Tourney Tried hosting for the first time. Have a few questions (1 Viewer)

[blackllama]

Ive played a few tournaments over the years, so easy to join in and start playing. Didnt really pay much attention to the structure of things. Hosted my first game and for the most part things were ok but i noticed there were things that werent clear to me. Ive search all over for answers to my questions and im hoping people can help me understand some things better and also maybe optimise my setup better.

So I went for a 10 player tournament
T1 Monte Carlo set
3-4 hr game that I planned to control by picking 15 or 20 min rounds on the night. vibing what peeps wanted.
I went with this chip and stack breakdown from this post (jun 2020) by BGinGA

Typical single-table T1-base tournament set:
T1000 starting stacks (15/12/9/7), 250BB with 2/4 starting blinds
150 x T1
120 x T5
90 x T25
90 x T100 (extras used for T1 color-up and re-buys)
10 x T500 (used for T5/T25 color-ups)
----------
460 chips. This set breakdown minimizes change-making, with both lower denominations in the preferred 12-16 chip range.

1) first thing i wondered is why 2/4 starting blinds and not 1/2? not biggie just curious. I imagine it might be cause it would slow the night down?

2) there seems to be a few T1 breakdowns out there. They are obviously optimised to the needs of the thread they belong to but the logic seems similar and I want to try understand the differences and what see how i could optimise my setup.

- in this more recent post dated set 2024, he gives

T1 = 150/120/100/30 (T400 stacks)

same senario but different chip count and starting stack, which i think is 15/12/9/1? Im not sure why...

- another post (dec 2022) but for 30 players he gives

30 starting stacks of 10/13/5/1. That is 29 chips = T300 (or T3000), equal to 150bb if starting with 1/2 blinds (or 1000/2000) or 75bb if starting with 2/4 blinds (or 2000/4000)

would still work for a 10 player game but im guessing this T300 is geared so the flow is better in a 30 player game?

- and in this post (Nov 2024) for 40 players

Imo, T1000 stacks (10/8/10/2/1) would be better (if using 2/4 starting blinds, 250bb) and only requires 40x more T500 chips (1,280 total chips). But this would extend the total tournament time well beyond your stated goals for 40 players.

here there are more players but the stack is T1000 with 2 more chips and one being T500. he later says the T500 isnt needed, but why a starting stack of T1000 for a 40 player game and T300 for a 30 player game? is this more of a flavour thing?

- i did find this post (dec 2024) by TheRealStephen12

Base T1, T400 Stack (10/8/6/2)

and he included the blind schedule and rebuy info which is super handy for a newbie host

3) the next issue and question i had was about the blind structure. I tried a few different tools to try works something out. seems they dont really let you change the increase %. Is there a standard schedule for a T1 game? where i could just swtich from 15min rounds to 20min if I wanted a 3 or 4hr game? these are the results I got

https://ultimate-holdem-timer.com/blind-calculator	https://pokersoup.com/tool/blindStructureCalculator
[td width="48pt"]Level	[td width="48pt"]Level

[td width="56pt"]Small Blind[/td][td width="48pt"]Big Blind[/td][td width="81pt"]Round Start Time[/td]

[td]

1​

[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td]​

[td]+0:00[/td]

[td]

2​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

4​

[/td]​

[td]+0:20[/td]

[td]

3​

[/td][td]

3​

[/td][td]

6​

[/td]​

[td]+0:40[/td]

[td]

4​

[/td][td]

4​

[/td][td]

8​

[/td]​

[td]+1:00[/td]

[td]

5​

[/td][td]

5​

[/td][td]

10​

[/td]​

[td]+1:20[/td]

[td]

6​

[/td][td]

6​

[/td][td]

12​

[/td]​

[td]+1:40[/td]

[td]

7​

[/td][td]

7​

[/td][td]

14​

[/td]​

[td]+2:00[/td]

[td]

8​

[/td][td]

8​

[/td][td]

16​

[/td]​

[td]+2:20[/td]

[td]

9​

[/td][td]

9​

[/td][td]

18​

[/td]​

[td]+2:40[/td]

[td]

10​

[/td][td]

10​

[/td][td]

20​

[/td]​

[td]+3:00[/td]

[td]

11​

[/td][td]

11​

[/td][td]

22​

[/td]​

[td]+3:20[/td]

[td]

12​

[/td][td]

16​

[/td][td]

