How to set up a NL Holdem Tournament

[CraigJ]

What is a good setup or way to determine how to set up a No Limit Holdem Tournament for about 8 to 10 players. Starting chips? Blind Levels? How soon to raise the blinds(time, players droping out, times around the table)?

[UMTerp]

http://homepokertourney.com/

Everything really depends on how long your want the tournament to last.

And "time" should be the determining factor for when the blinds go up.

[unfrgvn]

I agree with UM, time should be used to determine when the blinds go up. If you want a structure, one that we've used to have a couple of home tournies is:
Starting chips = 5,000
Blinds:
1st hour 25/50
2nd hour 50/100
2.50 hour 100/200
3rd hour 200/400
3.50 hour 250/500
4th hour 500/1000 color up and get rid of the 50's
4.50 1000/2000
5th hour 2000/4000
5.50 4000/8000

Personally I favor capping the blinds here and letting it play out but the guy that normally hosts the tourny keeps doubling every 30 minutes. We always have between 16 and 20 players and this usually runs about 5-6 hours. With fewer players it might run shorter, you could extend the 3rd level to an hour or put in a 300/600 level. I'm sure many might think this is too aggressive but we basically want the tourny to be over in 5 to 6 hours. We're a bunch of old married guys who can't stay out until 3:00 A.M. /images/graemlins/frown.gif

Have two decks per table(different colors!) to get more hands per hour.

[UMTerp]

FWIW, here's the structure I usually lose. I more or less made it up, but it's pretty smooth, and allows for a lot of play.

1 10-20
2 15-30
3 25-50
4 50-100
5 75-150
6 100-200
7 150-300
8 200-400
9 300-600
10 400-800
11 600-1200
12 800-1600
13 1000-2000

For 8-10 players, if you started with 2000 chips each, the tounament would end around Level 11 or 12. If you started with 1000 chips each, it'd end around Level 10.

Figure out how long you want the tourney to last, then time the rounds accordingly.

Sometimes at the end of a home game, we'll speed it up a litte too - 120 chips to start, 15 minute rounds.

1-2, 2-4, 3-6, 5-10, 10-20, 15-30, 20-40, 30-60, 40-80, 80-160, 100-200. It's usually over within 2 hours if there are 8 or 9 players.

[unfrgvn]

[ QUOTE ]
FWIW, here's the structure I usually lose.

[/ QUOTE ]

Is this a Freudian slip? /images/graemlins/wink.gif