Tourney Short stacked, doubling blinds and unlimited rebuys! It's Blind Joe's Hateful Eight! (1 Viewer)

Blind Joe

Two Pair
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I imagine the thread title alone would make some here run for the hills. It certainly seems to go against almost everything I've learned from my time on PCF and how I've tried to hone my home game to promote skilful play over shove fests. I do like to mix things up slightly with blind increases ranging from around 40-50% and starting stacks ranging from 100-200BB if for no other reason it means players (especially me!) have to adapt to different scenarios and adopt different styles of play to suit different tournaments.

Last night I hosted a tournament that was very different to our usual set up, nicknamed "The Hateful Eight" as it was my annual Western theme and the idea was to have 8 tough levels (we actually ended just into L9) and (ideally) a full table of 8 (we ended up 7 handed so I suppose you could call it the magnificent Seven :p). The intention was for it to be fun and noob friendly, but also of course providing a challenge to the more seasoned of us (not that any of are that seasoned) to play something so different to our usual tourney.

We also had bounties, something we only do a couple of times a year, which again I think is good for casual groups because it gives people extra chances to win money even if they don't make the bubble, and I had 3 bonuses as usual (see below) again because it gives everyone a chance to pick up some cash even if they don't finish in the money.


Buy-in was £8, starting stacks were T800 (80BB), the blind increases averaged 95% and for the first time ever I didn't limit rebuys or implement a rebuy cut-off, leaving it to players to decide when it wasn't worth it any more. Normally I would only allow one rebuy per player to give everyone a lifeline if they bust out early on a bad beat, not to promote loose play or reward deep pockets that others may not be able to compete with; but as I say, this was a once a year thing that I thought I'd try out.

Here is the blinds structure:
2. Blinds.png


With the stacks pretty short I had guestimated 3 rebuys each, so a total of 27, however we only had a total 17. I somehow manage to not rebuy at all, most others rebought once or twice and one guy rebought 7 times :eek: As you can probably imagine during the later levels rebuys were happening between almost every hand until it became totally futile.

It was certainly different, and I couldn't play my usual tournament style, there were far too many all-ins for my liking as people's stack value depleted rapidly, but in fairness the more skilled players who usually make it to the final few were there at the end so it couldn't have been too much of a luck fest. And here's the thing, my players absolutely loved it :ROFL: :ROFLMAO: As I said above I think rebuys have a specific purpose but last night people went crazy and they loved having the option of just rebuying if their coin flip didn't go their way. And of course it bloated the prize pool!

Not sure what you guys would have made of it and I'm not convinced I want to do it all that often, but I can't deny it was absolutely one of the more fun nights we've had.
 
A couple of thoughts for no particular reason other than what popped to mind at first glance.

Level five 80/160
Level seven 200/500

Be more hateful. Put a starting stack in the middle of each table for whoever wins the first hand.

Thought of starting out with 100BB, but unsure as whether that might dampen the fun element experienced by the other players.
 
I like seeing your creative tourneys! How does someone claim the bonus, by accomplishing the feat one time, every time, or the most times (total)?
 
A couple of thoughts for no particular reason other than what popped to mind at first glance.

Level five 80/160
Level seven 200/500

Be more hateful. Put a starting stack in the middle of each table for whoever wins the first hand.

Thought of starting out with 100BB, but unsure as whether that might dampen the fun element experienced by the other players.

I'm not sure I see where you're going with changing those blind levels tbh. Yes, L5 being 80/160 would maintain the 100% jump but I'd likely lose it elsewhere would I if I intend to colour up? One benefit of at 75/150 at L5, despite it only being 87.5% is chip efficiency - 3 chips for either blind with the added bonus of being easily countable.

Also what's with the uneven L7? What was wrong with 300/600? Maybe I'm missing something but I tend to only use uneven blinds during the first levels when I'm doing something like 25/75 to prevent a double up on L2 or, more often these days, when I'm using base 100 and have 100/100, 100/200, 100/300 for my first 3 levels. Not sure what you're aiming for with yours but I'm always keen to learn from others

On the stack size I may well end up going with 100BB next time because I absolutely won't be sticking with the "8" theme. Having a bunch of players buy in and rebuy for £8 was a bloody nightmare :banghead: I did come armed with £40 worth of pound coins but even then I realised early on I'd made a rod for my own back :oops: I've already decided next year's Western theme is called "A Fistful of Dollars" so we aren't tied to specific, awkward numbers that constantly need change :D £10 buy-ins/re-buys will be much more manageable and T1k will seem like a fine fit.

Not sure about the extra starting stack for the winner of the first hand. I'll think about it though. Seems a little "bingo" even for this sort of game. I worry it would detract from the fun for the players who don't win, whereas even with early shoves and double ups it seems fair because everyone is on an equal footing. We did have a couple of early double ups (one guy had pocket aces and flopped a set, so you can't argue with that!) so while everyone accepts the element of luck leading to big swings either way, a "free stack" might push things too far.

I like seeing your creative tourneys! How does someone claim the bonus, by accomplishing the feat one time, every time, or the most times (total)?

Cheers, I really appreciate feedback like yours because it's part of hosting that I really enjoy. The way we do bonuses is that they can only be claimed once and you have to have the hole cards where applicable (eg. Peacemaker - win with 45 means you have to be holding 45 and win the hand. In other scenarios like "Steal the blinds" you have to force everyone to fold so that only the blinds are won, while others depend on how many eliminations you make. Those are guaranteed to pay out, but most need to be played for and all influence your play ATEOTD (if you've eliminated 2 players and get a bonus for 3 your likely to play that bit more aggressively. As I said upthread, I thought "Steal the Blinds" would be a given but there was a determination to block it, so it promoted action.

The payout is set before hand so everyone knows what they are worth, usually around 2/3 buy-in, eg. the buy-in is £15 and the bonuses will be £10 each. They are paid out of the main pot, as posted earlier it potentially spreads the prize fund a little wider and if nothing else promotes a little action. I think I've only ever paid out all 3 bonus once, most of the time it is only one, two at the most, but they are there to entice payers.

Stay tuned for Zombie poker coming up which got a lot of heat last year. Creative and fun! :tup:
 
I'm not sure I see where you're going with changing those blind levels tbh. Yes, L5 being 80/160 would maintain the 100% jump but I'd likely lose it elsewhere would I if I intend to colour up? One benefit of at 75/150 at L5, despite it only being 87.5% is chip efficiency - 3 chips for either blind with the added bonus of being easily countable.

Also what's with the uneven L7? What was wrong with 300/600? Maybe I'm missing something but I tend to only use uneven blinds during the first levels when I'm doing something like 25/75 to prevent a double up on L2 or, more often these days, when I'm using base 100 and have 100/100, 100/200, 100/300 for my first 3 levels. Not sure what you're aiming for with yours but I'm always keen to learn from others

I wrote what popped into mind while reading your post. I agree 75/150 makes more sense, although I do like 200/500 better than 300/600. It is less aggressive and allows for more play.

Not sure about the extra starting stack for the winner of the first hand. I'll think about it though. Seems a little "bingo" even for this sort of game. I worry it would detract from the fun for the players who don't win, whereas even with early shoves and double ups it seems fair because everyone is on an equal footing.

It would definitely shake things up a bit, but the aggressive blind structure and unlimited re-buys levels out the advantage of having a large chip stack at the start of the game.
 

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