Tales from Sunday Night Poker (3 Viewers)

[timinater]

This little poker league has been at it for just about 10 years now. Over the years I've put our logo on just about anything imaginable, we've developed traditions and SNP has awarded over $35,000 in prize money!

It's time I collected all of this in one spot to share how we do things at SNP.

Come along for pics, updates and stories from our current season!

Shortcuts:

1. General Rules
2. Structures & Spreadsheets
3. League Awards & Traditions
4. Table Build Thread

 

[timinater]

SNP Season Format and Rules

Season Format
Each season will consist of eight preliminary tournaments. 5 Freezeout tournaments, 1 Bounty, 1 Deep Stack and 1 rebuy tournament. We will play every third week. Sunday in the summer, Saturday night otherwise.

Game Structures
Freeze Out Tournament

• Buy-in: $50, with $10 going to the Final Table. Re-entry will be available for $50 during the first four levels of the tournament.
• Starting stack: 1200
• Players arriving on time are eligible for an 'Early Bird Bonus' of 300 chips. To be eligible for the bonus you must be PRESENT and READY TO PLAY before the first card is dealt. The first card will be dealt at 7:00 sharp.
• 11 or less players will play at one table, 12+ players will start with two tables, and merge at 10 players remaining.

Bounty Tournament

• Buy-in: $60, $10 for each elimination, and $10 going to the Final Table.
• Re-entry will not be available.
• Starting stack: 1200
• Players arriving on time are eligible for an 'Early Bird Bonus' of 300 chips. To be eligible for the bonus you must be PRESENT and READY TO PLAY before the first card is dealt. The first card will be dealt at 7:00 sharp.
• 11 or less players will play at one table, 12+ players will start with two tables, and merge at 10 players remaining.
• For every elimination, you will earn a bounty chip, redeemable for $10.

Rebuy Tournament

• Buy-in: $20, with $5 going to the Final Table.
• Starting stack: 500
• Rebuy: $20, 500 chips, conditional, must be less than or equal to starting stack.
• Add-on: $20, 1000 chips, unconditional.
• There is NO EARLY BIRD for this tournament but it is advised to be there on time.

Deep-Stack Freeze Out Tournament

• Buy-in: $100, with $10 going to the Final Table. Re-entry will not be available.
• Starting stack: 20,000
• See Deep Stack blind levels below.
• There is NO EARLY BIRD for this tournament but it is advised to be there on time. The first card will be dealt at 1:00pm sharp.
• 11 or less players will play at one table, 12+ players will start with two tables, and merge at 10 players remaining.
• Maximum of 20 players.

Payouts

• 10 or less players: 1st = 50%, 2nd = 30%, 3rd = 20%
• 11 or more players: 1st = 50%, 2nd = 25%, 3rd = 15%, 4th = 10%

Side Payouts

• 7-2: $10 - First player to win hand and show 7-2.
  • Rolls over to next league game if unclaimed. Final Table excluded.
• Donkey: $10 - First player eliminated. Re-entries must repay donkey payout.
• Bounty: $10 - awarded to player that eliminates last games winner.
  • Unclaimed bounties will carry forward to the next league game. Final Table excluded.

Points
Points that go towards final table chip stacks are awarded based on the number of players, and your finish. Points are awarded equal to your finish position with exceptions for those that cash, and the first three eliminated. Ex: 4th player eliminated receives 4 points, 5th player eliminated receives 5, etc. The players that finish in the money receive a “cash bonus”:

• 10 or less players 1st, 2nd and 3rd receive "Cash Bonus" of 6, 4 and 2 points
• 11 or more players 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th receive "Cash Bonus" of 8, 6, 4 and 2 points
• Example:
  • 1st -10 + 6 = 16 2nd - 9 + 4 = 13 3rd - 8 + 2 = 10 4th - 7 5th - 6 6th - 5 7th - 4 8th - 3 9th - 3 10th - 3

Final Table
The Final Table will take place at a predetermined time. At the Host’s discretion the Final Table may be rescheduled, or the next season start before the Final Table for the previous season is played.

• Must play in a minimum of three preliminary games to qualify for final table.
• Chips are distributed based on points earned for preliminary game finishes.
• Average chip stack will be 20,000. Ex: If the average point total is 50, the point multiplier would be established at 1 point = 400 chips. If you finished the season with 37 points, you would receive 14,800 chips to start the final table. The multiplier will be finalized at the end of the eight preliminary tournaments.
• There is no maximum number of players who can qualify for the final

Rules
Sunday Night Poker uses the industry standard Robert's Rules of Poker. For rules that apply strictly to tournament play we reference the TDA Rules. In case of a discrepancy between Robert's Rules of Poker, and the TDA rules, Robert's Rules of Poker will override. The host will be responsible for rulings when they can remain neutral (ie: not in the pot) with the two other hosts filling in as needed. All decisions are final.

