Tourney Tournament Buy-In (2 Viewers)

TomC727

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So a question or the group.

My last 3 tournaments in my basement, I had only a $20 buy-in with no rebuy.

The last tournament I had, we had 2 tables 16 total. What I noticed is that the extremely inexperienced players felt intimidated by the seasoned players. This was the complete opposite of what I wanted. The reason behind the low buy in was to encourage everyone to play. On top of that, the inexperienced completely slowed action.

My next tournament is this Saturday and to keep inexperienced players from feeling obligated to play, I raised the buy-in to $50. The last tournament night, the inexperienced players that busted out ended up playing a very fun and competitive Uno game (And not everyone there played cards)

I found out today that a couple of the players (a few of my co-workers, mid-range) would prefer the $20, that $50 is too expensive. The whole point of the $50 was to keep the midrange and experienced players but to allow the inexperienced to no feel obligated to play. Eat, Drink, Socialize, but they don't have to play cards

A breakdown of players. 1/3 Are very experienced players, 1/3 know the game and have experience and 1/3 are almost lost at the tables and slow the action down considerably.

As of now, The $50 is looking to have 11-13 players, as of my count now.

My options:

1)Keep it at $50. The night isn't just about poker. My bar is fully stocked, Uno decks are ready, and I get a ton of food. Not everyone who comes even plays.

2)An option suggested by one of my co-workers - Have 2 tables. 1 Tourney at $50 and 1 at $20. My only issue with this is that I may lose some of the mid-range players to the $20 tournament. One of my mid range players specifically said that she would go to the $20 to keep the numbers up.

3)Drop it to $20 (Not going to happen).

I personally think that keeping it at $50 is the way to go. None of us are hurting for money, and it will keep the action going. If the game loses 1 or 2 inexperienced players because of the $50, I don't have a problem with this.

Has anyone had this issue before?

Suggestions?
 
Sometimes it's hard to be all things to all people. Could you do some nights at $50 and some at $20 of it's really separate crews that are developing?
Would be really tough to separate it out based on our work schedules. Getting a game once a month is hard enough.

I don’t think it’s separate crews developing, but one or two players who want to keep it at $20 because they feel “intimidated” at $50, even though these two people at most are pretty decent players. On top of that, the most vocal to decrease the price is also, though a real sneaky good player, the slowest player at the table of the group. Literally Tilt inducing slow.

Based on my count right now, 12 people are playing. At most, 4 would go to a $20 table and with that, maybe an increase of 1 or 2 inexperienced players.

To go from a 12 person tourney to 8 seems to not be beneficial.

I am really leaning on keeping it at $50 and being done with it
 
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What about $20 with 1 or 2 rebuys allowed? That would let people have the option of putting in more if they bust and might loosen up some newbies if they know they have a 2nd chance.
That has crossed my mind. Let me play around with the blind structures and set up and see if it works out.

I’ve never been a fan of rebuys. I feel it rewards bad play.
 
Rotate the $20 tourney and $50 tourney every other week. This will allow your higher stakes players to sit out a week if they really can’t tolerate the slowness of the inexperienced players. It will also allow your inexperienced players to have a game and not feel priced out of the bigger games.

I am not a fan of shutting the inexperienced players out of the game. They are the players that will be donating to the game. Giving them the opportunity to develop and become comfortable at the $50 game should be the goal.
 
Capping rebuys is the wallet equalizer, and it is not a reward to have to pay 3 shells before the rebuy ends.
The rebuys won’t affect anyone in their wallet except for maybe 1 or 2 inexperienced players who may not want to rebuy after getting knocked out.

The more I think this out, the more I think the rebuys won’t affect anything other than the experienced players being a little looser.
 
Rotate the $20 tourney and $50 tourney every other week. This will allow your higher stakes players to sit out a week if they really can’t tolerate the slowness of the inexperienced players. It will also allow your inexperienced players to have a game and not feel priced out of the bigger games.

I am not a fan of shutting the inexperienced players out of the game. They are the players that will be donating to the game. Giving them the opportunity to develop and become comfortable at the $50 game should be the goal.
Our work schedule is so crazy, we can barely meet monthly. I would be ok with rotating each month buy-in amounts. The previous three have been $20 so this one gets a $50 buy in.
 
