Alternate Social Tourney Format Ideas?
 

Hi Folks,

My wife and I host couples tourneys that have gotten quite large (40+ players) but we're losing the social aspect of the game. People get locked down at their table and only get mixed up a couple of times per night. I've been noodling about some format that mixes half the folks playing while the other half are drinking, then switch after some time. But I can't hit upon a format that would work.

What we're doing now runs about 4-6 hours (and people bitch that is too long) and is a standard 5-6 table tourney. I've been thinking about doing STTs that merge to a final table, but with these folks an STT might take 2 hours...

Ideas?

Re: Alternate Social Tourney Format Ideas?
 

Could you just re-draw tables every hour?

The half / half idea might work also...have 2 groups of 20-ish that each play down to the final 3 or 4, and the 6 or 8 that are left (3/4 from each group) are at the final table?

Re: Alternate Social Tourney Format Ideas?
 

Your best bet is to get another table, and just allow/offer some sort of ring game afterward. Messing with seating arraingments can get people ornery.

Re: Alternate Social Tourney Format Ideas?
 

One thing that I heard about that sounded intruiguing was a "Couple's Tourney." It is intended to be done with male/female pairings but you could de-emphasize the "couple" aspect and just make it "teams" if it suits you.

The idea is that teams of two are playing. Every blind level players get up from the table and are replaced by their teammate. This way you aren't playing the whole time but you don't get completely bored waiting for your turn.

Re: Alternate Social Tourney Format Ideas?
 

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Could you just re-draw tables every hour?

The half / half idea might work also...have 2 groups of 20-ish that each play down to the final 3 or 4, and the 6 or 8 that are left (3/4 from each group) are at the final table?

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Tried the redraw deal. The problem is if you let a bunch of grade school moms up from the table, they'll gab about the PTA for an hour before they sit back down...

Re: Alternate Social Tourney Format Ideas?
 

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Your best bet is to get another table, and just allow/offer some sort of ring game afterward. Messing with seating arraingments can get people ornery.

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Only the guys would play the ring game and we've got that covered other days of the month.

Re: Alternate Social Tourney Format Ideas?
 

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Could you just re-draw tables every hour?

The half / half idea might work also...have 2 groups of 20-ish that each play down to the final 3 or 4, and the 6 or 8 that are left (3/4 from each group) are at the final table?

[/ QUOTE ]

Tried the redraw deal. The problem is if you let a bunch of grade school moms up from the table, they'll gab about the PTA for an hour before they sit back down...

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HOSE? High hand jackpot? Rebuys?

You could run a tourney and a simultaneous ring game with two person teams, one player in the tourney, one player in the ring game, switching teammates hourly. That seems like an interesting format.

Re: Alternate Social Tourney Format Ideas?
 

Scrap the "couples tourney" and just have regular poker nights with people who want to play, inviting others to come and sit and chat if they want.

Re: Alternate Social Tourney Format Ideas?
 

P.S. I hate replying to my own posts but I'd just like to state (since I', hungover and cranky) that if any of my friends ever invited my girlfriend and me to a "couples tourney" I'd want to puke for being friends with such a sackless guy. No offense, it's the hangover talking.

Good luck,
Matt

Couples, haha what is this a roller skating rink??

Re: Alternate Social Tourney Format Ideas?
 

[ QUOTE ]
P.S. I hate replying to my own posts but I'd just like to state (since I', hungover and cranky) that if any of my friends ever invited my girlfriend and me to a "couples tourney" I'd want to puke for being friends with such a sackless guy. No offense, it's the hangover talking.

Good luck,
Matt

Couples, haha what is this a roller skating rink??

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God help your girlfriend for dating such a jackass.

Are you so much of a magoo you fear getting beaten by the girls?

Re: Alternate Social Tourney Format Ideas?
 

Haha, once again that was mostly hangover surliness. But no, my friends and I have a few girls who play in our home games. One of them has actually gotten quite good, because she comes wanting to play, not just to hang out and see everyone. The point I will make, which I really made no effort to get across before is that if you have these "social tourney" setups as you called them, you will always have to deal with a lot of sitting around talking. My suggestion would be to treat your home games as an event where people who actually want to play a poker tourney can play and if the wives/husbands/significant others or whoever else wants to come along but aren't that into poker they can just relax on some couches and talk, have a few drinks etc. so that everyone enjoys their night as much as possible. This is meant with no offense whatsoever but I don't see the point of trying to integrate ones significant other into everything he/she does, especially if that person isn't particularly interested and from your situation it sounds like you have a lot of people who would be more interested in mingling at a coktail party or just hanging out at someone's house talking than playing poker and it's slowing up your game.

Good luck,
Matt

P.S. I've never been called a magoo before, that's pretty cool.

Re: Alternate Social Tourney Format Ideas?
 

