Tourney Hosting Tournaments, do you play? (1 Viewer)

JScott

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So I've finally switched from BlindsUp to Tournament Director. And I'm running my first MTT with it (not my first MTT though). Seems simple enough, but I'm still learning, and I'm no Tournament Pro.

My question is this, if you're hosting for a big group (17/18) would you play? It's a $100 buy in with $100 re-buys (1 allowed) and $20 of that is bounty. I won the last tournament, but it was a nightmare of a game trying to handle everything. 1/3 of the players are good and get the game, 2/3 ask who's dealer every hand. I searched and couldn't find any threads talking about whether or not you guys play AND host. The fact I'm trying a new software is also a bit scary. I also have to deal with the regular hosting duties. Like everyone complaining about.... well, everything.

And while I'm here, I know my structures, but wouldn't mind a confirmation.

T100 base
10/4/7/2 starting stacks
1 rebuy PP
T20K 16-18 players
5 hours target.

This good?

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I have run up to a six table tournament while playing. You can get pretty busy at times. I ask my table to cut me a little slack if it is my action and I am balancing tables. Tournament run itself thanks to Tournament Director.
 
Almost everyone here will say that they play. Your issue is not with software, it's just that you have a bunch of people playing who don't know the game. That is going to take time to get by that. It will get easier. Tournament Director will help with keeping tables balanced and re-seating people.
 
I haven't run a MTT, just STTs, and yes, I've played them. Tournament Director really does all the work for a STT.

I'm happy to hear you are trying the MTT out! Epic! I hope to be there someday myself, although it feels far away.

Have you watched the Chris M. stuff on YouTube? Great channel! He has a video there which spells out how he runs MTTs and has some really good ideas. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpOtRc3qrrEKXXV7jFAfgVQ/videos

My plan for if I ever get to a MTT would be to review his video again and decide if managing table stuff is easier with his method or somehow incorporating Tournament Director doing some/all of it. That's what I think you should do as well. Good luck! Any stories about how your MTT turns out would be much appreciated! Wish I was in Canada, although a $100 buy-in is steep for my n00b ass.
 
I have hosted dozens of MTT's. Use a dealer button and have the players stick to scheduled breaks unless they don't mind having their hand folded when they leave the table. That will take care of the lion's share of the issues you describe.
 
I'm glad this was brought up. I'm new to the MTT world. I like the idea of getting more people as I do have the capacity for it. It does seem to get easier as I have a tournament once a month and its a lot of the same people who come. Everyone, including me, is getting the hang of how the tournament works. I think as long as you have at least one or two more people in the group that know what they are doing, then it will make your life a lot easier.
 
I’ve hosted tournaments with 30 to 40 players for years and always play. Not as well as when I don’t host but that’s good for my players.
 
Agree with everything everyone has said
I host, Play & use TD

I think most hosts have their designated seat. Mine is the most convenient place for me to work the laptop and distribute chips.
I keep a printed TD cheat sheet under my laptop with all the shortcut keys under my laptop. It was a life saver when first using TD
I have just now started teaching my players when they get knocked out to go to the laptop, push X, pick their name and who busted them out.

My table also gives me slack when I am doing host duties. They folded my hand once in the past and got an education on not doing that again. :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:

Keep additional buy-in stacks, rebuy stacks, or whatever else you may need already set up & ready for use.
 
Agree with everything everyone has said
I host, Play & use TD

I think most hosts have their designated seat. Mine is the most convenient place for me to work the laptop and distribute chips.
I keep a printed TD cheat sheet under my laptop with all the shortcut keys under my laptop. It was a life saver when first using TD
I have just now started teaching my players when they get knocked out to go to the laptop, push X, pick their name and who busted them out.

My table also gives me slack when I am doing host duties. They folded my hand once in the past and got an education on not doing that again. :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:

Keep additional buy-in stacks, rebuy stacks, or whatever else you may need already set up & ready for use.
Someone folded your hand while you were dealing with some other tournament business? Damn dude, I'd be tempted to eject people from the tournament for that! LOL.

"How rude!"
 
Yes I play and yes I pause the timer when I'm doing host duties. No I do not care if one table doesn't stop their hand.
I never pause the tournament except when redrawing to the final table. Breaks are scheduled in TD. If you pause the tournament while balancing tables or whatever, people will take that opportunity to leave the table thinking they are on break. It slows everything down.
 
if you're hosting for a big group (17/18) would you play?
Yes, definitely! The most I have hosted for is 24. I recommend printing some flyers with the most important info, but don't be tempted to add too much because nobody will read it. Anything more than a few bullet points and you will have lost half of them!

