Hosting 40 man tourney....

[SoloAJ]

Last year we had a 27 man tournament. Starting chips 1000. Blinds half hour long. Tourney took 7 hours. No one minded that, it took a long time and ate up everyones night, gave thme a good time. However, I have run into a problem.

This year we expect about 40 people. Some of the guys are wanting to have unlimited rebuys. So we are thinking of doing unlimited rebuys for first hour or hour and a half. The starting chips will be 1000, and you can rebuy 1000 chips if you go bust and only if you go bust.

Blinds tentatively are:
5-10
10-20
15-30
20-40
25-50
50-100
75-150
100-200
150-300
200-400
300-600
400-800
500-1000
600-1200
and so on....

Does anyone think that with unlimited rebuys this tourney could possibly take....forever? Blinds we are thinking of upping every 25 minutes instead of 30. I dont mind if the tournament takes 7 hours, but if it goes way beyond that, then it becomes a big problem. Any advice for the blinds or something I can do to make sure it doesn't last into the early morning?

If you need anymore info let me know and I'll try to post it.

[itsmesteve]

i don't know the exact correlation, but adding 50% more players than the last tourney seems to insure this one will run somewhat significantly longer than last years (barring a totally different texture at the tables) even without the rebuys. if time is that big of an issue i think you have to cut the rebuys out, since i'm not a fan of bumping the blinds too quickly.

[SoloAJ]

Well we are going from 27 to roughly 40 yes. I figure 7 hours is reasonable for 40 people, but I guess I didn't really think the extra 15 players or so would change the time that much. Mostly because I figured when people hit the wall, it should be around the same time based on the quicker blind levels (25) and the slightly faster rising levels (in comparison to previous levels)

Any other help here would be appreciated. Thanks.

[BlueBear]

You could escalate the blinds more rapidly (particular at the end stage) if you're worried that the tournament will take too long. (eg. 400-800 to 600-1200 straight away).

Alternatively, you can limit the amount of rebuys, to say, 5.

[hoterdoc]

when we made the jump fro 30 seats to 50 seats, it added maybe 30 minute playing time, at the most. The extra players probably would have added yet another 30 to 45 minutes playing time, if I hadn't inadvertantly "underchipped" everyone relative to the first big blind. In addition, a little more nonplaying time was spent coloring up.

We also made a switch from 1 addon & 1 rebuy, to a freezeout format for the 50 man tourney. This probably had the biggest effect on getting done in just under 5 hours of play. (we have 20 minutes/level) (blinds double every OTHER level, or every 40 minutes)

What you haev described will take at LEAST seven hours - and then potentially quite a bit more (depending on the number of rebuys)

I have found, as we have grown from 8 seats to 50, is that the dictum from
www.homepokertourney.com
about the tournament being "about to be over" when the big blind=starting stack to be fairly accurate.

expect 8-9 hours depending on your breaks, and effience at coloring up, and the number of rebuys. My .02 is ONE rebuy only.
doc

[grandgnu]

Forget rebuys, just offer an optional add-on at a certain point in the tourney (at the one or two-hour mark). I run just a 16-player game, but I play in it as well. Unless you have a dedicated non-player to handle the rebuys, it becomes a real mess because YOU get interrupted mid-hand to provide rebuy chips for people while you're trying to play.

If you make it an optional add-on during a break period, it takes a lot of pressure off.

And moving the levels from 30 minutes each to either 25 or 20 should help a bit as well. Good luck!

[smoore]

One way to minimize the problem of giving someone a rebuy during play is to give them $500 chips (or a single $1000?) and make them get change from someone at thier table. Quick and easy.

[gmunny]

Hey Solo,
If you want to do unlimited re-buys, I would recommend a time limit on the rebuy period. If you don't have a time period many people would keep rebuying until the blinds are a big portion of the starting chip count. Actually, this may build the prize pool up, though. In the tourney's I host, one rebuy in the first 2 hours is allowed. I used to have a rebuy only if you go bust, but I found there was an all-in fest before the time period is up so it was changed it to if you bust or have 30% or less of the starting chips.

To keep the tourny time in check with all the extra rebuys you may want to change the time increment for blind increase or add an ante structure for later in the game. I usually start the blinds increasing every 30 minutes for the first 2 hours, then to 20 minute increments for the next 2 hours, then 15 minute increments for the rest of the night.
Have fun.
G$

[Sarge85]

Here's what works for us.

We only allow the first hour for rebuys, but we revamped the blind structure to provide more action to bust people out and promote rebuys.

Basically instead of starting at T5/T10 we jumped to T25/T50 and left it there for the first hour

We also have an add-on at the end of the hour.

Our blinds escalate ever 15 minutes, and look pretty similar to yours.

Tourney Time 4 hours.

Sarge[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

[Fins]

Seems like you have to take in account that you've increased the chips in play from 27k + rebuys to 40k + rebuys... a 50% or more increase esp. due to more people that could rebuy.

Might consider droping the 500-1000 and begin increasing in 200 increments instead of 100, shorten to 20-25min levels after the first 3-4 levels and also add on antes to control the time.

From what I've read with that many players I would think when the tourney would end when the blinds begin approaching 1/10 to 1/20 the total chips in play.

FYI - If you do 1st 4 levels at 30min & then 25min after and cut out 500-1000 switching to 200 increases then not counting breaks you're at 2000-4000 in just under 8 hours so you might consider antes to help ensure you don't go longer.

Some good posts already just thought I'd throw in my unexperienced view and how I'd set it up... haven't played a tourney with that many folks but it'd be fun and hopefully rewarding!

I'd be interested in what you decide and how it turns out so please post a follow up after the tourney.

Thanks,
Fins