Tourney Ideal Tournament Duration? (1 Viewer)

[buzzmonkey]

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.

2 Day NLHE freezeout tourney would start at 11:00am on Day 1. 30 Player Max
PLO tourney would start at 6:20pm on Day 1 and the late reg would end 10 minutes after Day 1 of the first tourney ends. 20 Player Max

2 Day NLHE freezeout tourney would restart at 11:00am on Day 2.
NLHE Bounty tourney would start at 12:30 on Day 2. 20 Player Max

 

[legonick]

2 Day NLHE freezeout tourney would start at 11:00am on Day 1. 30 Player Max
PLO tourney would start at 6:20pm on Day 1 and the late reg would end 10 minutes after Day 1 of the first tourney ends. 20 Player Max

2 Day NLHE freezeout tourney would restart at 11:00am on Day 2.
NLHE Bounty tourney would start at 12:30 on Day 2. 20 Player Max

So those still battling in the "Main Event" (NLHE freezeout) would just skip the NLHE bounty event?

 

[buzzmonkey]

So those still battling in the "Main Event" (NLHE freezeout) would just skip the NLHE bounty event?

Yeah, or late reg if they get knocked out. By the time late reg is over there shouldn't be too many folks left. I end it after the first break after level 5

 

[Mr Winberg]

The same people that complain the Blinds are going up to fast will later on be the ones complaining the tournament is taking to long

Yes, this ^ ! One of the masteries of life!

I don’t think most people want to play for 6 or 7 hours for a $20 buy in

That depends on why they are playing. In our crew it's about playing poker with friends, not about the money. Our buy-in is around $25, and some of our regs regularly play 3 and 4 digit buy-in events. I did have one player though who never showed up again because "it wasn't worth the time for such a small prize pot". Needless to say he wasn't the to socialize. Good riddance ;-)

Answer to the OP: We're usually around 20 +/-5 players and I aim for 5h30min excluding breaks, or 6pm to midnight including breaks. Any shorter and either the warm-up deepstack section is too short or the shovefest starts too early.

Another thing is about the "f#ck it" factor mentioned earlier. If everyone gets short too soon they often nit up. If they're a bit fatigued when the blinds get high they might say "f#ck it" and shove. (At least th is seems to be true among my crew) This increases the average stacks so survivors get more playability.

 

[BGinGA]

We typically play two separate 2-table league tournaments on Saturdays, starting around 1 p.m. First event runs about 5 hours followed by a dinner break; the second event starts about 7 p.m. and runs about 4.5 hours with things generally wrapping up by midnight. A few play in just one event or the other, but most people play in both. Neither event feels rushed nor overly long.

Our year-ending single-table league championship tournament is geared to last about 9 hours including an hour-long dinner break. I personally wouldn't want to do that on a regular basis, but it works well to set apart the 'big game' once per year. I find 4-5 hours to be a good duration for our specific group of players, although we occasionally meet for less formal events that typically run 3+ hours or so.

@Mr Tree runs a monthly 3-table event that typically lasts around 6+ hours (7p-1a) on Saturdays.

 

[SlowPokeTony]

6-8 player STT I’ve been hosting for 20 years always runs 3.5-4 hours and I’ve found it’s the perfect sweet spot. Rebuys are for 2 hours so everyone will get in a good amount of play regardless of if they go to the end or not. At the 2 hour break we color up the T5s, rebuys end, and an average stack is typically 25-30 bb. This is the unspoken time where play gets more serious. I’ve tried to do longer games twice before and at around the 3 hour mark some players notice we still have a long way to go and start complaining about it.

 

[CUORE3]

It is true that the question of the duration of tournaments is complicated. It's hard to satisfy everyone, those who find that the levels increase too quickly or that the tournament lasts too long.

For my part, the group with which I play (between 6 and 8 people) is made up of friends, and only friends. I always feel sorry for the first eliminated. Sounds like "I needed 8 players to start the tournament, thanks for coming, see you next time". In addition my friends do not play money games with each other when they are eliminated and I have nothing to make them wait dear me.

I had thought of making a tournament that ends when half of the players are eliminated. For example, 8 players, the last 4 win nothing, the first 4 equally share half of the prize pool and the other half according to their remaining chips.

 

[SlowPokeTony]

It is true that the question of the duration of tournaments is complicated. It's hard to satisfy everyone, those who find that the levels increase too quickly or that the tournament lasts too long.

For my part, the group with which I play (between 6 and 8 people) is made up of friends, and only friends. I always feel sorry for the first eliminated. Sounds like "I needed 8 players to start the tournament, thanks for coming, see you next time". In addition my friends do not play money games with each other when they are eliminated and I have nothing to make them wait dear me.

