Structure for a 2 hour tourney?

[Galilee]

I've got the awesome responsibility of structuring a tournament for a group of 6-8 players. We want it to last a few hours, so it's a bit like a sit'n'go and we can play a few in an evening, but even so I was thinking of allowing rebuys in the first hour so no one ends up sitting out after busting in the first hand.

Does anyone play this kind of tourney? Does it work? Or should I stick to a longer, more drawn-out game? Any advice on blinds structure and other details would be appreciated.

[napawino]

I have a tournament like this at my place all the time. 6-8 people - lasting about 2 hours. We use the following structure:
1500 starting chips
No rebuys

Blinds
15 min 10/20
15 min 15/30
15 min 25/50
15 min 50/100
15 min 75/150
15 min 100/200
15 min 200/400
15 min 300/600
15 min 400/800
15 min 600/1200
15 min 1000/2000
15 min 1500/3000

Also, & VERY important, we use a blue & a red deck & have the next dealer shuffling & ready to go while the cards are being cleared from the last hand. As a penalty, whoever goes out has to deal for the group. (This also speeds it up just a little.)

We don't do rebuys because when we tried rebuys it made the tournament MUCH longer as a result of the extra chips in play. Instead, we get a side game of low BB NL going once 3 people go out. Usually everyone sticks around & we end up playing another tournament. We usually get in two tournaments in 4 to 4 1/2 hours.

Good luck.

[Fins]

Thanks napawino for the info. About how many hands do you get in per blind or per hour? Any whining about late pos. players posting larger blinds so quickly? I'd like to put together a similar tourney night and just trying to get ready for the expected flack here & there.

[boogerboy]

the big blind should be the size of your original starting stack of chips about the time you want your tournament to be over. Then work backwards from there. 15 -20 min blind intervals works ok with that many people and some speedy shuffling. check out homepokergames.com

[meep_42]

You get about 30-35 hands/hr at an 8-10 handed game, i've found ... so it's about once around the table for each blind level (at 8 players), give or take.

-d

[Galilee]

Thanks, napawino - I'll probably go with along with that - looks like a PokerStars sit'n'go, which is what we wanted it to be like anyway - and you've made a good case against rebuys!

[Big O]

Why dont you start the blinds at 25/25 or 25/50. You will only need two colors (Green = 25 and Black = 100) for the early rounds then use Purple = 500 for later rounds when the blinds go up. Why use 5 or 10 value chips for only a couple of rounds??? Just start everyone with 2000-3000 in chips

[rdu $teve]

Nifty little program somebody wrote. We used this in our latest 36 seat tourney. It gives suggestions for payouts and blinds. You enter the amount of time you want the game to last, and pick relaxed/aggresive blinds.

tourney software

[Big O]

In our tournament, we have a single rebuy at any time during the tournament and single Add on at 90 minutes into the tournament. We determine the payout structure on the amount to total buyin/rebuys/addon so the more totals the more seats get paid

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