Tourney Ideal Tournament Duration? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Mojo1312
- Start date
LeLe
4 of a Kind
I had plan to do a T5 STT 2K tourney next week with my Family for the first time , I am targeting a shorter tourney period aiming under 2 hour
bergs
Royal Flush
3 minutes 23 seconds
That is rather precise.
trever
Flush
As fast as you possibly can so that we can move on to the cash game
CrazyEddie
Full House
as long as a piece of string
MrCatPants
Full House
I find it's good to have a 'slow warm up" so that everyone gets to play some poker while still siting on a large pile of big blinds, and even if they bust at least feel like they've made it a couple of hours. That said, once the 4 hour mark passes, people get really antsy if it's only a STT or barely a MTT so I think blind schedules need to reflect that balance.
ekricket
Royal Flush
I like the 4.5 hour range, but I typically do a 3.5 target, due to my start time. Also many of my players may balk at over the 4 hour mark, even though the balking ones probably wouldn't make the 4 hour mark.
You guys touch on something that is critical to success in the poker world - stamina. Most of us are conditioned to play poker for 4-5 hours at most once or twice a week. I see this a lot in casino MTT’s, after about four hours the field thins appreciably, mainly because a lot of people have reached their “sitting still” limit that they’ve been conditioned to. So a ton of “fuckit, go big or go home” shoves start to happen.
You have to train for 8+ hour long sessions if you ever want to do decent in any large WsoP format type events. Or just get extremely lucky and make a huge chip stack that’s fun to play and keeps you interested longer.
buzzmonkey
Flush
5 hours is a good average to me. You can start at 6pm and be done around midnight and still get lots of play in. Our annual deepstack used to run closer to 8-10 but we would start at 1pm on a Saturday so everyone knew it was going to be the whole day.
MrCatPants
Full House
I have one guy who signs up for my tourneys and the whole time asks everyone to go all in so we can maybe play a cash game instead. Like, don't come to the tourneys if you don't like them?
LotsOfChips
Flush
Depends on starting time and day of week:
Workdays with a 7:00 or later start - try to finish before midnight, so 4-5 hours.
Weekends with afternoon start - try to finish before 02:00 the next day, so 8+ hours.
Workdays with a 7:00 or later start - try to finish before midnight, so 4-5 hours.
Weekends with afternoon start - try to finish before 02:00 the next day, so 8+ hours.
Yes. I usually need a cookie around the 6 or 7 hour mark.
Sneakygreek
3 of a Kind
6-7 hours for MTT
So true!
Ideally the tournament should end when my opponent busts.
I also think the buy in and payout make should make a lot of difference in the length. I don’t think most people want to play for 6 or 7 hours for a $20 buy in. Most I play in or host are $50 to $100 buy in and last around 4 1/2 to 5 hours.
My league’s tournaments run about 2-2.5 hours on average. We get three of them in per event though. Shorter tournament allows those knocked out to play cash games until the next tourney starts. It works out well.
I played in a weekly SST that lasted around three hours including the 15 minute break. The 16 to 18 player tournament I hosted for three winters lasted 265 to 285 minutes, excluding breaks.
The two table tourney I played in up till the pandemic lasted four and a half to four hours and fifty minutes, 240 to 260 minutes excluding breaks.
I am entertaining the idea of hosting a weekly cash game again and maybe a monthly 16 to 18 player tournament, the structure of which would run 320 to 340 minutes, roughly six hours to six hours and twenty minutes with breaks.
Having zero experience playing in home tournaments lasting six hours is my reason for starting this thread.
@Poker Zombie, @BGinGA, @CraigT78, others who host or play in a regular home tournament. Thoughts/feedback? 6hrs., Ill-advised/too long?
The two table tourney I played in up till the pandemic lasted four and a half to four hours and fifty minutes, 240 to 260 minutes excluding breaks.
I am entertaining the idea of hosting a weekly cash game again and maybe a monthly 16 to 18 player tournament, the structure of which would run 320 to 340 minutes, roughly six hours to six hours and twenty minutes with breaks.
Having zero experience playing in home tournaments lasting six hours is my reason for starting this thread.
