Tourney Super Turbo T100 (1 Viewer)

[ChrisTot]

Hey all! I know tournament structures have been done a lot, but I haven’t found anything that’s this specific ask and I don’t want to necro otherwise solid threads.

My friends are pretty casual and rather than just play cash games, we’d like to incorporate a 1 hour-ish tournament into the mix. Most tournament structure calculators will tell you you can make use of 350 chips.

But then you have an uneven barrel and half the rack is missing. Playing with different T25 setups and T100 setups, I math’d out this:

100 x 150
500 x 70
1000 x 70
5000 x 10
—————
300 chips

This would support up to 10 players with 12k stacks (and the idea would be to always go ahead and get all these chips spread across however many show up — so if you have 8 players, the 2 extra stacks divide up into each other player’s stack — this way you are always in control of the ratios — it’s just as if in this example, 2 players were knocked out already and the remaining stack avg increased because of it).

Starting stacks (10 players):
15/7/7 = 12k (290 chips in play)

Blind Structure:
1. 100/200
2. 200/400
3. 300/600
4. 400/800
5. 600/1200
6. 800/1600
7. 1000/2000
8. 1200/2400 (remove level for 6 minute blind levels)
9. 1500/3000
10. 2000/4000
11. 2500/5000 (remove level for 6 minute blind levels)
12. 3000/6000

** this would be 5 minute levels, but a 2 hour tournament could be 10 minutes, etc. I know there are some tournaments with add ons or rebuys, but given this minimizes variables, does this whole setup work well for even something like 4 hour tournaments? Maybe a starting stack of 60 BB would be terrible for a 4 hour tournament even if they ended same time?

The main goal is just the simplicity of mathing out using 300 chips well (money is no object, I’d do 400 if there was a similar breakdown that made sense for it).

In play (after colorups):
500 x 20
1000 x 60
5000 x 10
—————
90 chips in play (still 120k)

Is there something I’m missing? I see no suggestions for this breakdown anywhere. Robert Frost says maybe there’s a good reason for that.

For better or worse, I’ve already read the numerous threads that are great (and the ones that seem to think 120-160 or so chips is good at the end)—just wondering if this 90 could be better in this scenario or not.

Part of the draw to this is also that by not scaling to adding more zeros, this “could” keep this all streamlined and simple for the more casual players.

Hope I didn’t butcher any of this and the thoughts make sense, but if they don’t feel free to torch the idea, ha!

Thanks for making it this far!
- Chris

 

[Kentucky]

Some initial reaction to your structure:

5 minute rounds is really awkward in live poker. You’ll get 2-3 hands per round, maybe even just 1 if the stars align for a particular round. Maybe make the rounds slower in the beginning when the table is full and speed up when you expect people to be knocked out.

I prefer a smoother relative progression of blinds (50-70%) more than previous, rather than smooth in absolute terms. E.g. 200-400 is a 100% change, 600-800 is a 33% change.
For turbo you could just double every time and be done with it. (Rounds 1,2,4,6,9,12 at an average of 10 minutes might be better?)

Coloring up some but not all of the 500s seems awkward but not prohibitive.

60BB starting stacks isn’t too bad for turbo.

 

[ChrisTot]

Some initial reaction to your structure:

5 minute rounds is really awkward in live poker. You’ll get 2-3 hands per round, maybe even just 1 if the stars align for a particular round. Maybe make the rounds slower in the beginning when the table is full and speed up when you expect people to be knocked out.

I prefer a smoother relative progression of blinds (50-70%) more than previous, rather than smooth in absolute terms. E.g. 200-400 is a 100% change, 600-800 is a 33% change.
For turbo you could just double every time and be done with it. (Rounds 1,2,4,6,9,12 at an average of 10 minutes might be better?)

Coloring up some but not all of the 500s seems awkward but not prohibitive.

60BB starting stacks isn’t too bad for turbo.

That’s great feedback! Sounds like maybe this setup breakdown wise and last level wise can work nicely — just that the blind structure should adjust to the length where the smallest a blind can be is 10 minutes.

 

[buzzmonkey]

If the tournament is going to be an hour, just skip it and play the cash game.

 

[ChrisTot]

If the tournament is going to be an hour, just skip it and play the cash game.

So if it was a 2 hour tournament, what would your thoughts be?

 

[Ben8257]

Never heard of that "Ben Guys late night Turbos" at meet ups... 5 minute levels. Designed and meant to run in under an hour.