I had thought of making a tournament that ends when half of the players are eliminated. For example, 8 players, the last 4 win nothing, the first 4 equally share half of the prize pool and the other half according to their remaining chips.

Keep it low stakes with a 2 hour rebuy period. That way everyone gets in at least 2 hours if they choose to do so. No one should feel like one buy in is so expensive that a rebuy will break them. Can’t say I’d be a fan of your 50/50 payout idea, but try it out and see if your players like it. Can’t hurt to try.

 

[ekricket]

It is true that the question of the duration of tournaments is complicated. It's hard to satisfy everyone, those who find that the levels increase too quickly or that the tournament lasts too long.

For my part, the group with which I play (between 6 and 8 people) is made up of friends, and only friends. I always feel sorry for the first eliminated. Sounds like "I needed 8 players to start the tournament, thanks for coming, see you next time". In addition my friends do not play money games with each other when they are eliminated and I have nothing to make them wait dear me.

I had thought of making a tournament that ends when half of the players are eliminated. For example, 8 players, the last 4 win nothing, the first 4 equally share half of the prize pool and the other half according to their remaining chips.

That’s a Survivor tournament. They play them a lot on the poker cruises. Usually they quit when 25% of the starting field is left. Typically one in five gets paid. So if entry is $100 winners only get $$400-$500. Helps free up dealers and makes a lot more “winners”.

 

[BEANO52]

Our regular Friday evening tournament: Averages 16-20 players and lasts about 5 hours. On a rare occasion, we have a single table and it'll go for 4 hours or we get maybe 26 and it will go for 6 hours. At 5ish hours, everyone is tired and it will most likely chop at 2-4 left.

 

[legonick]

It is true that the question of the duration of tournaments is complicated. It's hard to satisfy everyone, those who find that the levels increase too quickly or that the tournament lasts too long.

For my part, the group with which I play (between 6 and 8 people) is made up of friends, and only friends. I always feel sorry for the first eliminated. Sounds like "I needed 8 players to start the tournament, thanks for coming, see you next time". In addition my friends do not play money games with each other when they are eliminated and I have nothing to make them wait dear me.

I had thought of making a tournament that ends when half of the players are eliminated. For example, 8 players, the last 4 win nothing, the first 4 equally share half of the prize pool and the other half according to their remaining chips.

You could also mess around with a pre-buy - I'm trying it out for my next game. It's acts as a rebuy/addon but is given as part of the standard buy-in, so everyone gets it. If you haven't used the rebuy by whatever time (for me, the 2nd break, which is around 2 hours), it becomes an addon. My stacks are T10,000, and the rebuy/addon is T10,000. Hopefully it works as a little bit of cooler or punt protection, and hopefully keeps the fun levels higher!

As to the 50/50 idea, it's great and I'd love to hear about your experience if you try it out. I ran 1 tournament where we did a 50/50 with scratch tickets (everyone bought in for 2, top 4 got 4 scratch tickets to scratch), but still played the tournament out fully. I was looking for a way to pay the bubble boy out.

 

[Poker Zombie]

The issue with Survivor tournaments is that a big stack has little or no incentive to play toward the bubble. Even pocket aces can be cracked, so why risk dumping 1/4 or 1/2 your stack when you are otherwise virtually assured an equal share of the prize pool by folding a monster?

Instead, I found the best way to run a survivor tournament is to have each chip have a cash value at the end of the tournament. If your buy-in is $100, and the starting stack is T10,000, each chip at the end is worth $1 per T100 chip (hopefully, the blind structure is such that the T100s are off the table by the end, and you are paying out in $5 increments or larger). If you have a $20 buy in, you pay out $1 for every T500 in chips in your stack when the bubble breaks.

This method keeps everyone, from big stacks to the guy battling to make the bubble involved in the game.

 

[opengun]

I run mine on a weeknight starting at 7pm and it runs 3.5 hours.

 

[legonick]

The issue with Survivor tournaments is that a big stack has little or no incentive to play toward the bubble. Even pocket aces can be cracked, so why risk dumping 1/4 or 1/2 your stack when you are otherwise virtually assured an equal share of the prize pool by folding a monster?

Instead, I found the best way to run a survivor tournament is to have each chip have a cash value at the end of the tournament. If your buy-in is $100, and the starting stack is T10,000, each chip at the end is worth $1 per T100 chip (hopefully, the blind structure is such that the T100s are off the table by the end, and you are paying out in $5 increments or larger). If you have a $20 buy in, you pay out $1 for every T500 in chips in your stack when the bubble breaks.

This method keeps everyone, from big stacks to the guy battling to make the bubble involved in the game.

Yes, this! You should be paid out some base amount + an additional amount per chip count.