Tourney "Stretching" a set to potentially 3 tables (1 Viewer)

[MrCatPants]

I'm going to be hosting my largest tourney ever this Saturday, in conjunction with my 40th birthday. This leaves me with a problem I haven't had before, which is how to "stretch" my set the right way for the tournament i'll be running. I've never had more than 15 players before and so have always been able to do 12/12/x/x/x starting stacks. Now I potentially have to move to 8/8/x/x/x

My set breakdown is as follows:
200 x 25
200 x 100
60 x 500
120 x 1000
40 x 5000
(in reserve if needed) 10 x 25000 plaques

I'll be allowing a max of one rebuy each and will have somewhere in the neighborhood of 16-25 players.

So, here's my question. Is 8/8/x/x/x, although tight, workable for running a tournament or is it too much of a change nightmare (and I'm better off mixing in 25s and 100s from a secondary set)? Or do I need to "sell" my spare 25s and 100s to someone at each table before the tourney starts to get as much change as possible on the table?

 

[grantc54]

8/8/xxxxxx will work no problem.

 

[wonderpuddle]

Yeah 8/8/x/x works fine. I personally prefer it to a 12/12/x starting stack, but I get why people prefer moar chips.

 

[JustinInMN]

Generally, yes I think 8/8/4/x or even 8/8/2/x tournaments are workable. The problem with your set is you are simply short on the T1k chips necessary unless you reduce the starting stacks from T10k to something smaller, probably T6k.

On the surface 8/8/2/3/1 is T10k. But 2 T1ks per player is going to make it tough to function. You will be breaking the T5ks too often.

(Edit to add math content: If you are figuring 8-9 players per table with 8/8/2/3/1 stacks, you will have at most 27K in 1K chips and 45K in 5K chips. Meaning to ever break a 5K chip, you have to hope one player has 5 1K chips (which is 60% above the average) every time it comes up, or it will get sticky, the "pull light" method is probably you best bet at this point. And with a single 5K chip representing half the stack, it will come up a lot.)

So in short, it is the change between T1K and T5K I find sticky with your breakdown stretching to 25 players. I wouldn't worry so much about the T25, T100, and T500 parts.

I think your best bet with your set is to go for 8/8/2/4 * 25 players to maximize the change on the table. T6k stacks for 120BB starting at 25-50. Add a 25-25 level to the start if 120BB is too shallow.

But this means you don't have to worry about every player having 5K chips to break at the start. (Though you will probably have to introduce the T5K chips for re-entries, but that's more tenable, imo.)

That should be pretty workable.

 

[Darson]

I have a couple of 200/200/100/200/200/100 sets and can bring one on Saturday if needed. WPS Matsui or PCF promos

 

[MrCatPants]

I have a couple of 200/200/100/200/200/100 sets and can bring one on Saturday if needed. WPS Matsui or PCF promos

Appreciate the offer - I'll let you know by Thursday? Want to get close to a final count as this may end up being a non-issue potentially.

 

[Darson]

Appreciate the offer - I'll let you know by Thursday? Want to get close to a final count as this may end up being a non-issue potentially.

Not a problem - the PCF chips are packed and ready to go anyway so it can be a last minute thing as well. Perhaps I'll just stick them in the car anyway - minimal effort for me.

 

[fish72s]

I used to wonder what I would do if I every wanted to host a 3, 4 or 5 table tournament.
This is what I came up with although I never tried it.
(I almost started a thread on this subject ; maybe I will depending on your, and others' responses)

I assume you have more than one tourny sets.
Why not just use both sets? 2 tables using your normal set and stacks and the 3rd table using a different set but same stacks.
Ditch the second set during a break when you combine to 2 tables.
Yes it'll be a bit of a pain to swap out stacks for players that move tables but if if you are organized I don't think it'd be too bad.
Maybe even less inconvenient than all that change-making you'll have to do because of the shorter stack sizes (8/8/x/x)

 

[AWenger]

I played in a home game that used 8/8/x/x/ breakdown for tourneys, and it was fine for multiple tables. (Although most players were regulars that knew how to make change without slowing the game up.)

If you have 25 players (with 200 chips), you'll need to go 8/8/x for all starting stacks. But if you get fewer than 25 players, you could make some of the stacks 12/12/x to get all of the lower denom chips out there in play.

You could do something similar for the T1000s -- make some stacks using the T5000 chip, (like 8/8/2/3/1 if you're using T10k), but make some other stacks with more T500s & T1000s and no T5000 chip.

 

[MrCatPants]

I used to wonder what I would do if I every wanted to host a 3, 4 or 5 table tournament.
This is what I came up with although I never tried it.
(I almost started a thread on this subject ; maybe I will depending on your, and others' responses)

I assume you have more than one tourny sets.
Why not just use both sets? 2 tables using your normal set and stacks and the 3rd table using a different set but same stacks.
Ditch the second set during a break when you combine to 2 tables.
Yes it'll be a bit of a pain to swap out stacks for players that move tables but if if you are organized I don't think it'd be too bad.
Maybe even less inconvenient than all that change-making you'll have to do because of the shorter stack sizes (8/8/x/x)

I thought about that but my other set only goes to 500, so wouldn't solve the 1k problem. But I was thinking that since people will be busting out more frequently when the 1k chips are getting tossed around that that may fix itself in a way?