I typically run T1 based... but guess what T100 is... simply 2 extra zeros! All that matters in tournies is # of units, plain and simple!

Wanna run T100 base, simply add your zeros to below denoms.

I do starting stacks of 500
10 - T1, 8- T5, 6 - T25, 3 - T100 so 27 chips in play per player (270 for 10)

Blinds are extremely aggressive!
1) 1/2
2) 2/4
Chip up them $1s while playing (10 - t5, 4 - T25 I round up 284 chips used)
3) 5/10
4) 10/20
Chip up those $5s and keep it moving (10 - T25, 4 - T100, 298 chips used)
5) 25/50
6) 50/100
Chip up the $25s (10 - 100s, 2 - 500s, 310 chips used at this point)
7) 100/200
8) 200/400
9) 300/600
10) 500/1000
It's over... catch your breath... it's 3 am, time to chug a beer and enjoy a pour whilst whiping the sweat from your brow... that was a full 2 am work out Gents!

Knock it if you'd like... but many members have run the 2am Ben gauntlet and Love it at meet ups!

I also call them "cash warm ups" if people get there early... the # of players divided by a buy in for the cash table = entry fee (we usually do $10 or $20 each) and winner takes all... or second gets their money back. Better than flips IMO

@p5woody and @Irish Approved! Lol

 

[doublebooyah85]

Never heard of that "Ben Guys late night Turbos" at meet ups... 5 minute levels. Designed and meant to run in under an hour.

I typically run T1 based... but guess what T100 is... simply 2 extra zeros! All that matters in tournies is # of units, plain and simple!

Wanna run T100 base, simply add your zeros to below denoms.

I do starting stacks of 500
10 - T1, 8- T5, 6 - T25, 3 - T100 so 27 chips in play per player (270 for 10)

Blinds are extremely aggressive!
1) 1/2
2) 2/4
Chip up them $1s while playing (10 - t5, 4 - T25 I round up 284 chips used)
3) 5/10
4) 10/20
Chip up those $5s and keep it moving (10 - T25, 4 - T100, 298 chips used)
5) 25/50
6) 50/100
Chip up the $25s (10 - 100s, 2 - 500s, 310 chips used at this point)
7) 100/200
8) 200/400
9) 300/600
10) 500/1000
It's over... catch your breath... it's 3 am, time to chug a beer and enjoy a pour whilst whiping the sweat from your brow... that was a full 2 am work out Gents!

Knock it if you'd like... but many members have run the 2am Ben gauntlet and Love it at meet ups!

I also call them "cash warm ups" if people get there early... the # of players divided by a buy in for the cash table = entry fee (we usually do $10 or $20 each) and winner takes all... or second gets their money back. Better than flips IMO

@p5woody and @Irish Approved! Lol

We have ended cash game nights at midnight - 1am or so and agree to finish out with a winner take all freeze out.

 

[ChrisTot]

Never heard of that "Ben Guys late night Turbos" at meet ups... 5 minute levels. Designed and meant to run in under an hour.

I typically run T1 based... but guess what T100 is... simply 2 extra zeros! All that matters in tournies is # of units, plain and simple!

Wanna run T100 base, simply add your zeros to below denoms.

I do starting stacks of 500
10 - T1, 8- T5, 6 - T25, 3 - T100 so 27 chips in play per player (270 for 10)

Blinds are extremely aggressive!
1) 1/2
2) 2/4
Chip up them $1s while playing (10 - t5, 4 - T25 I round up 284 chips used)
3) 5/10
4) 10/20
Chip up those $5s and keep it moving (10 - T25, 4 - T100, 298 chips used)
5) 25/50
6) 50/100
Chip up the $25s (10 - 100s, 2 - 500s, 310 chips used at this point)
7) 100/200
8) 200/400
9) 300/600
10) 500/1000
It's over... catch your breath... it's 3 am, time to chug a beer and enjoy a pour whilst whiping the sweat from your brow... that was a full 2 am work out Gents!

Knock it if you'd like... but many members have run the 2am Ben gauntlet and Love it at meet ups!

