How can I improve this crazy tournament structure?

[Thomas Newton]

The history of this game is somewhat complex- lets say it grew rather organically amongst beginning players and leave it at that.

Total number of players - Up to 30 or so. Normally no fewer than 15.
Game - NL Holdem
Layout - tables of 5 to 8 players
Starting chips - 50 (all chips are valued at 1 unit regardless of colour)
Blinds - 1/2, 2/4, 4/8, 8/16. Raising in 15 minute levels.
Time Limit - 1 hour.

Tables of no more than 8 players play elimination tables. The top two/three players - either by elimination or size of chipstack after 1 hour - go on to play a final table of 6/8.

The final table plays the same as the elimination tables in all aspects except to last 'man' standing and blinds climb no higher than 8/16.

I'm looking for simple ways to improve this game so that it rewards player skill - I'm sure you can see that it's somewhat of a donkament in its current format.

It currently requires no supervision as players are playing self contained tables that police themselves and no players are being moved, chips are not being carried forward , things like that - I would like to retain these aspects.

Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks.

[Taso]

Why not just do it like a normal tournament?

But if you are set in your ways, you need to start with more chips. Like, at least 130 per person I'd say. That way you can actually play a pot.

[Big_Ham]

That's kind of a shootout then if you don't want to start being a "director" of sorts and re-balancing tables as needed.

You don't even need more chips, especially if you're standing pat on the 1hr time limit. I would say decrease the blind structure and make it 1/2, 2/4, 3/6, 4/8, 5/10, etc. However, I don't know how long that would make your games.

Or you could troll these boards for a "real" structure and buy some more chips and have different denominations.

All-in-all, your time limit and the fact that you don't want to manage the tournament leaves very few options to improve.

[Small Fry]

Do I understand correctly in that the final table starts over from the very beginning?

You can keep the same format but to reward "skill" you need room / time to play. This means you need to do the following: larger chip stacks, slower increase rate in the blinds - add 3/6 and 5/10, 6/12, 7/14 in the appropriate spots, and longer levels say 20 -30 minutes, preferably the latter.

Problems: This will make the game last (a lot) longer. More chips added at the same unit value means a lot more counting (at your current blind schedule even adding a chip valued at 4 would be extremely helpful. Heck once you hit the 4/8 level you could just reduce everyones stack by 75% and declare all chips are now worth 4 (everyone make stacks of 4 and take off the top 3. Your own little version of a chip up)

Having a time limit in the intial round makes it very difficult to inject a level of skill. In one hour you'll see what, maybe 40 hands. Even if you just kept the blinds at 1/2 for that whole hour you still need to get lucky to get a few good hands or pray to hit a flop with some bad ones.

[nuclear500]

Unless the folks are willing to convert, its unlikely you will improve the game. Formats like this aren't meant to showcase skill they are meant to "have fun with your buddies" and make wild an dumb drunk calls.

If people are taking this game seriously, you need to try to convince them what it means to be serious. They might not like it because people go from playing 70% of their hands to 20% and it won't be "fun" anymore with 5 people to a flop.

[Befolder]

[ QUOTE ]
Unless the folks are willing to convert

[/ QUOTE ]

I think this will be the key detractor to making drastic changes to the game. These folks are used to doing things a certain way and I imagined many of them will be afraid of change, even if good for them.

With my game, I've had to make gradual changes to the game, allowing them to get used to the 1 or 2 procedure changes, then adding more gradually. Something like that might be your only hope to morphing it to something more standard.

[pfapfap]

Here's the best way to get people to play the kind of game you want to play: run it yourself.

Really, people fear change, and frankly, if it ain't broke, why fix it? This is the game they want to play. These days I enjoy the occasional weird structure, as it forces me to think about things in a different way, which is always good for my game.

[johnnyrocket]

[ QUOTE ]
Why not just do it like a normal tournament?

But if you are set in your ways, you need to start with more chips. Like, at least 130 per person I'd say. That way you can actually play a pot.

[/ QUOTE ]

yea do it like a normal tourney would improve it

[Big_Ham]

Personally, I post up on our board how the tourney will be. i.e. starting chip count, blind lengths, buy in, time and if someone asks, I give them the blind schedule.

If you don't like it, don't come. That's my motto. You can't please everyone. If you have a tournament ... they will come.

[Gonso]

1) Buy some cheap dice chips with cheap gold stamping. Won't cost all that much. Would be a nice improvement from single denom chips.

2) Use a common blind structure, and don't put a time limit on the tourney. You can play with this somewhat if you don't wan't the game to go on all that long.

3) A good selling point is that it would improve the play of the game somewhat. If the game needs more action, speed up the rounds or start with fewer chips. If it's a crap shoot, slow them down or start with more chips.