What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?
 

Whats the structure that you use in your home game? (ie. starting chips, blind levels, time or elimination, etc.)

With about a 7-9 man tourney, I want it to last around 2 hours (so we can get in at least 2 games for the night), but still have lots of play available. In this situation, there will be 2 dealers so the hands can be dealt twice as fast. I just want to get an idea of what setup you guys use.

btw, I searched, didnt find much.

Thanks.

Re: What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?
 

I host a game, usually 8 or 9 players, and we get in two games, usually, within 4 hours. I start the blinds at 25/50, give everyone T3000, blinds increase every 15 minutes. I will post the blind levels below. It is not very deep, and some players complain about that. In the first game, the final two players usually chop the prize pool instead of play it out because everyone is waiting to start game two.

Good luck.

Here is my blind structure:

25/50
50/100
75/100
100/200
150/300
200/400
300/600
400/800 (the 2 hr mark)
600/1200
800/1600
1000/2000

Re: What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?
 

[ QUOTE ]

25/50
50/100
75/100
100/200
150/300
200/400
300/600
400/800 (the 2 hr mark)
600/1200
800/1600
1000/2000

[/ QUOTE ]

I use the same blind structure, but with T10k starting chips and 20min periods.

Re: What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?
 

[ QUOTE ]
I use the same blind structure, but with T10k starting chips and 20min periods

[/ QUOTE ]

I do as well when we want to play a deep stack tourney. How long does it take for you to play a 9 or 10 player tourney with that structure? Or do you play MTT? I would expect a 9 player tourney to last about 4 hours with that structure.

Re: What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?
 

I like a juicy tournament, and to get the rich fish into cash game mentality. To that end, I have unlimited rebuys for the first four rounds, when you're at starting stack or less (meaning you can do double-buys). After that, there's an add-on. It's glorious. Everyone has a couple of hours to warm up, then there's a reasonable prize worth fighting for.

Buyin - $20 for T2000
Rebuy - $20 for T2000
Addon - $20 for T3000

25 minute rounds

20/20
20/40
40/80
60/120

Rebuys end, addons bought.

20/100/200
40/200/400
60/300/600
80/400/800
100/600/1200
200/800/1600

At this point, rounds become 20 minutes. Gotta end at some point.

300/1000/2000
500/1500/3000
1000/2500/5000

...and so on. We rarely get past this level. With breaks and dinner and reseating and colorups and and all of that, it tends to take 6 1/2 hours to determine a winner, with most busing out after 3 or 4 hours. We tend to have 25 people, give or take.

I like the idea of a couple quickie turbo tournaments, but for my once-a-month affairs, I want it to be something special. This structure is nice because it boils the frog a little at a time, and before you know it, button soup.

Re: What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?
 

Assuming it's NLHE

For T1500

25/50
50/100
75/150
100/200

2 hr mark w/ 30 minute levels

With 300 in blind money it isn't likely it goes much longer if it's still going. After that it really depends on how committed you are to not going much more than 2 hours. You could easily go 250/500 for the next level and then 500/1000 for the level after that which would virtually guarantee it doesn't hit the 3 hour mark.

That's the poker stars structure for the first two hours minus the first couple levels but at triple the regular time. Not the most play in the world, but for two hours and live it's about the best you can do. I like something like this more than giving people a ton of chips relative to the first blind but then upping them every 10 minutes or something ridiculous. In live play sometimes that's only a hand or two. Which reminds me, I hate guys that hollywood at home games and take 5 minutes to decide to lay it down and flash bottom pair.

Re: What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?
 

Our home game lasts almost EXACTLY 2 hours and plays great. we start with 2500 in chips 12 black (100s) 12 green (25s) and 2 purps (500s). blind structure is very standard.

15 min blinds

25/50
50/100
150/300
200/400 (take off greens)
300/600
400/800
500/1000 (take off blacks)
1000/2000

p.s. u also should make a baller poker table if you havnt already [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/321/tablepc1.jpg

Re: What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?
 

I also suggest trying to mix in a cash game now and again. We mixed in a low staked deep stacked cash game and half NLH half PLO and people are loving it. It is my opinion that when you have alot of time like 4 hours+ that a cash game creates a much better vibe then a tournament does. We normally only play a SNG now when we are pressed for time.

We like to play for low stakes in our games because we are all friends and the games are competitive no matter what. We normally play $10 SNG's and the cash game we play is .10c/.20c. People buy in normally between $20 and $40. The action is much hotter in the cash game because no one fears being knocked out or whatever. I know .10/.20c sounds very small but after people start straddling and rebuying you can have a nice night in that game.

Re: What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?
 

The thing I don't like about using 15 minute rounds, especially when you're 9 handed, is you don't even get a full time around the table per blind level. That just doesn't seem fair.

Re: What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?
 

good point but you have to make some sacrifices if you want to have a 2hour game. This is yet another reason I prefer cash games to donkaments

Re: What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?
 