I also call them "cash warm ups" if people get there early... the # of players divided by a buy in for the cash table = entry fee (we usually do $10 or $20 each) and winner takes all... or second gets their money back. Better than flips IMO

@p5woody and @Irish Approved! Lol

Not sure if this is a post I missed on here or not, but I love the sound of this! Thank you for posting! I’ll compare with yours and sounds like I’m not insane, lol

 

[Ben8257]

Not sure if this is a post I missed on here or not, but I love the sound of this! Thank you for posting! I’ll compare with yours and sounds like I’m not insane, lol

I have posted about it before, but not sure if I ever posted the structure... but usually just wait at meet ups and see who can still walk at 2am... we have run it with 4, @Irish We have run it with 12 ON ONE TABLE! haha very fast paced and a lot of fun!

Report back and let us know how it goes, you could also run T1 based just to try it, you can just use another cash set and not have to buy a new set of chips... if the players like it, then I say move forward with the T100 set.

Late night after a long cash session as mentioned by @doublebooyah85 above is a ton of fun... you were falling asleep and now people are yelling at you to shuffle faster! Crazy change of pace, the warm up version is good... but I get a real kick out of the late night version. Plus it helps with a "hard stop" to shut down the card room for the night.

Best of luck and no you're not crazy, with the right players these are a blast!

 

[doublebooyah85]

Plus it helps with a "hard stop" to shut down the card room for the night.

Exactly. Plus it can save a friend from rebuying multiple times late and getting killed being on tilt.

 

[buzzmonkey]

So if it was a 2 hour tournament, what would your thoughts be?

I think 3 is the bare minimum I'd want to play, and that's assuming only 5 or 6 people are playing. lol

 

[springbox]

How about 10 6-minute levels that all double? If the starting stack is 50bb, after 5 doubles that's 1.5bb, 10 ways is 15bb so the tournament should end on that level.

 

[ChrisTot]

How about 10 6-minute levels that all double? If the starting stack is 50bb, after 5 doubles that's 1.5bb, 10 ways is 15bb so the tournament should end on that level.

I like this idea!

1. 100/200
2. 200/400
3. 400/800
4. 800/1600
>> color up <<
5. 1500/3000
6. 3000/6000 (120k total chips)

Seems like it makes a lot more sense if 5 minutes is a bit of a logistical nightmare for sure

 

[Kentucky]

I like this idea!

1. 100/200
2. 200/400
3. 400/800
4. 800/1600
>> color up <<
5. 1500/3000
6. 3000/6000 (120k total chips)

Seems like it makes a lot more sense if 5 minutes is a bit of a logistical nightmare for sure

If my math is right you could do 10 minute levels if you have 6 in an hour

 

[ChrisTot]

If my math is right you could do 10 minute levels if you have 6 in an hour

Yep, that’s what this is — going from 12x 5 minute levels down to these 6x 10 minute ones

 

[ArielVer18]

What's the definition of a super turbo tournament nowadays?

I do super turbo tournaments when the first few players to arrive don't want to play short handed. Starting stack 20,000, blinds start at 1000/2000, and increases every three minutes. Everyone throws in $20, winner take all.

 

[ChrisTot]

What's the definition of a super turbo tournament nowadays?

I do super turbo tournaments when the first few players to arrive don't want to play short handed. Starting stack 20,000, blinds start at 1000/2000, and increases every three minutes. Everyone throws in $20, winner take all.

That sounds a lot like a push/fold tournament ha!

 

[ArielVer18]

That sounds a lot like a push/fold tournament ha!

Exactly. People who get knocked out don’t have to wait long for the next game. Lot of luck. Lot of swings

 

[allforcharity]

A 1h tournament is no fun. Did it on a cruise ship once. Never again.

 

[Natskule]

I have posted about it before, but not sure if I ever posted the structure... but usually just wait at meet ups and see who can still walk at 2am... we have run it with 4, @Irish We have run it with 12 ON ONE TABLE! haha very fast paced and a lot of fun!

Report back and let us know how it goes, you could also run T1 based just to try it, you can just use another cash set and not have to buy a new set of chips... if the players like it, then I say move forward with the T100 set.

Late night after a long cash session as mentioned by @doublebooyah85 above is a ton of fun... you were falling asleep and now people are yelling at you to shuffle faster! Crazy change of pace, the warm up version is good... but I get a real kick out of the late night version. Plus it helps with a "hard stop" to shut down the card room for the night.

Best of luck and no you're not crazy, with the right players these are a blast!

Love the quick turbo, cheap, short handed tournaments. 3-4 players max. Don't care for them with more folks though as they are pretty much fold or shove type affairs. Start with 40 big blind with 3 or 4 folks knock it out in a half hour.

