I will primarily address the color ups and breaks and only briefly mention structure.
Structure -- On structure, you can use any starting stack (measured by BB) and narrow down to a time by carefully designing the blind increases and blind times. All suggestions above would work, as would other structures. I prefer, and so does our group, consistent increases between 50% and 67%. We start with 400BB and 50/100; 20 players will be finished within 4:20 85-90% of the time. The only exception to the 50-67% is the second round doubles. I'm not wild about it, but it works best for our group. If our first blind doesn't double, I get complaints that our game is too slow. It's silly, but it's pretty easy to accommodate that. And it provides a built in reward for showing up within the first round -- 2x the number of BB than if you are late.
Color ups -- Our current structure has a 100/500 color up (we start with T25). It is truly a simultaneous color up -- your total chip value on those 2 chips is what we color up you to. What I like about doing 2 at once is it saves time over doing them one at a time after different rounds. I honestly never thought of doing 2 after a round but doing them one at a time. It would work, I just think it would take a little longer. However, it wouldn't take longer overall -- just right at that color up. Obviously it would eliminate the color up after another round.
Each table is handled by itself by the dealers/table captains.
We don't use a chip race; doing 2 at once with a chip race would take longer. Coloring up doesn't take very long though. However, sometimes I find players use color ups to take longer than intended breaks.
To make the double color up work, we leave the 100s on the tables one round longer than required rather than have a color up after 2 straight blind levels. Our next color up after that is two rounds later.
We don't follow BG's system of only using high value chips to color up exactly, but we are fairly close to that. While I have purchased chip sets with the idea that we will color up every chip with the next highest value chip, in practice, we color up with the highest value chip that makes sense. I have a color up box (4x25) for a table of 10 with 100 chips in it. It has:
- 5x either 100s or 500s (3x100 and 2x500 or normal). We don't add many lower value chips, and when we do, it's usually when coloring up one of the first players, and another player will turn in more 100s. After the first color up, we have fewer T100s on the table and usually fewer T500s as well.
- 20x1000, primarily used to color up the T25s. Since everyone starts with 11x1000, we look to remove some of those from the table as well.
- 50x5000. Of the 5,000 chips, up to 30 of them are used for bonus chips in the initial stacks. We start with 25,000, but give 5,000 for showing up on time and 10,000 to players who pay $5 extra to cover dealers and card expenses (and that money doesn't go in the prize pool).
- 15x25,000. If possible, we start putting these in after the second color up. Then I look for opportunities to buy out lower value chips in a pot with them. You have to be careful though. I find if you color up a pot with 5x5000x in it with a T25,000, players will end up chopping the pot. But if there are 10x5000s, I'll color up 5 of them.
- 10x100,000 (rarely used)
Color ups are quick and we use the round up method. One thing I found that speeds up the color up is to put a large chip tray on the table that holds 500-600 chips. Chips colored up go in that tray. After the color up is finished, the lid goes back on the color up box and the color up tray is set aside to the table staging area or the tournament staging area if it is at a break. I usually put higher value chips colored up in the color up box. For example, if in coloring up T25s, a player turns in a 500 and 3 1000s to get a 5000, those 4 chips go in the box. That makes it harder for anyone to just pick up a chip of higher value and add it to their stack.
If I'm not in the hand before the color up break, I'll start by coloring up my own chips and players next to me if they aren't in the hand. That saves a small amount of time. I don't interfere with play though so I won't go beyond the first player in either direction who is in the hand. Nor will I go past the dealer dealing that hand as we have 2 dedicated dealers in the middle of the table. Since I start siting next to one dealer, I'm often not able to do more than color my own chips up before the hand is over.
I have a staging area for each table (either a counter top or my tea cart that I'm nice enough to let my wife use for her stuff the rest of the time!). The table staging areas hold color up chip box for that table, the empty color up trays, empty or half full starting chip boxes (2 sets of starting chips per box and each table starts with 5 of those plus a color up box), empty card boxes, and extra cards in case a deck is damaged.
Then I have a tournament "staging" table that is a bit away from both tables. At the break, all starting chip boxes go to the table, and there is one tray that holds chips that have been colored up. It also holds other things I might need like the rules, extra kitchen timer (which is what I use to time rounds), etc. During the break, I start the process of putting chips back in boxes by putting the T25s back in. I try to remember to put the lid on the boxes that contain other starting chips, but sometimes find at the end of the night that I failed to do it. So far no one has snatched any chips from those boxes.
My suggestion on color ups is try it different ways and see what you find works the best for you. Other players can give you ideas, but there is no perfect method for everyone.
Breaks -- For most of our games, we have one 20-minute break at the 2 hour mark (after 6 rounds). That's when our registration period ends, unless we go to Final Table prior to then. We have short color up breaks after that -- sometimes a "take 5" break.
Some think 20 minutes is too long for a break, and some would like it to come sooner. Some would like shorter breaks. Some would like more breaks -- every 1:20 or 1:40. Like everything else, trying to keep everyone happy is a barrel of fun but completely impossible! Our system for breaks is what seems to work the best for our group. When I've surveyed players on this issue, I get all kinds of suggestions, but while nothing is the majority, the most common thing liked is our current system.
Our regular games are designed as a 4 hour game for 20 players. For our Main Event, designed as a 6 hour game for 30 players. We take a 30-40 minute dinner break after 2:20, and a shorter 10 minute break after 4:20. We have one other game that is designed for 30, but follows our regular 4 hour format. If we have more than 20 players, that game could stretch another round or two beyond the 4 hour mark. A 4-hour design is really from 3:40 to 4:20.
During our regular games, the break is used to snack and visit. I use half that time combining the color up trays and starting the process of putting chips away, then putting empty color up trays by each table. Then a bio-break, snack, and a little visiting. A shorter break doesn't give me much of a break at all. When others have suggested a shorter break, I've asked if they would be willing to help take on my tasks then to speed things up. So far that's only kept us at a 20 minute break. I only ask players who think the break needs to be shorter. I'm sure I'd have plenty of help if I asked others who are fine with a 20 minute break.
Once again, my suggestion on breaks is try different things and see what you find works best for you.
