Tourney Poker Leauge Discussions (1 Viewer)

[PostalPoker2012]

So my friend wants to start a poker league in our group. He’s fairly new to poker and came up with the scoring system and payouts but I don’t think they are ideal and I can’t find much info on the web about how others go about this. There will be nine of us meeting twice a month, 50 bucks a month(first game 20, 2nd game 30 etc.). He wants to score 3 points to the winner, 2 to second, and 1 point to 3rd. Also has the idea for every other match there are no payouts and all that money pools up for the final table. For the final match we will award 35% of the pooled money to the person with the highest score, 20% to 2nd, 10% to third and a bit of money to whoever elimanted the most players. Anybody out there have a better setup than this?

 

[PostalPoker2012]

So my friend wants to start a poker league in our group. He’s fairly new to poker and came up with the scoring system and payouts but I don’t think they are ideal and I can’t find much info on the web about how others go about this. There will be nine of us meeting twice a month, 50 bucks a month(first game 20, 2nd game 30 etc.). He wants to score 3 points to the winner, 2 to second, and 1 point to 3rd. Also has the idea for every other match there are no payouts and all that money pools up for the final table. For the final match we will award 35% of the pooled money to the person with the highest score, 20% to 2nd, 10% to third and a bit of money to whoever elimanted the most players. Anybody out there have a better setup than this?

Also it will be 4 months long, forgot to mention that.

 

[BigSlickTux]

Leagues are a blast. How many games will you be playing over the 4 months? I think it has to be enough games that someone can make up points if they miss a game for whatever reason. Obviously, I try to find people who will be committed to playing, but you just never know when something comes up.

I don’t like just having standard points. If I finish 2nd in one week and you finish 2nd the next, but you had to rebuy and I didn’t, how is it fair that you get the same points? Or, if you get 1st place in a field of 10 players and I get 1st place in field of 8 players, how is that fair for me to have the same points with 2 less people to have to go through? Here is a link to points formula that you can plug into Excel or Google Sheets that takes all that into consideration. https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/league-points-formula.102219/#post-2114777

With this the points go into decimals and I set mine to 3 decimal points. Feel free to reach out with any questions. Have fun with the league.

 

[Marc Hedrick]

My biggest question is where does the other 35% of the money go?

 

[DaneWoj]

Our points are based on prizepool and also not static.

We however rebuys don’t count against people. The punishment for rebuying is obviously just less profit for that player. We don’t like to encourage nitty play. Get in there and blast off!

 

[KHarp1]

I don't like the idea of the 2nd monthly match having no payout. I use to run an NFL weekly game league where a percentage of the money was held for the final winner. If I'm in and playing a tournament style game, which I'm assuming this is, then I want to walk home with a little something for my efforts that day.

 

[buzzmonkey]

One league I play in gives 1 point for every dollar in the buy in (all buy-ins are $40, no rebuys), and then 1 point for every dollar won in prize money. It's probably not ideal but it works pretty well. You get 0 points if you miss a week.

$30 goes to the nightly payouts, $10 to the end of league final table. Top 10 points earners get a seat at the final table.

 

[Dodger]

Every event should have a payout. Hold aside a small portion from each event for the final winner. Or, have players commit up front with a league fee/buy-in that goes towards end of league payouts.

Lots of PCFers run leagues or play in one. So, be sure to listen to the advice given here. There are many point systems that could work. Once you dial it in, it’s a lot of fun.

 

[Senzrock]

I've been running a league for 10 years now. We play once a week (48-50 weeks/year) with 8-10 players per week (T20k structure) and have found the following league structure to be excellent:

1st place: 10 points
2nd place: 6 points
3rd place: 3 points
4th place: 1 point ($ bubble boy still gets on point).

Top 3 are paid on a standard payout structure, evened out to the nearest $20 amount.

We play a $40 rebuy structure and the points are always the same but obviously the amounts the top 3 cash for will depend on total buyins. The more rebuys, the higher top 3 pay. Standard.

