Tourney 50 Player Charity Tournament blinds and timing (1 Viewer)

[MeridianFC]

So the charity tournament thing that I'm helping run has gotten out of control as noted in my "WTF chips" thread that I accidentally placed in the General section rather than here. Quick overview, was supposed to be 30 players/3 tables (as it was last year) but the host proper just kept taking reservations so we are at 50 players/5 tables. I got some back up chips to make it work so that part is sorted. At least half of the folks will have little or no poker experience. The other half will have some to moderate. There will be about a table's worth of semi-serious folks. This is not a cash prize tourney. Everyone will have bought in for a couple of hundred bucks to go to the charity, 1st-3rd will get some sort of (nice) gift certificate.

My normal blind structure is far too kind/forgiving for this many folks so I was going to use the straight up Manzoni with Big Blind Ante (I did remove his 1K/3K/3K level). We do want to give the inexperienced folks some play so I think we need the early kind T25 levels. Can this be done in 5 hours? I know the normal formula but I don't recall BBA being part of that equation. Also many inexperinced folks (we will have experienced players as table captains to try to keep the game moving). Two decks, shuffle behind at every table.

15 minute levels?

25/50
50/100
75/150
100/200
150/300
Break (color up T25)
200/400/400
300/600/600
500/1000/1000
800/1600/1600
Break (color up T100 and T500)
1000/2000/2000
2000/4000/4000
3000/6000/6000
5000/10000/10000
8000/16000/16000
Break (color up T1000)
10000/20000/20000 - old school formula says it should end here.
15000/30000/30000
20000/40000/40000
30000/60000/60000

Any hints/suggestions/thoughts appreciated

 

[brewdawg]

With that many people with little to no poker experience I am not sure that I would introduce a BBA on top of the blinds. Just seems like one more thing to confuse them. You should be able to build a blind structure that could be over in 5 hours. If you need a hard stop at 5 hours, I would build it for 4 hours, just in case it runs long.

I used to run one that was normally 30-35 people and we could easily finish in 4 hours, and that was with unlimited rebuys and an add-on. And with 10-15 minute breaks every hour.

 

[BGinGA]

First thought is I think I'd prefer 30 minute levels with the blinds doubling up to 800/1600 (then to 1500/3000), using no antes. You can then cut it back to 20 minutes levels at that point, with fewer players remaining.

Easier to manage, easier for inexperienced players. Actually less aggressive than your schedule, and should still finish in ~5 hours.

L1 25/50
L2 50/100
remove T25 chips
L3 100/200
L4 200/400
L5 400/800
L6 800/1600
remove T100 chips, change to 20-min levels
L7 1500/3000
L8 3000/6000
L9 6000/12000
remove T500/T1000 chips
L10 10000/20000
L11 15000/30000
L12 20000/40000

 

[doublebooyah85]

First thought is I think I'd prefer 30 minute levels with the blinds doubling up to 800/1600 (then to 1500/3000), using no antes. You can then cut it back to 20 minutes levels at that point, with fewer players remaining.

Easier to manage, easier for inexperienced players. Actually less aggressive than your schedule, and should still finish in ~5 hours.

L1 25/50
L2 50/100
remove T25 chips
L3 100/200
L4 200/400
L5 400/800
L6 800/1600
remove T100 chips, change to 20-min levels
L7 1500/3000
L8 3000/6000
L9 6000/12000
remove T500/T1000 chips
L10 10000/20000
L11 15000/30000
L12 20000/40000

Nailed it

 

[TheOffalo]

I've played in several charity poker tournaments of this size or larger, and usually the organizers hire a company to run the games, so they'd provide the chips, tables, etc., and dedicated dealers. Really helps with inexperienced players. (Also they run a tutorial for people who've never played before the tournament starts.)

Can you fit 6 tables and recruit some volunteer serious poker players (who aren't playing in this charity tournament) to be dealers?

4 tables of 8 players, 2 tables of 9 players, and a dedicated dealer to move the action along and help the inexperienced players?

 

[doublebooyah85]

If it was me, I’d do 5 single table sit and gos.

The 5 winners of each sit and go are the final table.

Shootout format.

 

[m700ltr]

With that many people with little to no poker experience I am not sure that I would introduce a BBA on top of the blinds. Just seems like one more thing to confuse them. You should be able to build a blind structure that could be over in 5 hours. If you need a hard stop at 5 hours, I would build it for 4 hours, just in case it runs long.

I used to run one that was normally 30-35 people and we could easily finish in 4 hours, and that was with unlimited rebuys and an add-on. And with 10-15 minute breaks every hour.

hi @brewdawg, do you mind if I reach out to you over PM about your exact setup? I've done some research on PCF, but don't think I've seen m(any) posts about unlimited rebuy tournament chipsets. I would love to have some guidance on it!

 

[brewdawg]

hi @brewdawg, do you mind if I reach out to you over PM about your exact setup? I've done some research on PCF, but don't think I've seen m(any) posts about unlimited rebuy tournament chipsets. I would love to have some guidance on it!

@m700ltr feel free to reach out. I have been out of town and off-line since last week. But will be back on regularly either tomorrow or Thursday.

 

[JustinInMN]

Not sure if this is still timely, but since it got bumped. I am thinking play 15 levels at 20 minutes each all the way through and then you can use a little smoother structure. I would suggest these 15 levels

50-100
75-150
100-200
150-300 (Remove T25)

200-400
300-600
400-800
600-1200
800-1600
1200-2400 (Remove T100 and T500)

2K-4K
3K-6K
4K-8K
6K-12K
8K-16K

So ideally you have 320K in play for the 20BB end on the 8K-16K level. If you are only allowing one entry, this means you can do starting stack of about T6000-6500. If you want to plan for a 30% rebuy rate you would be at right about a T5000 starting stack. I think that's pretty good for trying to get through a 50 player event in 5 hours.