I did not face the scenario of a late player forcing a second table, but...imagining if it did happen...since the new players are joining at the break, I would use the break to ask players to redraw and then seat them at the two tables. I could extend the break a few minutes if needed to do the redraw, give players time to find their new seats, and move their stacks.
For a casual home tournament, how does this strike folks? Is this acceptable or is waiting for the break to deal with new entries/re-entries bad tournament management?
I've been thinking about this for a couple years now, and I have been working on this concept that I like about adding a table by predetermining the seats that will move to open a new table and moving as few players as possible and avoiding at all costs any sort of complete redraw. In practice I have only used this method once. (When I ended up with 12 bodies on a night I had 10 rsvp's and didn't want to take the time to figure it out.) There is a second case earlier this year in which I SHOULD have used this method, but was expecting such a big crowd, I made the mistake of building both tables 1 and 2 from the opening of registration and unfortunately the 10th player didn't arrive until about 15 minutes after the planned start, even though this tournament would eventually see 17 bodies and 26 entries, IIRC.
Bottom line, I don't believe I have shared this method with PCF as yet, but I guess today is the day.
Players 1-10 arrive. All players draw a seat to table 1.
Player 11 arrives. Players in even seats (except 10) 2, 4, 6, and 8 on Table 1 automatically move to their corresponding seats on table 2. Player 11 draws among the odd seats on table 2. Result is 6 of the 10 players remain on table 1, 5 players on table 2.
Players 12-18 arrive. (going with 9max from this point onward because because my table 2 is smaller, will never support 10 and really shouldn't support 9 either), player 12 will draw a seat on table 2, then the other players will draw to alternating tables.
So I guess the concept is to predetermine the order of moving players to build new tables moving as few players as possible, instead of relying on a slow redraw process (even using software). If I were to extend this to a 3rd Table.
Player 19 arrives, Players in seats 1-3, 1-9, 2-1, 2-5, 2-7 take their corresponding seats on table 3*, 19th player draws among the even seats on table 3. Results: Table 1: 7 players, table 2: 6 players, table 3: 6 players.
*Math rule: Fill the odd seats on table 3 using odd multiples of 3 from Table 1 and odd non-multiples of 3 from table 2
Players 20-27. Each player draws among the open seats on the table with the fewest players. If multiple tables have the same number, then they draw to the lowest numbered table. Meaning this order. Table 2, Table 3, Table 1, Table 2, Table 3, Table 1, Table 2, Table 3.
And for good measure, not that I could ever see hosting 4 tables but...
Player 28 arrives.
Players in seats 1-4, 1-8, 2-3, 2-9, 3-2, 3-6 take their corresponding seats on Table 4**. 28th player draws from the remaining seats on Table 4. Results: 4 tables of 7.
** Math rule: Fill the even seats on Table 4 by using multiples of 4 from table 1, even non-multiples of 4 from table 3, and fill two of the odd seats from table 2 using odd multiples of 3. Seats 1,5,7 available on table 4 for the 28th player to draw.
Players 29-36
Each player draws among the open seats on the table with the fewest players. If multiple tables have the same number of "fewest players", then the new player draws to the lowest numbered table. Meaning this order. Table 1, Table 2, Table 3, Table 4, Table 1, Table 2, Table 3, Table 4.
Alternatively, you could make this "double blind" as well. Have a player draw a table token first among the tables that "need" a player and then a seat token for that table.
However you do it, this sort of method ensures you build tables evenly, while moving as few players as possible and ensuring you only move a player once for this purpose after the initial draw. (You will also notice seat 1-1 is never moved if as I do, you reserve that as a seat of host privilege, for banking and chip management for example.)