 

[timinater]

Re-Entry/Rebuy Structure
20 Minute Levels, Starting Stack: 1200 + 300 Early Bird Bonus

Level SB BB
1 5 10
2 10 20
3 15 30
4 20 40
BREAK - 20 MINUTES
5 30 60
6 40 80
7 60 120
BREAK - 10 MINUTES - REMOVE 5
8 75 150
9 100 200
10 150 300
BREAK - 10 MINUTES - REMOVE 25
11 200 400
12 300 600
13 400 800 - Tournament usually ends here.
14 600 1200
15 800 1600
16 1000 2000
17 1500 3000

Deep Stack/Final Table Structure
20 Minute Levels, Starting Stack: T20,000

Level SB BB
1 50 100
2 75 150
3 100 200
4 150 300
BREAK - 10 MINUTES - REMOVE 25
5 200 400
6 300 600
7 400 800
BREAK - 10 MINUTES
8 600 1,200
9 800 1,600
10 1,000 2,000
11 1,200 2,400
BREAK - 10 MINUTES - REMOVE 100
12 1,500 3,000
13 2,000 4,000
14 2,500 5,000
15 3,000 6,000
BREAK - 10 MINUTES - REMOVE 500
16 4,000 8,000
17 5,000 10,000 - Tournament usually ends here.
18 6,000 12,000
19 8,000 16,000
20 10,000 20,000

A quick explainer on how I manage/track the league results:

Spreadsheet Link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1U1droKX6hdH64mdNo95b5x7XXm_1Vxiq?usp=sharing

Tracking
Every league game gets tracked on a "worksheet" which, requires the player names, early bird bonus yes/no and the number of entries. The payouts and points are pulled from tables in another sheet. Side payouts are entered manually. Maybe at some point, I'll update the sheet to do that automatically. Each tournament type (re-buy, freezeout, deep stack etc.) has its own worksheet.

Worksheet

Points (we use a modified version of Dr. Neau's)

Payouts

Display
As for a display, I have sheets built that scrape the data in real time from the worksheet. So as I enter data during the tournament (re-entry and eliminations) it will be displayed on an iPad beside the blind timer, or whatever screen I want since it's all hosted on Google Sheets.

Various tournament displays

Standings
Every game is then added to a standings sheet - unfortunately not automatic, but I don't mind giving the results a manual review during this step anyways. I'll catch the odd mistake and correct it.

Standings sheet

Again, I have yet another sheet that scrapes this data and presents it in a much more readable format.

If you have any questions, feel free to PM.

 

[timinater]

Championship Markers:
I made these this season and went back all the way to our first Season and up to 20. They are Venetian/Palazzo chips relabeled.

Labels and some stickers of our logo just for fun.

Bounty/Dealer Buttons

 

[saleen121212]

Following

 

[timinater]

Here's Season 16's winner: @Kain8

Here's me, grumpy because the cookie monster shirt did not do its job, I did not end up with all the cookies.

Aaand here is our newest tradition: The Silver Ass/Plate Of Shame. First player eliminated on the night gets a $10 rebate (that's been around forever), but now they have to sign the silver plate so they can live in shame forever. See how happy the current owner is?

 

[CraigT78]

Love these threads! Looking forward to Moar!

 

[timinater]

Updated posts #2: General Rules and #3 Structures & Spreadsheets with lots of information about how the league runs

 

[bsdunbar1]

Looking Good! (y) :thumbsup:

 

[Kain8]

Season 17 underway, my title defense begins now!

 

[timinater]

Here's some shots from Game 1 - didn't snag any from Game 2.

I also added some items to Post 4 with the stuff we've made recently.

Look at those paperclips! So good. Snap bought them as soon as I saw them.

 

[Davism72]

Hey, props for the clean thread design up top. Love the links and the logical layout. Following closely!

 

[timinater]

Event 3 ran this weekend and was more or less a success. Here's a thread discussing the Omaha tournament setup. Had my hands full so didn't take a picture at all!

Cash games followed of course!

