What kind of tourney structure do you guys use?

[DrMcNasty]

I also recommend trying to convince them of going for a cash game. In an earlier thread I complained about not convincing my friends to play a cash game. I finally turned the tables by doing two things:

1. Picking on guys who busted out early from the tournament, reminding them if it was a cash game then they wouldnt have to wait an hour or more for another game.

2. Setting up the cash blinds to promote the same buy-in as a tournament.

The key is that you play as long as you'd like, don't have to fool with timers, and even if your friends bust early, they are no worse off than a tournament.

[PantsOnFire]

We use the WSOP Main Event structure with 25 minute levels and no antes. An 18-man tourney last about 5-6 hours.

Chips:

25-12
100-12
500-7
1000-5

http://www.homepokertourney.com/blinds-wsop.htm

[BrianBigNFun]

2 hours for a live game is way too short if you ask me- all in fest rather quickly.

we start at 50K in chips and have 100/200 blinds to start

every 20-25 minutes (depending on # of people) we raise the blinds

100/200
200/400
300/600
400/800
500/1000

(break color/up)
1000/2000
2000/4000
3000/6000
4000/8000
5000/10K
10K/20K
etc

[philr]

We follow the DIYpokertour.com model for 10000 starting chips ( http://www.diypokertour.com/pokertou...&tabid=120 )

[Spike Forehand]

We play once a month, and rotate through three different kinds of tourney once per quarter.

For the 1st month of a quarter, we play a NLHE rebuy event, the second month we play two turbo tournies (the second of which is an alternate game like PLO or Pineapple or something - different every quarter), and the third month we play a Deep stack NLHE freeze-out.

Structures are shown below. We've honed it over the last couple of years and everyone seems to think it's OK. We start at 8PM usually finish up somewhere between 12:30-1:30 depending on how many show up (varies between 8-16 with two tables going if more than 10).

Someone else commented about the big pots in a rebuy structure. I can vouch for that - we always get our biggest pots of the year during the $20 rebuy events. Much easier to get the players to shell out 60 or 80 one bill at a time, whereas they may not want to play "that big" if we did a 60 or 80 buy-in event.

In December, we have our big Championship event, where we have a nice dinner and give the points leader after the event a trophy. In that we play an even deeper stack and slower structure for tons of play.

Good Luck

- Spike

Rebuy Event
$20 for T1000
$10 or $20 half or full rebuys for 1st 5 levels for T500 or T1000 (Must have less than T500 to rebuy)
$10 or $20 half or full add-on for T600 or T1200 just before the start of Level 6
25 minute levels

Turbo's
$30 for T1500
15 minute levels (10 when down to 4 players)

Deep Stack
$40 for T3000
25 minute levels (15 when down to 5 players)

December Championship Event
$50 for T5000
30 minute levels (this one starts earlier)

Levels
10/10
10/20
20/40
30/60
40/80
60/120
Break/Add-ons (rebuy event only)
80/160
100/200
150/300
200/400
250/500
300/600
400/800
- Tourneys are usually over around here.
500/1000
750/1500

[pacino]

[ QUOTE ]
2 hours for a live game is way too short if you ask me- all in fest rather quickly.

we start at 50K in chips and have 100/200 blinds to start

every 20-25 minutes (depending on # of people) we raise the blinds

100/200
200/400
300/600
400/800
500/1000

(break color/up)
1000/2000
2000/4000
3000/6000
4000/8000
5000/10K
10K/20K
etc

[/ QUOTE ]
I must say that this is a pretty good game, and works well with anywhere from 10-30 players. When you get closer to 30 the final table basically becomes like a turbo SNG, so knowing how to play those really come in handy.