Yet another tournament structure post
 

Yes, I know you probably get sick of these posts all the time and before someone refers me to www.homepokertourney.com I just want to say that I have been there, but I'm just looking for some opinions here on whether I'm missing anything, suggestions, etc....

This will be NLHE with anywhere from 10-16 people. The goal is to finish somewhere around 3 - 3.5 hours. Right now I'm thinking about starting everyone off with 10,000 in chips and using the following structure. Blinds increase every 15 minutes...

25/50 50/100 100/200 150/300

200/400 300/600 400/800 600/1200

1K/2K 1.5K/3K 2K/4K 2.5K/5K

3K/6K 4K/8K 6K/12K 8K/16K

Does this look alright? Any need for antes?

We will have 10 minute breaks each hour where we will remove the lowest color chip on the table.

I was thinking about starting each player with 20 greens(25), 15 blacks(100), 6 purples(500) and 5 yellows(1k).

Also we are still debating on whether to play 2 tables until we have 8 players left or 6 players left. Our tables will seat no more than 8 but I would like everyone to be as comfortable as possible.

If there is anything I'm missing or if anybody has any improvements I'd love to hear them.

Re: Yet another tournament structure post
 

[ QUOTE ]

25/50 50/100 100/200 150/300

200/400 300/600 400/800 600/1200

1K/2K 1.5K/3K 2K/4K 2.5K/5K

3K/6K 4K/8K 6K/12K 8K/16K


[/ QUOTE ]


At the end of the second hour the BB is just about 8% of the initial Chip Count. The only thing I would do is increase the rounds to the end to the following:

1K/2K 2K/4K 3K/6K 4K/8K

10K/20K 15K/30K 20K/40K 25K/50K

You said between 10-16 people so you are going to have between 100,000 and 160,000 on the table. at the end of the second hour I would hope that you are down to 8 on a single table. If you want to get people to drop out quicker at the start of the third hour throw an ante in there.

I usually start people out with between 1500 and 2500 in chips and use the pokerstars format (except for I increase the blinds every 30 minutes).

Given that you are starting everyone out with 200X the starting BB I would also not have re-buys or add-ons.

Sounds good though.

It took me many games before I had my sturcture down. My games start at 6:30 and always end between 11:30 and 12:00.

Have Fun.

Re: Yet another tournament structure post
 

Structure looks good to me. With reasonable players this tournament will last nearly four hours. With typical home game players I could see a three hour finish. If 3.5hrs is really important just make the blinds go up every 10 minutes in the third hour.

re: breaking tables, I think you should keep the "optimum number at a table" the same. i.e. if you start with two tables of five, the final table should be five. If you start with a table of six and a table of five make the final table six. Just opinion based on my experience.

Get some tournament management software (I use tournament manager, others prefer tournament director) and let it assign the seats. Someone invariably bitches at me when they move and I love being able to say, "Blame the computer."

Re: Yet another tournament structure post
 

I have a couple of suggestions.

1. I would get rid of the first round 25/50.
2. Also, you don't want that many chips on the table. Go with 12 Green (25), 12 Black (100), 7 Purple (500) and 5 Yellow (1000).

Everyone will start with 10 fewer chips. For 16 people, that pulls 160 chips off the table. Trust me.

Good Luck.