Tourney Hosting my first tournament in the new year (1 Viewer)

[LotsOfChips]

I'm super stoked to (finally) be hosting my first tournament in early January.

I have 18 players confirmed to play. They are a mix of people who have hosted local games that I have played in, other players from those games, and several players who I haven't met in person, but who played in my online Poker Mavens games during the pandemic.

There are two PCF members attending (@Jeevansluck and @dealer77). I had several others on the invite list, but my game is scheduled for the same night as a longstanding league game that most of them play in. Now that I have the schedule for that league, I'm hoping that my next game will have several more PCF members joining in.

I bought a large (1700 piece) tournament set several years ago, and since then I haven't touched them. So, I wanted to have a game where I could use as many of the chips as possible . I decided to go with a very deep stacked structure, with a T25 base and a T1M starting stack (crazy, I know). I am using an aggressive 50% average blind increase, and expect the game to run about 7.5 hours (including breaks)

Chips:

• 1700 piece Royal Card Room Tournament set w/ 3 dealer buttons
• 1100 piece Horseshoe Cleveland cash game set w/ 1 dealer button

Tables/chairs:

• 8 seat* Chanman 84" x 42" basic table (refurbished ex-rental w/ folding legs)
• 8 seat* super-ellipse 90" x 45" hand made table (w/ folding legs)
• 6-8 seat oak kitchen table w/ PCF Topper (cash game table until second tournament table becomes available)
• 12 cushioned metal folding chairs (Costco)
• 6 oak chairs with cushions
• *(8 cup holders, I'm seating 9 per table)

Cards:

• 2 setups DesJn Classic Flourish (Poker size, regular index, 2 colour, red/blue)
• 1 setup Copag 1546 (Poker size, regular index, 2 colour, red/blue)
• 1 setup Kem Arrow (Wide/Poker size, regular index, 2 colour, red/blue)
• 1 setup Bicycle Prestige (Poker size, regular index, 2 colour, red/blue)
• 1 setup "Joker" (Poker size, jumbo index, 2 colour, red/blue)
• Various plastic cut cards

Tournament Clock/Display:

• 64" LED TV
• 21" laptop
• The Tournament Director game clock and display

Food (no charge):

• Pulled pork on a bun
• Red beans and rice
• Chili w/ ground turkey
• Xmas chocolates/peppermint bark, etc.
• No hot dog roller yet, may try to borrow one

Game details:

• $45 buy in plus $5 bounty ($50 total)
• Super deep stack, super high roller style (1M starting stack, 1M rebuy, 1.2M add on)
• Rebuy or Add on included in buy in (Rebuy if busted for first 3 hours-ish (12 levels) of play, Add on awarded if no rebuy used)
• 16 minute blinds for first 6 hours, 12 minute blinds for next hour, 5 minute blinds until finish (7.5 hours estimated)

Starting stacks:

Rebuy/Add on stacks ready to go (greens are used as spacers):

This is what's left from 1700 chips:

The cards available for play:

The Tournament Director main screen:

Blinds:

Let me know if I'm forgetting anything here. Wish me luck!

 

[ValueTown]

I'm super stoked to (finally) be hosting my first tournament in early January.

I have 18 players confirmed to play. They are a mix of people who have hosted local games that I have played in, other players from those games, and several players who I haven't met in person, but who played in my online Poker Mavens games during the pandemic.

There are two PCF members attending (@Jeevansluck and @dealer77). I had several others on the invite list, but my game is scheduled for the same night as a longstanding league game that most of them play in. Now that I have the schedule for that league, I'm hoping that my next game will have several more PCF members joining in.

I bought a large (1700 piece) tournament set several years ago, and since then I haven't touched them. So, I wanted to have a game where I could use as many of the chips as possible . I decided to go with a very deep stacked structure, with a T25 base and a T1M starting stack (crazy, I know). I am using an aggressive 50% average blind increase, and expect the game to run about 7.5 hours (including breaks)

Chips:

• 1700 piece Royal Card Room Tournament set w/ 3 dealer buttons
• 1100 piece Horseshoe Cleveland cash game set w/ 1 dealer button

Tables/chairs:

• 8 seat* Chanman 84" x 42" basic table (refurbished ex-rental w/ folding legs)
• 8 seat* super-ellipse 90" x 45" hand made table (w/ folding legs)
• 6-8 seat oak kitchen table w/ PCF Topper (cash game table until second tournament table becomes available)
• 12 cushioned metal folding chairs (Costco)
• 6 oak chairs with cushions
• *(8 cup holders, I'm seating 9 per table)

Cards:

