of what it looks like I need. The denomination issue (boy I feel stupid) clears up rebuys too, because then you're looking at one black chip (or whatever) as opposed to 50 whites.

I'll definitely scrap the limit play too. Thanks again!

[fishfeet]

here is a list of things off the top of my head that you should do well before the tourny starts.

#1 - know how many are coming
#2 - figure out exactly how many chips (not physical chips, but amount) each player will get.
In our tournys we give 500. Many others do 1000. It really doesnt matter how many you give out as long as the blinds start and increase at decent proportion.
For 500 chips we start the blinds at 3/5 then 5/10, ect.
For 1000 chips you would start at 5/10 (or 10/20 if you want a lot of quick action).
So get all the chips you have, get a count of how many of each color you have. With 4 colors I assume they are white, red, blue, and black.
I suggest (in same order as I lised for the colors)
$1, $5, $10, $50 or $1, $5, $25, $100 (the 2nd is assuming you are giving out more than $500 starting chips - with less Id go with the first choice. Might even consider turing the $50 into a $25)

Print out a sheet of paper with the colors and values on them.

#3 - on the same piece of paper, write on the blind schedule and the time interval that they will increase.
If you want to keep the game going for a while to get as much enjoyment out of it as possible, then I would suggest maybe 40 minutes levels. Example structure could be 10/20, 15/30. 20/40, 25/50 30/60 40/80 50/100
You can make the structure increase larger if you want it to go quicker.
But for $20 I suggest making it last as long as possible without going 12 hours. 6-7 hour time range is not bad for 15 players. Get as much for your money as you can.

#4 - get a bunch of ziplock bags. Take your chips and put them into equal stacks of whatever you decide. (100, 500, 1000, 10,000,000) Put each stack in a bag and close it up.
Do the same for your rebuy chips.
I dont know if you plan on giving a full amount of starting chips for a 1/2 rebuy or not. If not, make sure you put those chips in a separate area so you dont mix them up.
(ex: you give 1000 starting chips for $20. Only 750 rebuy chips for $10 - you can do this however you want)

The advantage to having them in bags is, if you get rebuys, and you surely will, it wont take anytime to count up the chips. Hand them a bag and deal the next hand.

#5 - read www.homepokertourey.com (http://www.homepokertourey.com) to learn how to move players. This can be very confusing. Read it carefully. There is a good method of doing it for 2 tables. I wont explain it here.. i felt homepokertourney does a fine job. thats where I learned to do it and it works well.

#6 - determine the payout ahead of time (if you dont know the exact number of players then set a deadline for accepting money/players. Once that deadline passes, count the money, figure out a payout and inform everyone)

#7 - TIMER! Dont forget the timer! A phone with an alarm works well. A microwave timer or kitchen timer works well too.

#8 - make sure you have a rule for misdeals.
Some peoeple like to redeal completely if someone flips over the card.
At our game we used to do that. But people were careless when dealing, so we issued a penalty. The dealer must match the blinds and fold their hand if they misdeal. This helps to make sure they are carefull. We dont care if the deal is fast.
However, we just dont redeal anymore.
If one card is exposed, the deal continues.
Say you have 8 players.
1 is the dealer, 2 is SB and 3 is BB.
Say the dealer exposes seat #5s card. The deal will continue as normal. The very next card after the exposed card would go to seat #6, then #7.. all the way around. On the 2nd round, when everyone gets their 2nd hole card, seat #5 will be getting his FIRST since the first card was exposed. You still continue around. However, the card that would have been the FIRST BURN card will now be given to seat #5 and the exposed card he would have gotten will be considered the burn.
You will then flop the cards WITHOUT BURNING!
Resume the rest of the deal normally.
This is how they do it at the casino card rooms.

Good luck. I hope I helped you.
Just be sure to read that website provided. It gives a lot of usefull information.. a lot of which I described here.

[Fins]

Suggest a longer first (and poss. 2nd) level to "warm up" maybe 30 min each than speed up. If you do rebuys use 1 or 2 lg. value chip(s) and let the player break it a the table... easier for you (i.e here's one chip as opposed to here's another 20 chips).

