How would you run this home game... (1 Viewer)

cgpilot

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I’ve played with a group of older guys once a month for a couple of years now. What won’t change is that it’s going to be a 3hr game with a 1 time $20 buy in. We generally have 6-8 guys. 2nd place gets their money back while 1st takes the rest.

What kind of blind/betting structure makes sense for this? How would you run the rest of the variables?

I feel like we haven’t discovered anything that works well.

What happens is we generally have 4-5 people still left in the game at the end of the 3 hrs and in the last 2 or 3 hands everyone is going “all in” because if they aren’t the chip lead they really have nothing to lose.
 
NLHE?

Well, step 1 is that the game will end when the big blind = 5%-10% of the total chips on the table.

You work backwards from there, depending on the chips you have and your preference for how deep starting stacks and length of levels vs size of jumps between levels.
 
Have you considered going with a tournament structure if you and your crew are used to 1st place winning all of the buy in and 2nd place getting their buy in back?

You can run a T10000 tournament with a T25 base with 12/12/5/6 starting stacks and accomplish the same thing as you did in your variation of a "cash" game. What you're playing isn't a real cash game, though. A cash game implies that everyone cashes out for how many chips they have left at the end of the night. Playing a tournament structure would help to loosen up the game considerably, especially as the blinds go up.

I'll let the resident tournament guru @BGinGA chime in here too.

Welcome to the boards!
 
As a rule of thumb, a tourney will end when there are 20 big blinds in play. Assuming 8 players, no rebuys, a T25 base, and starting stacks of T10,000, the game will end when the blinds are at 2000/4000. Set up your blind structure so that’s the blinds at 2:40 minutes.
 
Thanks for the tips - I'll pitch some of these ideas.

Sounds like your right @JMC9389, we aren't really playing a cash game. Although, now that you mention it, I like the idea of being able to cash chips out at the end. Like I mentioned, the negative side of our game is the last 10 minutes feels forced and rushed. Either increasing the blinds to force people out or relaxing and letting everyone people cash out sound like good options.
 
I’ve played with a group of older guys once a month for a couple of years now. What won’t change is that it’s going to be a 3hr game with a 1 time $20 buy in. We generally have 6-8 guys. 2nd place gets their money back while 1st takes the rest.

What kind of blind/betting structure makes sense for this? How would you run the rest of the variables?


I feel like we haven’t discovered anything that works well.
Setting up a three hour game (or any length event) is dependent upon three variables:
  • Duration of blind levels before blinds increase
  • Amount of forced bet aggression (increase rate of blinds/antes)
  • Total chips in play (typically # of players x starting stack size)
The starting stack size relative to the amount of the starting blinds is important, too. Starting stack size is mostly dependent on the available chip set (quantity of chips per denomination).

So far, the only info we have is 6-8 players and a 3-hour time window. To move forward, the first step is determining what chip denominations and quantities are available.

Once that has been established, appropriate starting stack sizes, starting blind amounts, blind increase aggression, and blind level times can be developed to create an event that will finish in 3 hours.
 
@BGinGA We have a set that includes 150 $5, 150 $10, 100 $25, 50 $100, 50 $500. We don’t usually use the 500 chips but either way. We divide evenly.
 
For an 8-player three-hour tournament using your chip set, I'd go with the following:

T1500 starting chip stacks:
15 x T5
5 x T10
11 x T25
6 x T100
1 x T500
----------
38 chips = T1500

Use the following blind schedule with 15-minute levels:

lvl SB BB
L1 10 20
L2 15 30
L3 20 40
L4 30 60
L5 40 80
replace T5/T10 chips (requires 2x T500)
L6 50 100
L7 75 150
L8 100 200
L9 150 300
replace T25 chips (requires 4x T500 and 2x T100)
L10 200 400
L11 300 600 ** EOT
L12 400 800
L13 600 1200
L14 800 1600

With 8 players, the event should end no later than L11 (2:45 plus two 5-minute color-up breaks). For 6 players, adding an extra T500 to the starting stacks will generate the same end time.
 
For an 8-player three-hour tournament using your chip set, I'd go with the following:

T1500 starting chip stacks:
15 x T5
5 x T10
11 x T25
6 x T100
1 x T500
----------
38 chips = T1500

Use the following blind schedule with 15-minute levels:

lvl SB BB
L1 10 20
L2 15 30
L3 20 40
L4 30 60
L5 40 80
replace T5/T10 chips (requires 2x T500)
L6 50 100
L7 75 150
L8 100 200
L9 150 300
replace T25 chips (requires 4x T500 and 2x T100)
L10 200 400
L11 300 600 ** EOT
L12 400 800
L13 600 1200
L14 800 1600

With 8 players, the event should end no later than L11 (2:45 plus two 5-minute color-up breaks). For 6 players, adding an extra T500 to the starting stacks will generate the same end time.
Bg, where did you learn all of this? I love how knowledgeable you are on tournament structures.
 

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