Tourney Help Needed: Calculating Starting Stacks (1 Viewer)

[Zippity]

Hi everyone,

I've been hosting a home poker game for the last couple years, and as a group of 8-10 players we love the format that we have. We basically simulate a "deep-stack" tournament that lasts for about 6-9 hours.

When I started this series, I used some cheap plastic-inlay "Monte Carlo" poker chips with denominations from $5 all the way to $5000.

I start each player with $7000 in 64 chips, usually in the format of:

10 X $5 = $50
18 X $25 = $450
10 X $50 = $500
20 X $100 = $2000
4 X $500 = $2000
2 X $1000 = $2000

Our blind structures are:

20 minutes at 5-10
20 minutes at 10-20
20 minutes at 25-50
Break for 10 minutes
25 minutes at 50-100
25 minutes at 75-150
25 minutes at 100-200
Break for 10 minutes
25 minutes at 150-300
25 minutes at 200-400
25 minutes at 300-600
Break for 10 minutes
30 minutes at 400-800
30 minutes for 500-100
30 minutes for 600-1200
Break for 10 minutes
30 minutes for 800 - 1600
30 minutes for 1000-2000
30 minutes for 1200 - 2400

My problem is that now I got a new set of chips, but the lowest denomination is 25. How should I adjust the starting chip stack and/or blinds structure to meet the same level of expectation?

Thanks for any input. A bit of a poker nub when it comes to these things.

 

[CdnBeerLover]

What is the breakdown of your new chipset?

 

[Zippity]

Oh man. Can't believe I missed that. Should've pointed that out earlier.

100 X 25
150 X 100
200 X 500
300 X 1000
200 X 5000
50 X 25000

 

[BGinGA]

First off, I absolute detest your current blind structure. It's pretty senseless to begin players with huge 700bb starting stacks when the blinds increase 100%, 150% (!!), and 100% in each of the first few levels, but then the rest of the event has increases ranging from 20%-50%. Having the blind level times increase as the tournament gets deeper just makes it worse, as very few hands are played during the first four levels compared to the balance of the event.


A much better approach is to create a more balanced structure with uniform increases at every level.




Here's what I recommend for a 7-hour tournament for 10 players using your new chip set:


T30,000 starting stacks:


8 x T25
13 x T100
9 x T500
19 x T1000
1 x T5000
---
50 chips = T30K


Blind structure (200BB starting stacks)
20-minute blind levels, all blind increases between 20%-33%.


rd sb bb
L1 75 150
L2 100 200
L3 125 250
L4 150 300
L5 200 400
L6 250 500
remove T25 chips
L7 300 600
L8 400 800
L9 500 1000
L10 600 1200
L11 800 1600
L12 1000 2000
L13 1200 2400
remove T100 chips
L14 1500 3000
L15 2000 4000
L16 2500 5000
remove T500 chips
L17 3000 6000
L18 4000 8000
L19 5000 10000
L20 6000 12000
L21 8000 16000
L22 10000 20000
L23 12000 24000
remove T1000 chips
L24 15000 30000
L25 20000 40000
L26 25000 50000
L27 30000 60000
L28 40000 80000
L29 50000 100000
L30 60000 120000
L31 75000 150000


The tournament should end around L20 or L21 (about 7 hours plus breaks) with 150 total chips on the table once down to heads-up play (about right).


Use your T1000 chips to color-up the T25 chips in play, and use T5000 chips to color-up everything else (T100, T500, and T1000, if you get that far).


You and your group will find this format less rushed and a much more enjoyable poker experience, even with fewer starting big blinds.

 

[stocky]

PCF won't know what's hit it with Dave here now.

I vote BG gets a custom under title of breakdown structure master

 

[spikeithard]

story checks out...

 

[Zippity]

First off, I absolute detest your current blind structure. It's pretty senseless to begin players with huge 700bb starting stacks when the blinds increase 100%, 150% (!!), and 100% in each of the first few levels, but then the rest of the event has increases ranging from 20%-50%. Having the blind level times increase as the tournament gets deeper just makes it worse, as very few hands are played during the first four levels compared to the balance of the event.


A much better approach is to create a more balanced structure with uniform increases at every level.




Here's what I recommend for a 7-hour tournament for 10 players using your new chip set:


T30,000 starting stacks:


8 x T25
13 x T100
9 x T500
19 x T1000
1 x T5000
---
50 chips = T30K


Blind structure (200BB starting stacks)
20-minute blind levels, all blind increases between 20%-33%.


rd sb bb
L1 75 150
L2 100 200
L3 125 250
L4 150 300
L5 200 400
L6 250 500
remove T25 chips
L7 300 600
L8 400 800
L9 500 1000
L10 600 1200
L11 800 1600
L12 1000 2000
L13 1200 2400
remove T100 chips
L14 1500 3000
L15 2000 4000
L16 2500 5000
remove T500 chips
L17 3000 6000
L18 4000 8000
L19 5000 10000
L20 6000 12000
L21 8000 16000
L22 10000 20000
L23 12000 24000
remove T1000 chips
L24 15000 30000
L25 20000 40000
L26 25000 50000
L27 30000 60000
L28 40000 80000
L29 50000 100000
L30 60000 120000
L31 75000 150000


The tournament should end around L20 or L21 (about 7 hours plus breaks) with 150 total chips on the table once down to heads-up play (about right).


Use your T1000 chips to color-up the T25 chips in play, and use T5000 chips to color-up everything else (T100, T500, and T1000, if you get that far).


You and your group will find this format less rushed and a much more enjoyable poker experience, even with fewer starting big blinds.

You rock man. Thanks for doing this. This is EXACTLY what I needed!

 

[MoscowRadio]

PCF won't know what's hit it with Dave here now.

I vote BG gets a custom under title of breakdown structure master

I second this!

 

[Sal Bandini]

PCF won't know what's hit it with Dave here now.

I vote BG gets a custom under title of breakdown structure master

ISWYDT