Final Table / Withholding's:

If we have 12 or less buyins, we take $40 out of the weekly prize pool for the final table. If we have 13 or more we take $60 out. This goes directly to the Final Table prize pool (no rake). The top 8 players in the overall standings get a free roll at the final table, which takes place either in December or early January. The points system has allowed for extremely competitive finishes every single year. Perhaps more importantly, this structure *incentivizes strong attendance* as everyone is incentivized to play for what ends up being a ~$3000 free roll at the final table.

Final Table Starting Stacks:

We structure the final table (Free Roll) to award the higher finishing players during the entire year with more starting chips. This, again, incentivizes participation during the course of the year and also competition for each and every spot in the standings. Starting stacks at the final table are as follows:

1st: 40k
2nd: 35k
3rd: 32k
4th: 30k
5th: 28k
6th: 27k
7th: 26k
8th: 25k

The Final Table also features a much deeper structure than the regular season to allow for maximum play and also to give everyone a shot. The 8th place player, though starting with significantly less chips, has several hundred bbs to start and a structure that allows several hours or play until they get short. We have a trophy and a Google Doc "website" that tracks the full standings (results, payouts etc.)

It's been incredibly successful and a ton of fun. Happy to answer any other questions.

 

[PostalPoker2012]

My biggest question is where does the other 35% of the money go?

Great question, I would assume that it goes towards amping up the payouts for the final three in the final match? We are still waiting to see the entire game plan on paper but this was the details I picked up just talking about it shortly in person.

 

[bsdunbar1]

If you are interested, this is how I run my league.
Granted we have 3 tables, so the "Post Season" would be different with only 1 table, but it may spark some ideas for you

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ElwUSs5doaF5j3p2o6HLPMmhgcZgXb63/view?usp=share_link

 

[Tonysquander]

We give points depending on number of players. First place points match total number of players, second-place -3 3rd Pl. -3 from that. So of 15 playing 1st gets 15, 2nd 12, 3rd 9. We collect five dollars from each league member for each tournament event whether they show up or not. Half of it goes to the top 3 season point finishers, other 1/2 is up for grabs in a winner take all free roll tournament at end of season. Tournament buyins paid out in full for each tournament.

 

[BGinGA]

So my friend wants to start a poker league in our group. He’s fairly new to poker and came up with the scoring system and payouts but I don’t think they are ideal and I can’t find much info on the web about how others go about this. There will be nine of us meeting twice a month, 50 bucks a month(first game 20, 2nd game 30 etc.). He wants to score 3 points to the winner, 2 to second, and 1 point to 3rd. Also has the idea for every other match there are no payouts and all that money pools up for the final table. For the final match we will award 35% of the pooled money to the person with the highest score, 20% to 2nd, 10% to third and a bit of money to whoever elimanted the most players. Anybody out there have a better setup than this?

Also it will be 4 months long, forgot to mention that.

So, to summarize....two tournaments per month for four months, or eight events total for a fixed group of nine players, or a maximum of 72 entries (assuming full participation of all players). At $50 per month per player, that's a maximum total of $1800 invested ($200 per player) over a four month period.

There are many ways to skin the poker league cat, but here are a few suggestions regarding your proposal:

-- Make every league tournament identical.

That means the same buy-in, the same $$ pay-outs, the same league points pay-outs, the same game/structure, and the same field size (within reason).

-- Implement a league fee which is paid up-front.

With only 9 players, you have little room for dealing with shrinking fields if players start dropping out. Charging an up-front league fee gets the players invested before play even starts, making it more likely that they will continue playing through the end. If exceptionally large, the fee can be the entire end-of-league prize pool. If relatively small, a percentage of each event entry can be added to the end-of-league prize pool.

-- Implement an awarded points and cash pay-out system that is a) skill-based, b) based on field size, and c) easy to understand.

A skill-based points system is highly preferrable to an attendance-based system, imo. I strongly feel that participation awards have no place in a competitive poker environment. Basing it on field size ensures that points are fairly awarded regardless of the number of players present, and making it relatively easy to understand allows plays to get vested and follow along as the season progresses.