For rebuy experienced players, do you put a time cap on when someone can rebuy. Do you have to be knocked out to rebuy? Not sure.
 
For rebuy experienced players, do you put a time cap on when someone can rebuy. Do you have to be knocked out to rebuy? Not sure.

We play 5 levels, about 90 minutes, pause the clock and play 1 final rebuys eligible hand before starting level 6. Must be broke to rebuy.

We've debated allowing someone to surrender their stack and rebuy, but have never allowed it.

We ended up implementing the +1 hand because we had a lot of long 2nd to last hands run into the next level. Plus that way we don't have the "is this the last hand for rebuys" question come up for the last half of the level from every short stack.
 
I don't do tournament play often (my players prefer cash over tournament) but I had a similar problem with my cash game. That was when I split my group in half. One night had a 5¢/10¢ game and the next night had 25¢/50¢ game. The nickel game was too cheap for my real players, and only my inexperienced and slower players played. They loved having a table dedicated to them and their level of play, while the more experienced players loved the more expensive game as it played at a higher level and game them a better challenge. Might be time for you to consider doing something similar.
 
I think it’s a mistake to make a correlation between somebody’s skill/experience level and their ability/willingness to pay.
There are plenty of poker players with no budget and plenty of newbies with deep pockets.
 
I think it’s a mistake to make a correlation between somebody’s skill/experience level and their ability/willingness to pay.
There are plenty of poker players with no budget and plenty of newbies with deep pockets.
Well, we all have deep pockets. The level of skill is the difference.
 
If they have deep pockets keep it at $50. It’s an extra $30 which they probably spend at a meaningless lunch or 3 drinks at the bar
OR
You can go the rebuy route but also add a $20 add on after the rebuy period. This will ensure the experienced guys will be in for a minimum of $40 and possibly even $60 or $80. The inexperienced guys that are still in the tournament after the rebuy period might not then mind throwing the extra $20 in for the add on bc they are playing good enough to still be in the tournament. If they get knocked out and don’t want to rebuy then they lost their $20 and it’s off to the Uno table.
This strategy should get you avg buy in to $50 or more per player.
 
Yes, I typically do 90-100 minutes plus the first break (5 levels). I do a max of two re entries, but never been an issue.
 
I’m thinking of keeping it at $50.

More than likely, I’ll ask the group before the start Saturday night if there is interest in $20 tourney second table. If there is only a few who are interested, the 2 table $50 tourney stays.
 
I spoke to everyone and only 1 person is iffy for the $50 (mainly because she feels intimidated by some of the more seasoned players). No one else would play $20 but not $50 so the $50 stays. Will have anywhere from 10-12 players. I am going to try to squeeze them all into 1 table (108") but I shall see.
 
I spoke to everyone and only 1 person is iffy for the $50 (mainly because she feels intimidated by some of the more seasoned players).
I suspect this is where you were leaning the whole time. I appreciate you wanted other ideas just in case, but sometimes people have to realize games won't bend to their whims either.


Will have anywhere from 10-12 players. I am going to try to squeeze them all into 1 table (108") but I shall see.

If you get more than 10 don't do this. Personally, I think 9 handed is crowded, 10 is the absolute max. Maybe the table is big enough, but deals will get really slow.
 
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I suspect this is where you were leaning the whole time. I appreciate you wanted other ideas just on case, but sometime people have to realize games won't bend to their whims either.




If you get more than 10 don't do this. Personally, I think 9 handed is crowded, 10 is the absolute max. Maybe the table is big enough, but deals will get really slow.
Agree. Don’t you have 2 beautiful tables Tom? Start 6 and 6. Starting short-handed can be fun
 
To late for your game tonight but here's an idea that I think I actually read in this forum. Do a 2nd buy-in. Have everyone buy in for your $20, then the players that want to play for more put in an additional $30 for the 2nd pot. The players that only do the $20 buy-in are only entitled to that portion of the pot, if they win of course. The players that buy-in for both pots are entitled to win both. You could have a 2nd place finisher winning more than the first place winner. I have the same problem where my normal buy-in is $25 and some guys want to raise it to $50. I'm going to try this 2nd pot thing in two weeks, hopefully it works out.
 
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So I ended up having 11. Plan was to all sit at the main table and see how it felt. Not cramped at all so played 11 at one table.

I have an 108” oversize so it worked out. Was surprised.
 

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