 

[BGinGA]

Imo, a 1-hour tourney is pretty dumb for a bunch of reasons, the biggest being that it's very much a luck-based event with very little skill required. May as well play an hour of War, or if wanting it to be more poker-based, an hour of all-in High-hand flips dealt face-up until just one player remains.

But if you insist on insanity, I'd go with small T100-base starting stacks (50bb at most) and 3x the blinds every 15 minutes:

L1 100/200
L2 300/600
L3 900/1800
optional T100 color-up (need 10x T1000)
L4 2500/5000

10 players with 10K stacks (10/6/6, 220 total chips). No color-up will work just fine, too. 130 chips in play at tourney end with color-up.

15 minute blind levels will at least give some resemblance of normal play, and allow most players to see more than just a couple of hands before shoving.

 

[SlowPokeTony]

I’ve had many nights end with a quick tourney but it’s always blind man’s bluff and everyone loves it. You have to pick up your cards facing them away from you at all times and hold them up on your forehead. Everyone can see them but you. Everyone gets 10x5 and 6x25 for 200 chips total. Blinds 5/10 and go up every 3 hands.

 

[ChrisTot]

Imo, a 1-hour tourney is pretty dumb for a bunch of reasons, the biggest being that it's very much a luck-based event with very little skill required. May as well play an hour of War, or if wanting it to be more poker-based, an hour of all-in High-hand flips dealt face-up until just one player remains.

But if you insist on insanity, I'd go with small T100-base starting stacks (50bb at most) and 3x the blinds every 15 minutes:

L1 100/200
L2 300/600
L3 900/1800
optional T100 color-up (need 10x T1000)
L4 2500/5000

10 players with 10K stacks (10/6/6, 220 total chips). No color-up will work just fine, too. 130 chips in play at tourney end with color-up.

15 minute blind levels will at least give some resemblance of normal play, and allow most players to see more than just a couple of hands before shoving.

The GOAT himself! Maybe the 2-hour version of this tournament would also need 15 minute blind levels? The more I think about it, the one hour version of this just isn’t equivalent to an online 1 hour SNG.

This whole idea is more about searching for a tournament breakdown that utilizes full racks (rather than being like 350 chips and then the 4th rack is awkward). I’m a programmer, so I was thinking there could be a way to reverse engineer it.

Also, I noticed that when splitting the stacks for players 9 and 10 back etc into other players stacks (so that there is always X in chips on the table), it would be better to give them larger denom chips rather than the full starting stack that includes 100s and 500s that people ultimately would prefer coloring up. In doing that, the quest for this “efficient 300 breakdown” — needs more 1ks and falls apart, ha!

 

[SlowPokeTony]

The GOAT himself! Maybe the 2-hour version of this tournament would also need 15 minute blind levels? The more I think about it, the one hour version of this just isn’t equivalent to an online 1 hour SNG.

This whole idea is more about searching for a tournament breakdown that utilizes full racks (rather than being like 350 chips and then the 4th rack is awkward). I’m a programmer, so I was thinking there could be a way to reverse engineer it.

Also, I noticed that when splitting the stacks for players 9 and 10 back etc into other players stacks (so that there is always X in chips on the table), it would be better to give them larger denom chips rather than the full starting stack that includes 100s and 500s that people ultimately would prefer coloring up. In doing that, the quest for this “efficient 300 breakdown” — needs more 1ks and falls apart, ha!

An hour is a long time for an online turbo sit n go. It’s almost no time at all for an in person sit n go. I think everyone commenting was more talking about that rather than the chip distribution.

 

[SlowPokeTony]

Let’s reverse engineer it. You could go 20k stacks. With 10 players and no rebuys, your end game is 1ks and 5ks on the table totaling 200k. A good balance for that would be 100x1k and 20x5k. So the other 180 chips can be 100x100 and 80x500. Starting stacks are 10/8/5/2. Color up the 100s and 500s at the same time to bring the remaining 50 1ks into play. Blinds 100/200, 200/400, 300/600, 400/800, 600/1200, 800/1600, color up, 1k/2k, 1500/3k, 2k/4k, 3k/6k, etc. with 10 minute levels it’s done in 2 hours. With 15 minute levels you could skip some levels. Maybe go 2/4, 3/6, 5/10, 8/16 then color up.