-- Determine the make-up of the end-of-league prize pool, and the specifics of how that prize pool will be used.

Some leagues award the prize pool to the top point finishers after the league events have completed. Others hold a final table event after the league has completed (usually for qualified players only) and award the prize pool to the top finishers in that final event. And other leagues do both -- paying half of the prize pool to the top point finishers, and half to the final table's top finishers. In general, with a small fixed number of players, it makes more sense to forego the final table concept and just award the prize pool to the league's top point finishers.

-- Determine the percentage of each event's entry fee (if any) that is deducted and will become part of the end-of-league prize pool.

This can range from a relatively small amount (~10%) which places more emphasis on the individual league events, up to larger percentages (~50%) which places more of a premium on long-term consistently good play. With a $200 investment over four months (plus a league fee, if any), it's up to you and your players to determine how the money gets re-distributed from event buy-ins to league finishes.

Personally, I'd do the following in your case:

-- $50 league fee (100% to league prize pool)
-- $25 event fee ($10 to league prize pool)
-- each event pays top 3 (55%-30%-15% rounded to nearest $5, or $75-$40-$20 for 9 players)
-- league prize pool pays top 3 in league points - should be $1170 with full participation (60%-30%-10%, or $700-$350-$120)
-- award event points as follows:

1st = T+1 points, where T=tournament size
2nd = F-4 points, where F=first place points
3rd = F-7 points
4th = F-T points
5th-9th = 0 points

So a full tournament field of 9 players awards 10-6-3-1 points for 1st-4th. Deduct one point from each place for every player short of a 9-player field (so 8 players awards 9-5-2-0, 7 players awards 8-4-1-0, 6 players awards 7-3-0-0, etc.).

This point system rewards better high finishes, and never awards points to the bottom half of the field.

 

[MrBoosh]

We are getting close to wrapping up our first season on our league. We have a $30 league fee and at least $10 of that is added directly into our main event tournament prize pool at the end of the season. The rest covers league expenses such as a bracelet for the main event winner, league member chips, and towards covering all or part of the main event buy in for the players with the top three combined season points.

We score our events based on a formula I found online that takes into account the buy in amount, number of participants, number of rebuys, and place finished. We take each player's top 5 tournament scores for the season and add them together. We will have 9 tournaments this year. By taking the top 5 scores it takes some of the pressure off of everyone so they don't have to worry about missing a tournament and having it tank their numbers. I feel like we have more interest in the league from casual players because of this rule.

This year we have 9 league members. Most of our tournaments are open to league members and non league members alike. If you are in the league then your finish position will be scored for the season and if you are not in the league then we will not score your finishing points. There is usually a $20 or $30 buy in for most tournaments and we have rebuys for the first hour or two. We also take one buy in from each tournament and put it into the league main event prize pool. This helps build the main event tournament prize pool up and that tournament is only open to members at the end of the season.

We give away a custom bracelet for the main event and pay out 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in that tournament. The season points leader wins a free buy in to the M.E. and gets a poker chip with their name on it added to the shark of the year award. 2nd place gets a free buy in and 3rd gets half a buy in covered for the ME. ME buy in is $30.

We also have a Wall of Champions plaque that the winner of each tournament gets their name added to for all of eternity.

We also give away one other bracelet at our Untamed Tournament that happens towards the beginning of our season. It corresponds with our fantasy football draft and takes place the evening after the draft. It is one of our larger tournaments.

The main focus of the league is to have fun!!! We don't play for huge stakes so nobody goes home at the end of the night thinking, man how am I going to pay my rent after that loss. If you win you can make a few bucks and if you don't you are down a bar tab or so for the evening. We also want to grow the skills of our players and teach the members who want to improve how to. I have a large library of poker books that guys can borrow anytime they like. We want to have fun and teach our new players how to play and help to grow the skills of our current players if they want to improve. If they don't want to improve, that is also OK with our pocket books!!