32​

[/td]​

[td]+3:40[/td]

[td]

13​

[/td][td]

21​

[/td][td]

42​

[/td]​

[td]+4:00[/td]

[td]

14​

[/td][td]

22​

[/td][td]

44​

[/td]​

[td]+4:20[/td]

[td]

15​

[/td][td]

27​

[/td][td]

54​

[/td]​

[td]+4:40[/td]

[td]

16​

[/td][td]

37​

[/td][td]

74​

[/td]​

[td]+5:00[/td]

[/td]

[td width="56pt"]Small Blind[/td][td width="48pt"]Big Blind[/td][td width="81pt"]Color Up[/td][td width="58pt"]Effective BB[/td][td width="48pt"]Time[/td]

[td]

1​

[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

500​

[/td]​

[td]+0:00[/td]

[td]

2​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

4​

[/td][td]

250​

[/td]​

[td]+0:20[/td]

[td]

3​

[/td][td]

4​

[/td][td]

8​

[/td][td]

125​

[/td]​

[td]+0:40[/td]

[td]

4​

[/td][td]

7​

[/td][td]

14​

[/td][td]

71​

[/td]​

[td]+1:00[/td] [td]BREAK[/td]

[td]

1​

[/td]​

[td]+1:20[/td]

[td]

5​

[/td][td]

15​

[/td][td]

30​

[/td][td]

33​

[/td]​

[td]+1:40[/td]

[td]

6​

[/td][td]

25​

[/td][td]

50​

[/td][td]

20​

[/td]​

[td]+2:00[/td]

[td]

7​

[/td][td]

40​

[/td][td]

80​

[/td][td]

12​

[/td]​

[td]+2:20[/td]

[td]

8​

[/td][td]

70​

[/td][td]

140​

[/td]​

[td]+2:40[/td] [td]BREAK[/td][td]5, 10[/td][td]+3:00[/td]

[td]

9​

[/td][td]

125​

[/td][td]

250​

[/td]​

[td]+3:20[/td]

[td]

10​

[/td][td]

200​

[/td][td]

400​

[/td]​

[td]+3:40[/td]

[td]

11​

[/td][td]

350​

[/td][td]

700​

[/td]​

[td]+4:00[/td]

[td]

12​

[/td][td]

600​

[/td][td]

1,200​

[/td]​

[td]+4:20[/td]

[/td]

4) my last question relates to the blinds schedule, and thats about rebuys. How do you caculate and set their amounts/stacks. For a 10 player, 3-4hr game how many would you allow and how would you manage them? Had a player exit the game pretty early and I hadnt planned for rebuys and i didnt know how to get him back into the game. The only info i could find was and what rebuys are...

 

[blackllama]

sorry about the jumbled code. It was meant to be 2 tables. they looked fine in the preview but when i posted they got scrambled. I cant seem to edit the post anymore either... past the 5 min editing window

 

[TheRealStephen12]

1. 1/2 is fine, but the next blind for consistent jumps is 1/3. Starting at 2/4, you could make the next blind 3/6, avoiding the non-2:1 BB:SB ratio. BGinGA also love lots of chips.

2. The number of chips is the most important thing when choosing a set up. Having too many small chips hinders the speed of play, while too few forces frequent change making. Having roughly 12-16 of a particular denomination works most smoothly (e.g. 15 T1s). Fewer of the large denominations are needed as players will have been eliminated by that point, leaving more for those who remain.

3. If playing with BGinGA’s T1,000 starting stack, the following should end in about 3/4 hours with 15/20 minute blind levels plus breaks, and almost certainly by 3:30/4:40 plus breaks. It plays very quickly, but it needs to in order to finish on time. If you find it necessary (though I don’t think it will be) you can shorten stacks to T800 and the tournament should still play fine.

2/4
3/6
5/10
8/16
12/24
Break - Color Up T1 - End rebuys
20/40
30/60
50/100
80/160 (or 75/150)
120/240 (or 125/250)
Break - Color Up T5 and T25
200/400
300/600 (Estimated EOT with 8K-12K)
500/1000 (Estimated EOT with 13K-20K)
800/1200
1200/2000

4. I would allow a single rebuy of T1,000 per player for the same price as the buy-in. You will probably see around 3 in any given tournament, likely no more than 5.

Hopefully all of this helps!

