Double Elimination Heads Up Tourney Question

[DiggerDog]

My search of the forums came up snake eyes so please forgive me if there is a thread already covering this topic.

I've been hosting a NLHE tourney once a month for about 2 years with many of the same people playing each month. The pool of players is usually somewhere between 10 and 15 and the gang has decided that they'd like to shake things up a bit. I suggested that we try a double elimination heads up tournament. Everyone thought that sounded like a good time and so the question that I pose here is:

What would be a few suggested structures for said tournament?

Our regular tourney usually lasts about 4-5 hours and I'd like to have a heads up structure that will give each player at least an hour of play before the blind schedule forces players to make all in or fold decisions. I was thinking about starting each game with T1000 but I'm wide open to suggestions.

Thanks in advance for the input.

[pfapfap]

All I can say is, make sure you don't have 14 people.

I hope someone has good ideas on this, as this is something of interest to my group, too.

Also, how do you sucker people into being the auto-shufflers?

[Lottery Larry]

T5000 or T3000 if you want to push it faster. 20 minute rounds.

(1) Round 1- 25/50
(2) Round 2- 50/100
(3) Round 3- 75/150
(4) Round 4- 100/200
(5) Round 5- 200/400
(6) Round 6- 300/600
(7) Round 7- 500/1000
(8) Round 8- 1000/2000

[Small Fry]

I did T1000 with the following blinds:

5/10
10/20
15/30
25/50
50/100
100/200

Each round lasted 15 minutes and most matches lasted about an hour. It's hard to tell because alot depends on the cards. For example I went out at about the 20 minute mark when my FH lost to Quads. But overall you play a lot more because your involved in every hand. And even if you fold the next hand is immediate instead of waiting for it to be played out like when you're at a full table

Every group had two decks which each person shuffled and used one so there was no need for an actual button. The guy dealing is the dealer - doesn't get any more obvious. And the dealer puts out the small blind and acts first preflop.

So if you get 16 people this game should last about 6 hours (mine went for 7). Less than 16 players you're going to have some bye's and guys waiting around. I had 16 scheduled but had 1 no show so I auctioned off the bye and put the extra money in the prize pool

Here's the bad part about double elim. The loser round has one more level than the winner round and it starts out one round later. It not as confusing as it sounds but the bottom line is if you play all the levels at the same time the final winner will need to wait for two rounds before he gets to play the final loser for the final match. This means he could sit for two hours waiting. My solution was to have the winner bracket sit out immediately while the losers played their first round just to split up the dead time. They got a side game going of their own little turbo sit and go basically.

My tables are 84" x 42" and I could fit three matches.

I assume you regular tourneys have rebuys but if they don't then I'd go with single elim. They're used to being out if the bust out already so that'll be the same. You could easily extend the blind times to 20-25 minutes so everyone gets about 1.5 hours of play

It was fun but I probably won't do it again as I don't like to have people waiting around, although they didn't seem to mind much.

Here's a few other ideas. Try playing limit instead of NL. Or try playing some version of HORSE. Pick whatever games you like / want - Like just HO for example. Or you could even just play an entirely different game - Like a 7 stud tourney.

Good luck

ps. Check out this for some more info http://www.homepokertourney.com/heads-up.htm and at the bottom are some links for brackets. I like the third link (second free one)

[Small Fry]

[ QUOTE ]
T5000 or T3000 if you want to push it faster. 20 minute rounds.

(1) Round 1- 25/50
(2) Round 2- 50/100
(3) Round 3- 75/150
(4) Round 4- 100/200
(5) Round 5- 200/400
(6) Round 6- 300/600
(7) Round 7- 500/1000
(8) Round 8- 1000/2000

[/ QUOTE ]

This is good but I think you'd find the matches lasting at least 1.5 hours if not closer to two.

With double elim you will have either 6 or seven rounds (could be 8 if the final match has to be played twice. It's double elim so you have a player with one loss playing a pler with no losses, if the player with no losses loses the first game then they have to play again), assuming 16 or less players. If each round is one hour you have a game thats going to last 6-8 hours, not counting any down time.

[Lottery Larry]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
T5000 or T3000 if you want to push it faster. 20 minute rounds.

(1) Round 1- 25/50
(2) Round 2- 50/100
(3) Round 3- 75/150
(4) Round 4- 100/200
(5) Round 5- 200/400
(6) Round 6- 300/600
(7) Round 7- 500/1000
(8) Round 8- 1000/2000

[/ QUOTE ]

This is good but I think you'd find the matches lasting at least 1.5 hours if not closer to two.

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought that was the goal for OP.

[Lottery Larry]

[ QUOTE ]
All I can say is, make sure you don't have 14 people.

I hope someone has good ideas on this, as this is something of interest to my group, too.

Also, how do you sucker people into being the auto-shufflers?

[/ QUOTE ]

You can do it with 11 players or 14, if you're willing to do some work AND bend the rules a little. I would advise not to if possible, it's a headache to manage.

Ask for auto-shufflers nicely, or tip them $5 from the prize pool

[pfapfap]

$5 for shuffling for several hours? That's more of an insult than asking them to do it for free.

[Lottery Larry]

[ QUOTE ]
$5 for shuffling for several hours? That's more of an insult than asking them to do it for free.

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought you meant 1 game. I would be forming up a cash game if I got eliminated early- dealing one match would be passing the time, waiting for bodies.

I agree with you if you're talking dealing all night

[Small Fry]

two decks per game so everyone shuffles. If you're worried about integrity you can have players shuffle and trade decks, make sure it's shuffled by one, cut by the other, etc. Players will be shuffling while palying but it works pretty well. It also gives those guys that never deal/shuffle some appreciation for those of us that do it for all the other tournaments.

Ifyou don't have enough decks so that every game gets two - with 16 players you'll need 16 decks - then I'd go with just one deck per game. It'll slow play a little but I think that's beter than havins some with two decks getting in a lot more hands than the ones with just one deck