Tourney Feedback on my "NLHE Tournament Season" concept? (1 Viewer)

[Rome]

Hey everyone,

So I ran a tournament series years ago that people really enjoyed, but I have since moved and my regulars aren't close enough to attend regularly to make it work. I am going to try to run one again if I can find enough people locally, but I wanted feedback on the structure before trying to find players.

I had a NLHE tournament every week for 8 weeks. 10k starting stacks. 80% of the buyin went to that week's prize pool, 20% went into a pool for the final "Championship Week". Each week we had between 8 and 16 players, whoever could make it each week, and we had about 21 unique players over the 8 weeks. Points were given out each week based on your finishing position in that week's tournament as follows:
1st-10 pts
2nd-7 pts
3rd-5 pts
4th-4 pts
5th- 3pts
6th-2 pts
7-Xth- 1pt

No chops were allowed during the season to keep the points real. I made a website and updated the scoreboard weekly. The top 6 point earners for the season earned a seat in the Championship Game, whose prize pool was funded throughout the entire season by 20% of the weekly buyins. We debated having a winner take all format, but decided on every place getting some prize to give it that "final table" feel. I even bought a bracelet to give for the winner commemorating the Season victory. We also wanted to encourage people to come to the most number of games possible, so for every game they attended starting with their 2nd game, they got an extra 200 in chips on their Championship Game starting stack (10k starting stack before bonuses), meaning a possible 11,400 starting stack vs 10,000 base stack.

So that was basically the structure for Rome Poker Arena Championship Season 1, the only season that occured before I moved. What do you guys think? I'd love some feedback or suggestions to improve this structure, as I'd love to run this again if I can ever find enough people to make it work. It was very well received but everything can always be improved.

 

[pltrgyst]

I used to do something similar, but my guys got tired of playing tournaments. So for 2012, I mode it a series of six months of cash games, with a very few tourneys thrown in. It worked out quite well. The basic rules were:

Series / NL Hold 'em Rules

The house rules consist of the then-current TDA rules, as amended by the general Hold'em rules on this site, and then by this page. At least half of the games will be NLHE; the remaining half may be mixed or other single (Omaha, stud, Chowaha, badougi, PL or NL) games. Most will be cash games; there may be some pure tournaments as well.

- The series will run through the end of June 2012, which should give us 25-30 game dates.

- The cash games will generally be $1/2 (there may be exceptions) with an initial buy-in of $100-$200. There will be no add-ons until you bust.

- Most games will be played as straight cash, but with a tournament component added. Tournament points will be awarded for your position of finish -- 1 point for first to bust, 2 points for second to bust, etc. If fewer than eight players participate on any given week, the first to bust will receive 1+8-n points (where n is the number of players present), and so forth.

- If you bust, you can re-buy (with our normal add-on rules), and play strictly for cash the rest of the night -- but you will not be able to accrue any additional points that night.

- For those who do not bust, the remaining finishing positions will be determined by chip count at the end of the hand in progress at midnight. (Play may continue as a straight cash game beyond midnight, if players so desire).

- Points will be accumulated over the course of the series. In order to qualify for the final table, you must play at least half the games. From those who have qualified, the top 8 players in total points will be eligible for the final table, which will be played as the first game following the end of June.

- The final table will be a freeroll for those top eight players, who will receive initial chip stacks based on their final point totals.

- The final table will be financed by raking the entire series at $1 for each hand whose pot reaches $10, or for which a flop is dealt. For tournaments, the rake will be an added 10% of the buy-in (e.g., $100 +10). All the proceeds will be distributed to the final table players.

- Games will start by 7:45 pm. Late arrivals will have their maximum allowable buy-in reduced by 25% (usually $50) for each fifteen minutes they are late. Players who cancel the day of the game, or who no-show, will receive zero points; however, total points awarded for that game will be based on player count as though they were present.

 

[Pinball]

for the points I would rate first place much higher. We used once this:

50 / 25 / 12 / 10 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1

 

[jumburger]

I think those are good incentives for attendance. It would have to be a fairly regular game, as several times when I was trying to run I'd get 20 people or 3. We never achieved any type of consistency.

 

[Rome]

for the points I would rate first place much higher. We used once this:

50 / 25 / 12 / 10 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1

Thanks for the suggestion. A potential issues there is that winning one week is almost a guarantee of making the championship game. And while that's not necessarily a bad thing, it might make more sense to just have winners get a seat in the final week and forget the points altogether at that point. I wanted to encourage regular attendance and huge points for a win could discourage returning for additional weeks, especially if one of the non-regulars was the winner.

 

[Pinball]

What about giving an attendance bonus?

Or all players from 4th to last get 10 points.

 

[Newtons1st]

I use this.

You will earn points based on your finish. The number of points you earn are as follows
(#of Players - Your Finish Spot) +1
Bonus Points
Final Table (10) = +5
Top Place Finished = 1st = 25, 2nd = 15, 3rd = 10, 4th = 7, 5th = 4
$100 Buy In Event = +10

As Example: In a 35 Person tourney you finish 5th.
(35-5) +1 = 31
Final Table = 5
5th = 4
Your total points = 40