We just started a new structure at 1 of our home games. Have 8 regulars and we made this into a year long tourney where you accumulate points and the final tourney starts with your average times a certain amount(ex. 17 pt avg. x 20,000) since we do rebuys and add ons.

1st - 20 pts
2nd - 17 pts
3rd - 14 pts
4th - 12 pts
5th - 10 pts
6th - 8 pts
7th - 7 pts
8th - 6 pts and we also give 2 pts for HH.

Buy in - $20 for 10k , HH - $5 Rebuys/Addons - $10 for 10k, allowed 1 rebuy when busted and another when under 5k in chips in the 1st 2 hours. with 15 minute levels and we use 2/3 decks so we are able to get around at least once at every level in the beginning.

Structure
25/50
50/100
75/150
100/200 (clear 25 after)
150/300
200/400
300/600
300/600/50 (end of rebuy period)
----------------------------------
400/800/50 (clear 50 after)
500/1000/100
600/1200/100
700/1400/200
800/1600/200
1000/2000/300
1200/2400/300
1500/3000/400
2000/4000/400 (clear 100 after)
2500/5000/500
3000/6000/500
3500/7000/500
4000/8000/500
4500/9000/500 (clear 500 after)
5000/10000/1000
6000/12000/1000
7000/14000/1000
8000/16000/1000
10000/20000/2000

Usually takes about 5 hours to play and very seldom get passed the 5000/10000 level

After 2 weeks already we have over $200 in end of year tourney where top 3 players for the year will get some money and everyone will get money for the final tourney and we will have a nice feast of food for this event. Plan is to play 26 times for the year so should have over 2500 to pay out at the end.

Re: What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?
 

sorry also forgot to say how we get money into prize pool. $5 for tourney is paid every week you play for 20 weeks, half of our rebuys and add-ons go to the end of year, so we still end up playing for about 300-325 each week with another 100 going to end of year tourney.

Re: What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I use the same blind structure, but with T10k starting chips and 20min periods

[/ QUOTE ]

I do as well when we want to play a deep stack tourney. How long does it take for you to play a 9 or 10 player tourney with that structure? Or do you play MTT? I would expect a 9 player tourney to last about 4 hours with that structure.

[/ QUOTE ]

Unfortunatly, we're usually only about 5-6 players as I have been forced to stop inviting a few obnoxious ppl I've gotten fed up with. It usually lasts 3-4 hours

Re: What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?
 

My league's tourneys last 1.5-2 hours with 8 players, and we use the same structure they use for the cheap tourneys at our local casino.

Starting Chips: T1500
15 minute blind levels:
25/25
25/50
50/100
100/200
300/600
400/800
500/1000
600/1200
1000/2000

Keep in mind that this will be a total crap-shoot and there will be very little skill involved. I use this structure because:

1. Most of the people in my league aren't willing to buy in to the more expensive tourneys at our casinos that have a better structure.
2. It gives players practice for the casino donkaments if they decide to play in them.

As players in the league build their bankrolls, I'll change the structure to match an bigger buy in tourney at our local casino.

Re: What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?
 

Start with 8x 25, 8x 100, 3x 500 for
T2500



25/25
25/50
50/100
75/150
100/200 (run off 25s)
150/300
300/600 (run off 100s)
500/1000

Note: This is for usually a 4-8 player game.

Re: What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?
 

This is similar to the Thursday night donkaments I play with the guys from work. Depending on how fast everybody wants to play, we'll play either 5 minute blinds or 7 or 7.5 minute blinds. 5 minute blinds has the game run a little more than an hour at most. 7.5 minute blinds put it right at 90 minutes. That's about as long as most of them can tolerate. I deal to keep the action moving with the button shuffling the other deck for me.

Start with T2000 (20x5, 10x25, 5x50, 4x100, 1x1000), and rebuys available until the color-up (end of fourth level for the same amount of starting chips). Number of rebuys per player are usually decided by consensus before things start with one or two being typical. I once tried doing a second color-up to remove the 100s at the end of the eighth level, but it slowed things down too much for everyone, so we dropped it.

Blinds:
5/10
10/20
25/50
50/100
Color-up
100/200
200/400
400/800
500/1000
1000/2000
2000/4000
4000/8000
5000/10000

Re: What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?
 

12 Minute blinds - 1500 Starting Stack 10x5 10 x25 7x100 1x500
Takes 2 Hours Appx

5/10
10/20
15/30
Color-up
25/50
75/150
100/200
150/300
color up
200/400
300/600
400/800
The Following blinds are rarely seen
500/1000
800/1600

Re: What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?
 

I like a slow deepstack tourney. I give everybody 10k stacks and have 25min blinds levels. The levels:

25-50
50-100
75-150
100-200
150-300
200-400
300-600
400-800
500-1000
600-1200
800-1600
1000-2000
1200-2400
1500-3000
2000-4000
2500-5000
3000-6000
4000-8000
5000-10000
6000-12000
8000-16000
10000-20000

We use 2 decks of cards per table. A Single table tournament lasts about 4,5 hours, and a tournament of 24 players lasts about 6 hours.

