Tourney Halloween "Zombie Resurrection" idea (13 Viewers)

Skimmeed the thread, so forgive me if it's been mentioned...

What about a nominal zombie rebuy of like $5 or $10 (for a $40 tournament) that is a bounty for whoever knocks out a zombie?

Interesting discussion for upcoming October tournaments.
 
Mojo1312 said:
Zombies should have an equal chance of winning the tournament as non-zombies.
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Have you ever seen a zombie film where the zombies win? o_O

Point taken though. I think those with more experience than me may fair well at striking the balance but for me it will probably a bit of a stab in the dark, or an educated guess at best. Edit: and I don't want to make things overly complicated for my casual group who are mostly new to poker, or indeed for myself as I'm new to hosting and taking on the TD duties.

Lots of good ideas and points made in the thread anyway, they'll certainly keep my brain ticking... until the zombies come for it, that is :nailbite:
 
It's definitely going to be a trial and error period, hopefully with everyone's ideas we can come up with a great skeleton and tweak it as needed. Are you going to come up with art like you did on your magnificent 7? If so I would be willing to throw a tip your way to use it for mine as well if the main bullet points line up. @Blind Joe
 
Mojo1312 said:
Why re-buy if the game is going to be skewed heavily against you?
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My comment was meant to be tongue in cheek, I don't really think the zombie should be predestined to lose.

To answer your question though, in my version as it currently stands the zombie wouldn't rebuy - as the first to be felted they would be given a free double stack as part of their ressurection and it would be automatic.

All remaining human players would have a rebuy option when felted but would only receive the original stack.

I don't wish for the game to be skewed heavily against the zombie, what I'm aiming for is something more neutral: an advantage to the zombie when they resurrect (double stack) but for that advantage to decrease as they go on (the steady decay of their stack due to forced antes). Eventually the advantage is balanced out with the disadvantage of posting bigger and bigger antes.

If played well, this disadvantage can be offset by utilising the early advantage of a double stack to build a buffer that will see the zombie through the end levels. If a zombie doesn't adapt and is too passive it will fail to feed and will die for good.
 
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toynoob said:
It's definitely going to be a trial and error period, hopefully with everyone's ideas we can come up with a great skeleton and tweak it as needed. Are you going to come up with art like you did on your magnificent 7? If so I would be willing to throw a tip your way to use it for mine as well if the main bullet points line up. @Blind Joe
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Absolutely. And feel free to use anything I post here, it's all cobbled together from clip art and the like that I find on the web with some free fonts and a bit of photoshoppery. I'm not artistic enough to come up with anything completely original! ;)

I've got quite a few ideas for Halloween themed bonuses of varying difficulty, although I'll probably only use two or three and the rest can be cycled in other years.
  1. Hocus Pokers - best hand of the night
  2. The Shining - win with a Jack
  3. Dead Man's Hand - win with A8
  4. Sixth Sense/Omen/Number of the Beast - win with 666
  5. Texas Holdem Massacre - most eliminations
  6. Witches of Eastwick - win with QQQ
  7. Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse - win with quad kings
  8. Zombie Hunter - eliminate the zombie
 
Blind Joe said:
Absolutely. And feel free to use anything I post here, it's all cobbled together from clip art and the like that I find on the web with some free fonts and a bit of photoshoppery. I'm not artistic enough to come up with anything completely original! ;)

I've got quite a few ideas for Halloween themed bonuses of varying difficulty, although I'll probably only use two or three and the rest can be cycled in other years.
  1. Hocus Pokers - best hand of the night
  2. The Shining - win with a Jack
  3. Dead Man's Hand - win with A8
  4. Sixth Sense/Omen/Number of the Beast - win with 666
  5. Texas Holdem Massacre - most eliminations
  6. Witches of Eastwick - win with QQQ
  7. Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse - win with quad kings
  8. Zombie Hunter - eliminate the zombie
Click to expand...
Cool I can't even do what you are referring too so that's why I asked lol!
 
Hi All,

I've been trolling the forums for several months now, but this thread made me create an account. I love this idea! I host a monthly league. 10 regular season tournaments and a championship tournament. October is our "off month", so something like this might work out great.

I have a few ideas in addition to the ideas above. Would love to hear your thoughts.

For starters, I usually have 2-3 tables. It seems to me that having a zombie at one table and not the other(s), gives an advantage to the table with the zombies (more chips in play??). My first thought is, the first player becomes a zombie, but has to wait to resurrect until there is a second zombie (or third if there are 3 tables). No more than one zombie at a table. If there are 2 tables and you're third out, you can become a zombie, but only after another zombie dies. Obviously there has to be a cutoff point where zombies can not re-enter the game. Not sure at what point that is...probably break 2?