 

[TomC727]

We are getting close to wrapping up our first season on our league. We have a $30 league fee and at least $10 of that is added directly into our main event tournament prize pool at the end of the season. The rest covers league expenses such as a bracelet for the main event winner, league member chips, and towards covering all or part of the main event buy in for the players with the top three combined season points.

We score our events based on a formula I found online that takes into account the buy in amount, number of participants, number of rebuys, and place finished. We take each player's top 5 tournament scores for the season and add them together. We will have 9 tournaments this year. By taking the top 5 scores it takes some of the pressure off of everyone so they don't have to worry about missing a tournament and having it tank their numbers. I feel like we have more interest in the league from casual players because of this rule.

This year we have 9 league members. Most of our tournaments are open to league members and non league members alike. If you are in the league then your finish position will be scored for the season and if you are not in the league then we will not score your finishing points. There is usually a $20 or $30 buy in for most tournaments and we have rebuys for the first hour or two. We also take one buy in from each tournament and put it into the league main event prize pool. This helps build the main event tournament prize pool up and that tournament is only open to members at the end of the season.

View attachment 1095956
We give away a custom bracelet for the main event and pay out 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in that tournament. The season points leader wins a free buy in to the M.E. and gets a poker chip with their name on it added to the shark of the year award. 2nd place gets a free buy in and 3rd gets half a buy in covered for the ME. ME buy in is $30.

View attachment 1095955
We also have a Wall of Champions plaque that the winner of each tournament gets their name added to for all of eternity.

View attachment 1095954
We also give away one other bracelet at our Untamed Tournament that happens towards the beginning of our season. It corresponds with our fantasy football draft and takes place the evening after the draft. It is one of our larger tournaments.

The main focus of the league is to have fun!!! We don't play for huge stakes so nobody goes home at the end of the night thinking, man how am I going to pay my rent after that loss. If you win you can make a few bucks and if you don't you are down a bar tab or so for the evening. We also want to grow the skills of our players and teach the members who want to improve how to. I have a large library of poker books that guys can borrow anytime they like. We want to have fun and teach our new players how to play and help to grow the skills of our current players if they want to improve. If they don't want to improve, that is also OK with our pocket books!!

This looks like an absolute blast!!!!

 

[MrBoosh]

This looks like an absolute blast!!!!

Thank you!!! We try to have fun with it!!

 

[PostalPoker2012]

Leagues are a blast. How many games will you be playing over the 4 months? I think it has to be enough games that someone can make up points if they miss a game for whatever reason. Obviously, I try to find people who will be committed to playing, but you just never know when something comes up.

I don’t like just having standard points. If I finish 2nd in one week and you finish 2nd the next, but you had to rebuy and I didn’t, how is it fair that you get the same points? Or, if you get 1st place in a field of 10 players and I get 1st place in field of 8 players, how is that fair for me to have the same points with 2 less people to have to go through? Here is a link to points formula that you can plug into Excel or Google Sheets that takes all that into consideration. https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/league-points-formula.102219/#post-2114777

With this the points go into decimals and I set mine to 3 decimal points. Feel free to reach out with any questions. Have fun with the league.

We just wanted to start out small so there will only be 8 games. I figure it’s better to start out small and work out any kinks/ see what works and what doesn’t. Thanks for the reply!

 

[PostalPoker2012]

So, to summarize....two tournaments per month for four months, or eight events total for a fixed group of nine players, or a maximum of 72 entries (assuming full participation of all players). At $50 per month per player, that's a maximum total of $1800 invested ($200 per player) over a four month period.

There are many ways to skin the poker league cat, but here are a few suggestions regarding your proposal:

-- Make every league tournament identical.

That means the same buy-in, the same $$ pay-outs, the same league points pay-outs, the same game/structure, and the same field size (within reason).

-- Implement a league fee which is paid up-front.

With only 9 players, you have little room for dealing with shrinking fields if players start dropping out. Charging an up-front league fee gets the players invested before play even starts, making it more likely that they will continue playing through the end. If exceptionally large, the fee can be the entire end-of-league prize pool. If relatively small, a percentage of each event entry can be added to the end-of-league prize pool.

