Tourney 11-person tournament. Two tables or one? (2 Viewers)

[sleepyhead]

I host a poker league with one game per month. We are in our second year as a league and things run fairly smoothly. We generally get anywhere from about 8-14 people each month. Some months I have found myself with 11 people. I don’t know the ins and outs of formal tournament rules but I believe best practice is to split off into a 5 and 6-person table and as soon as one person is eliminated we combine into one 10-person table. Is this true? I am tempted to run a 11-person table rather than set up two tables. This would be to mostly avoid the shift of dynamics going from playing 5/6 handed to 10 handed. It would be a bit of a squeeze to fit 11 around the table but doable. What are peoples’ thoughts on this? When 11 people show up should we be splitting into a 5 and 6-person table?

 

[Tommy]

It would be a bit of a squeeze to fit 11 around the table but doable.

Maybe for 11 marathon runners. 2 tables.

 

[krafticus]

2 tables, combine at 9

 

[raynmanas]

people have a weird hang-up about 9- or 10-max hold'em tables. 11-handed works perfectly fine if the table can physically handle it. it’s even better when it’s a friend group and the point is to hang out with the people you’re playing with.

back in the early 2000s poker boom, when foxwoods had limited tournament space and always sold out, and before re‑entries existed, they would cram 11 players onto every starting table just to maximize entries. it worked, and nobody complained.

 

[FestiveKnight]

Agree with a lot of what @raynmanas said. Especially if social game is the goal, splitting tables = splitting friends. Can work well, can be kinda boring compared to all smushed together.

That being said, just one more thought to add into the mix is not to combine so early. Rather than settling into rhythms at the two tables and then combining and resetting reads and position, do a shootout. Do a table of 5 and a table of 6 (or much much better, find a 12 player for even starting tables), and then play each table down to the final 2 or even the final 1 and then recombine for the final table.

I’ve done shootouts for my last couple MTTs. 3 tables of 6 and 2 tables 7 and it was great. Stacks going into FT are relatively even. People get the satisfaction of grinding the win at their table and then have to reset to match up against the competition from the other table. And creates a hype rail moment at merge

 

[BigGrizz]

11 is my 1 table cap. 12 gets split. 11 is just the most awkward possible number for poker. My next game had 11 so I intentially pushed out and got 2 extra players to make it 13.

 

[Jaxen]

Unless you play with 30+ minute levels, you're not going to make a full orbit in a blind level with 11, if that's an issue for you. We were 9-handed Saturday night and made it all the way around exactly in the first 2 blind levels.
Field sizes of 11 (for this reason) and 14 (we start to pay 4, but 4th just gets their money back) are my cringe. I hate a table might start with just 5 players, but I can't put 11 around one of my tables.