Tourney First Home Tournament: chip distribution & blind structure (1 Viewer)

[Facter]

I've been meaning to buy a new chipset to be able to host tourneys for 9 people at first, with the ability to grow up to ~20 people. I've settled on the Monte Carlo chip, since it doesn't break the bank and looks classy. I've never hosted a poker tourney before and my current chipset is a starter 300pc 'dice' chipset without denoms, but I don't think that will suffice (and hey, new chips). I've tried reading up on this forum and distilling all the information as best as I could into the format underneath, but I would love to hear from you to see if I'm on the right track and whether or not changes should be made in chip distribution or tournament structure (or anything weird going on).

Questions about chipset:
- Do I have enough chips to accommodate a maximum of 20 players? I'm planning on allowing 1 rebuy per person through the first break.
- Do I have enough chips for color ups? I've never done color ups before, but from I understand I need T1000s and T5000s to color up the T25s, T100s and T500s.
- Is it smart to have the T10,000s should I ever want to host a T20K tourney? Or should I buy more T5000s instead? I want the set to be future proof, but still be efficient for a T10K, since that will probably be the main use. Might T10,000s also be useful for quick rebuys if I want to switch to unlimited rebuys? Or again, just buy more T5000s?
- Do I have enough chips to be able give out an on-time bonus and possibly a bring-your-own-snacks/booze-bonus?

I'm thinking of a 1000pc chipset with the following denominations:
T25: 260
T100: 260
T500: 120
T1000: 260
T5000: 80
T10,000: 20

T10K starting stack: 12/12/5/6/-/-
T10K rebuy stack: -/-/-/5/1/-

Questions about blind structure:
- Smooth progression?
- Is it weird to go from 20-minute blinds to 15-minute blinds after the first break?
- Am I correct in assuming that a tourney with 9 entries + roughly 5 rebuys will end at level 12 or 13? And 18 entries + 10 rebuys at level 14 or 15?

Basically: I want my tourneys to last somewhere between 2.5 - 4.5 hours, whether we're playing 4-handed or with 2 tables, without it ever feeling like a turbo, or the opposite: dragging on for too long. I'm aware that a 2.5 hour tourney with 4 people is quite different from a 4,5 hour tourney with 18 people, but is there a blind structure I can re-use for all those purposes and is this it? Or do I need separate structures?

Thanks for double checking in advance! Just want to make sure I've got a nice, playable, and efficient tourney planned out!

Level​	Start time​	SB​	BB​
1.​	[+0:00]​	25​	50​
2.​	[+0:20]​	50​	100​
3.​	[+0:40]​	75​	150​
4.​	[+1:00]​	100​	200​
5.​	[+1:20]​	150​	300​
-​	[+1:40]​	10-minute break​	Color up T25 > T1000​
6.​	[+1:50]​	200​	400​
7.​	[+2:05]​	300​	600​
8.​	[+2:20]​	500​	1000​
9.​	[+2:35]​	800​	1600​
10.​	[+2:50]​	1000​	2000​
11.​	[+3:05]​	1500​	3000​
-​	[+3:20]​	10-minute break​	Color up T100 & T500 > T5000​
12.​	[+3:30]​	2000​	4000​
13.​	[+3:45]​	3000​	6000​
14.​	[+4:00]​	5000​	10000​
15.​	[+4:15]​	8000​	16000​
16.​	[+4:30]​	10000​	20000​
17.​	[+4:45]​	15000​	30000​
18.​	[+5:00]​	20000​	60000​
19.​	[+5:15]​	50000​	100000​

 

[ValueTown]

Not sure you'll see a bunch of comments. There is so many of these questions being asked. Search the forum, it should help.

Looks like a good start. Try it out! Then adjust as needed. Good luck!!

 

[JustinInMN]

I'm thinking of a 1000pc chipset with the following denominations:
T25: 260
T100: 260
T500: 120
T1000: 260
T5000: 80
T10,000: 20

T10K starting stack: 12/12/5/6/-/-
T10K rebuy stack: -/-/-/5/1/-

- Do I have enough chips to accommodate a maximum of 20 players? I'm planning on allowing 1 rebuy per person through the first break.

Doing the math, I think you are good for 12/12/5/6. You might be overbuying T1000s though I see you plan is to introduce those as part of your rebuy-stacks, so I guess that makes sense. But yes, you should have enough starting stack chips to cover 20 starting stacks with an extra 20 chips of each.

