Tourney Hosting First Tournament (1 Viewer)

[JJDiamonds]

I’m getting ready to host my first tournament next month and after researching on this forum for awhile now I think I have it all figured out. It’ll probably be a two table tournament with $50.00 buy in. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Below is the break down of starting stacks, how many chips I have and level structure.

Starting Stacks:
15 - T100
7 - T500
10 - T1,000
5 - T5,000

Chip Quantity:
315 - T100
156 - T500
336 - T1,000
168 - T25,000
119 - T100,000

Structure:
L1 – 100/200
L2 – 100/300
L3 – 200/400
L4 – 300/600
Break – End of rebuys
L5 – 400/800
L6 – 600/1,200
L7 – 800/1,600
Break – Chip up T100 with T1,000
L8 – 1,000/2,000
L9 – 1,500/3,000
Break – Chip up T500 with T5,000
L10 – 2,000/4,000
L11 – 3,000/6,000
L12 – 4,000/8,000
L13 – 6,000/12,000
L14 – 8,000/16,000
L15 – 10,000/20,000
Break – Chip up T1,000 with T5,000
L16 – 15,000/30,000
L17 – 20,000/40,000
L18 – 30,000/60,000
L19 – 40,000/80,000
Break – Chip up T25,000/T100,000
L10 – 50,000/100,000
L21 – 75,000/150,000

 

[BGinGA]

How many T5000 chips do you have? The 5k total is not shown in your list.

40k stacks with 100/200 blinds is 200bb, which is plenty deep for meaningful play. Don't expect a lot of re-buys; probably five or less total.

Blind schedule looks good; it should finish no later than L17 20k/40k blinds with 20 players (around 4.5 hrs with 15-minute levels, or about 6 hrs with 20-minute levels).

I would color-up the T1000 chips after L14, and use T25k chips -- having a few big denoms on the table will help game play during the last few blind levels.

One optional change is to make L8 1100/2200 blinds, and then color-up both T100 and T500 chips at the same time after L9. It smooths out the structure increases, and eliminates one color-up break.

 

[JJDiamonds]

How many T5000 chips do you have? The 5k total is not shown in your list.

40k stacks with 100/200 blinds is 200bb, which is plenty deep for meaningful play. Don't expect a lot of re-buys; probably five or less total.

Blind schedule looks good; it should finish no later than L17 20k/40k blinds with 20 players (around 4.5 hrs with 15-minute levels, or about 6 hrs with 20-minute levels).

I would color-up the T1000 chips after L14, and use T25k chips -- having a few big denoms on the table will help game play during the last few blind levels.

One optional change is to make L8 1100/2200 blinds, and then color-up both T100 and T500 chips at the same time after L9. It smooths out the structure increases, and eliminates one color-up break.

Dang I knew I forgot something haha. I have 168 T5000 chips and 206 T25000. Somehow that got mixed up on my post.

Pretty much all of my players are new to poker within the past year and almost of all them are new to tournaments. Do you think that means people will drop faster or not? Maybe I should do a big blind ante?

I like both of your other ideas! Thanks for the advice!

 

[BGinGA]

Pretty much all of my players are new to poker within the past year and almost of all them are new to tournaments. Do you think that means people will drop faster or not? Maybe I should do a big blind ante?

Chances are that newbies will play pretty tight, so don't expect a lot of early KOs -- most players will tend to blind out in the third hour when they run out of chips relative to the increasing blinds.

I also think introducing a BBA will just make it unnecessarily confusing for most, so I'd skip that for now.

 

[JJDiamonds]

Chances are that newbies will play pretty tight, so don't expect a lot of early KOs -- most players will tend to blind out in the third hour when they run out of chips relative to the increasing blinds.

I also think introducing a BBA will just make it unnecessarily confusing for most, so I'd skip that for now.

Okay thanks for the input. I'll add the changes you suggested and see how it goes. I'll probably evolve how the tournament is structured the more I run them.

 

[springbox]

This is my structure for a T100 50k starting stack, it's fairly similar to yours (8~10 player though). I color up the T100s at the same time as the T500s for simplicity's sake. Maybe consider introducing the T25ks a little sooner.

 

[Taghkanic]

Some other suggestions (I used to host a 2-3 table tournament twice a month) not related to denoms and blinds:

* Offering bonus chips for early RSVPs and another for on-time arrival really made my life easier as a host. Especially the on-time one.

* When coloring up, it is helpful to have something easy to carry when taking chips off the tables. Rather than juggling racks, I got a couple of cheap plastic pitchers with handles from the dollar store. You can sort/rack them up after the game.

* Players are going to ask if you have a phone charger. It seems they always do. I finally went to TJ Maxx and bought 1-2 of every major type and put them in a basket.

* If your buyin is going to be $50, be prepared with some $10s and $20s to make change from those buying in with $100 bills or three $20s.

* If you think players are likely to chop late in the tourney, find a good ICM chop calculator (different from a pure equity chop) online in advance so you can help sort that out if needed.

* Consider your parking situation well in advance if players are driving to the game, and give them any needed instructions with the invite. I sometimes can’t believe the cockamamie things people do when left to their own devices. (You may think your guests are all sensible adults who don’t do things like park diagonally blocking three other cars, but you would be mistaken.)

* 15 years ago, I couldn’t stock the fridge with enough beer and sodas. Now (for my cash game) I can’t stock it with enough flavored seltzer. With time you’ll find out what your players need most. Also having some microwave popcorn available is a good fallback later on if snacks run low.

 

[Frogzilla]

I’d make the break every 4 levels, still do your color ups on the break, it’s ok if the color up isn’t as early as could be

 

[JJDiamonds]

Thanks for the input everyone! The tournament went great. Only had eleven people show up but five rebuys helped inflate the pot. @BGinGA it's scary how exact you were haha it lasted 5 hours 50 minutes with 20 minute levels. Thanks again!