-- Implement an awarded points and cash pay-out system that is a) skill-based, b) based on field size, and c) easy to understand.

A skill-based points system is highly preferrable to an attendance-based system, imo. I strongly feel that participation awards have no place in a competitive poker environment. Basing it on field size ensures that points are fairly awarded regardless of the number of players present, and making it relatively easy to understand allows plays to get vested and follow along as the season progresses.

-- Determine the make-up of the end-of-league prize pool, and the specifics of how that prize pool will be used.

Some leagues award the prize pool to the top point finishers after the league events have completed. Others hold a final table event after the league has completed (usually for qualified players only) and award the prize pool to the top finishers in that final event. And other leagues do both -- paying half of the prize pool to the top point finishers, and half to the final table's top finishers. In general, with a small fixed number of players, it makes more sense to forego the final table concept and just award the prize pool to the league's top point finishers.

-- Determine the percentage of each event's entry fee (if any) that is deducted and will become part of the end-of-league prize pool.

This can range from a relatively small amount (~10%) which places more emphasis on the individual league events, up to larger percentages (~50%) which places more of a premium on long-term consistently good play. With a $200 investment over four months (plus a league fee, if any), it's up to you and your players to determine how the money gets re-distributed from event buy-ins to league finishes.

Personally, I'd do the following in your case:

-- $50 league fee (100% to league prize pool)
-- $25 event fee ($10 to league prize pool)
-- each event pays top 3 (55%-30%-15% rounded to nearest $5, or $75-$40-$20 for 9 players)
-- league prize pool pays top 3 in league points - should be $1170 with full participation (60%-30%-10%, or $700-$350-$120)
-- award event points as follows:

1st = T+1 points, where T=tournament size
2nd = F-4 points, where F=first place points
3rd = F-7 points
4th = F-6 points
5th-9th = 0 points

So a full tournament field of 9 players awards 10-6-3-1 points for 1st-4th. Deduct one point from each place for every player short of a 9-player field (so 8 players awards 9-5-2-0, 7 players awards 8-4-1-0, 6 players awards 7-3-0-0, etc.).

This point system rewards better high finishes, and never awards points to the bottom half of the field.

Wow thanks, I appreciate the excellent feedback!

 

[PostalPoker2012]

Wow thanks, I appreciate the excellent feedback!

I was just going back to this and realized a typo for the scoring system. I think the last one is supposed to be -9 not -6?

 

[BGinGA]

I was just going back to this and realized a typo for the scoring system. I think the last one is supposed to be -9 not -6?

Yes, correct: 4th = F-9

 

[CSW]

Jumping into this conversation a bit late, but it popped up in the new posts yesterday so I thought I’d share my experience with a league that I host.

We are about halfway through our first season. We have a group of about 30 people, mostly very casual players who don’t know a ton about poker but like to play, chat, and have fun every 6 weeks or so (plus a handful of more studied players).

Because my group is so casual, I was very focused on making the league easy to understand and friendly to players who might come and go and not make it to every game. I also thought hard about what we were trying to accomplish/incentivize in our game. So, here are some intentional choices we made:

