I’m looking for feedback on any issues you see with my proposed structure for the last regular-season event of our league’s inaugural tournament season. This is our 6th event, and the last chance to both earn points for Player of the Year and extra chips in our Championship Event later in the year. (See here for some info about our league setup and why it is setup the way it is).
My goals are (1) to give a lot of opportunity for players to earn points in this last event, so that everyone feels like they have a chance to climb the standings and earn bonus chips for the Championship Event (in other words, to make sure we have good attendance and participation) and (2) to keep the game affordable (limiting the possibility for some players to overwhelm others by just shoving and rebuying relentlessly to effectively “buy” their way up the standings).
I have been experimenting with different formats/structures both to see what people like best and to see what works well. So far, we have played two single re-entry events with bounties (15K starting stacks), one unlimited re-entry event with bounties (10K starting stacks), one mystery-bounty freezeout event (15K starting stacks), and one “prebuy”/“reload” event (10K starting stack plus one rebuy chip redeemable for either one rebuy of 10K chips or a 15K add-on at the first break). All games have been $20 buy-in and use the same blind structure (copied at the end of this post).
What I am considering for this event is the following:
In case anyone finds it relevant, our point structure is very basic and geared toward our very casual player base (one point for playing, one point for each table break outlasted, one point for cashing, and one point for winning). Our current standings are:
And here is our blind structure for all events. We usually do not use an ante, but I am considering using one this time to help ensure that we end on time.
My goals are (1) to give a lot of opportunity for players to earn points in this last event, so that everyone feels like they have a chance to climb the standings and earn bonus chips for the Championship Event (in other words, to make sure we have good attendance and participation) and (2) to keep the game affordable (limiting the possibility for some players to overwhelm others by just shoving and rebuying relentlessly to effectively “buy” their way up the standings).
I have been experimenting with different formats/structures both to see what people like best and to see what works well. So far, we have played two single re-entry events with bounties (15K starting stacks), one unlimited re-entry event with bounties (10K starting stacks), one mystery-bounty freezeout event (15K starting stacks), and one “prebuy”/“reload” event (10K starting stack plus one rebuy chip redeemable for either one rebuy of 10K chips or a 15K add-on at the first break). All games have been $20 buy-in and use the same blind structure (copied at the end of this post).
What I am considering for this event is the following:
- Double stakes ($40 buy-in) with double points awarded. The idea here is, again, to keep everyone in the hunt for POY. If we kept the stakes/points the same as our previous games, only 6 of our 26 players would have any chance at all to take the top spot. And we have several players that have only recently joined the player pool, so I don't want to disadvantage them too much. Consistency throughout the year obviously matters to me, but so does keeping everyone engaged. Even with double points up for grabs, it will be hard (even if theoretically possible) for someone near the middle of the pack to jump all the way to the top).
- One half-price rebuy ($20) before the first break (after Level 5). The idea behind making it half-price is that we have some folks for whom the usual $20 buy-in is already near the top of their comfort zone, so I don’t want them feeling totally overwhelmed by those who are happy to fire off for two full $40 entries (which is most of us). Again, this is a fun/casual game, not super serious. But I do want folks to be able to come back into this important last event if they get coolered in the first few levels.
- Anyone who does not rebuy before the break gets an automatic (free) half-stack add-on (10K chips). The idea here is to guard against players punting with a medium/short stack right before the break (they are already going to get 10K in chips for free, so as long as they have around a half-stack remaining, there is no need to play unusually reckless and then have to pay for an extra 10K chips). Also helps those for whom the $40 buy-in is at the top of their comfort zone because they are on somewhat equal footing (in terms of stack size) with those who do fire off for two full entries.
In case anyone finds it relevant, our point structure is very basic and geared toward our very casual player base (one point for playing, one point for each table break outlasted, one point for cashing, and one point for winning). Our current standings are:
And here is our blind structure for all events. We usually do not use an ante, but I am considering using one this time to help ensure that we end on time.
