What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?

[Jw513]

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.

[EasilyFound]

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

[98Suited]

[ 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.

[EasilyFound]

[ 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.

[pfapfap]

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.

[deucethree]

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.

[XxGeneralxX]

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]

[XxGeneralxX]

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.

[deucethree]

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.

[XxGeneralxX]

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