Tourney Help with structure for Meet-Up Main Event (Re-buy Tournament) (1 Viewer)

cpac54

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I'm hosting the 2nd Swiss Meet-up at the end of January and on the Saturday I'll do a big "Main Event" tournament.

I almost never host tournaments. Last year I received lots of great advice from PCF (https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/help-with-structure-for-meet-up-main-event.114309/) for my first ever meet-up and the Main Event went off without a hitch.

Based on feedback from last year's attendees however, I'd like to make this year's edition a re-buy tournament. As such, I'm looking for advice on what to pay attention to when adding re-buys into the mix and how it should affect things like starting stacks, levels, re-buy cut-off, etc.

Some info:
- 2 tables (16 -18 players is the most likely number)
- Will be a $75 buy-in with re-buys.
- how to regulate re-buys? 1 per person? unlimited until end of a certain level?
- Start time early afternoon around 2:00pm
- Deeper stack format ideally.
- Would like the levels to allow for comfortable play without turning into a shove fest too early.
- Dinner break of 1 hour around 6pm (give or take)
- Breaks of 10-15min to allow for nature breaks and colour-ups.
- Duration: not too short, but shouldn't run until midnight either. I'm thinking 8 hours incl. breaks would be ideal.

Chips:
- Harrah's Hotstamp Tournament Set with following breakdown:
  • T25 x 360
  • T100 x 360
  • T500 x 300
  • T1k x 320
  • T5k x 60
  • T25k x 40
Payout:
- Thinking 4 spots for 16-18 players. Something like: 45%/30%/15%/10% (which is what I did last year). Does that seem okay? Or would you pay out more places (1 additional) given the re-buys?


Thanks for your help in advance!

I'll also just get it out of the way and just tag @BGinGA now! :wtf:
 
For reference, this is what I ended up using last year in the end:

Starting stacks: 45k

Tournament ended up finishing during level 17 (10/20k blinds)

Screenshot 2025-01-06 at 14.28.45.png
 
I am a fan of the 1 rebuy per person until the 1st break. If you are using The Tournament Director (doubtful), it has a setting to restrict the number of rebuys per person. If not, give players a rebuy chip, and when they rebuy, they have to give you the chip. after the 1st break, collect all remaining chips
 
I echo @krafticus mentioning a blinds/level clock somewhere in the room. I just use the free ones and upload the blinds the day of. Laptop hooked up to a cpu. Not on my phone.

But, I don’t like limiting rebuys. If you want a 8 hour tourney rebuys should last 2 hours. This is a once a year event not a monthly tournament. Make sure players get to play as much poker as possible, if this was monthly, I would understand having only 1 rebuy.
 
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I echo @krafticus mentioning a blinds/level clock somewhere in the room. I just use the free ones and upload the blinds the day of. Laptop hooked up to a cpu. Not on my phone.

But, I don’t like limiting rebuys. If you want a 8 hour tourney rebuys should last 2 hours. This is a once a year event not a monthly tournament. Make sure players get to play as much poker as possible, if this was monthly, I would understand having only 1 rebuy.
I get that, but then you get the deep pockets double up or rebuy constantly player. For casino tournaments and such, sure. for meetups and home games, I think that's less "fun" for everyone and gives better players a huge advantage.

Meetups generally are double up or play cash anyway, so I doubt you'll get a lot of rebuys per person anyway.
 
Thanks @krafticus and @doublebooyah85.

Good points on both sides re: how to limit re-buys. I'll give that some thought.

In your experience, what percentage of players end of re-buying/how many re-buys should I account for?

In light of re-buys, how should one adjust things like starting stacks or blind levels to prevent the tournament from dragging on too long in the end?


Re: Tournament software: I'm using the "Blind Valet" app, mainly due to me being a macbook user. I used it last year and it found it really good for my purposes. I had the time running on my laptop, visible to one table, with it mirrored to my TV for the other table.
 
If you plan to use the structure in post #2 (450bb lasting 5:40 plus breaks), allowing re-buys will have little effect. The stacks are deep enough that most players (except maniacs or very unlucky) won't have had their stacks decimated by the end of the re-buy period (recommend end of L8 or worth 37.5bb).

