Tourney What are some fun NLHE Tournament Tweaks? (1 Viewer)

[Preditor]

We also shake things up with different bonuses. This year we have a game on Star Wars Day - May the Fourth (be with you). Each player will select a character (Rebel or Empire). When there is only one side remaining, the whole team splits the prize pool that is set aside (probably $100). Knock out a teammate, more money for you. Knock out the opposition, the closer you are to getting paid.

This is the inventive content I was hoping for when I posted this thread! Amazing.

 

[buffalojim]

We always do a high hand. Typically a $40 buy in, $5 for bounty and $5 towards high hand. My players like both the bounty and high hand.

 

[Max D]

Bonuses
- $45 (2 tables) per game (TD discretion)
- $5 - Aces Cracked: Getting beat when you have pocket Aces
- $5 - King Cracked: Getting beat when you have pocket Kings
- $5 - Queens Cracked: Getting beat when you have pocket Queens
- $5 - Quads Cracked: Getting Quads beat when you have a pocket pair that completed quads
- $10 - The Worst Starting Hand: Bluff: Winning a hand with 7-2 off-suit in the hole
- $10 - The Computer Hand: Winning a hand with Q-7 off suit in the hole
- $10 - Doyle Brunson: Winning a hand with 10♠ 2♠ in the hole
- $5 - To the big stack at first break (cannot have rebought)

 

[ekricket]

I want to do a Heads-Up tournament, but if the shootout was not greatly received, I imagine HU would be even less appreciated.

I’ve done these before. One caveat - shit tons of shuffling. If you have people that hate shuffling or can’t shuffle they will hate this format.

 

[CSW]

I neglected to mention the kind of bonuses that some of these recent posts have mentioned. During our April game, we celebrate April Fools by playing the 7-2 game (bonus if you win a hand with 7-2).

We did something similar with T-2 when Doyle Brunson passed.

We also sometimes run a double bounty on the winner of the previous tournament.

This is one format that I’ll never understand. Why would you want to play in a tournament where you’re not playing half the time?
To try to answer my own question, I guess it would work if it was part of a larger social even, so you can mingle with the wives or play bocce or something, when you’re not playing. But then my question becomes why would you want to squeeze poker into a larger social event?

Our group had fun with the tag team event for a few reasons. First, my game has a pretty large player base (25-30 players), but most of them are very casual. They come in part because we make it a fun social atmosphere (themed food, music, etc.). In fact, my players enjoy chatting on the breaks and color ups so much that it is sometimes hard to get them back to the table. So, they really enjoyed the format that allowed half of the group to chat, spectate, etc. while the other half were playing.

We also structured the event to create a bit of a strategic element. We allowed teams to swap players out at blind increases and we required each teammate to play at least one out of every three levels. Some teams (mostly the teams that were equally skilled) swapped every level (or every two levels). Other teams played their better player as much as possible (two levels on, one level off). Other teams seemed to take other factors into consideration, especially as blinds got high and/or tables got shorthanded. Some players are more skilled at short-stack play, some are more or less comfortable shorthanded, some match up better against different playing styles or skill levels, etc.

We also introduced a limited number of “talk it over” chips; use one of your chips and you could discuss a hand in progress with your teammate before making a decision. It was interesting to see how people took advantage of those opportunities, and they seemed to enjoy the idea.

Whatever the reason, this ended up being one of our liveliest events with people seeming to have a lot of fun with the different elements.

 

[Racer96]

In the league that @T_Chan runs, we have done a doubles tournament a few times now. Everyone gets a random partner (our league generally has about 28 players each night), and EVERYONE gets assigned a seat. At the blind level increase, you and your partner switch seats (leaving the stacks in the same spot). For this event, each team was given a Rebuy/add-on chip. If someone busted out before the break (about 2 hours in), the team had the option to use the rebuy chip for that spot. At the break, any teams that still had their rebuy chip could turn it in for an add-on (usually the starting stack, may have been slightly more), and they could choose how they wanted to disperse the add-on between their two stacks.

It's always a lot of fun. The one issue is that at every blind level change, there is a "mini" break, because everyone has to get up and change seats. The first few times we ran this event, it made the night go extremely long. We have become more militant about getting everyone into their seats right away though, and it kept things more under control.

I am REALLY intrigued by @Poker Zombie 's star wars game though. Sounds like a really cool concept. I might even like to see it broken down to 3 or 4 teams competing for the prize.

Mike

 

[Poker Zombie]

I am REALLY intrigued by @Poker Zombie 's star wars game though. Sounds like a really cool concept. I might even like to see it broken down to 3 or 4 teams competing for the prize.

I had originally thought about 3 teams. Rebels (Luke, Leia, etc), Empire (Vader, Sith lords), and independent (Jabba, Boba Fett). Players would initially get Rebel or Empire, and rebuys would all be independent.

Then after binge-watching the entire series, I noticed a repeated theme: Person who should be killed, only lost a hand (A thug in the cantina, Luke, The snow creature on Hoth, C3PO, Vader, Mace Windu, Count Dooku... the list goes on. So I decided that a rebuy keeps you alive, and on the same team.

I had also contemplated that knocking out a "teammate" would mean you crossed over to the other team. Star Wars is full of defections, so this would play into the theme. From a hosting point of view I decided that it was not in my best interest to try to keep up with all the defections, especially when the tournament gets down to the crunch levels where players hovering around starting stack all night get swallowed by the blinds.

So I decided to keep with the simple theme. I will report on the results on May 5th (if I'm hungover, it would be the 7th).