I usually start with a T10000 stack. I thought about reducing that to T5000 to speed up the introduction of the zombies and allow the zombies who get a T20000 stack the ability to wreak more havoc early on. I'd add T5000 to all humans after the first break.

I like the idea above about triggering the zombies, and there's not true consensus about a straddle, extra blind, ante, etc... That got me to thinking....what if we introduce the jokers? (Bear with me. We're already breaking the rules.) Zombies play the game as a normal human, but when a joker shows up, the zombies are triggered.

Pre-Flop Joker - If a player is dealt a joker pre-flop, the player dealt a joker shows it before betting starts and is dealt a new card. The zombie immediately pays 2x the big blind even if the zombie is on the big blind and has already paid. Play continues as normal.

Post-Flop Joker - If a joker comes on the flop, turn, or river, the joker is replaced with the next card in the deck and the zombie matches the current pot whether in the hand or not. Play continues as normal.

We normally buy-in for $30 and keep $5 for the year end tournament. For this tournament, I thought about making the $5 the zombie pot. All zombies get a "red" chip. If you knock out a zombie, you get a red chip - worth $5 at the end of the night. If there is money left in the zombie pot at the end of the night, last zombie standing gets the pot.

My typical T10000 blind structure for reference:
50 /100 20 min
100/200 20 min
200/400 20 min
Break
400/800 20 min
700/1400 20 min
1500 / 3000 20 min
Break
3000/6000 1hr
6000/12000 15min
10000/20000 15min
 
Now that someone else introduced jokers I can pitch this idea without having to fear the wrath of PCF. ;)

One joker per deck. If you get the joker then you are the zombie and you need to minraise preflop. Unraised lot, then double the blinds. If someone raised the 100 BB to 300, then raise to 500. If you get reraised you may fold. The joker doesn't play, so postflop you likely need to bluff your way out.

This opens the opportunity to balance your undead range by sometimes minraising preflop with strong hands. Bonuses could be added like if you win a hand as a zombie you get an SB from everyone.

To avoid cheating everyone who folds keeps their cards and flashes them before the next hand to prove no zombie. Could perhaps get messy...
 
Blind Joe said:
I don't wish for the game to be skewed heavily against the zombie, what I'm aiming for is something more neutral: an advantage to the zombie when they resurrect (double stack) but for that advantage to decrease as they go on (the steady decay of their stack due to forced antes). Eventually the advantage is balanced out with the disadvantage of posting bigger and bigger antes.
Click to expand...
I think the hefty weight of the end-game disadvantage results in an unavoidable (second) death for the Zombie, no matter how well he plays prior -- at the higher blind levels with a shrinking stack, the decay is just too severe.

Perhaps if the Zombie manages to survive long enough to hit the money (or money bubble) level, a cure is miraculously discovered and he reverts back to human. He's suffered (and caused suffering) for quite some time, but now gets to play like everybody else once again. The special Zombie bounty still pays for knocking him out, however -- no take-backs there.

Bonus to this approach is that once $$ is on the line, the play reverts to no-shenanigans, which should make the purists happier.
 
BGinGA said:
which should make the purists happier.
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Exactly my worries I have purist in my game who won't even learn PLO. It's all straight forward boring azz holdem. Hopefully they don't walk out haha
 
toynoob said:
I agree thats why I think it should be any face card. Also are you saying in dormant stage they still post or not? I say no
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I should not have used the term dormant stage. Zombies do not interest me. Prior to this thread, I knew next to nothing about the subject. I thought it would be cool to help generate some ideas for a novelty tournament where others could have some fun.

Where in the genre of popular Zombie fiction does a single zombie menace a community? Usually it is a horde of Zombies that starts with an outbreak. That is the idea behind placing a starting stack up for grabs in the center of each table at the beginning of the tournament. Restricting the number of Zombies ignores the fact that a virus is contagious.

Don't be a Sally. If you want to have an Apocalyptic Zombie tournament, than do so by making it challenging and chaotic. Fully embrace it. Zombies multiply. There should be a path where there is an even number of Zombies menacing the other players.

That aside, the opening blinds in the last stage of the tournament are 2000/4000. The forced blind bet would be 8000. E-v-e-r-y hand. What chance do the Zombies have of winning?

I question whether it is wise to continue with the force bet/ante that late into the tournament. Maybe it would be better to incorporate your idea that only Jacks, Queens and Kings on the flop awakens the Zombies when the blinds are 500/1500, then Queens and Kings during the subsequent level and Kings on the last level before the break ending stage two.

Zombies are allowed to play like anyone else, even when they don't have to post a blind bet or ante.
 
