Tourney What tourney structure maxims do you follow 100% of the time? (1 Viewer)

[Larold]

I'm curious for those of you that design and structure tournaments on a regular basis.

If you were teaching a class on how to structure tourneys to new directors, what would you introduce as the nearly inviolable rules / maxims of designing a structure? The maxims that you can't think of a valid reason for breaking unless there's some insanely unlikely factor involved? The rules that other experienced structure folks wouldn't debate you on.

 

[buzzmonkey]

This list is not complete but has some important items in it.

• Determine your desired length, but include some flexibility. Saying "I want my tournament to run 3 hours" isn't realistic. Instead, determine a realistic range. "I'd like my tourney to last 3-4 hours", or "8-10 hours"
• Determine your game and betting structure. Will it be hold 'em only? Some other game? A mixed game format on a set rotation or dealer's choice? No limit, Pot Limit, limit or a mix? Will it be heads up, six max, nine max, ten max?
• Determine if you want to have rebuys and/or add-ons or have a freezeout.
• Determine the max number of players you want to be able to play. This will likely be constrained by the amount of space you have, number of chairs and tables, and the number of chips. The primary constraint will always be the thing you have the least of.
• Determine your chip inventory. This will be one of your primary constraints for the step above so it's very important. Once you have a full count of each denomination you have you can determine what base (T5, T25, T100, etc.) you can use and what your starting stacks will be (how many big blinds each person will start with).You can have 50 chairs and 6 tables, but if you only have enough chips for 12 players, then that's going to max out your group.
• Make sure you have enough cards. You'll want at least one more deck per table than you'll have in play. So if you have one deck in play, plan to have at least two decks per table. If you'll have a second deck to be shuffled ahead or behind the dealer, you'll want at least three decks. You can then swap out a deck if one or more cards are found to be damaged or marked.
• Determine what rule set you will use. WSOP, TDA, Robert's Rules, your own home rules? Make sure they are either printed out, or available digitally for anyone to be able to view any time they may want to.
• Determine your color-up procedure. Will it be round up or race off.
• Determine your seat change procedure. Will it be random or worst position?
• Determine your table break procedure. What will the order of table break be? Will you redraw after each table break or only for the final table? Will you redraw by seating cards/chips or via a program like Tournament Director?
• How will you display the blinds clock? Are you tracking on your phone where nobody else can see or do you have a monitor or TV you'll use to display?

There are a number of threads that discuss how to actually build your structure so I won't go into my process here, but a spreadsheet application will definitely be your friend.