Tourney How long will 1-table tournaments last with less than 10 people? (1 Viewer)

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Example:

Say I have a T25-Base, T20k Tournament. (Freezeout). Blinds increasing between 33-50%, starting at 50/100.

For a 10 player, 4.5 Hour Tournament (5 Hours with three 10-minute breaks/color ups), I would set blinds to increase about every ~18 minutes. Allowing us to hit the L15 Blind (6000/12000) at about 5 Hours and the game would be wrapping up.

However, for the same exact tournament but with 6 players, I would set the blinds to increase about every ~20 minutes. Allowing us to hit the L14 Blind (4000/8000) at around 5 Hours as well.

The 10 player tournament will have (20k * 10) = 200k total chips. 200k / 20 = 10k. So around the 10k blinds is when the game is wrapping up.

The 6 player tournament will (20k * 6) = 120k total chips. 120k / 20 = 6k. So around the 6k blinds is when the game should wrap up.

(Thanks to @BGinGA for the tournament theory)

Question:

Is there a general rule of thumb when running tournaments with a smaller size to allow the game to still last as long or at least longer? I was thinking maybe like for every person under 10, subtract 20 minutes from the expected time to finish.

It is NLHE so I understand there will be quite a bit of variance in times, especially with smaller starting tables, but I'd like to reduce that as much as possible so the players can play for longer. Whether its just pushing blinds back a couple minutes or a slightly deeper starting stack.
 
If you want it to last longer do deep stacks and 30 minute blinds. We like to have two tournaments so we do 15 min blinds for less than 10 and usually lasts around 2 hours for each tourney
 
If you want it to last longer do deep stacks and 30 minute blinds. We like to have two tournaments so we do 15 min blinds for less than 10 and usually lasts around 2 hours for each tourney
Wait two short tournaments sounds really fun. I'm gonna run that by the group, maybe we can try that and see how we like it, thanks for the idea!
 
One of my T20K deepstack league games usually lasts anywhere from 3.5 to 5 hours with 6 to 8 players.

*disclaimer* We're a bunch of nits that sometimes waits until they're down to 5 BB's or less to open shove.
 
The 10 player tournament will have (20k * 10) = 200k total chips. 200k / 20 = 10k. So around the 10k blinds is when the game is wrapping up.

The 6 player tournament will (20k * 6) = 120k total chips. 120k / 20 = 6k. So around the 6k blinds is when the game should wrap up.

Hello.
I’m missing out on the Tournament theory. Why are you dividing by 20? Is it the length of time for each level?
Thanks.
 
Is there a general rule of thumb when running tournaments with a smaller size to allow the game to still last as long or at least longer? I was thinking maybe like for every person under 10, subtract 20 minutes from the expected time to finish.
Yes there is, but it's not about adding or subtracting minutes, it's about simply applying the 20 BB rule.
Total chip count / 20 = Last BB

Please note that with antes you should use 30.

Also, the longer the tournament the higher the number. A ten hour tournament with antes is probably over with more than 30 BB in play.
 
Torneys often end when there is around 20BB left. jst work out what 1/20th of total chips in play is at start and plan your BB to be that amount at the time you want the torney to be ending
 
I rather gradual blind increases where its worth taking pots right from the start while not becoming a shove fest at the end.
Deep stacks and fast blinds can end up with a torney that has kinda pointless pots at the start, then a good midgame, before turning shovefest at the end. I recommend avoiding that.
 
Hello.
I’m missing out on the Tournament theory. Why are you dividing by 20? Is it the length of time for each level?
Thanks.
Dividing total number of chips in play by 20 tells you the big blind amount when 20 total big blinds are in play.
 

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