Tourney Multi-Life tournament structure (1 Viewer)

[Gear]

This is a structure I've played a couple times now, once at the league co-hosted by @T_Chan and @Racer96, and once at @Mesnik44's Christmas tournament.

The basic idea is that there are three mini-tournaments, roughly an hour each, followed by the main event. For each of the mini-tournaments, players start with T3000, and play four 15-minute blind levels (25-50, 50-100, 75-150, 100-200). Whatever chips you have at the end of the fourth level get added to your starting stack for the main event.

If you bust out of a mini-tournament, it's not a long wait until the next one starts. Everyone who comes out gets to play at least three-ish hours of poker, plus the main event entry, so if folks are driving a ways to get there, it's worth the time investment. Latecomers can still play the main event but start with just a base stack (or the lowest starting stack, if preferred.)

For the league game we had 21 players and the main event base starting stack was T10,000. The biggest stack was right around T30k iirc.

For the Christmas game there were 19 players and the main event base starting stack was T30,000. The biggest stack was approaching T50k iirc. The winner was decided about 12:30 or 1:00 am after having started the main event about 5 pm iirc.



Some observations and/or recommendations...

1. We used different chip sets for each of the mini-tournaments, as well as for the main event. Getting the starting stacks ready ahead of time saves a bit of setup time in between mini-tournaments, as well as providing the opportunity to get more chips moar chipes into play

2. Tables and seating are re-drawn after each mini-tournament and for the main event.

3. We didn't bother with balancing tables during the mini-tournaments as players got knocked out. Too short to be worth the effort.


Questions/comments? Ask away! I'm planning to use this format perhaps quarterly once I start hosting again.

 

[BGinGA]

Thanks for the details. I put together a similar scaled-back single-table event for our group, tailoring it to meet our time requirements (six-hour window):

Triple-Play Tournament

$60 entry, optional $5 dealer toke (T2K bonus for main event)

Consists of two 45-minute preliminary events and one 3.5 hour main event
Tournament seating redrawn for each event.

Preliminary events:
T4000 stacks (80BB)
20 chips (8/8/2/2)
three 15-minute levels (25/50, 50/100, 75/150)

Players chip stacks at end of each preliminary event
are added to the Main event T8K starting chip stack
(total of two prelim event stacks rounded to T500)

Main event:
T16K avg stack (160BB, or 180BB with dealer toke)
(guaranteed 10K stack or 100BB with dealer toke)
40 chips (16/16/4/4) plus bonus chips earned
optional dealer toke $5 for T2000 main event chips
15-minute levels (starting at 50/100, ~ 3.5 hours)


We'll try this format in January 2016. Keeping it capped at six hours (afternoon tournament, noon to 6 p.m.) allows us to still run a separate evening event. All starting stacks will be prepared in advance in barrels (two racks per prelim, five racks for main including bonus T1000s). And I get to use three different chip sets!

 

[Gear]

And I get to use three different chip sets!

That's the best part, isn't it

 

[Racer96]

In Tony's league we actually did rebalance tables in the mini games.

It's a great format that I really like. Even if I bust out first every single time.

Mike

 

[loul13]

Never try this kind of tournament but it looks nice !!

few questions


Does the 1hour first event is a single table event ex 2 separate table of 10
Is there only one buy in for the first and main event?
did you put a prize pool fpr the first event ?
what is a dealer toke ?

Thanks for your feedback.

 

[Gear]

Does the 1 hour first event is a single table event ex 2 separate table of 10

You can do it either way. In one league we balanced tables during the first events, in the other home game we did not.

Is there only one buy in for the first and main event?

Yes, one buy-in that covers all 3 mini-tournaments plus the main event.

did you put a prize pool for the first event ?

No, just the carry-over of the chips.

what is a dealer toke ?

I think it means payment for the dealer(s) if they are non-players. Maybe BGinGA can confirm

 

[Poker Zombie]

A dealer toke is where you pay a token amount and receive a substantial amount of chips. The token amount then goes directly to the dedicated dealer. Since nearly everyone will usually take it, it becomes a nice little bonus for the dealer.

 

[T_Chan]

I believe we actually did 3 tables for our game since we had 21 players and we normally do 8 max. We re-balanced our tables otherwise we would be really short handed once a few players were out.

We did this format for the first time last year and it was a big hit. Learned a few things to make the game go smoother, such as prepping 3 different chips stacks for the 3 rounds and how to quickly get each stack ready for each player for the final round. I'm a big fan of the format and really like that everyone gets to play a minimum of 3 hours before final knockout.

Our game went from 2pm to midnightish and mesnik44's went from noon to 1am.

 

[BGinGA]

what is a dealer toke ?

I think it means payment for the dealer(s) if they are non-players.

A dealer toke is where you pay a token amount and receive a substantial amount of chips. The token amount then goes directly to the dedicated dealer. Since nearly everyone will usually take it, it becomes a nice little bonus for the dealer.

^^ Pretty much this.

A dealer "toke" (or tip) in this specific case refers to an optional add-on purchase of a preset amount of tournament chips (typically around 15% of the starting stack size), with the proceeds going to the dedicated dealer(s) instead of being added to the prize pool.

It's one way of paying for a dedicated dealer without forcing players to pay for it by raking the prize pool.

 

[loul13]

Thanks for the tip!