Heads Up Tournament Set (4 Viewers)

[FestiveKnight]

@BGinGA How long does each heads up game normally take to finish in this structure? I'm adapting this for a T100 base double elimination heads up tournament and want to make sure we finish at a reasonable time

The tournament referenced above was 5 hours to do 4 rounds of Bo3 Swiss. So each person played 10-15 matches in 5 hours, with breaks. It’s pretty consistently 20-30 min per match. The table ante paid by the dealer puts a ton of pressure both ways once there’s any imbalance in stacks.

 

[NotRealNameNoSir]

The tournament referenced above was 5 hours to do 4 rounds of Bo3 Swiss. So each person played 10-15 matches in 5 hours, with breaks. It’s pretty consistently 20-30 min per match. The table ante paid by the dealer puts a ton of pressure both ways once there’s any imbalance in stacks.

Appreciate the info! This looks fun, I'm thinking about doing something similar.

 

[Huskerchipper]

Same. I love this idea and think it would be fun. My trouble is most of my players don't like playing heads up... especially against me. I don't have the most competitive players i guess. Working on that though.

 

[BGinGA]

@BGinGA How long does each heads up game normally take to finish in this structure? I'm adapting this for a T100 base double elimination heads up tournament and want to make sure we finish at a reasonable time

Most best-2-of-3 matches finish in an hour or less, max 1.5 hrs. An 8-player single-elimination tournament (8>4>2>1, 3 rounds) typically finishes in under 4 hours.

 

[FestiveKnight]

Same. I love this idea and think it would be fun. My trouble is most of my players don't like playing heads up... especially against me. I don't have the most competitive players i guess. Working on that though.

This is a big reason I did Swiss instead of a traditional bracket. Somewhat auto balances the games quickly. Also did it in the setting of a large party with a ton of food and drink before and after so a lot of partners and non-grinder types played too so by the third round people were feeling pretty well matched.

We also did “match money” per an @BGinGA suggestion where some amount of the pool was won every time you won a match (kinda like a bounty) so there was still incentive to try hard in the later Swiss rounds.

 

[BGinGA]

6:00 levels isn't happening for me because it turns into a shove-fest too soon.

Not necessarily, especially when heads-up.

With a dedicated dealer, a typical 20-minute blind level with 8-10 players allows about 10 hands per orbit before the blinds increase. Heads-up play with 6-minute levels also allows about 10 hands to be played before blinds increase.

With a similar blind structure used in each case, the amount of actual play involved is the same before it evolves into a blind-induced shove-fest.

 

[Mandos]

I posted a post-mortem on our tournament this last week over on this other thread. Thanks to everyone here for all the feedback about how long matches take.