Tourney Short handed structure (1 Viewer)

[Joe Harris]

So I've recently been trying to put together a poker crew for regular games in VT. I've only hosted one cash game so far, which was very short handed (3 players). After that cash game, I started thinking that running tourneys might be better for new games where the players don't know each other. I'm giving that a shot this week.

I have 5 confirms and 3 maybes for a tournament this Thursday. I'm anticipating 6 players, but want to be ready for a cancel or two.

I'll be using my Protege set, so I have these denoms available:

$25 * 111
$50 * 100
$100 * 275
$500 * 170
$1k * 100
$5k * 50
$25k * 34
$100k * 22

I'm not sure what starting stack would be ideal for this set, but I'm thinking T10k is a bit small (and boring). I went through a bunch of old threads and found this T20K structure from @BGinGA. That seems like it would work pretty well.

I was thinking starting stacks of 37 chips:
T25 * 12
T100 * 12
T500 * 5
T1k * 6
T5k * 2

Basically I'm looking for a sanity check here. Could I use this even with 4 players, or is some modification warranted?
Could I turn this into a T25k tournament with the same structure? (just to get more chips in play)

I haven't hosted a tournament in about 12 years, so any advice or tweaks you might have, please share.

 

[mipevi]

You can use that with four players and get away with it, or you could add more lower denoms so people won't need to make change as often. And yes you could do deeper stacks, otherwise the game will likely end earlier than with a larger turnout. One thing that I like when really shorthanded, is to use just the big blind (this will give the game a more full table feel because it's not just CO vs BTN vs blinds). I also run my tourneys with a single re-buy that's included in the buy-in, it's to prevent anyone busting out too early and feeling left out.

 

[WedgeRock]

You need a structure first.

Once you have a structure, you can think about what starting stack your chipset will support.

With @BGinGA's structure, his first blind level is 50/100. I think if you attempt a starting stack of 12 x T25, you will be making quite a bit of change for the first three blind levels. I might think about a smaller tournament structure (although you'll be back at 50/100 by the second or third level in a T10K).

Of course, with 6 players, you could give out 16 x T25, which might put you in a better situation change-wise.

 

[Joe Harris]

I think if you attempt a starting stack of 12 x T25, you will be making quite a bit of change for the first three blind levels.

I wondered about this. Maybe I could use some of the $50s to help minimize change making? Maybe do 1 less $500 and more $100s and some $50s?

 

[ChaosRock]

T25 * 12
T100 * 12
T500 * 5
T1k * 6
T5k * 2

This is as good as it gets Joe... Don't bother with the T50s...

The only other option that could be slightly better (more chips) would be:

T25 * 12
T100 * 12
T500 * 5
T1k * 11
T5k * 2

For T25K starting stacks...

 

[BGinGA]

Pretty much agree with @ChaosRock above -- don't add the T50 chips, and add some extra T1000s to the starting stacks (even if staying at 20K).

12 x T25 (and 12 x T100) work great for 8+ players, but not so well for just 4 or 5, as there just aren't quite enough those chips on the table. Bump the starting stacks to 16x if you have enough chips to go around, and if not, it would still be better to have several stacks at 12x plus a couple at 16x than to have them all at 12x.

My short-table tournaments use huge 20/20/15/20 starting stacks (30K, but the structure also has antes.....).

 

[Joe Harris]

Well, the tournament took place last night. We had 5 players and 1 rebuy. On the advice of @ChaosRock and @BGinGA (thanks!), I ended up modifying starting stacks to T25k, like so:

T25 * 16
T100 * 16
T500 * 10
T1K * 8
T5K * 2

That gave everyone a pretty nice starting stack, and worked well. The new players slowed the game down even more than I thought, but not much you can do about that.

Got heads up in level 8 at 1200/2400. We traded up some 100s/500s for 1ks just to keep stacks manageable. I had all the chips before level 9. :

 

[MD Mike]

Well, the tournament took place last night. We had 5 players and 1 rebuy. On the advice of @ChaosRock and @BGinGA (thanks!), I ended up modifying starting stacks to T25k, like so:

T25 * 16
T100 * 16
T500 * 10
T1K * 8
T5K * 2

That gave everyone a pretty nice starting stack, and worked well. The new players slowed the game down even more than I thought, but not much you can do about that.

Got heads up in level 8 at 1200/2400. We traded up some 100s/500s for 1ks just to keep stacks manageable. I had all the chips before level 9. :

Great job! The goal for the owner of the chips is a mission to re-obtain them all back into his corner. It's an added incentive. Especially with those lovely protégés.

 

[BGinGA]

Well, the tournament took place last night. We had 5 players and 1 rebuy. On the advice of @ChaosRock and @BGinGA (thanks!), I ended up modifying starting stacks to T25k, like so:

T25 * 16
T100 * 16
T500 * 10
T1K * 8
T5K * 2

That gave everyone a pretty nice starting stack, and worked well.

We traded up some 100s/500s for 1ks just to keep stacks manageable.

16/16/6/10/2 starting stacks are probably a better choice, for that exact reason. The value of large numbers of T500 chips in play just isn't there in a 100-500-1000 denomination structure, as evidenced by removing extra T500s while T100 chips were still in play.

 

[Joe Harris]

The value of large numbers of T500 chips in play just isn't there in a 100-500-1000 denomination structure, as evidenced by removing extra T500s while T100 chips were still in play.

We removed more 100s than 500s, but you're definitely right that 10 500s per player weren't that useful. Mostly, the engineer in me just wanted to give each player 2 even stacks of 16+10 chips.

I wish the protege line had a 2k chip.