My table also gives me slack when I am doing host duties. They folded my hand once in the past and got an education on not doing that again. :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:
One rule I always have on my flyer is that the table waits for host duties! And yes, they have broken that rule once and they will never do so again! :cautious:

I never pause the tournament
+1 on never stopping the clock. If you can stop the clock for X minutes due to some issue, then why didn't you allocate X more minutes of tourney time? Stopping the clock means that when a tournament runs smoothly it will be shorter than it could have been. Not stopping the clock allows you to always allocate maximum time. A bonus is that it puts pressure on everyone to not screw things up.
 
Lots of good advice. I should clarify, this isn't my first rodeo at hosting Tournaments, or even MTT's. Just my first tourny using TD. And with the buyins being larger than normal I'm not really interested in playing like shit while learning a software, and potentially losing $200. Especially when I do everything, and I mean EVERYTHING.

And I already learned my lesson about not stopping the clock. It'll run until she's done. I had to laugh last time I was hosting (and by hosting, I mean running the game for other people at their house), they were adamant the blinds were too fast. and kept asking to pause, and have longer breaks. The tournament ran until nearly 2 am because of that. Now they listen to me.

So that structure looks good for 5 hours? Seems like it could run long.
 
So that structure looks good for 5 hours? Seems like it could run long.
Yes, maybe a bit long. It's always tough to predict rebuys. For how long do you allow them?

If we guess 35% rebuys, that's 18×20k×1.35=486k. The 20BB rule says it should and no later than level ~16/17. Using antes kinda changes it into the 30BB rule, hence no later than level 15, which is still 20 minutes too much.

Do you have a "surrender your stack" option? E.g. if in the last hand of the rebuy period player A has 20100, B has 19900, and C has 20000, and they are all all-in and C wins, will A be punished for having the largest stack buy having him start with 100 after the break while B gets to rebuy to 20k? Or can A surrender his stack and rebuy?
 
Rebuys end at second break. Limited to 1 rebuy per player

Players with a rebuy chip they don’t use will be worth T5000.

Antes are a pain imo so I may just change it to 15 min levels to speed it up.
 
Update:

Tournament ran well for the most part. and it wasn't too much of an issue running the game as I stuck to my TD plan. Changed the first 6 levels to 18 minutes and 15 from there on. 17 players total. TD worked VERY well, I really like the software and once I got used to the hot keys it was smooth sailing. Had guys bitching and complaining about too many breaks and they wanted to extend the rebuy period (like they always do), I told them to trust the process... and they're glad I did. Because by 11:00 we were down to 4. Unfortunately one of the more intoxicated guys (still in tournament) tripped when he got up and got a concussion so the game broke right after since it was pretty serious and the doc in the game took him to the hospital. I chopped up the pot as per chip counts and ended up chopping 3rd. We all agreed on this as the momentum and mood was gone.

I played my best for sure, but sure is hard against a lot of ATC players. They play their hands face up, but man I sure had to dodge a lot of rivers, didn't dodge enough to be chipleader by the end and had one bad beat that I had to overcome. Either way, happy with the result, and our friend who fell is fine.
 
Update:

Tournament ran well for the most part. and it wasn't too much of an issue running the game as I stuck to my TD plan. Changed the first 6 levels to 18 minutes and 15 from there on. 17 players total. TD worked VERY well, I really like the software and once I got used to the hot keys it was smooth sailing. Had guys bitching and complaining about too many breaks and they wanted to extend the rebuy period (like they always do), I told them to trust the process... and they're glad I did. Because by 11:00 we were down to 4. Unfortunately one of the more intoxicated guys (still in tournament) tripped when he got up and got a concussion so the game broke right after since it was pretty serious and the doc in the game took him to the hospital. I chopped up the pot as per chip counts and ended up chopping 3rd. We all agreed on this as the momentum and mood was gone.

I played my best for sure, but sure is hard against a lot of ATC players. They play their hands face up, but man I sure had to dodge a lot of rivers, didn't dodge enough to be chipleader by the end and had one bad beat that I had to overcome. Either way, happy with the result, and our friend who fell is fine.
What do your ATC players do when raised? Can't you wait for a premium then get more money in pre-? Then c-bet the heck out of it and hope they didn't bink 2 pair on some trash board? LOL.
 
What do your ATC players do when raised? Can't you wait for a premium then get more money in pre-? Then c-bet the heck out of it and hope they didn't bink 2 pair on some trash board? LOL.
You’re assuming that you’ll get dealt a premium. ;).

The only memorable hands I had all night was pocket 7’s that I luckily peeled a turn (against 4 opponents) and drilled a set on and won against a weak Jack. The other premium was AK offsuit that I wiffed on and bluffed, only to get called by a flush draw which I luckily held against (ace high won)

Other than that, nearly no premium hands. KJ, low suited connectors are really all I had.

To answer your question, yes. They call your raise pre flop with any face card. And the thing is, you never know where you’re at. They could have AA, or a weak middle pair.

Usually I’m a winning player, but the variance in the cash games is hard since there are 4 super weak players, 2 good and 2 really good players, so you’re navigating a tough road.

