Tourney T25 base 8 hour tournament format (1 Viewer)

[sleepyhead]

I’m looking at starting a new Holiday tradition and hosting a tournament during that boring period between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

I’m hoping to be able to get 18 people of all skill levels to commit to an 8 hour tournament with the following criteria:

T25 base
Rebuys
Add ons
Bounties
Start around 4pm and end around midnight
One longer break (maybe 30 mins) for dinner (probably pizza)

I’m looking for suggestions on blind levels and more specifically when you would cut off the rebuy period/allow the add ons and the amount the rebuys and add ons should be.

Given it’s not a short tournament and that the skill level will vary from those who play once a year to the more advanced player and that I want to keep it casual and fun, I was thinking of making the rebuy cutoff later into the tournament than I normally would. Keeping this in mind, where would you suggest putting the cut off and how much would you allow the rebuy to be? Would you limit the number of rebuys or call it unlimited rebuys up until X break? What would you suggest starting stacks to be? I run a work poker league and we do T20K starting stacks.

Thanks for any suggestions or insight you can provide!

 

[MC_CPA]

Are you sure you want 8 hours of poker, that is tough lol. Maybe 6hrs?

Just take the typical tournament structure and increase the blind time for each level.

 

[TheRealStephen12]

This should last you 8+ hours

T20K Starting Stack
15 Minute Blind Levels 1-10 (18 minutes with BBA)
18 Minute Blind Levels 11+
One rebuy through level 10
Add-on available after level 10

25/50
25/75
50/100
50/125
75/150
Break
100/200
125/250
150/300
200/400
250/500
Break - Color Up T25 - End Rebuys - Offer Add-On
300/600
400/800
500/1000
600/1200
800/1600
Break - Color Up T100
1000/2000
1000/2500
1500/3000
2000/4000
2500/5000
Break - Color Up T500
3K/6K
4K/8K
5K/10K
6K/12K
8K/16K
Break - Color Up T1K
10K/20K
10K/25K
15K/30K
20K/40K
25K/50K

 

[Tarsus4]

I've been fighting with the same paradoxical-seeming goals: to run a tournament that entertains a large number of people for a long time, and also promotes a fair competition at the end. I've been playing with an accelerating blind schedule to keep the re-buy period long, I'll adapt it to your constraints, very curious to hear people tell me what's wrong with it =)

T20,000 starting (200bb)
30m levels
L1 50 100
L2 75 150
L3 100 200
L4 150 300
2h elapsed, 10m break, color-up T25
L5 200 400
L6 300 600
L7 400 800
3:40 elapsed, 30m dinner break, no more re-buys, color-up T100
Speed up to 20m levels
L8 500 1000
L9 500 1500
L10 1000 2000
L11 1500 3000
L12 2000 4000
5:50 elapsed, 10m break, color-up T500
L13 3000 6000
L14 4000 8000
L15 6000 12000
L16 8000 16000
L17 10k 25k, tournament should end here, color-up T1000 at will during play
L18 15k 35k
8hr elapsed
L19 25k 50k

 

[sleepyhead]

I've been fighting with the same paradoxical-seeming goals: to run a tournament that entertains a large number of people for a long time, and also promotes a fair competition at the end. I've been playing with an accelerating blind schedule to keep the re-buy period long, I'll adapt it to your constraints, very curious to hear people tell me what's wrong with it =)

T20,000 starting (200bb)
30m levels
L1 50 100
L2 75 150
L3 100 200
L4 150 300
2h elapsed, 10m break, color-up T25
L5 200 400
L6 300 600
L7 400 800
3:40 elapsed, 30m dinner break, no more re-buys, color-up T100
Speed up to 20m levels
L8 500 1000
L9 500 1500
L10 1000 2000
L11 1500 3000
L12 2000 4000
5:50 elapsed, 10m break, color-up T500
L13 3000 6000
L14 4000 8000
L15 6000 12000
L16 8000 16000
L17 10k 25k, tournament should end here, color-up T1000 at will during play
L18 15k 35k
8hr elapsed
L19 25k 50k

This is cool. I really like the longer initial levels. If the tournament works out how it should the better players will remain at the end and the more novice players will have had at least a few hours of entertainment before things start to get real.

 

[Tarsus4]

This is cool. I really like the longer initial levels. If the tournament works out how it should the better players will remain at the end and the more novice players will have had at least a few hours of entertainment before things start to get real.

Thanks. I think the disadvantage of this approach is the first half of the tournament doesn't quite feel like it counts for much. You could delay entering entirely until the 3hr mark and still have a decent shot at winning.

 

[TheRealStephen12]

I've been fighting with the same paradoxical-seeming goals: to run a tournament that entertains a large number of people for a long time, and also promotes a fair competition at the end.

Thanks. I think the disadvantage of this approach is the first half of the tournament doesn't quite feel like it counts for much. You could delay entering entirely until the 3hr mark and still have a decent shot at winning.

You want people to have a long time in the beginning, and have a long time in the end. You either have to balance it, play the WSOP ME structure, or do whatever this was: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/help-me-design-this-crazy-crazy-tourney.115453/#post-2375144.

 

[Taghkanic]

Most players are not going to get anything like the full 8 hours of play, unless the structure is something like:

25/25 for 7.5 hours
25000/50000 for 30 minutes...

So I would reframe the question here: How do you structure the tournament so that most players get enough play to feel like they had a Real Poker Experience <tm>?

My guess is that for many casual players, 3-4 hours is going to be plenty. Only those who are either serious about the game, or just really competitive, are going to want to grind it out for 8 hours.

The last couple hours could easily be just 4-5 people.

In addition to the blind structure and starting stack sizes, I would say the timing of your cutoff for rebuys is a crucial factor. If you set it too early, you're going to have a bunch of people bust out in a couple hours.

Another thing is the size of the add-on(s). If it is bigger than normal, that helps short stacks to continue a bit longer. I'd also suggest allowing people to abandon their stacks at the break and rebuy instead, if super-short.

Honestly even for an experienced group, 8 hours seems long for a social occasion. By the time there is a winner, many guests may have drifted off.

As far as specific structural ideas, I am not big on finicky, odd blind levels like 25/75 or 50/125. If you're trying to slow it down early, better to go with a few simple levels like 25/25, 50/50 etc. before getting to more standard jumps like 100/200.

To speed things up post-break, rather than having the levels accelerate too fast, you might start using a big blind ante. But casual
players sometimes have trouble grasping BBEs so maybe not.

 

[Taghkanic]

P.S. Another idea might be to shorten the tourney but encourage those who bust early but want to keep player to start a cash game...

 

[danopoker]

I stole and modified an idea that I read somewhere here that is working well with my mix of experienced players and beginners. You might consider trying something similar. It goes like this:

You get 15k at the start, plus a token. We play 2 hours, if you bust during that time, you redeem your token for another 15k. (Three greys at 5k each, make change with the smaller chips already in play)

After 2 hours, we're coloring up the greens, and anyone still with an unused token (usually about half the field) redeems it for a bonus 15k. (Again, three greys)

It pretty much guarantees everyone gets 2+ hours of play, even if they get unlucky / make a bad play to lose their whole stack.

The first time I tried it the stack size was 12k and everyone got two tokens, but the tournament dragged a bit in the second half. So rather than adjust my blind structure, I changed to 15k and one token and that seems to be working much better.

Players like that they don't have to rebuy (pay again) to get back in. I like that and also that there aren't unlimited rebuys. People keep coming back so I take that as a good sign.