Shotgun Tourney

[Sir Folds A Lot]

Greetings all, I am looking to host a game this weekend that has a few extras. My crew and I have been playing sng tourneys all summer, and it is time to put some spice into the game, so I am going to try a new format or two. Please advise me of any problems I may come across, so I can deal with them before they happen.
The first tourney wil be a shotgun format. I expect about 16-20 players, so I'd have 4 tables of 4-5 players. Each table plays down to two. Then, I'll divide those players into two tables of 4 who will play down to two as well. I will divide those first round winners evenly, two high stacks and two low stacks to each table. The second round will be like the first, play down to two. The remaining 4 players will play down to a winner in round 3.

The second game will be a regular SNG, but I am going to try and introduce the idea of bounties. Our tourneys are usually $10 buy ins, but this game will be $15 and each will receive a bounty button. When someone knocks out a player, they get that player's button. If you have other people's buttons when you are knocked out, you only surrender your button and can cash in the other bounties.

[pfapfap]

I like mixing up the tournament idea. I've done it several times, and people like it. Question, tho'... in the shotgun tournament, what happens if a table is three handed and two people get eliminated at once? Why not just have a standard shootout?

[Dalek]

Would the bounty vary from person to person? This would make it more interesting but may offend people.

Shotgun idea seems interesting but i would have the last four players play to a winner instead of two heads up matches. If you do have two heads up matches i'd choose the players randomly rather than two high stacks/two low stacks.

[Small Fry]

Only drawback to shotgun style is the potential wait. What happens when one table is done and the other tables still have 3,4 or even 5 players left. I've only done this once and had guys waiting like 45 minutes for a table to finish so we could get to the final table.

I assume the bounty pays $5 per button. They're fun and I don't forsee any problems. Nice thing about this is if you can knock out 3 players you're freerolling from then on.

some other things you might try are (or maybe you have): rebuys, add-ons, Heads up (you could do this and then another tourney after. Single elimination of course)(Nice thing about this is starting with 16, 8 guys go out in first round. Immediate side game possibility), Bounties on specific players (money would need to come from prize pool), mixed games

[pfapfap]

I tried doing a heads-up tourney thing once, but 14 people arrived, and I wasn't ready to handle that.

Anyway, regarding handling how the shootout thing will work... why not spread it out over a month in tandem with cash games? Have five guys play every week, then after four weeks, final table of four. When people bust, they just move over to the cash game table. That might add some excitement as the weeks wear on and previous winners/losers razz the existing players.

[Sir Folds A Lot]

[ QUOTE ]
Question, tho'... in the shotgun tournament, what happens if a table is three handed and two people get eliminated at once? Why not just have a standard shootout?

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If there is a double bust, then I would say there would be no short stack drawing from that table. There would be one less person in the next round. Tie breaker rules don't really apply because this is not about where someone places in the money, but how many chips left over. To be honest I don't see much waiting around time. I have 20 player tournies regularly and the "losers" always get a side game going once 5 or 6 have gone out. The same thing would happen here, but with more tables and less people at each table, I don't see much waiting time at all. I kind of think this game will go less than 2 hours.
The structure would have players playing at different tables. After round 1, all the short stacks from the odd tables would go to the even table and the short stacks from the even tables would go to the odd table, so at each table in rd 2 will have two big stacks and two small stacks. That way no one will have played with eachother in previous rounds. The final round will just have the 4 remaining players.

The bounties will be the same for everyone. Everyone has a five dollar chip, so as Pfap says, you knock three people out and you're freerolling. I am doing the bounties this way because it seems like the best way to do them, and my crew has never played in a bounty game, so it has to be introduced and I thought this way to be the best. I am kind of excited about this game.

I don't like heads up tourneys to be honest. I'd love to try and introduce Omaha, but my crew is stuck on no limit hold em. The next "change up" I do will probably be a pot limit game. I did have something like a shootout, but I called it a Tourney Of Champions and took the winner of each MTT of a span of 10 tournies and had them shoot for the 25% I took from each of the ten games. It went very well and I will do it again. It was kind of the inspiration for doing this, that and about two years of the same game with the exception of the TOC.

[Sir Folds A Lot]

[ QUOTE ]
Would the bounty vary from person to person? This would make it more interesting but may offend people.

Shotgun idea seems interesting but i would have the last four players play to a winner instead of two heads up matches. If you do have two heads up matches i'd choose the players randomly rather than two high stacks/two low stacks.

[/ QUOTE ]

The bounties are the same for all. I don't really dig many of the other bounty style games.

The shotgun doesn't make the last 4 go into two heads up games. They, the final 4, meet at the final table. In round two, there will be 8 players at two tables, so the game is mainly made of tables of 4. It is not a head up game, but close. Players can play more hands than normal because the tables will be more short handed. I am thinking an aggressive player would do better in this instance because there is less of a chance to call bluffs. People will probably play as tight as when they are at a 10 handed game and probably the same range of cards.

[Small Fry]

Total shootout lasting less then two hours? Thats fast, for what I'm used to. My tourneys typically last 7 hours (24 players)Shootout lasted that long too. It was 21 players, 3 tables. Top 3 from each table went to final table. One table looked like it was going to be done real fast but then it tightened up and took about 30 minutes longer than the other two.

The problem with the waiting and side game is as such. You start with four tables. Two have finished which means you'll have 8 guys done. Good for a side game. But 4 of these guys will move on to the next round. If you're side game is cash and they want to play in it for 10, 20 or however many minutes then great. They don't know how long they have as they don't know how long till the other tables are done. If the 4 losers want to play a side tournament then the winners can't really get involved. This potential problem pops up again at the end of the next round. But if the whole thing is going to last 2 hours then you're correct about there not being much wait time.

Give it a shot and let us know how it goes.

[Sir Folds A Lot]

Well, the tourney was this weekend and everyone showed up excited about the new formats. The bad thing was only 11 showed up. One of the worst turn outs ever. I'll give it a try again later.

[pfapfap]

Ah, that sucks. How many do you usually get? Is this weekly?

Tho' for some folks I know, 11 is a lot. I remember after I had a spike, I did a slight decline and was bummed for a bit, until I realized that it was still way more than I had a year ago, and has held steady.