1. Our scoring simple is very VERY simple. Sure, it doesn’t reward skill as much as the more complicated formulas (or even the relatively simple method proposed by @BGinGA above, which would probably be my next step up if my group gets more sophisticated and serious). But ours is really easy for people to follow.
2. You get 1 point for showing up. I want to encourage attendance and keep the game growing. I understand the arguments made in this thread and others about poker/competitions not giving out participation trophies, but I think this is where you as the host need to think about what you are trying to accomplish with your game. If you want a strong focus on skill/competitiveness and don’t care how many people show up, don’t award points for showing up. I like having two or three tables worth of people all having a good time, so if I can get people who are in the fence and may not be any good to join us just so they can stay in the points race, great.
3. You get 1 point for every table you outlast. For example, if we have 20 players playing at three tables (we play 8-max), then the top 16 will get a point for making it past the first table break, and the final 8 will get another point for making it to the final table. This was my effort to consider field size and reward more points for success in larger fields, while keeping the system somewhat flat and easy to understand.
4. You get 1 point for cashing. Pretty obvious way to reward good results.
5. You get 1 point for winning an event. Again, obvious way to reward success, even if it is not weighted as heavily toward winning as most systems.
6. So, for our standard 3-table events, there are 5 possible points up for grabs (and a total of around 50 total points awarded to all participants).
7. The points leader at the end of the season will be named player of the year and get some sort of trophy/plaque/chip.
8. I also wanted to make every point matter throughout the season, even for those who are too far back to have a chance to win at this point. So, every point earned results in bonus chips at our championship event at the end of the year. Everyone will start with 10K in chips plus 1K in chips for every point earned during the season. So, even those who don’t show up till the last game before the championship can still materially increase their starting stack for the championship by playing in that one event. I like the bonus chips being tied directly to the points—rather than the rank in the standings like some others use—because it is a bit easier and more tangible for people and puts things more in their control (if I play this event, I get more chips, even if I don’t leapfrog anyone else in the standings). This was another reason why I kept the scoring a bit flatter; I wanted to keep the starting stacks for the championship game within a reasonable range. If the season ended today (4 events into a 6-event season), the chip stacks would range from 12K to 23K. Even if we award double points for our last game (see below), the POY/chip leader will not have more than 38K, and is unlikely to have much more than 30K-35K.
9. To further incentivize participation at the end, I am considering making our last game before the championship a double-stakes, double-stack event with double points awarded to keep people in the hunt toward the end.
10. The winner of the championship event will also get a trophy/plaque/chip of some kind.
11. This year, I chose not to withhold prize money for the POY and Championship winner. In my specific case, I thought it could depress turnout because we have some folks that only want to play once or twice, and I didn’t want them to have to pay toward awards that they would not have any chance to win. And our specific group is not motivated by money as much as by the fun and the chase. Again this is where you as the host need to think about your group and what you want to accomplish. Not sure what I’ll do next year; I’ll probably seek feedback from the group at the end of the year to see what they think. I am considering even putting up a small cash prize for the POY and Champ out of my own money (again, this league for me is not about making money; I spend way more on our setup and game than I could ever possibly win, even if I win every event).

We are still in our first season, and I know my group may be very different from the home games that most of you host. But I hope you all can still get some value out of seeing how I approached each of these decision points with an eye toward the end goal.

 

[MrBoosh]

I love your format! It is cool to see all the different ways that people run their leagues. Congratulations on what looks to be an awesome first season! We just wrapped up our first season last month and start our second season in a few weeks.

 

[Nine_high]

Many years ago I played in a league and took over running it for a few seasons before I moved away. It was pretty simple and it worked fine. If I were starting my own I would have done things slightly differently but it was alright. I don't remember all the details exactly but it was roughly like this:

• Bi weekly freezeout
• Season finale freeroll, also freezeout, I think it was semi annual or maybe annual.
• $25 buy in, $20 to prize pool $5 to freeroll
• 1 point for attending + 1 point for every player you outlast.
• Player pool was ~40 players, typical attendance was probably 15-25.
• Top nine point leaders invited to freeroll
• I don't remember doing point-based starting stacks, pretty sure all invitees got the same stack for the freeroll.

It worked pretty well, winning players pulled ahead quickly, but you could catch up pretty fast to qualify with a couple money finishes if say you missed a bunch of games. And visiting players weren't investing too much in a freeroll they were unlikely to play in. But they were incentivized to keep coming, which many did.

 

[skootz]

Our league is a 15-week season playing (almost) every Monday for a $30 buy-in and one $20 rebuy (some events vary though) for $20k in chips each buy-in. However, we take the top 10 weeks for any given player so there is no pressure to show up every week. The points system is this:

1st - 10
2nd - 8
3rd - 7
4th - 6
5th - 5
6th - 4
7th - 3
8th - 2
9th and down - 1 (for attendance purposes)

On top of points, we also keep track of a bunch of stats like average place, total knockouts, total bounties claimed, top 8's, money won, etc.