• 2 setups DesJn Classic Flourish (Poker size, regular index, 2 colour, red/blue)
• 1 setup Copag 1546 (Poker size, regular index, 2 colour, red/blue)
• 1 setup Kem Arrow (Wide/Poker size, regular index, 2 colour, red/blue)
• 1 setup Bicycle Prestige (Poker size, regular index, 2 colour, red/blue)
• 1 setup "Joker" (Poker size, jumbo index, 2 colour, red/blue)
• Various plastic cut cards

Tournament Clock/Display:

• 64" LED TV
• 21" laptop
• The Tournament Director game clock and display

Food (no charge):

• Pulled pork on a bun
• Red beans and rice
• Chili w/ ground turkey
• Xmas chocolates/peppermint bark, etc.
• No hot dog roller yet, may try to borrow one

Game details:

• $45 buy in plus $5 bounty ($50 total)
• Super deep stack, super high roller style (1M starting stack, 1M rebuy, 1.2M add on)
• Rebuy or Add on included in buy in (Rebuy if busted for first 3 hours-ish (12 levels) of play, Add on awarded if no rebuy used)
• 16 minute blinds for first 6 hours, 12 minute blinds for next hour, 5 minute blinds until finish (7.5 hours estimated)

Starting stacks:
View attachment 1607790
View attachment 1607793


Rebuy/Add on stacks ready to go (greens are used as spacers):

View attachment 1607795

This is what's left from 1700 chips:

View attachment 1607799


The cards available for play:

View attachment 1607800
View attachment 1607810
The Tournament Director main screen:
View attachment 1607804

Blinds:

View attachment 1607808
View attachment 1607809
Let me know if I'm forgetting anything here. Wish me luck!

1st break is only 10 mins? Enough time to chip up?
Break 3 happens after 32 mins of play? And only offers 5 mins to chip up? Break 5 happens after 6 levels instead of 5 like your previous breaks.
I'm curious what others think of 5 min levels to end the tournament. Gives me turbo vibes after a long day at the table.

Great cards and chip set up! Good luck.

 

[Jeevansluck]

I'm super stoked to (finally) be hosting my first tournament in early January.

I have 18 players confirmed to play. They are a mix of people who have hosted local games that I have played in, other players from those games, and several players who I haven't met in person, but who played in my online Poker Mavens games during the pandemic.

There are two PCF members attending (@Jeevansluck and @dealer77). I had several others on the invite list, but my game is scheduled for the same night as a longstanding league game that most of them play in. Now that I have the schedule for that league, I'm hoping that my next game will have several more PCF members joining in.

I bought a large (1700 piece) tournament set several years ago, and since then I haven't touched them. So, I wanted to have a game where I could use as many of the chips as possible . I decided to go with a very deep stacked structure, with a T25 base and a T1M starting stack (crazy, I know). I am using an aggressive 50% average blind increase, and expect the game to run about 7.5 hours (including breaks)

Chips:

• 1700 piece Royal Card Room Tournament set w/ 3 dealer buttons
• 1100 piece Horseshoe Cleveland cash game set w/ 1 dealer button

Tables/chairs:

• 8 seat* Chanman 84" x 42" basic table (refurbished ex-rental w/ folding legs)
• 8 seat* super-ellipse 90" x 45" hand made table (w/ folding legs)
• 6-8 seat oak kitchen table w/ PCF Topper (cash game table until second tournament table becomes available)
• 12 cushioned metal folding chairs (Costco)
• 6 oak chairs with cushions
• *(8 cup holders, I'm seating 9 per table)

Cards:

• 2 setups DesJn Classic Flourish (Poker size, regular index, 2 colour, red/blue)
• 1 setup Copag 1546 (Poker size, regular index, 2 colour, red/blue)
• 1 setup Kem Arrow (Wide/Poker size, regular index, 2 colour, red/blue)
• 1 setup Bicycle Prestige (Poker size, regular index, 2 colour, red/blue)
• 1 setup "Joker" (Poker size, jumbo index, 2 colour, red/blue)
• Various plastic cut cards

Tournament Clock/Display:

• 64" LED TV
• 21" laptop
• The Tournament Director game clock and display

Food (no charge):

• Pulled pork on a bun
• Red beans and rice
• Chili w/ ground turkey
• Xmas chocolates/peppermint bark, etc.
• No hot dog roller yet, may try to borrow one

Game details:

• $45 buy in plus $5 bounty ($50 total)
• Super deep stack, super high roller style (1M starting stack, 1M rebuy, 1.2M add on)
• Rebuy or Add on included in buy in (Rebuy if busted for first 3 hours-ish (12 levels) of play, Add on awarded if no rebuy used)
• 16 minute blinds for first 6 hours, 12 minute blinds for next hour, 5 minute blinds until finish (7.5 hours estimated)

Starting stacks:
View attachment 1607790
View attachment 1607793


Rebuy/Add on stacks ready to go (greens are used as spacers):

View attachment 1607795

This is what's left from 1700 chips:

View attachment 1607799


The cards available for play:

View attachment 1607800
View attachment 1607810
The Tournament Director main screen:
View attachment 1607804

Blinds:

View attachment 1607808
View attachment 1607809
Let me know if I'm forgetting anything here. Wish me luck!

