Big Tournament! Help!

[JTrout]

I've agreed to help in running a 72 player fundraising tournament. And I'm in over my head!
I need some help/advice/suggestions in making this a success.

Here's what they want:
No-Limit Hold'em.
72 players.
8 tables.
$65 entry fee
$50 rebuys (unlimited for 90 minutes)
$50 add on.
a rules sheet, with blinds structure and such.
app. 4 hour duration of tourney.
beginning stack of about $700-$800.

So, I've got a million questions:
How many chips will I need? (July 30th tourney date. I'd like to get (cheap) chips personalized (maybe with as little as 4 letters. NWTF all funny guesses welcome [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img])
Denominations?
Blind Structure?
How many chips for re-buy?
add-on? (this being a fund-raiser, we want to encourage re-buys and add-ons)

I remember seeing a link to a sight that covered much of this, but can't remember it.

All suggestions appreciated.

[captswifty]

I think the site you're looking for is homepokertourney.com

[backlash]

That's where I would start.

Gobble! Gobble!

[JTrout]

That's it! Thank you.

[smoore]

rules, structure, etc: homepokertourney.com
chips: Faux Clay
personalization: get labels from one of many people, I like Cin0s3, he did mine. They don't work perfectly on the faux clay chips, but they do work.

say you decide a T1000 tourney. you give the same chips for the discounted rebuy rate, but you give them 2 T500 chips. You give T1200 or T1500 for the addon, to encourage everyone to buy it. End the rebuys about when the BB = 10% of one starting stack.

A T2500 tourney starts everyone with 20 @ T25 and 20 @ T100, lots of chips in play, easy to count out with racks. This works well with 25/50 starting blinds, no need for T5 chips. Of course, 5 @ T500 makes a rebuy. I would end rebuys for this at the end of 100/200.

gl, work something up and post it here for a sanity check.

[JTrout]

Thanks for the comments.
I've got the faux clay chips, and like them.
But I don't want to get "stuck" putting 4,000 labels on! [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]
(do the labelel faux clay stack right?)

I haven't found anyone that hot stamps 4 letters, so I may scrap the personalized chip idea. I'm thinking of using these: Soprano chips

As for structure, a quick rough one:
Buy in: $1,000 (12 green, 7 black)
Re buy: $1,000 (2 purple)
add on: $1,500 (3 purple)

20 min. levels:
Blinds:
25-25
25-50
50-100
75-150
--------end of rebuys, add on. 10 min. break--------
100-200
150-300
200-400
300-600
---------10 min. break. color off grren (it's too late)---
400-800
500-1,000
600-1,200
800-1,600
.....

Problems:

I was hoping to do this w/ 2,000 chips. but that may not be enough. (900 green, 700 black, 400 purple?)

I don't like the 25-25 first blinds.
The blinds probably accelerate too quickly.
But I'd like to finish in app. 4-4.5 hrs.
Coloring off green too late.
.............
argh! what have I agreed to?! [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

[Bulldog]

Get 100 gray T1,000 chips, start with T2,000, and lose the 150/300 level.

The 25/25 level is fine and not that uncommon.

[KenProspero]

It may be cheaper for you to rent chips than to buy them. At the same time, if you can find a company that will provide the tables, dealers, etc. you'll save your self aggravation (though this costs, obviously)

BTW, if you do buy chips, I think the 7g Sopranos are a bit cheaper than the faux clay these days (about 1-1.2c a chip). An advantage to these is that they look like the ones on the TV show, though they don't have the same feel, etc. as the faux clay.