How to incorporate NCAA tournament bracket/games into March Madness tournament (2 Viewers)

Jake14mw

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Hi all,

I have an annual tournament that I host on the first Friday of the NCAA tournament. We start playing at 12:30 pm, play short tournaments all day into the night, watching basketball at the same time. I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate the results of the tournament games into the poker. Maybe something like chip bonuses for correct picks, or a squares pool somehow. Just something that will have people routing for a particular result at the ends of games. Any ideas? Thanks!
 
Win a pot of over x Big Blinds, pick a team out of the hat. Rake part of the prize pool to give away to NCAA winner-pick
 
Thanks guys, still brainstorming here. How about something where the worst running bad beat (with some minimum) chooses a team who's game on the day has not started yet to win. If they win, they get the bad beat pot. If they don't win, then it starts again. I don't really have this thought fleshed out completely.

I'm looking for something that would draw people's attention to games coming down to the wire. Rewarding people for picking upsets is also in my mind.

I've tried the bracket thing before, but not enough people get around to filling them out by the day before our card session on Friday.
 
My coworkers/friends do a pool against the spread. Each person gets X (divide evenly) teams and you move on if your team covers the spread. Makes for interesting watching.
 
I'm looking for something that would draw people's attention to games coming down to the wire.
Has nothing to do with poker but a 100-block squares pool accomplishes that. It’s my favorite pool of the year, $100 per square and all 63 games pay out a winner. Doesn’t matter if the game is a nail biter or a blowout, in the final two minutes of every game everyone is trying to figure out a scenario that will hit one of their blocks.

If you’re doing it with a small poker group the money will likely be smaller but same concept, guys will still be watching the end of each game with interest ;)
 
Do a capture pool. You can with 4 / 8 / 16 people. Let's pretend you get 8 entries. Each person randomly draws two teams from each bracket. Then the games play out based on the Vegas spreads. If the favorite wins and covers, they advance. If the underdog wins they advance. If the underdog loses but covers then that person ”captures” the winning team and takes them to next round. The game continues and usually pays out final 4 and up. Cool thing is no skill required and you don't have to track too many games.
 
Has nothing to do with poker but a 100-block squares pool accomplishes that. It’s my favorite pool of the year, $100 per square and all 63 games pay out a winner. Doesn’t matter if the game is a nail biter or a blowout, in the final two minutes of every game everyone is trying to figure out a scenario that will hit one of their blocks.

If you’re doing it with a small poker group the money will likely be smaller but same concept, guys will still be watching the end of each game with interest ;)
Yeah, I think a 100 block squares pool works. Here's an idea for a modification to tailor it to my situation. The payouts will only happen for the 16 games played on that Friday. Everyone puts in $10. There will probably be 15-20 total players, so only 15-20 squares will be chosen. Each game pays out $10, but if nobody has that square, then the money rolls to the next game that finishes. The pot can get to a decent chunk of change if nobody wins for a while. Based on the actual number of players in, exact payout of maybe the last winner would get adjusted somehow. What do you think?
 
For each block of games - 12 pm start, 2pm start, 4pm etc I pick a game. Then I sell lines for $1. 0-9, 10 players. If the total points at the end of the half end in your number you win. Repeat for end of game.
eg final score 55-72. Total points 127. If you picked 7 - you win the pool. Then it doesn't matter who wins or what the odds are. Every free throw/basket made changes the winner. The last minute or so is crazy. The attached sheet is good for 3 contests. You could play for chips instead of cash if you want to give out say one big blind to the winner, one sheet per table.
 

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For each block of games - 12 pm start, 2pm start, 4pm etc I pick a game. Then I sell lines for $1. 0-9, 10 players. If the total points at the end of the half end in your number you win. Repeat for end of game.
eg final score 55-72. Total points 127. If you picked 7 - you win the pool. Then it doesn't matter who wins or what the odds are. Every free throw/basket made changes the winner. The last minute or so is crazy. The attached sheet is good for 3 contests. You could play for chips instead of cash if you want to give out say one big blind to the winner, one sheet per table.
Great idea, I like that. Thanks for the sheet! What do you guys think about giving chip bonuses in this case? On this day, I emphasize that the poker has to be less serious than our normal games. It's a fun day. I flatten out the prize structures too. Some guys are there for 5 tournaments by the end of the day. The food is a big part of the day too. I'm thinking about giving a 10 percent chip bonus at the beginning of the first tourney that starts after 6 PM to the person who's food brought gets voted as the best food item.
 
Spit balling here, but what about an upset bonus. For every tourney where there's an upset that occurs during that time period, there's an amount added to that tourney's payout. Depending on your entry fees, you'd have to determine the bonus. If it were my game and I were hosting I'd say,

16 over 1 - $100 added to the payouts.
15 over 2 - $75 added to the payouts
14 over 3 - $50 added to the payouts
anything else, add $20 to the payouts.

1 upset per tourney and 1 16 over 1 per night LOL! You'd have to adjust this based on your comfort level and what makes your people happy.
 
Spit balling here, but what about an upset bonus. For every tourney where there's an upset that occurs during that time period, there's an amount added to that tourney's payout. Depending on your entry fees, you'd have to determine the bonus. If it were my game and I were hosting I'd say,

16 over 1 - $100 added to the payouts.
15 over 2 - $75 added to the payouts
14 over 3 - $50 added to the payouts
anything else, add $20 to the payouts.

1 upset per tourney and 1 16 over 1 per night LOL! You'd have to adjust this based on your comfort level and what makes your people happy.
I like the idea, but where does this bonus money come from?
 
If it were me and I were hosting, I'd probably pay it if I were really interested in doing so and the idea was on the spur of the moment. I'd also consider taking a "rake" throughout the year to account for this if I had time. Or, you could pitch the idea to your guys and hope they are willing to contribute. If you go the rake route, you could theoretically increase the payout yearly or as the hours increase.
 
Bumping this old thread up to see if anyone has any other good suggestions. Last year I went with two contests, 1) Pick the highest number seed to win in Thursday's games (Chip bonus for Friday's play), 2) The squares pool I mentioned above.

The goal is to add some fun that combines the poker and the games going on at the time we are playing, so people have some rooting interest in the games, even if they aren't basketball fans.

I've been thinking of some kind of bingo that combines things happening in the games on, poker being played, things people do at the table, etc. More on that as I think about it. Thanks.
 
Instead of rooting for a specific team, we kept it poker; high hand bonusses for every game length plus a bomb pot at halftime. Small rake to pay for the bonusses. We tried 3s are wild but got too goofy and kept forgetting.
 

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