Yenaled
Sitting Out
Hey people! I'm planning my first tournament and I'm going for up to 20 players (2 tables) (NLHE). I thought I would post a summary of my situation so you guys could let me know any tips or if I'm doing something wrong that could cause problems.
Chips:
-ceramic DDLM's
-starting stack 20,000:
- 2 x T5000, 6 x T1000, 6 x T500, 8 x T100, 8 x T25
Structure:
-blinds starting at 25/50
-blind levels increasing every 25 minutes with a 10 minute break every hour
-1 hour dinner break at some point
(Chips and structure based off of Christopher M. YouTube video. Thanks Chris, very helpful! Link:
Players:
So I basically made a list with everyone I know that has played poker before and have interest in participating in this event. I have a solid group of about 6 people that know the game pretty well, they're pretty reliable, and they're regulars at my weekly cash games. I also have another 6 or so that aren't regulars but I'm confident they will come. So the list is about 25, but I'm going to keep searching for people before I send them all an email with event details and accept RSVPs. Because I want to fill up all 20 people, I want to have more than that assuming that some will not do it. Maybe I will try to get it to 30 or 35. (I am being careful to only invite people I know and trust, or at least friends of friends that I trust).
Buy in/prize pool:
20$ (CAD) ? Seems like a good amount that everybody would be ok with parting with. Since my Birthday and Christmas are both coming up very soon, I am also asking my parents and other family members to sponsor the event to boost the prize pool. I don't know if they actually will but that would be cool.
Tables and Seating:
I have a poker table and 10 chairs. It's a 6 player table, 10 players will be tight but it will work. I will borrow a 2nd poker table from my friend along with 10 more chairs. Both tables will fit in my living room. The regulars don't like random seating for cash games but I will do my best to enforce random seating for this tournament to keep it fair.
Helpers:
My awesome twin sister said she would help out and act as the "tournament director". She has little to no poker experience, but I will coach her so on the day she can handle signing people in and giving them chips, moving players, keeping track of blind levels, coloring up chips (if she can handle that), ordering pizza, etc. All that good stuff. That's great because it takes weight off of my shoulders so I can focus more on participating. She is a good leader so she will do great. I don't have any dealers but I'm not concerned about that, we can just deal for ourselves and then someone who busted can volunteer to deal for the final few.
Payouts:
What percentage of the group should be paid? Standard is 15% but maybe I should increase that? Maybe 25%? Assuming I will have 20 players and pay 25% that's 5 players in the money, sounds good to me. Let me know what you guys think is best.
Questions:
Let me know if you guys think it all sounds good, I will keep working on my list of people, and then at some point in the next few weeks send an email with details about date, time, buy-in, rules, etc.
Is there a good strategy to get people to RSVP earlier rather than later? A lot of these people like to let you know like the day of if they are coming, I'm guessing because they place poker low on their list of priorities and will only come if they don't have anything better to do. But I need to know ahead of time how many people are coming for a tournament, right? Should I give extra starting chips to people that RSVP earlier? Or is there a better way? Let me know what you guys think.
Just generally is there anything that I should expect to run into and be prepared for? I want to be super prepared and have everything go smoothly so any help would be greatly appreciated.
Chips:
-ceramic DDLM's
-starting stack 20,000:
- 2 x T5000, 6 x T1000, 6 x T500, 8 x T100, 8 x T25
Structure:
-blinds starting at 25/50
-blind levels increasing every 25 minutes with a 10 minute break every hour
-1 hour dinner break at some point
(Chips and structure based off of Christopher M. YouTube video. Thanks Chris, very helpful! Link:
Players:
So I basically made a list with everyone I know that has played poker before and have interest in participating in this event. I have a solid group of about 6 people that know the game pretty well, they're pretty reliable, and they're regulars at my weekly cash games. I also have another 6 or so that aren't regulars but I'm confident they will come. So the list is about 25, but I'm going to keep searching for people before I send them all an email with event details and accept RSVPs. Because I want to fill up all 20 people, I want to have more than that assuming that some will not do it. Maybe I will try to get it to 30 or 35. (I am being careful to only invite people I know and trust, or at least friends of friends that I trust).
Buy in/prize pool:
20$ (CAD) ? Seems like a good amount that everybody would be ok with parting with. Since my Birthday and Christmas are both coming up very soon, I am also asking my parents and other family members to sponsor the event to boost the prize pool. I don't know if they actually will but that would be cool.
Tables and Seating:
I have a poker table and 10 chairs. It's a 6 player table, 10 players will be tight but it will work. I will borrow a 2nd poker table from my friend along with 10 more chairs. Both tables will fit in my living room. The regulars don't like random seating for cash games but I will do my best to enforce random seating for this tournament to keep it fair.
Helpers:
My awesome twin sister said she would help out and act as the "tournament director". She has little to no poker experience, but I will coach her so on the day she can handle signing people in and giving them chips, moving players, keeping track of blind levels, coloring up chips (if she can handle that), ordering pizza, etc. All that good stuff. That's great because it takes weight off of my shoulders so I can focus more on participating. She is a good leader so she will do great. I don't have any dealers but I'm not concerned about that, we can just deal for ourselves and then someone who busted can volunteer to deal for the final few.
Payouts:
What percentage of the group should be paid? Standard is 15% but maybe I should increase that? Maybe 25%? Assuming I will have 20 players and pay 25% that's 5 players in the money, sounds good to me. Let me know what you guys think is best.
Questions:
Let me know if you guys think it all sounds good, I will keep working on my list of people, and then at some point in the next few weeks send an email with details about date, time, buy-in, rules, etc.
Is there a good strategy to get people to RSVP earlier rather than later? A lot of these people like to let you know like the day of if they are coming, I'm guessing because they place poker low on their list of priorities and will only come if they don't have anything better to do. But I need to know ahead of time how many people are coming for a tournament, right? Should I give extra starting chips to people that RSVP earlier? Or is there a better way? Let me know what you guys think.
Just generally is there anything that I should expect to run into and be prepared for? I want to be super prepared and have everything go smoothly so any help would be greatly appreciated.