My other low stakes game I crush and it’s more fun anyways. No one takes that seriously and they’re calling stations.
 
Only game I'm considering not playing in is my 2 Day if it ever happens. I need to make sure the 2 Day is running smooth, setup dinner, and then setup the PLO tourney in the evening. That's a lot to do and have to be able to step away from the table for. If we only have one table or maybe two I should be able to manage, but it's a lot of moving pieces.
 
Only game I'm considering not playing in is my 2 Day if it ever happens. I need to make sure the 2 Day is running smooth, setup dinner, and then setup the PLO tourney in the evening. That's a lot to do and have to be able to step away from the table for. If we only have one table or maybe two I should be able to manage, but it's a lot of moving pieces.
You can always play in it but just bust early! That usually ends up being my ahem, plan. LOL.


You’re assuming that you’ll get dealt a premium. ;).

The only memorable hands I had all night was pocket 7’s that I luckily peeled a turn (against 4 opponents) and drilled a set on and won against a weak Jack. The other premium was AK offsuit that I wiffed on and bluffed, only to get called by a flush draw which I luckily held against (ace high won)

Other than that, nearly no premium hands. KJ, low suited connectors are really all I had.

To answer your question, yes. They call your raise pre flop with any face card. And the thing is, you never know where you’re at. They could have AA, or a weak middle pair.

Usually I’m a winning player, but the variance in the cash games is hard since there are 4 super weak players, 2 good and 2 really good players, so you’re navigating a tough road.

My other low stakes game I crush and it’s more fun anyways. No one takes that seriously and they’re calling stations.
"Cash game" - I thought you were talking about tournament play? Which would actually make more sense as rising blinds would force you to make a move eventually...cash game you can "wait forever" and be profitable. My early home game was sometimes very ATC and calling station-y. I think the best advice to beat it is to not be afraid of value betting hard when you make monsters. If it's liimpy, don't be afraid to limp early sometimes. Then when you bust a nut flush or fill up, take a line that will have you going all-in by the river. Half the time you'll have some guy calling you down and turning over middle pair, top kicker, or 2 pair, LOL.
 
You can always play in it but just bust early! That usually ends up being my ahem, plan. LOL.



"Cash game" - I thought you were talking about tournament play? Which would actually make more sense as rising blinds would force you to make a move eventually...cash game you can "wait forever" and be profitable. My early home game was sometimes very ATC and calling station-y. I think the best advice to beat it is to not be afraid of value betting hard when you make monsters. If it's liimpy, don't be afraid to limp early sometimes. Then when you bust a nut flush or fill up, take a line that will have you going all-in by the river. Half the time you'll have some guy calling you down and turning over middle pair, top kicker, or 2 pair, LOL.
We usually play cash games, so when I said cash I was referring to a different, more regular game with many of the same players as this MTT.

And yes, you can wait forever, but playing a social game like a nit isn’t fun. And you’re still playing against ATC players while battling great players. Not my jam.

As for your advice, that’s exactly my game plan. :). I even did that during the tournament, but even monsters got cracked by the River. And I’d always bet heavy on early streets, good to know that plan is correct.
 
We usually play cash games, so when I said cash I was referring to a different, more regular game with many of the same players as this MTT.

And yes, you can wait forever, but playing a social game like a nit isn’t fun. And you’re still playing against ATC players while battling great players. Not my jam.

As for your advice, that’s exactly my game plan. :). I even did that during the tournament, but even monsters got cracked by the River. And I’d always bet heavy on early streets, good to know that plan is correct.
Yes, true. Low-stakes, social game, mix it up in there! And yeah, the great players would make that a much more fun and dynamic table, with seat draw meaning a lot. If you are just to the right of one of the greats it could be extremely tough if they take an aggressive line, if your game is avoiding tough players which is usually smart in poker. If they figure that out, they can come after you nearly every time.
 
Yes, true. Low-stakes, social game, mix it up in there! And yeah, the great players would make that a much more fun and dynamic table, with seat draw meaning a lot. If you are just to the right of one of the greats it could be extremely tough if they take an aggressive line, if your game is avoiding tough players which is usually smart in poker. If they figure that out, they can come after you nearly every time.
It was one of the nice things about this tournament. I randomized seating and got all the soft players at my table, which made for a lot of fun. The other table was aggressive, with many all ins and multiple buy ins. We only had one bust out by round 6.

Either way, it was a great night.
 
Designate table capitans if you feel overwhelmed while playing. Someone that you can trust at each table to color up for you, enforce the rules, etc.
 
Also I'd recommend a backup/assistant TD for 2 reasons:
1. They can handle some of the easier questions that come up at other tables. Depending on the experience of your players this can be a lifesaver or not matter at all.
2. If you're in a hand with another player and there's a dispute, you can have someone else rule on it.
 

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