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That's where I was confused I thou
Mojo1312 said:
I should not have used the term dormant stage. Zombies do not interest me. Prior to this thread, I knew next to nothing about the subject. I thought it would be cool to help generate some ideas for a novelty tournament where others could have some fun.

Where in the genre of popular Zombie fiction does a single zombie menace a community? Usually it is a horde of Zombies that starts with an outbreak. The idea of placing a starting stack up for grabs in the center of each table at the beginning of the tournament. Restricting the number of Zombies at a table ignores the fact that the virus is contagious.

Don't be a Sally. If you want to have an Apocalyptic Zombie tournament, than do so by making it challenging and chaotic. Fully embrace it. They multiply. There should be a path where there is an even number of Zombies menacing the other players.

That aside, the opening blinds in the last stage of the tournament are 2000/4000. The forced blind bet would be 8000. E-v-e-r-y hand. What chance do the Zombies have of winning?

I question whether it is wise to continue with the force bet/ante that late into the tournament. Maybe it would be better to incorporate your idea that only Jacks, Queens and Kings on the flop awakens the Zombies when the blinds are 500/1500, then Queens and Kings during the subsequent level and Kings on the last level before the break ending stage two.

Zombies are allowed to play like anyone else, even when they don't have to post a blind bet or ante.
Click to expand...
I thought you meant the zombies only played the next hand after a king. That didn't make sense to me
 
BGinGA said:
I think the hefty weight of the end-game disadvantage results in an unavoidable (second) death for the Zombie, no matter how well he plays prior -- at the higher blind levels with a shrinking stack, the decay is just too severe.

Perhaps if the Zombie manages to survive long enough to hit the money (or money bubble) level, a cure is miraculously discovered and he reverts back to human. He's suffered (and caused suffering) for quite some time, but now gets to play like everybody else once again. The special Zombie bounty still pays for knocking him out, however -- no take-backs there.

Bonus to this approach is that once $$ is on the line, the play reverts to no-shenanigans, which should make the purists happier.
Click to expand...
Good points. I've just done another calculation and, assuming the zombie makes it through L9 (at which point his extra 10K will have been used in antes) he will have another 30K to pay in antes up to L13.

Depending on the numbers and how the game has been played we should be down to 4 handed by L9—10 with an average stack of 25—35K.

If the zombie is anywhere below average stack he's toast. On the other hand he could be chip leader and continue absorbing the antes.

Going forward, the zombie will pay 100K in antes during L14—17 which would surely kill him off.

So, maybe the cure is found at L13? (An apt number, you might say.) To reach this level the zombie will have had to build his stack on the back of his early double up and maintain it to around an average stack or more by winning enough hands to offset the decay.
 
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Mojo1312 said:
Where in the genre of popular Zombie fiction does a single zombie menace a community? Usually it is a horde of Zombies that starts with an outbreak.
Click to expand...

I've been thinking about this comment quite a bit and I think there's a lot of merit to it.

With that in mind I'm thinking of an alternative to my "single zombie" version, ie a tournament that begins with an outbreak of one zombie who can infect other players to cause an invasion. I'd like the effects of being a zombie to be less extreme than an exponentially decaying stack that leads to almost certain doom and I think there should be both a penalty of being a zombie plus a threat to humans from zombies.

Here are my initial thoughts:
  • The outbreak begins when the first rebuy chip is used; that player becoms the first zombie. This is compatible with all rebuy formats, eg those where you must be felted, those where you can surrender or, like mine, where you can top up at half stack or below.
  • Rebuys are normal size
  • The penalty for being a zombie is to pay more in blinds, though not in every hand. One example off the top of my head:
    • The zombie becomes a 3rd blind when UTG, eg SB BB BB, thus paying an extra BB per orbit.​
    • Maybe the zombie has to pay BB even when in SB position, thus making it 1.5 extra BBs per orbit.​
  • The threat of the zombie is that he can infect humans and thus force them to endure the same penalty
    • Eg losing a hand against a zombie means you are bitten and turn into a zombie​
  • Edit: Being a human gives a greater chance to win so there is an incentive to not get bitten, whilst the zombies have an incentive to bite you in order to remove your advantage.​
I'll give this some more thought but I think I may prefer this version. Practically, it doesn't change the game as drastically and it doesn't affect just one player disproportionately. Pragmatically it feels easier for someone of my limited experience and access to stats to implement since I don't have to calculate hands per level and try to balance the advantage of a stack bonus verses an ante penalty. Artistically it fits better into the zombie mythos by having an outbreak followed by an invasion as the zombies attempt to take over the human population.
 
