Tourney Thoughts on casual league TOC and prizes? (1 Viewer)

legonick

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Preamble: I've been trying to get a monthly game going. I don't advertise it as a league as I'm afraid it might "scare away" some newer players from participating. Also, I don't want to charge league fees as that'll create a disincentive to play joining the league late, or be unfair to people who joined early. It just needs to be more flexible. Most people who have played more than 1 game are very casual and newer to poker. $15 9-handed STT.

TOC thoughts: I've been tracking league points in a silly but easy-to-track way. Think of golf scores...lower is better. Get 1st, 1 point. Get 2nd, 2 points. Don't show for a game, get player_count+1 points. So I'm thinking I want to wrap up the "season" with a Tournament of Champions (TOC) in December. A game only open to the top 9 players in points with a longer targeted play time ("regular season" games are ~3.5 hours without breaks, thinking ~5 hours without breaks for a target on this one). It won't be at the regularly schedule time (can't due to holidays anyways), so I'd like to work with players to find a time that best fits everyone. If some people just can't make it, we just don't run with 9. Say 2 of the top 9 are out all month on holiday. Well, 7-handed you go, blinds adjusted accordingly to hit the ~5 hours without breaks mark.

My questions are:
- How many points should this game be worth?
- How to administer those points (as a multiplier [2x, 3x, etc.]? "Negative" score?)?
- Is ~5 hours without breaks target too long?
- Do you think this is a good idea at all? Other thoughts/feedback?

Prize thoughts: I'm thinking about awarding 1st place in the league 2 "half-roll" tokens, and 2nd place 1 "half-roll" token, 3rd only gets his name on the board. A half-roll token allows you to buy into a future game for half the price. Because I haven't taken league fees, I'm thinking that using one of these would just reduce the prize pool...so basically a half-free-roll for the guy using the token. 1 token allowed per tournament game, first come-first serve. I like this concept because in order to "redeem your prize" you have to play more poker! Perfect as filling a table is a challenge. Of course, the guy winning is probably the most regular anyways, so probably not going to matter much for retention - but maybe it'd stop someone from "taking a season off" if that's a thing.

My questions are:
- Have you ever awarded a prize like this?
- Should I just pay the other half of the player's buy-in?
- Will the other players be too tilted, or they won't really care?
- Other thoughts/feedback? Is this a good idea at all?

Thank you for your time and thoughts! :)
 
Don't limit the number of players in the TOC. Instead, give out extra chips depending on finish spot. You don't want to give players a reason to not show up to games (i.e. there's no way they can qualify for the TOC).
 
Don't limit the number of players in the TOC. Instead, give out extra chips depending on finish spot. You don't want to give players a reason to not show up to games (i.e. there's no way they can qualify for the TOC).
I shoot for the 2nd to last Friday of every month, but this year in December that's Christmas eve. Yeah...hard to expect a good turnout then. :) That's why I'm thinking of taking that month off, except for a TOC which is a more exclusive tournament scheduled whenever it works for those who have made it and want to play.

But yeah I get what you are saying regarding the TOC and people who are too far behind to make it if it was only top 9.

What do you recommend for "chip bonuses" based on position going into TOC?
 
I shoot for the 2nd to last Friday of every month, but this year in December that's Christmas eve. Yeah...hard to expect a good turnout then. :) That's why I'm thinking of taking that month off, except for a TOC which is a more exclusive tournament scheduled whenever it works for those who have made it and want to play.

But yeah I get what you are saying regarding the TOC and people who are too far behind to make it if it was only top 9.

What do you recommend for "chip bonuses" based on position going into TOC?
I would keep it simple and NOT do something like specific amount of chips depending on specific league points as that just gets too complicated and annoying to deal with. It could also be problematic in the case that someone just runs away with the points in a season.

It does depend on how many players you have total though. I personally would not want the 1st place player to have some insurmountable chip advantage that it would make it basically impossible to overtake them, but at the same time I want to give the players with the best league results some bonus for finishing up top. Let's assume you have 20 players total. I'd suggest something like the following:

20th-10th place - T10k
9th-5th place - T12k
4th place - T16k
3rd place - T18k
2nd place - T20k
1st place - T25k
 

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