 

[blackllama]

Thanks for the quick reply. This is great. Fills in the gaps and lets me know im on the right track. Ok so seems like the 15/12/9/7 is fine. Its also interesting on how you can tweek the game by messing with the T100. Thats why the other breakdowns interested me and also confused me cause i didn't know what would be best for me.

Out of curiosity if you were to allow rebuys up till 2nd break how would you do it? How would you determine the rebuy cost and chips so far into the game?

 

[TheRealStephen12]

I would definitely not recommend allowing rebuys that long unless you had several hours or possibly even 2 days to run a tournament, mainly so you could have longer blind levels and smaller jumps.

If you were to go that route eventually, one way to pump a lot of extra chips is to offer a double-stack add on for the price of one buy-in, and allow unlimited standard rebuys to that point to ensure everybody can get there.

 

[MC_CPA]

Its also interesting on how you can tweek the game by messing with the T100.

With your breakdown you might also be able to play T25 if you get a few more 500s and buy some 1ks and 5ks.

8/8/4/7/2 for 25/100/500/1k/5k. You already have most of the 25s and 100s.

 

[blackllama]

hmm inseresting. Ive noticed that T25 games seem to be really popular.
Why is that? even when the chip denoms scale about the same?

A T25 set wouldnt be that hard for me to do, I have heaps of chips in the lower denoms that I figured I should try to use as much as i can. My wife might uppercut me if I buy anymore lol
200 x T1
250 x T5
100 x T25
100 x T100
50 x T500
50 x T1000
50 x T5000
========
1200 chips

based in this post by BGinGA (also great that he includes a blind structure and rebuys. So handy for a newbie).

I highly recommend the following 400-chip set for a 10-player T25-base tournament:

120 x T25
120 x T100
50 x T500
75 x T1000 (includes 15x for T25 and t100 color-ups)
35 x T5000 (includes 5x for T500 color-ups, plus 30 extras to be used for stacks > 10K and re-buys/add-ons)
--------------
400 chips

I would need to buy
20 x T25
20 x T100
0 x T500
25 x T1000
0 x T5000

So very doable this would annoyingly bring my set to 1265 chips lol. Might just pull the tirgger and get them, I'll workout where to put the other 35 chips somewhere and get rack.

But still wondering why are T25 tournaments so popular and what is the difference to T1 if the chips scale about the same?

 

[drdr]

T1 vs T5 vs T25 vs T100... to me it seems a host preference that has changed over the years, drifting larger. As long as blind structure is designed well for whichever is used there shouldn't be much difference in how the game plays. I've read some people saying they like larger denom chips because the numbers involved are larger. Maybe that makes people feel cool and baller (or something).

Possible others will chime in to say it does matter somehow.

 

[guyfleegman]

T500 sets are my favorite at this point.
Either way, with a good schedule and chip breakdown T1-T5-T-25-T100 all work just fine

 

[ekricket]

I’m waiting for someone to do a T1,000,000,000 Nigerian set

 

[allforcharity]

I’m waiting for someone to do a T1,000,000,000 Nigerian set

@grantc54 ?

 

[Natskule]

I’m waiting for someone to do a T1,000,000,000 Nigerian set

I went the other way and did a T0.05 set.

 

[tabletalker7]

I’m waiting for someone to do a T1,000,000,000 Nigerian set

I went the other way and did a T0.05 set.

There is a difference?

 

[Gus]

Been playing with some bitcoiners and we denominate in "satoshis" which is the smallest bitcoin unit, at 100,000,000 per bitcoin, or about $1 per 1000 today. When the bitcoin price isn't right around $100k the math gets very funky.

Considering how to get a legit bitcoin-denominated set made without it being too cringe...

Vintage Nigerian, Bolivian, or other hyper-inflated currency sets would be a great gag.

 

[TheRealStephen12]

Been playing with some bitcoiners and we denominate in "satoshis" which is the smallest bitcoin unit, at 100,000,000 per bitcoin, or about $1 per 1000 today. When the bitcoin price isn't right around $100k the math gets very funky.

Considering how to get a legit bitcoin-denominated set made without it being too cringe...

Vintage Nigerian, Bolivian, or other hyper-inflated currency sets would be a great gag.

Buy a tournament set, play with values represented in satoshis. If you want, denominate in scientific notation of Bitcoin instead but using the same color scheme, such as black B 1 x 10^-6 (100 satoshis), yellow as B 1 x 10^-5 (1,000 satoshis), etc.