speed of tournament observation (LC)

[EnderW27]

I've only played tournaments online on three sites. Yet I've found this equation to be quite accurate for pretty much every tournament I've entered.

Every 45 minutes, the # of players in a tournament halves.

For instances, I'm in a tournament right now that started with 188 players about 2.5 playing hours ago.

That's more than 3x the 45 blocks.

188/2 = 94
94/2 = 47
47/2 = 24

We're on the bubble right now with 19 players.

It breaks down a bit after you get in the money and at the FT, but the start of tournaments, no matter how large the field or the buy-, usually follows along this general trend.

I have no idea what applications this has, but it's just something I've observed and thought I'd share.

[Tom Bayes]

This is more or less accurate for the majority of freezeout NLHEs that I've played. Obviously this formula doesn't work for stuff like rebuys, deep stacks, turbos, or limit events, but each type of tournament probably has its own "halfing time". If you really want to see a tournament with a short "halfing time", check out a low buy-in PLO or turbo NLHE. The $0.10 turbos on Stars probably have a halfing time of about 15-20 minutes.

[seke2]

Is 45 mins consistent regardless of how long blind levels last? I mean, if you are playing in a tournament with 20 or 30 min blind levels instead of 15 min blind levels, does this still hold true?

[NHFunkii]

no.

[EnderW27]

Probably not, but I've played in ones lasting from 10-20 minutes and there usually aren't that many longer lasting blind levels online.

Usually you get in the first 45 minutes the "double up or go home" crowd. They think risking it all to score a few thousand chips at 15/30 blinds will earn them a spot at the FT. Usually they're out in 99999th place.
Then in the second 45 minutes you get the middle to lower stacks. "Too far from the bubble and blinds to low to steal" They refuse to make a move and get blinded to death.
Then in the third 45 minutes the bubble looms ever near and it's a race to see who can claw themselves up the pile to a reasonable M and survive two crappy rounds of cards.

Yup, tournaments in a nutshell.

[reecelights]

Sunday 750k on Party

2900 to start, 1900 1:15 in. Longer levels affect halving time. 3-4 blind levels may be a more accurate assesment of halving time.