- Fins

[slamdunkpro]

Simple NL Tournament for 10-20 people with 4 colors:

Start with T1000 in chips - 8 $25,s and 8 $100, (first 2 colors) (this will seat 12 if you need more players give SOME not all 4 $25's 4 $100, and one $500)

If you allow rebuys / addons use the 3rd color ($500s) and only give them 2 chips. Only allow rebuys at a certain level (ie if a player falls below $1000 or $500) and for a fixed period (1st hour) The tables will have to make a little change at first but that's no big deal.

IF you really want to build the pot make the add-on a doulbe - T2000 for $20 (use your 4th color here as $1000's)

Blinds - How long do you want the tourny to last? These work good for a 4-5 hour tournament:

Level Time SB BB ANTI Break
1 20 min 25 50 0
2 20 min 50 100 0
3 20 min 75 150 0 15
** END OF REBUYS / ADDS **** COLOR UP YOUR $25'S
4 20 min 50 100 0
5 20 min 100 200 0
6 20 min 200 400 0
7 20 min 300 600 0
8 20 min 400 800 0
9 20 min 500 1000 100
10 20 min 600 1200 200
11 20 min 800 1600 300
12 20 min 1000 2000 500
**** color up 100'S US 4TH COLOR AS $1000 ****
13 20 min 1500 3000 500
14 20 min 2000 4000 500
continue to double blinds as required
Best of luck

[Scotty O]

[ QUOTE ]
Simple NL Tournament for 10-20 people with 4 colors:

Start with T1000 in chips - 8 $25,s and 8 $100, (first 2 colors) (this will seat 12 if you need more players give SOME not all 4 $25's 4 $100, and one $500)

If you allow rebuys / addons use the 3rd color ($500s) and only give them 2 chips. Only allow rebuys at a certain level (ie if a player falls below $1000 or $500) and for a fixed period (1st hour) The tables will have to make a little change at first but that's no big deal.

IF you really want to build the pot make the add-on a doulbe - T2000 for $20 (use your 4th color here as $1000's)

Blinds - How long do you want the tourny to last? These work good for a 4-5 hour tournament:

Level Time SB BB ANTI Break
1 20 min 25 50 0
2 20 min 50 100 0
3 20 min 75 150 0 15
** END OF REBUYS / ADDS **** COLOR UP YOUR $25'S
4 20 min 50 100 0
5 20 min 100 200 0
6 20 min 200 400 0
7 20 min 300 600 0
8 20 min 400 800 0
9 20 min 500 1000 100
10 20 min 600 1200 200
11 20 min 800 1600 300
12 20 min 1000 2000 500
**** color up 100'S US 4TH COLOR AS $1000 ****
13 20 min 1500 3000 500
14 20 min 2000 4000 500
continue to double blinds as required
Best of luck

[/ QUOTE ]

This is similar to my tourneys. I use the Foxwoods structure to a T. You can check out our blind schedule here (http://www.geocities.com/thepokerfanatic/homerules.html) . I vary the amount of chips to vary the length of the tourney. Typically, when the blinds reach 5-10% of the total chips in play, the tourney is near complete (according to Homepokertourney.com, and tested true). Good luck

[tdko]

How does an ante work in a double-blind structure? 2s and 3s post SB/BB and then everyone else antes? Is that just to keep people from stealing the blinds?

I was reading through the rules you linked to. What's a chip race?

[Fins]

[ QUOTE ]
How does an ante work in a double-blind structure? 2s and 3s post SB/BB and then everyone else antes? Is that just to keep people from stealing the blinds?

I was reading through the rules you linked to. What's a chip race?

[/ QUOTE ]
When the antes begin... everyone antes including BB & SB.

As the tourney progresses and the blinds increase eventually $5 chips, for example, will be meaningless... like if the blinds are 100/200. You can color up the smaller denoms when they aren't needed anymore or a few levels later. If your blinds went 10/20, 25/50, 50/100 etc... the 5's could be colored up before the 25/50 level... if not then, then soon after. When you color up the 5's not everyone will have enough to color up to a full 25 chip so there's a chip race to determine who gets the chip(s)... there are some examples in the HPT site. Basically you deal everyone a card for each odd chip they have then give out 25's to the high card until you run out of 25 chips (that is if your 5's color up exactly to an even number of 25 chips). Some use high card ranked by suits for ties others do first high delt etc... Some also make it easy and just color everyone up, some use 1-2 5's then nothing & 3-4 5's then one 25 chip. Whatever is easy and pleases most /images/graemlins/wink.gif

- Fins