I host these tournaments with 24 players max, so we can start at 3 tables of 8 players, move to 2 of 9 and finally 10 at the final table. This gives me some breathing room, and I can easily host these tournaments and play in them at the same time.

About the structure: at first the blinds double every 2 levels, and when it's pretty much allin preflop the blinds double every 3 levels. I do this to not have the final table become a crapshoot.

About the absence of antes: I think antes are great, but having antes and having everybody deal themselves doesn't combine that well in my opinion.

Re: What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?
 

SB BB Ante Time
1 50 100 0 20
2 100 200 0 20
3 150 300 50 20
4 200 400 50 20
Color Up 25 chips/15 Min Break
5 300 600 100 20
6 400 800 100 20
7 500 1000 200 20
8 600 1200 200 20
9 800 1600 300 20
10 1000 2000 300 20
Color Up 100 Chips/15 Min Break
11 1500 3000 500 20
12 2000 4000 500 20
13 3000 6000 1000 20
14 4000 8000 1000 20
15 5000 10000 1000 20


Start with 20k in chips, times can be 20-30 depending on when we want to start.

Cody

Re: What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?
 

[ QUOTE ]
want it to last around 2 hours (so we can get in at least 2 games for the night), but still have lots of play available.

[/ QUOTE ]

sounds like an oxymoron to me. Pick one goal or another, you can't really have both unless you enjoy pushfests at the end.

Re: What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?
 

I also recommend trying to convince them of going for a cash game. In an earlier thread I complained about not convincing my friends to play a cash game. I finally turned the tables by doing two things:

1. Picking on guys who busted out early from the tournament, reminding them if it was a cash game then they wouldnt have to wait an hour or more for another game.

2. Setting up the cash blinds to promote the same buy-in as a tournament.

The key is that you play as long as you'd like, don't have to fool with timers, and even if your friends bust early, they are no worse off than a tournament.

Re: What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?
 

We use the WSOP Main Event structure with 25 minute levels and no antes. An 18-man tourney last about 5-6 hours.

Chips:

25-12
100-12
500-7
1000-5

http://www.homepokertourney.com/blinds-wsop.htm

Re: What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?
 

2 hours for a live game is way too short if you ask me- all in fest rather quickly.

we start at 50K in chips and have 100/200 blinds to start

every 20-25 minutes (depending on # of people) we raise the blinds

100/200
200/400
300/600
400/800
500/1000

(break color/up)
1000/2000
2000/4000
3000/6000
4000/8000
5000/10K
10K/20K
etc

Re: What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?
 

We follow the DIYpokertour.com model for 10000 starting chips ( http://www.diypokertour.com/pokertou...&tabid=120 )

Re: What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?
 

We play once a month, and rotate through three different kinds of tourney once per quarter.

For the 1st month of a quarter, we play a NLHE rebuy event, the second month we play two turbo tournies (the second of which is an alternate game like PLO or Pineapple or something - different every quarter), and the third month we play a Deep stack NLHE freeze-out.

Structures are shown below. We've honed it over the last couple of years and everyone seems to think it's OK. We start at 8PM usually finish up somewhere between 12:30-1:30 depending on how many show up (varies between 8-16 with two tables going if more than 10).

Someone else commented about the big pots in a rebuy structure. I can vouch for that - we always get our biggest pots of the year during the $20 rebuy events. Much easier to get the players to shell out 60 or 80 one bill at a time, whereas they may not want to play "that big" if we did a 60 or 80 buy-in event.

In December, we have our big Championship event, where we have a nice dinner and give the points leader after the event a trophy. In that we play an even deeper stack and slower structure for tons of play.

Good Luck

- Spike

Rebuy Event
$20 for T1000
$10 or $20 half or full rebuys for 1st 5 levels for T500 or T1000 (Must have less than T500 to rebuy)
$10 or $20 half or full add-on for T600 or T1200 just before the start of Level 6
25 minute levels

Turbo's
$30 for T1500
15 minute levels (10 when down to 4 players)

Deep Stack
$40 for T3000
25 minute levels (15 when down to 5 players)

December Championship Event
$50 for T5000
30 minute levels (this one starts earlier)

Levels
10/10
10/20
20/40
30/60
40/80
60/120
Break/Add-ons (rebuy event only)
80/160
100/200
150/300
200/400
250/500
300/600
400/800
- Tourneys are usually over around here.
500/1000
750/1500

Re: What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?
 

[ QUOTE ]
2 hours for a live game is way too short if you ask me- all in fest rather quickly.

we start at 50K in chips and have 100/200 blinds to start

every 20-25 minutes (depending on # of people) we raise the blinds

100/200
200/400
300/600
400/800
500/1000

(break color/up)
1000/2000
2000/4000
3000/6000
4000/8000
5000/10K
10K/20K
etc

[/ QUOTE ]
I must say that this is a pretty good game, and works well with anywhere from 10-30 players. When you get closer to 30 the final table basically becomes like a turbo SNG, so knowing how to play those really come in handy.