 

[Chile85]

@timinater Thanks for sharing your tournament spreadsheet. I am in the process of cleaning up about ten years worth of our league data and putting it all into Google Sheets. I've developed most of the raw data sheet and was thinking through how to display the data. Your sheets give an excellent perspective. I'll attempt to post some of our details and maybe we can collaborate a bit.

 

[Kain8]

Nothing but scared little wimps for our Omaha tourney @timinater ! Make Omaha Great Again!

 

[timinater]

Game Five went on Sunday. I posted this meme in our private FB group earlier in the day...

Then lo and behold @Kain8 runs the table over 13 minutes in with JJ for the set vs two pair and a flopped straight. Turn/river paired the board for JJJ88.

JJ sparked joy Sunday night!

 

[timinater]

Game 6 went last night. 11 runners and 5 re-entries, plus a cash game of Omaha, Scrotum and SOHE ran until 3am!

Lots of excitement, especially a 1-outer on the river that had the whole table erupt in cheers. Wild night, most of us had a blast.

 

[timinater]

Star Wars Day Game is Saturday! A new bounty!

May The Fours Be With You: $10 - First player to win hand and show any 4 in your hole cards claims the bounty. Another player may steal the bounty if they show down a winning hand with a 4 in their hole cards. Claim the Bounty once and for all by winning a hand with pocket 4's.

Event Cover image

 

[timinater]

Ready for tonight!

 

[timinater]

Season ending rebuy tournament is ready to go. Maybe I won't donk around and actually take some game pictures this time around.

$20 buy in, $20 rebuys and a $20 add-on.

Expecting 10 runners. Last season we had 13 entries and 37 rebuys/add-ons!

And of course, stock up the fridge.

 

[Taghkanic]

This is a great resource.

Do you know what the basis is for the common point system (which I gather yours is a modification of)?

 

[timinater]

This is a great resource.

Do you know what the basis is for the common point system (which I gather yours is a modification of)?

Thanks! It is based off of @Dr. Neau's Tournament formula which I believe is:

points = (sqrt(((a * b) * (b / c))) / (d + 1.0))

a = Number of Players in Event
b = Player Buy-in Expense (initial buy-in)
c = Player Total Expense (total player buy-in with re-buys)
d = Player Finish (order in which player goes out)

You can read about it here on @Mac128k's archive (MANY THANKS!) of HomePokerTourney.com https://hpt.homepokerinfo.com/poker-league-points-systems.htm#Dr-Neaus-Tournament-Formula

 

[Taghkanic]

Thanks.

I guess my intuitive sense (having run a tournament with two tables for nearly four years now) is that coming in 1st at an 18-player game is more than twice as difficult as winning at a 9-handed table. And that coming in 1st at a 27-player tourney is more than three times more difficult, etc.

The skill edge of a very good player gets flattened out as the field grows, as the chance goes up that some random opponent just happens to runs like a god. I’ll have to do some more reading about the theory behind this.

 

[Kain8]

The skill edge of a very good player gets flattened out as the field grows, as the chance goes up that some random opponent just happens to runs like a god.

We have that in freaking spades right now @timinater

 

[joker80]

Of course you have Pilsner and Boh in the fridge in Saskatchewan...

 

[timinater]

Of course you have Pilsner and Boh in the fridge in Saskatchewan...

Some stereotypes are 100% true.

 

[joker80]

Hey I grew up in rural Saskatchewan so I know all about Vitamin P and Boh!

 

[Mr Winberg]

I guess my intuitive sense (having run a tournament with two tables for nearly four years now) is that coming in 1st at an 18-player game is more than twice as difficult as winning at a 9-handed table. And that coming in 1st at a 27-player tourney is more than three times more difficult, etc

Does this apply to all players in the tournament?

Joking aside, if that holds true for a certain player, it means that there must be some other player in the tournament for whom it is less than 2 times as difficult winning a 18 player tournament than a 9 player tournament, and less than 3 times as difficult to win a 27 player tournament, etc, otherwise there would be tournaments without winners...

 

[Taghkanic]

No, I’d posit the ease/difficulty of coming in first is redistributed via variance among all the remainder, not all vested in one player.

 

[Taghkanic]

Imagine you are Phil Ivey’s backer. You have two WSOP scenarios to choose from:

A) Ivey is at the WSOP final table. All 9 players have about the same number of chips.

B) It’s again the WSOP, and there are two tables of 9 left. All 18 have about the same number of chips.

If your deal with Ivey is that you get 50% of the money if he comes in first, which option do you choose, (A) or (B)?