Congratulations Bart!

Happy to see your work come to fruition. See ya then!

I have found, building a schedule that fits your life as a host, is the better priority. Just keep adding players as much as you can, and pay no regard to other hosts schedules. For me, it’s less stress, and I’ve only had to ice one of my games since I started hosting again. The trick isn’t to satiate your group, you need a larger and larger players list. Then you host whenever you feel like it. It’s hard enough to find time to host, so when I finally go to schedule a game, I’m not even considering any other games. If you have a big enough list, you can run games whenever you feel like it.

Looking forward to checking out your setup!

 

[LotsOfChips]

@ValueTown - Thanks for the feedback All valid questions, for sure.

1st break is only 10 mins? Enough time to chip up?

I'm asking one player at each table to buy up all (even numbers) of the chips that will be removed during the last few minutes of the round before the break. That way I only have to count one player's stack, and then give a single larger chip to each player with leftover (odd number ) chips. 10 minutes should be enough time hopefully. I've seen it done this way, it usually only takes a minute or so per table.

LOL, the real question is whether the single bathroom will allow everyone to get back to the table in 10 minutes.

Break 3 happens after 32 mins of play? And only offers 5 mins to chip up?

It is a pause, more than a break, and players are required to stay at the table.

This is the end of rebuys, and distribution of add-ons. I was going to do this at the dinner break (Break 2), but there was still around 300BB in a starting stack (over 600 after the add on) at the start of Level 11. By moving it 2 rounds later, that was reduced to around 120BB (240 after the add on), and coincided with the end of need for T500 chips.

The add-ons are all counted out, separated and ready to distribute, so it should go quickly (fingers crossed).

T500 chips are being removed at this time as well. By this time the players have gone through 2 chip ups already (T25 & T100), so hopefully everyone should be down with the process by then.

Break 5 happens after 6 levels instead of 5 like your previous breaks.

Yeah, that's a tough one. I set the breaks at the point where chips were no longer required (first opportunity for chip ups). That meant that one of the breaks was going to be 6 levels rather than 5 (not including Break 3, which is not really a break as such). I could move break 4 to one round later, but that means a longer time immediately after the dinner break, and there's likely to be fewer players the later it goes, so I thought having the longer session later would be better.

I'm curious what others think of 5 min levels to end the tournament. Gives me turbo vibes after a long day at the table.

Valid point, for sure. I thought about this before implementing it for the following reasons.

According to the 5% blind rule (or 20X chip rule), the tournament should end either just before or just after the time change. So it might not be a factor. But it is a way to ensure the tournament ends before midnight (advertised to end at 11:30ish)

By this time there should only be 2-3 players remaining, with 2.8M BB, 1.4M SB, and max 39.6M chips on the table. With even stacks and 2 players, that's only 9BB/player, with 3 players it's only 6BB/player. It will pretty much be a bingo game by then anyway, so I figured 5 minute blinds won't affect play too much. Maybe I'm wrong, we'll see.

 

[LotsOfChips]

pay no regard to other hosts schedules

LOL, I'll be sure to schedule my next game to coincide with yours!

Seriously, I get what you're saying, for sure. And the goal is definitely to build the player pool to a point where I don't need to worry about conflicts with other games.

But there are a bunch of players (mostly PCFers - Tony, Chris J, Andrea, Paulo, Mara, Kelly, Grant, etc.) that I would really like to host. They have all invited me to their games, and I would very much like to return the courtesy. Many of them will only make the long drive once, so I want to get as many as possible to attend. But they all play in Hitman or LPL (or both), so it makes sense to me to avoid conflicts with those games as much as possible. My game on Jan 10 is in conflict with Hitman, and most of the names above initially accepted, then cancelled when the conflict became known.

Similar thing for Chasing Aces - many of the names on my invite list from Abbotsford play there, so I want to avoid that conflict as well, at least until my list is robust enough to not matter so much.

Looking forward to seeing you on the 10th!

 

[thePokerClub]

Looks like you put together a great setup! Congrats. The chips look great.

Will be curious to know what kind of pot you have and what the final payouts were!

 

[Defarse]

10,000 big blinds and no ante, good lord!!!!!!!! And here I thought 200 was too much......

I like the shortening of the blind levels towards the end. I do this too. My first levels are 20 minutes followed by 10 minutes later.

I would personally change the 7/14 and 4.5/9 blinds to be 1000/1500 and 5000/1000, or 600/1200 and 4000/8000, or something that would not trigger my OCD.