- Do I have enough chips for color ups? I've never done color ups before, but from I understand I need T1000s and T5000s to color up the T25s, T100s and T500s.

What this video by our own @Chris Manzoni to learn about color ups. He makes it easy. Really all you need is to bring a few big chips from the from the bank to each table. Trade those with a deeper-stack player to get the smaller chips that will be left after the color up, and then distribute those chips to the players with remaining chips for the color up denomination.

I also wrote this post about color ups if that would help.

- Is it smart to have the T10,000s should I ever want to host a T20K tourney? Or should I buy more T5000s instead? I want the set to be future proof, but still be efficient for a T10K, since that will probably be the main use. Might T10,000s also be useful for quick rebuys if I want to switch to unlimited rebuys? Or again, just buy more T5000s?

I would say no. I don't think T10K is that useful of a denomination. I would rather have extra T5K chips or maybe a T25K chip to just to be a value store if you get into bigger stacks. You could also probably cut your T1000s down to 240 without issue to get more T5000s for bigger stacks.

- Do I have enough chips to be able give out an on-time bonus and possibly a bring-your-own-snacks/booze-bonus?

Questions about blind structure:

- Smooth progression?
- Is it weird to go from 20-minute blinds to 15-minute blinds after the first break?
- Am I correct in assuming that a tourney with 9 entries + roughly 5 rebuys will end at level 12 or 13? And 18 entries + 10 rebuys at level 14 or 15?

Yes, since you are doing 20 extra of each denomination, you have enough to cover an extra T500 or T1000 chip for these bounses.

Also watch @Chris Manzoni 's video on starting stacks and structure ideas.

I would not suggest reducing blind times to less than 18 mintues unless you get very deep in the tournament personally. Our rule of thumb on PCF is that tournaments will usually go no longer than the level where the total chips in play represents 20BB.

Looking at your structure above if you have 20 players with a 50% rebuy rate that means you would have 30 entries * a T10K starting stack or 300K in play. Dividing that 300K by 20 gives you an expected last level of around 15K, so probably where you have 8K-16K. (Level 15.) If you do 18 minute levels, that puts you right on 4.5 hours.

I do spot two issues with your structure.
1) The early double. The double between levels 1 and 2 is often seen as drastic as it effectively cuts starting stacks in half. The accepted work-around for this is to put in one odd level of 25-75, or also start the tournament on 50-100 and double the starting stack.
2) Decreased jump between levels 9-10. The jump from level 8 to 9 is 300-600, the jump from 9 to 10 is only 200-400.

Here is how I would rewrite after the first break.
200-400, 300-600, 400-800, 600-1200, 800-1600, 1000-2000, 1500-3000 (and 800-1600 would be optional here and still make sure the amount of the jump is either level or increases)

Note in this progression the increases are a uniform 200-400 from 400-800, 600-1200, and 800-1600 in contrast your progression that goes up by 200-400 from 300-600 to 500-1000, then up by 300-600 to 800-1600, and then the jump goes down to 200-400 to the 1000-2000 level.

or alternatively if you like a 500-1000 level

200-400, 300-600, 500-1000, 800-1600, 1200-2400, 1600-3200.

With this progression, the amount of the jump never decreases in contrast with your structure.

I hope this offers you a few things to consider, best wishes.

 

[BGinGA]

400 chips is more than adequate for a 10-player T25-base set with re-buys:

120 x T25
120 x T100
50 x T500
75 x T1000
35 x T5000

Just double it to 800 chips if wanting to retain 12/12/5/6/x stacks for 20 players:

240 x T25
240 x T100
100 x T500
150 x T1000
70 x T5000

 

[Facter]

Thanks for the replies! Definitely given me some things to reconsider before the purchase and the first tourney.

 

[GreekRedEye]

400 chips is more than adequate for a 10-player T25-base set with re-buys:

120 x T25
120 x T100
50 x T500
75 x T1000
35 x T5000

Just double it to 800 chips if wanting to retain 12/12/5/6/x stacks for 20 players:

240 x T25
240 x T100
100 x T500
150 x T1000
70 x T5000

If you do double up using @BGinGA 's numbers, you might also want to consider adding 1 more barrel of T500s, another rack of T1000s, and another barrel of T5000s. That would allow you to spread that set to 3 tables using 8/8/4/7 if the situation ever arises.