@Poker Zombie, @BGinGA, @CraigT78, others who host or play in a regular home tournament. Thoughts/feedback? 6hrs., Ill-advised/too long?
Last edited:
Poker Zombie
Royal Flush
We typically play for 4.75 hours with an average of 17 players. Dinner starts and hour and a half before the tournament, so everyone gets time to socialize and catch up, and late-arriving players don't miss too much. The group is mostly recreational players, but we have about a half dozen very good players in the mix.
The end of the year event runs a little longer, pushing out to about the 5.25 hour mark. A bigger buy-in, and a bonus paid to the highest finishing player that has attended over 50% of the year's events keeps the attention a little longer. However, I do hear a few grumblings if it runs later (like 2 nits folding preflop every hand).
I do notice that a lot of people in the thread want shorter tournaments so they can get into the cash game. That is precisely the reason we do not usually have a cash game following the tournament (only the final event, which is a freezeout). If you want a cash game, play a cash game.
I have dreamed about running longer tournaments with my group, but logistically, there are a few that would not be able to arrive any sooner, and a few that wouldn't want to stay any later.
Old age, and other life obligations hamper the idea of a longer game. If everyone was younger, we could probably get away with a 6 hour tournament, but that is not a option for us.
The end of the year event runs a little longer, pushing out to about the 5.25 hour mark. A bigger buy-in, and a bonus paid to the highest finishing player that has attended over 50% of the year's events keeps the attention a little longer. However, I do hear a few grumblings if it runs later (like 2 nits folding preflop every hand).
I do notice that a lot of people in the thread want shorter tournaments so they can get into the cash game. That is precisely the reason we do not usually have a cash game following the tournament (only the final event, which is a freezeout). If you want a cash game, play a cash game.
I have dreamed about running longer tournaments with my group, but logistically, there are a few that would not be able to arrive any sooner, and a few that wouldn't want to stay any later.
Old age, and other life obligations hamper the idea of a longer game. If everyone was younger, we could probably get away with a 6 hour tournament, but that is not a option for us.
JTBass
3 of a Kind
Think it really depends on STT or MTT, STT I try to keep it around 4-4.5 hrs. MTT are usually 5.5-7 depending on buy-in and number of players. It also depends if there is an expected cash game to follow, then the tourney might be a little shorter.
MrCatPants
Full House
My older guys wouldn't last for a tourney that's much longer than 5 hours.
megarises
Flush
This is so accurate for my group as well lol
philhut
Flush
For those of us who are not hip to 3 letter abbreviations What do the letters MTT and SST stand for?
Multi table? Single Table? I have no idea
Multi table? Single Table? I have no idea
MrCatPants
Full House
Multi table tourney and single table tourney
buzzmonkey
Flush
I have a plan to run a poker weekend. Over the course of two days I plan to have three tourneys. The big one has 40 minute levels and will run over two days with about 8-9 hours on the first day and however much time it takes to finish on the second day based on the number of entries. Capping at 30 players (I'll be luck to get 10 probably) it should theoretically last a maximum of 8-9 hours into day 2.
The other tourneys will be smaller buy-ins with 20 min levels lasting 4-6 hours total, one on each day. It's bigger than anything we've ever done so I have a feeling my plans will be too ambitious for a good turnout, but it's a weird bucket list item for me so we'll see how it goes.
The other tourneys will be smaller buy-ins with 20 min levels lasting 4-6 hours total, one on each day. It's bigger than anything we've ever done so I have a feeling my plans will be too ambitious for a good turnout, but it's a weird bucket list item for me so we'll see how it goes.
My tournaments are typically 4-5 hours depending on what players run deep. I've had nits trade the big blind for 30 minutes before.
For me 4.5 hours - 8pm start and a 12:30am finish is the ideal length.
CrazyEddie
Full House
I could literally play cards all day, but I doubt I could find enough friends to do the same.
Multi-day tournament, sick!
So you are going to 2 run tournaments per day - a 4-6, and the "Main Event"? Which one are you doing first? 4-6 + 8-9 = 12-15 hours of poker each day. Nice! People will be exhausted, LOL.
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