Heads Up Tourney - Ever hold one?

[Small Fry]

Anybody ever hold a Heads Up Tourney? Any advice? Good points? Any words of wisdom for those of use thinking of doing it?

Thanks,

Pat

[Lottery Larry]

Yep, we have one every year.

- Have a round robin or multiple first-level structure for the preliminary rounds. Don't do the NBC single-elimination; there's too much luck involved.

- One thing I started doing is paying $5 for each preliminary win ($50 to buy-in). That spreads a little money around.

- Have plans for a playoff match systerm, if you can't narrow down the field during the early rounds to the proper number. Don't be afraid to let some players (undefeated and zero win players) play less matches- if someone is 0-3, playing for a meaningless win is pointless.

- The above is especially true if you end up with an odd number of players. Have a plan on how to deal with that as well.

[Small Fry]

Thanks for the tips. Should have known I'd get a response from you and just pm'd you.....lol

Do you play 2-3 games on one table? Two decks so each player is actually a dealer in turn?

What about length of matches? My thoughts: T1000 with 15 minute levels. Blinds go 5/10, 10/20, 15/30, 25/50, 50/100, 75/150, 100/200, 150/300, 200/400, 300/600, etc. For simplicity I would restart at every level rather than carrying the winnings to the next level and have ever increasing blinds.

My thoughts we're also leaning toward a double elimination so everybody is guaranteed two games. I'm hoping to get exactly 16 (not going to hold my breath) and I googled for tournament ladders to get the structure. Found a good site providing ladders for 3- 300? of double/single elim. I like the round robin but I think it would take too long with 16 players.

Pat

[snoopdawg]

I've had 2 heads up tournaments. Both followed this structure pretty much:
-7 games of round robin. I found my schedules on www.crowsdarts.com . I've found that 7 games produces slightly less ties (although that is almost def. inaccurate).
- All rounds last ~25 minutes. Start with t500 at the beginning of each round. 10-20 for 10 minutes. 25-50 for 10 minutes. 50-100 for 5 minutes. After that it is AI every hand until a winner is found (although I think a better way would be whoever is winning after 25 minutes. FWIW 95% of matches finished in under 22 or so).
-Top 4 records advance to finals. For tie breakers (happened both times), we would add up all of your opponents records to determine your tie-breaker score (so the person with the "harder" bracket advances).
-Seeding was also based on the "harder schedule" principal; if there were two 6-1's and two 5-2's, the 6-1 with the harder schedule would play the 5-2 with the easier schedule and vise versa.
-These 4 players play in a single elimination setup, with the losers of the 1st matches playing each other for 3rd and 4th. Probably a good idea to give t1000 for the playoffs.
-We pay 40% for 1st, 30% for 2nd, 20% for 3rd, 10% for 4th.

Some basic info:
-The # of people playing were 32 and 28, respectively.
-Although the blinds schedule may look like a crapshoot, bot h times you could guess the winner correctly for 70% of the matches. There was definatly an edge against less experienced players.
-When players arrived, they payed and signed in on a sheet. The numbers on the sheet were randomized. That way, nobody complained about how the seeding was "fixed".
-There were 2 games going per 6 ft table and 3 games per 8 ft table (though that was pretty crowded).
-1 deck per game. Chips never left their table.
-Both tournaments took about 4 hours from when everyone was told to "take their seats."