 

[Mojo1312]

What's the definition of a super turbo tournament nowadays?

I do super turbo tournaments when the first few players to arrive don't want to play short handed. Starting stack 20,000, blinds start at 1000/2000, and increases every three minutes. Everyone throws in $20, winner take all.

Amateurs! All of you! At the end of an evening a few of us will pitch in $100 apiece and deal a hand of seven card stud, face up. Player with the best hand takes the pot. When we are feeling leisurely and want a little suspense, we will deal the first two and seventh street face down and reveal the cards one at a time around the table.

Not only is our method faster, it saves wear and tear on chips, and the strategy involved isn't much different. The game moves along so quickly, players don't even need to take a seat.

 

[BGinGA]

This whole idea is more about searching for a tournament breakdown that utilizes full racks (rather than being like 350 chips and then the 4th rack is awkward). I’m a programmer, so I was thinking there could be a way to reverse engineer it.

Optimum 300-chip T500-base tourney set for 10 players:

100 x T500
100 x T1000
100 x T5000

Ten 50k starting stacks (10/10/7), and the remaining 30x T5000 chips color-up the T500 and T1000 chips with perfect efficiency.

Flexible Blind structure:
L1 500 500
L2 500 1000
L3 500 1500
L4 1000 2000
L5 1500 3000
remove T500 chips
L6 2000 4000
L7 3000 6000
L8 4000 8000
L9 6000 12000
L10 8000 16000
remove T1000 chips
L11 10000 20000
L12 15000 30000

12 levels to complete a 100bb event, which can last:

6 hours (30 minute levels)
5 hours (25 minute levels)
4 hours (20 mimute levels)
3 hours (15 minute levels)
2 hours (10 minute levels)
1 hour (10 minutes, using even-numbered levels only)

Add 100 x 25000 chips for a 400-chip set that can accomodate starting stacks up to 300k, or 200k stacks with re-buys. Add additional blind levels, with L13 = 10x L6 amounts and continuing onward.

 

[ChrisTot]

Optimum 300-chip T500-base tourney set for 10 players:

100 x T500
100 x T1000
100 x T5000

Ten 50k starting stacks (10/10/7), and the remaining 30x T5000 chips color-up the T500 and T1000 chips with perfect efficiency.

Flexible Blind structure:
L1 500 500
L2 500 1000
L3 500 1500
L4 1000 2000
L5 1500 3000
remove T500 chips
L6 2000 4000
L7 3000 6000
L8 4000 8000
L9 6000 12000
L10 8000 16000
remove T1000 chips
L11 10000 20000
L12 15000 30000

12 levels to complete a 100bb event, which can last:

6 hours (30 minute levels)
5 hours (25 minute levels)
4 hours (20 mimute levels)
3 hours (15 minute levels)
2 hours (10 minute levels)
1 hour (10 minutes, using even-numbered levels only)

Add 100 x 25000 chips for a 400-chip set that can accomodate starting stacks up to 300k, or 200k stacks with re-buys. Add additional blind levels, with L13 = 10x L6 amounts and continuing onward.

Omg this is totally the answer, and I went and found your post I hadn’t stumbled upon somehow for adding the extra rack of 25k chips for the 300k starting stack possibility (buy once, cry once strategy).

in hindsight, I’m kinda curious why T500 isn’t a lot more popular. Maybe because a lot of sets have larger chips unavailable. But I’m now a believer and am headed for next Justin group buy! Thanks again =)

 

[SlowPokeTony]

Omg this is totally the answer, and I went and found your post I hadn’t stumbled upon somehow for adding the extra rack of 25k chips for the 300k starting stack possibility (buy once, cry once strategy).

in hindsight, I’m kinda curious why T500 isn’t a lot more popular. Maybe because a lot of sets have larger chips unavailable. But I’m now a believer and am headed for next Justin group buy! Thanks again =)

I don’t get the appeal of T500 base over T5. So many extra 0s for no reason and 2 denoms close together. If I gave a breakdown that had 5 10 and 50 it would get shit on. Or 100 200 1000. But 500 1k 5k people love it.

 

[ChrisTot]

I don’t get the appeal of T500 base over T5. So many extra 0s for no reason and 2 denoms close together. If I gave a breakdown that had 5 10 and 50 it would get shit on. Or 100 200 1000. But 500 1k 5k people love it.

In the set I'm getting these for-- there aren't 10, 50, or 250 value chips