With a 200bb starting stack for a respectable buy-in amount, most events will see 20%-to-33% re-buys. But for a larger 450bb stack, I'd expect that to drop to somewhere between 0 and 10%.
 
When I have hosted w 30-35 entries, 2 hours of rebuys, the most rebuys we had was 14. And it’s a 50k starting stack. Blinds start 100–200. Stil finished under 7 hours. Solid breaks too.

It’s so deep rebuys are hard, and usually bad beats or someone just making a bad play. Really want to give them another opportunity. Maybe 1 player will do 2 rebuys. You could limit that. Our entries are $240.

I’m sure there can be ways to improve this structure but it’s been working great.

IMG_8841.jpeg


Not listed is a 15 min break when you get to the final table and taking off the T1ks usually around 15k-30k. Dealers do it gradually.
 
Thanks everyone, really helpful!

It’s so deep rebuys are hard, and usually bad beats or someone just making a bad play. Really want to give them another opportunity.

This was exactly the situation we had last year. A couple guys busted quite early in the tournament after running KK into AA, which kind of sucked for them.
 
Just playing around with structure based on comments above. Given my lack of 5k chips in the set, does it make sense to go with 25/50 blinds to start?

Say 20,000 or 25,000 starting stacks with something like the following blind schedule?

Assuming 4 or 5 re-buys max, end of tournament around level 18-19?

Screenshot 2025-01-06 at 22.26.46.png
 
Just playing around with structure based on comments above. Given my lack of 5k chips in the set, does it make sense to go with 25/50 blinds to start?

Say 20,000 or 25,000 starting stacks with something like the following blind schedule?

Assuming 4 or 5 re-buys max, end of tournament around level 18-19?

View attachment 1443266
Add a L2 25/75 level and you're good to go.

I think 18x 25k stacks (500bb) with one re-buy (anticipated 4 total, max) will still finish by the 10k/20k level (and no later than 15k/30k).
 
if you start at 2 you may have some flexibility for the amount of rebuys, I would say upset limit of 2. The tourney without breaks should run on average 4-5 hours in my opinion with no rebuys. This also depends on how aggressive your players are. So based on that if you don’t mind having the players there for up to 8-10 hours 1 rebuy and maybe 2 is acceptable. However 2 rebuys may affect the integrity of the game so in that case my opinion would be 1
 
Add a L2 25/75 level and you're good to go.

I think 18x 25k stacks (500bb) with one re-buy (anticipated 4 total, max) will still finish by the 10k/20k level (and no later than 15k/30k).
Thanks everyone for the advice.

L2 added. I think ideally, I'd start with 50/100 blinds, but I don't think I have enough 5k chips in my set to allow for bigger stacking stacks of 40-50k.

What does everyone think of the following now:

Screenshot 2025-01-19 at 14.50.15.png


A few thoughts/questions:

1) Would it make sense to go with 20k starting stacks (400bb) vs. 25k stacks (500bb) to keep the overall duration a bit shorter?

2) Does the short break after level 3 make sense? Or would 2 hours without a break to begin the tournament be okay?
 
I have limited tournament experience but I don’t think that extra 100bbs makes much difference in how it plays other than making it run a bit longer.

2 hours without a break is perfectly fine imo. A quick bathroom run if needed is doable while the clock is ticking
 
Seeing this thread late. I am in the camp of the single re-buy format.

You could set up a $10 horse race for each of the tables where the winner is awarded an extra re-buy chip that they can redeem if needed or sold to another player for the entry fee.

This will add $180 to the prize pool, whether the additional re-buy chips are utilized or not.

IMO, 400 big blinds is plenty deep, especially if you add a 2500/5000 level.

I would allow re-buys through level six. This will ensure players who re-buy in during the break will have 50 big blinds.

Proposed structure:

25/50
50/75
50/100
(Optional 5 minute break )
75/150
100/200
150/300
Break/Race off T25's
End of rebuys
200/400
300/600
400/800
600/1200
Break
800/1600
1100/2200
1500/3000
Dinner break
Race off T100's
2000/4000
2500/5000
3000/6000
4000/8000
Break
5000/10000 (optional 25 minute levels from this point to completion)
7500/15000
10000/20000
125000/25000

The tournament should reach its conclusion by the time blinds reach 7500/15000 or 10000/20000, providing no deal is struck.
 

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