Tourney Advice on charity NLHE tournament structure at a con (3 Viewers)

[Bananuel]

Hello everyone!

I would like opinions and advice on my tournament structure.
I've scoured this site and homepokertourney now and then for a couple of years as I got to help hosting a charity poker tournament at a convention a year ago. I'm hosting the tournament again this year.

Here's the setting:

• The setting/audience is a sci-fi con so this is not the main attraction, people will want to do other things during the con too.
• Mixed skill level of the people into poker. Some beginners that know hand rankings but not the details of the rules, some advanced players who are happy to help the dealer and other players.
• The convention has managed to buy three tables to use.

Aim of the tournament:

• Let everyone have fun and let noobs learn game without too much risk in the beginning.
• Not go on for too long for non-serious poker players.
• Still be interesting for more serious players.
• Have a nice social time, get to know the other players, maybe make some new friends.
• All entry-fees go to charity and there is a small prize for the winner.
• Make starting stacks, blinds and structure as simple as possible.
• Take 2-3 hours to play.

Tournament structure:

• Shotgun NLHE tournament, winner of each table proceeds to final table. 3 tables á 9 players, 3 qualifying events => 1 final table á 9 people.
  • People want to do other things too.
  • Easier to manage for me.
• One or two extra event slots just in case lots of more people want to play.
  • In this case, two smaller final tables that fuse into one.
• T1, starting stack 100 last year.
  • Low amounts for blinds and raising makes it easier for new players.

Blinds structure:

15 min blind levels, small break at color ups

• 1-2
• 1-3, 50% increase
• 2-4, 33%
• 3-6, 50%
• 4-8, 33%, 60 min
• 5-10, 25%, color up
• 5-15, 50%
• 10-20, 33%
• 15-30, 50%, 120 min
• 25-50, 67%, color up
• 25-75, 50%
• 50-125, 67%
• 100-200, 60%, 180 min

Last year, the longest table lasted almost 3 hours, even though the metrics say that it will usually end the 2 hour mark.

Questions:

1. Is the 4-8, 5-10 blind level jump acceptable? Or should 4-8 be removed to make a 67% jump from 3-6 to 5-10?
2. Do you think 100 starting stack is okay or is it too strict/tight? Should it be increased to make it more fun?
3. How about capping the raising amount during the first hour or something? Last year I think very few bust out early, but still.
4. Is it worth it to allow rebuys and addons for this kind of tournament given the circumstances? Maybe it would go on for too long and be considered "pay to win". Maybe it's easier to offer more tournament event slots at different times.

Last year went well, didn't get much feedback, but people seemed to like it!

Any other comments/tips are much appreciated!

Thanks in advance for your help!
-Emanuel

 

[ekricket]

What’s the convention?

 

[TheRealStephen12]

The following blind structure takes roughly the same amount of time, keeps small blinds at half the big blind, and blind increases are more consistent. Adding 4 T25s to whatever your original stacks were should work fine.

18 Minute Levels, T200 starting stacks
2/4
3/6 (50%)
5/10 (67%)
8/16 (60%)
12/24 (50%)
10 minute break, color up T1
20/40 (67%)
30/60 (50%)
50/100 (67%) (Estimated EOT)
75/150 (50%)
125/250 (67%)

 

[Bananuel]

What’s the convention?

It's like a big board game, roleplaying, cosplay event in Sweden. Gets up towards 5 thousand visitors, but that's not what I want to focus on in this thread
This year, the charity is a big animal rescue organization on Iceland.
I planned on having the entry fee 20$ like last year.

 

[Bananuel]

The following blind structure takes roughly the same amount of time, keeps small blinds at half the big blind, and blind increases are more consistent. Adding 4 T25s to whatever your original stacks were should work fine.

18 Minute Levels, T200 starting stacks
2/4
3/6 (50%)
5/10 (67%)
8/16 (60%)
12/24 (50%)
10 minute break, color up T1
20/40 (67%)
30/60 (50%)
50/100 (67%) (Estimated EOT)
75/150 (50%)
125/250 (67%)

Yeah, this is an alternative. I forgot to say that I aimed towards 33-50% blinds increase in the beginning, then in the end it can be more aggressive to force an end. What do you think about this?
How different does it feel playing 33-50% and 50-67% blind increases irl? And what would you think fits best given the background?

 

[TheRealStephen12]

To be honest, I have not played a single live tournament in my life. I love the basis of the math behind tournament structures, and finding the balance of practicality versus the math of it. From playing online, large blind increases can be really intense, though I'm used to either having 3 hands/level in hyper-turbo freerolls rather getting a hand/player each level with large jumps. Since you can increase the blinds to 18 minutes each, it shouldn't be much faster than it used to be.