Tourney Cash Set for Small Tourney? (1 Viewer)

[rjbf65]

Backstory: Friend of mine has done almost all the hosting for years and years with dice chips. Most of the time he can get 8 or 9 players but with a lot of effort can get up to 16 to 20. He has done a good job recruiting new players so the dynamic recently is about 5 guys that have played for 15+ years and guys literally just starting to learn. For this reason, he likes to have a smaller buy in tournament before we all get to our new favorite thing which is dealers choice cash. I've expressed my desire to just skip the tourney when we only get 1 table worth of players but I do see his point of easing some of the new guys into the game with less at stake.

He has always had a big set of dice chips and writes the denominations on a white board. Within the past year I picked up a cash set of Tina Bellagio's. So recently what we have been doing is the tourney with his dice chips and then using my set for the cash game. Now he is the proud new owner of some Hardwell Underground's. So he will be able to enjoy a nice set of chips on nights I'm not able to come play.

My thought is I'd MUCH prefer to play a tourney with one of the cash sets rather than the dice. We would have to do a T100 starting stack and go with .25/.50 blinds.

Has anyone else done this? Biggest difference is each of our sets has a $20 chip. So the lack of a T1000 equivalent is present since neither of us has a $10 chip.

My set is
.25 -- 200
$1 ---300
$5 -- 200
$20 -100

His set is
.25 - 350
$1 - 405
$5 - 300
$20 - 20

Could do starting stacks of 12-12-5-3, or 16-16-16, or 20-20-15, or 8-8-6-3 etc....

Likely we would probably use my set for the tourney and his set for the cash game just incase I need to leave before the game breaks.

I know the correct answer is "just buy a designated tournament set". But lets pretend that's not an option. Any reason why this wouldn't work?

 

[Nine_high]

I think it would be fine since they are different sets. And I'm not worried about having a $20 it fits with this progression just fine.

I would probably just spread it out as best you can if you have two full tables. 16 handed you can go 12/17/12/1 with your set. You got plenty of 20s to do color ups and rebuys if you want.

More than 16 you can drop back to 8/13/9/2 but only have enough for some rebuys (30 total buy ins)

More than 22 (up to 25) you have to pare back again 8/8/6/3 and you can still color up the quarters and ones but only do a handful of rebuys (still 30 total, I believe).

 

[rjbf65]

I think it would be fine since they are different sets. And I'm not worried about having a $20 it fits with this progression just fine.

I would probably just spread it out as best you can if you have two full tables. 16 handed you can go 12/17/12/1 with your set. You got plenty of 20s to do color ups and rebuys if you want.

More than 16 you can drop back to 8/13/9/2 but only have enough for some rebuys (30 total buy ins)

More than 22 (up to 25) you have to pare back again 8/8/6/3 and you can still color up the quarters and ones but only do a handful of rebuys (still 30 total, I believe).

Good stuff. I think it would work well while also only having just a couple of color-ups. I don't see there being more than 20 people at any point. Really looking forward to not having to look at a white board for denominations.

 

[GreekRedEye]

@BGinGA I think you have an opportunity to convert someone to base T0.25 !

 

[rjbf65]

Brought my set to a poker night at my buddies place. He prefers a cheap tourney before cash so I set it up. Decided a on a smaller starting stack since we weren’t looking for this to last all that long.

$60 starting stack
16 - $.25
16 - $1
8 - $5


Had 9 players and 7 rebuys. The initial rebuys I’d grab 10 - $1 and 10 -$5’s but then switched to grabbing 3- $20’s.

It was great. Worked very well. Massive upgrade to using non denominated chips.

 

[Labrat]

Didn't want it to last long and there were 7 rebuys?

 

[Mandos]

Brought my set to a poker night at my buddies place. He prefers a cheap tourney before cash so I set it up. Decided a on a smaller starting stack since we weren’t looking for this to last all that long.

$60 starting stack
16 - $.25
16 - $1
8 - $5

I'm assuming you started at .25/.50 for 120BB starting stacks?

 

[rjbf65]

Didn't want it to last long and there were 7 rebuys?

Ha... yeah, had the rebuy period last too long. My bad. Next time I'll end the rebuy period earlier and possibly skip a blind level so it will end sooner. I'm shooting for sub 2 hours for this. If the buy in was more than $5 I'd have a slower schedule.

Another option is just doubling blinds each level after the rebuy/color up period but I've always hated being in tourneys like that.

I'm assuming you started at .25/.50 for 120BB starting stacks?

Yes. Had 15 minute levels and tourney lasted a little over 2 hours and the guys decided to chop so we could move on to the cash game.

.25-.50
.50-1
.75-1.5
1- 2
1.5-3
--------Colored up the .25 and end of rebuy's.
2-4
3-6
4-8
6-12
8-16 --- I think the chop happened here or possibly the 6-12 level. (I was out and playing pool at this point and can't remember for sure)

I've tried to steer my buddy towards going straight to cash but he likes the $5 tourney before. It's his house, so his rules. (I think he does this to protect newer players, which he has a few, from blasting off $60-$80 in an hour of cash and going home) In general the guys are usually all good to chop pretty quickly so we can move on. But, using the cash set for the tourney was great. I went with the 16-16-8 so it was a 40 chip starting stack which is easily pre-arranged in the Justin Chip Racks I have.

 

[ekricket]

Most of the time he can get 8 or 9 players but with a lot of effort can get up to 16 to 20. He has done a good job recruiting new players

I've expressed my desire to just skip the tourney wh

I've tried to steer my buddy towards going straight to cash

I think you should shut up. Seems like he knows more about this than you.

 

[rjbf65]

I think you should shut up. Seems like he knows more about this than you.

That's a fair statement. But I'll add that he literally thanked me today for improving his game setup overall. But I will back off on the tourney first thing. At one point he had a structure with 600T starting stack and 1/2 blinds to start, for a $5 tourney. I just couldn't help but insert some improvement opinions on that one. LOL

It's always funny how we play a couple hours on $5 and then immediately see a $50 pot in cash. The tourney may very well be the thing that keeps the player pool able to come back. Certainly takes away the risk of losing much very quickly.

 

[Mandos]

What stakes do you play in the cash game? I understand that it doesn't feel worth it to play a $5 tournament for several hours, but it is a very effective way of getting new players more exposure to the game for cheap.

 

[rjbf65]

What stakes do you play in the cash game? I understand that it doesn't feel worth it to play a $5 tournament for several hours, but it is a very effective way of getting new players more exposure to the game for cheap.

.25-.25 blinds with several different games. Buy-ins range from $30 to $60 and even $100 from one player. The other night got to just under $600 on the table