We typically have anywhere from 8-16 people depending on the night, and we split to two tables after 10 and the consolidate at 10 as well. We've run this system for 10 seasons and it's worked well. Payouts are Top 3 (50/30/20) with 10 or fewer and Top 4 (50/25/15/10) for more than 10 people.

We play every Monday, and while we will have about 20 or so players participate in a given season, usually 10-12 show up for at least 10 games, with about 5 showing up to all 15. Some are more hardcore players than others, but it is still a fun game. We also have a randomly drawn bounty each week for $2 off every buy-in/$1 off each rebuy. We have one rebuy by default, but play other formats with different rebuy rules. We do these formats on a rotation:

Standard - 1 entry, 1 rebuy until level 9 (15-min levels about 2 hours)
Deepstack - 1 entry, 1 rebuy until the money bubble (4 with 10 or less, 5 with 11+) and start with 30k chips instead of 20k
Unlimited Rebuy - 1 entry, unlimited rebuys until level 9
Secret KO - 1 entry, 1 rebuy, half of money goes to a secret bounty pulled from a hat and hidden until after the game
Knockout - 1 entry, unlimited rebuys until level 9, $10 from each buy-in and rebuy goes to a bounty so every KO pays

On top of our 15 week season, we have "specialty" events that have different rules and we will play these on Thursday nights or weekends depending on the event.

Our "Major/Triple Crown" events happen every season and our "Minor" events happen depending on the time of year (mostly holiday based).

Money in the Bank (Major) - Our "week 0" tournament where the winner gets a chip to cash in and rebuy at any point in the season, regardless of that night's rules.

+1 Poker Prize Fight (Major) - In the middle of the season, we have a weekend event where every "member" of the club can bring a +1 to also play and they share a buy-in pool (3x total $30 buy-ins between the two of them), and the winner gets free entry into our end of season event, PokerMania.

PokerMania (Major) - This is a slightly higher buy-in, $50 with 2x $25 rebuys. We do it on a Sunday after our season and the top four players from the season get a small advantage. We have "blind chips" that every player gets one of and can be played for a big blind (typically saved for later bigger blinds). The top 4 get extra blind chips, starting with 4th getting 1 extra, 3rd getting 2 extra, 2nd gets 3 extra and the season champ gets 4 extra.

Only one player has won the Triple Crown so far, and no one has ever done it in a single season.

We also do:

Halloween Resurrection - Everyone dresses up and when you are KO'ed, you turn to a "zombie" and come back with a limited chip stack and bounty on your head.

Dirty Santa - Entry is a gift, and players pick gifts in the order they are knocked out and you can steal from players who finished worse than you.

Valentine's Day Couples Tag Team - Players are randomly paired up and play with one stack at the table, and can only talk to each other twice during a level (by using a discussion chip) until the final two pairings, then it's fair game to discuss each hand.

...and a handful or other specialty games.

That's a cliff notes version of our poker club, hope it helps!

 

[MrBoosh]

Our league is a 15-week season playing (almost) every Monday for a $30 buy-in and one $20 rebuy (some events vary though) for $20k in chips each buy-in. However, we take the top 10 weeks for any given player so there is no pressure to show up every week. The points system is this:

1st - 10
2nd - 8
3rd - 7
4th - 6
5th - 5
6th - 4
7th - 3
8th - 2
9th and down - 1 (for attendance purposes)

On top of points, we also keep track of a bunch of stats like average place, total knockouts, total bounties claimed, top 8's, money won, etc.

We typically have anywhere from 8-16 people depending on the night, and we split to two tables after 10 and the consolidate at 10 as well. We've run this system for 10 seasons and it's worked well. Payouts are Top 3 (50/30/20) with 10 or fewer and Top 4 (50/25/15/10) for more than 10 people.