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WedgeRock said:
Eliminated players have the option to rebuy or rebuy as a zombie. But if a player is knocked out by a zombie, he is infected and only has the option of rebuying as a zombie.
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I quite like the idea that being knocked out by a zombie, rather than simply losing a hand to one, is the means of infection. I think there's a risk of the latter leading to too many zombies too easily. However, it comes with its own questions and potential problems, like does a player have to have rebuys left to come back as a zombie? If he's used up his rebuys is he fully out? Does this mean the outbreak can only be active during the rebuy period?

If merely losing a hand to a zombie would be too common an occurrence to use as the infection method (which I'm starting to think it would) then maybe losing to a zombie with certain cards would keep the probability of getting bitten in check.

I think I'm pretty strongly against players having the choice of whether to become a zombie. If the first to bust out wants to come back in he does so as a zombie.
 
Blind Joe said:
I quite like the idea that being knocked out by a zombie, rather than simply losing a hand to one, is the means of infection. I think there's a risk of the latter leading to too many zombies too easily. However, it comes with its own questions and potential problems, like does a player have to have rebuys left to come back as a zombie? If he's used up his rebuys is he fully out? Does this mean the outbreak can only be active during the rebuy period?

If merely losing a hand to a zombie would be too common an occurrence to use as the infection method (which I'm starting to think it would) then maybe losing to a zombie with certain cards would keep the probability of getting bitten in check.

I think I'm pretty strongly against players having the choice of whether to become a zombie. If the first to bust out wants to come back in he does so as a zombie.
Click to expand...
I completely agree, and you beat me too saying it. Losing a hand is way to common. I'm thinking any rebuys results in zombie status with unlimited rebuys. Also it's coming back with 15k and I like the 3BB rule with UTG BB. I also like the idea of once in the money a cure is found and no more zombies. I might even find a cure on the bubble boy. This is shaping up to be great guys keep the ideas coming! O before I forget I'm thinking half the rebuy goes to pot while other half goes to a zombie bounty pool, like others have mentioned. The human who survives the zombie apocalypse the longest wins what is in that pot. What are your thoughts on that
 
Are we absolutely sure losing a hand to a zombie would be too common? Bear in mind it isn't any lost hand that turns a human into a zombie, only a hand beaten by a zombie. In fact just typing that out has made me like it - "if your hand is beaten by a zombie..." See what I did there? ;)

At the beginning of the outbreak there will only be one zombie, so the threat of being "bitten" will be lower but it will increase if and when the number of zombies increases.

Personally I'd prefer to keep it so that only a zombie may turn a human into a zombie (the exception being the first zombie, and that in itself is in keeping with zombie lore) rather than each zombie being turned independently.

The trick is to find a way that is not too common but not too rare. The goldilocks spot... Sorry, wrong fairytale! :p
 
Blind Joe said:
Are we absolutely sure losing a hand to a zombie would be too common? Bear in mind it isn't any lost hand that turns a human into a zombie, only a hand beaten by a zombie. In fact just typing that out has made me like it - "if your hand is beaten by a zombie..." See what I did there? ;)

At the beginning of the outbreak there will only be one zombie, so the threat of being "bitten" will be lower but it will increase if and when the number of zombies increases.

Personally I'd prefer to keep it so that only a zombie may turn a human into a zombie (the exception being the first zombie, and that in itself is in keeping with zombie lore) rather than each zombie being turned independently.

The trick is to find a way that is not too common but not too rare. The goldilocks spot... Sorry, wrong fairytale! :p
Click to expand...
I think it depends on the number of players at the table - the more players the less chance of getting bitten.
What if you make it "if your had is beaten by a zombie at showdown" you become a zombie. It allows players to "run" from the zombie.

Regardless, it definitely introduces an interesting element when the zombie is in the hand! I foresee a LOT of zombie bluffs working.
 
Blind Joe said:
Are we absolutely sure losing a hand to a zombie would be too common? Bear in mind it isn't any lost hand that turns a human into a zombie, only a hand beaten by a zombie. In fact just typing that out has made me like it - "if your hand is beaten by a zombie..." See what I did there? ;)

At the beginning of the outbreak there will only be one zombie, so the threat of being "bitten" will be lower but it will increase if and when the number of zombies increases.

Personally I'd prefer to keep it so that only a zombie may turn a human into a zombie (the exception being the first zombie, and that in itself is in keeping with zombie lore) rather than each zombie being turned independently.

The trick is to find a way that is not too common but not too rare. The goldilocks spot... Sorry, wrong fairytale! :p
Click to expand...
What about an all in with the human covering the zombie but loses the hand to the zombie. They are still in the tournament but now bit.
 

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