Frankly, my home game took a vote when someone's girlfriend wanted to play: No women allowed. We're mostly old married guys with kids who are there to smoke cigars and have a "boys Nite". I didn't really care that much, as long as someone didn't start whining about the smoke.

Our bigger tourneys (up to 24), where we widen the invite list have had some whiners about the cigar smoke (we're in a garage with the door open and a fan for **** sake). We made it clear he was welcome to host a tourney and have it no smoking. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Alternate Social Tourney Format Ideas?
 

In case it wasn't clear to those of you making idiotic comments about inviting women to the game (gasp) this is a *social* tournament. We (the men of the neighborhood) started it not to supplant our regular competitive games, but to allow other folks (including some our wives, girlfriends) to play who had expressed interest in playing a game we are all fanatical about.

Kind of like bridge in the 60's.

We still play for much higher stakes (that we lie about to our wives) drink our tequila, smoke our cigars and chug Spaten at the lodge *without the girls*.

Now if anyone has anything friggin USEFUL to say about SOCIAL TOURNAMENT FORMATS instead of playing at being some Soprano's poker wannabe, please respond.

Re: Alternate Social Tourney Format Ideas?
 

Here's the point, you won't be able to have a "social torunament" that'll run any smoother than the one you already do. I thought that's what the original post was for. you'll always have soccer moms and PTA activist blabbing away instead of moving expeditiously from table to table. You'll always have people gabbing it up instead of paying attention to the action. What the [censored] were you asking in your original post again????? for ideas of an easier way to get through a social tourney. My response is, there is no easier way, except to redraw tables by stack size, every hour (I.E big and small stacks sit together and so on like the seedings in the NCAAs until everyone has a seat). Then you'll deal with a lot of talking and BS like I already stated. My best advice is still, have some other kind of social engagement besides a poker game at your house.

Honestly, you know you can't tell me straight that you don't think half of these guys' wives aren't complaining about getting "dragged" to go play poker again.

Good luck chief,
Matt

Re: Alternate Social Tourney Format Ideas?
 

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Honestly, you know you can't tell me straight that you don't think half of these guys' wives aren't complaining about getting "dragged" to go play poker again.


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No, they're not the ones complaining. In fact, they're the ones bugging the guys to host another one soon (and often the women are the ones organizing them). You're obviously not married with kids...married women with kids RARELY get dragged by their husbands *anywhere*. All it takes is an "I can't find a sitter" and that's that. Our tournaments are always full to 40+ people.

I am looking for a happy medium between full on, play to the last chip and a cocktail party. There are more formats than traditional freeze-outs.

For example, we have a bimonthly boys game that ends at 11PM on a Tuesday (go ahead, make fun of us having to end at 11). We've modified the rules so that the game ends on time. We've also held round robin and single-elimination bracket STT tournaments.

In any case, you don't really have anything useful to say, so I am not even sure why I am wasting time responding.

Re: Alternate Social Tourney Format Ideas?
 

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In any case, you don't really have anything useful to say, so I am not even sure why I am wasting time responding.

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A. Because you have no life.

B. I think it's funny.

But in actuality I have said some pretty useful things, you're just too defensive about Sopranos poker wannabes or whatever you said before. Either way, if it's the case that these people want to play then just hold it like a regular tourney, I.E. every few eliminations count out everyone's stack and shuffle the tables accordingly to balance them out. Also, don't worry about being a nice guy to everyone, let them know they have to get a move on while switching tables. You said it's you and your wife hosting so if these people have any respect and class at all then they'll appreciate you allowing them into your home to play enough to not lolligag around and keep you guys up till some crazy morning hour. Problem solved, people will be at different tables with different people on any given night and they'll speed up.

Go get em Tiger,
Matt

Re: Alternate Social Tourney Format Ideas?
 

Just an idea off the top of my head: Make it similar to Casino Night events held by charities and at corporate events. Everyone buys in for a certain amount and gets a set of chips. Let the players play ring games (you can set the stakes or let the players choose) until the deadline (3-4 hours later), then whoever has the most chips wins. Players can get up or sit down and choose their games as they like. Expect a lot of all-in bets as the deadline approaches, which might not appeal to your better poker instincts, but may be fine for a social event.

Re: Alternate Social Tourney Format Ideas?
 

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In any case, you don't really have anything useful to say, so I am not even sure why I am wasting time responding.

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For the record, I thought he had plenty of useful things to say. It's just that you don't agree with them. When you find an internet forum on which people only tell you what you want to hear, please let me know.

Re: Alternate Social Tourney Format Ideas?
 

Thanks guys. All I basically did was feed this prick a "how to" but since he was a douche he had to get all defensive about keeping his game a "social event" he couldn't loosen up a bit and welcome the suggestions. Anyway, good luck guys.
Take care,
Matt