We play every Monday, and while we will have about 20 or so players participate in a given season, usually 10-12 show up for at least 10 games, with about 5 showing up to all 15. Some are more hardcore players than others, but it is still a fun game. We also have a randomly drawn bounty each week for $2 off every buy-in/$1 off each rebuy. We have one rebuy by default, but play other formats with different rebuy rules. We do these formats on a rotation:

Standard - 1 entry, 1 rebuy until level 9 (15-min levels about 2 hours)
Deepstack - 1 entry, 1 rebuy until the money bubble (4 with 10 or less, 5 with 11+) and start with 30k chips instead of 20k
Unlimited Rebuy - 1 entry, unlimited rebuys until level 9
Secret KO - 1 entry, 1 rebuy, half of money goes to a secret bounty pulled from a hat and hidden until after the game
Knockout - 1 entry, unlimited rebuys until level 9, $10 from each buy-in and rebuy goes to a bounty so every KO pays

On top of our 15 week season, we have "specialty" events that have different rules and we will play these on Thursday nights or weekends depending on the event.

Our "Major/Triple Crown" events happen every season and our "Minor" events happen depending on the time of year (mostly holiday based).

Money in the Bank (Major) - Our "week 0" tournament where the winner gets a chip to cash in and rebuy at any point in the season, regardless of that night's rules.

+1 Poker Prize Fight (Major) - In the middle of the season, we have a weekend event where every "member" of the club can bring a +1 to also play and they share a buy-in pool (3x total $30 buy-ins between the two of them), and the winner gets free entry into our end of season event, PokerMania.

PokerMania (Major) - This is a slightly higher buy-in, $50 with 2x $25 rebuys. We do it on a Sunday after our season and the top four players from the season get a small advantage. We have "blind chips" that every player gets one of and can be played for a big blind (typically saved for later bigger blinds). The top 4 get extra blind chips, starting with 4th getting 1 extra, 3rd getting 2 extra, 2nd gets 3 extra and the season champ gets 4 extra.

Only one player has won the Triple Crown so far, and no one has ever done it in a single season.

We also do:

Halloween Resurrection - Everyone dresses up and when you are KO'ed, you turn to a "zombie" and come back with a limited chip stack and bounty on your head.

Dirty Santa - Entry is a gift, and players pick gifts in the order they are knocked out and you can steal from players who finished worse than you.

Valentine's Day Couples Tag Team - Players are randomly paired up and play with one stack at the table, and can only talk to each other twice during a level (by using a discussion chip) until the final two pairings, then it's fair game to discuss each hand.

...and a handful or other specialty games.

That's a cliff notes version of our poker club, hope it helps!

This sounds like an awesome league! I love the different themed tournaments! And you have some great names for your events as well! I wish that I had thought of PokerMania for our league. I can already picture all the fun i would have making up flyers for that event!!!

We name a lot of our monthly events too. The Untamed Tournament, The Executioner, Shamrockpalooza, and THE BryBry FowFow Classic are a just a few. The Executioner Tournament is one of our few gimmick tournaments. It is basically a bounty tournament but you have the option to trade in each bounty chip you get for a spin on the wheel. The wheel offers a few bigger cash prizes, a few lose everything's, and even a possibility to earn a re-entry back into the tournament.

 

[MayoPokerTour]

This is how i run a 15 weeks pub league. Starting stack is 15,000 (T100) with 3k early bird. Entry is €20 (incl €5 to league final). 1 re entry (€20, incl €5 to final) allowed for 6 Levels (90 mins). Scoring depends on number of players, eg if 20 players 1st gets 20 pts, 2nd 19, 3rd 18 etc etc ......last place gets 1 point. Bonus points for the top 4 players as this is usually the number that cash (Average field is 20 runners). Bonus points are 5...3..2..1, Also every player gets a bounty chip and these count for 1 point. At the end of the league Top 12 qualify for the final and chip stacks are based on points plus position in league table. So for every point a players gets 100 chips and there are also bonus points for final league position, first place gets 15,000, 2nd gets 12,000, 3rd gets 10,000 etc down to 12th who gets 3,000. So eg a player finishes third in the table with 165 points, he gets 16,500 + 10,000 bonus = 26,500 starting stack for final.