Tourney Home-game structure advice (1 Viewer)

[MoeRichard]

New to the forum, I'm curious what people recommend for a home game structure

-typically 8-10 players (mostly casual players)
-$20 buy in
-goal of 2-3 hour game
-buy backs allowed the first hour (change to set number of buy backs allowed?)
-I have a poker case that allows for 400 chips

What chip denominations would work best for this format? Any recommendations of blind sizes/progression?

Thanks

 

[Deucekies]

3000 starting stack
25x8
100x8
500x4
Assuming an average of one rebuy per player, 60,000 chips in play.

15-min rounds
25-50
50-100
75-150
100-200
Break - color 25s
100-300
200-400
300-600
400-800
Break - color 100s
500-1000
1000-2000
1500-3000 [tourney should end by here]
2000-4000
3000-6000
5000-10000

 

[TheRealStephen12]

Which base chip you use is determined by preference, as chips are just representative of BB values. Each of these should end around Level 13, so with 12 minute levels and 10 minute breaks, you'll be looking at around 3 hours of play. They also have enough chips per set to cover 10 players with a rebuy each (which is more than necessary) plus color ups. You can use the extra room in the 400 for spares/extras.

T5 base, T2K starting stack (10/10/7/2)
10/20
15/30
20/40
30/60
40/80
Break - Color Up T5s - End Rebuys
50/100
75/150
100/200
150/300
200/400
Break - Color Up T25s
300/600
400/800
600/1200 (Estimated EOT for 12 entries)
800/1600
1100/2200

376 chip T5 set:
100x T5
100x T25
120x T100s
56x T500s
Rebuys: 0/0/5/3

Base T25, T10K starting stack (8/8/4/7)
50/100
75/150
100/200
150/300
200/400
Break - Color Up T25s - End Rebuys
300/600
400/800
600/1200
800/1600
1100/2200
Break - Color Up T100s
1500/3000
2000/4000
3000/6000 (Estimated EOT for 12 entries)
4000/8000
6000/12000

320 chip T25 set:
80x T25
80x T100
40x T500
120x T1000
Rebuys: 0/0/0/4

T100 base, T20K starting stack (10/4/7/2)
100/200
100/300
200/400
300/600
400/800
Break
600/1200
800/1600
1100/2200
1500/3000
2000/4000
Break - Color Up T100s and T500s
3K/6K
4K/8K
6K/12K (Estimated EOT for 12 entries)
8K/16K
12K/24K

326 Chip T100 Set:
100x T100
40x T500
120x T1000
56x T5000
Rebuys: 0/0/5/3

 

[NickyT]

Welcome to the Forum!

I'll be honest a 2-3 hour tourney with 8-10 is probably too quick unless you're looking to do multiple tourneys in a single night. Figure probably 4.5-5 hours minimum for a good 8-10 player (single table tourney/STT). You want all players who take the time to show up for the tourney to enjoy some time at the table playing.

Looking at a 5 hour tourney, have the first 90-120 minutes be the re-buy portion. This allows players who might take a bad beat or run into a cooler to re-buy and stay and play.

You can keep the blinds lower during the re-buy portion and then once the re-buys ends, you can do a more aggressive blind structure to get chips moving and find a winner.

Just remember you want all the players to have a fun time at the tourney. If just the Winner and runner-up enjoy their night, you won't be having many follow-up tourneys because the early eliminated will find something else to occupy their free time (unfortunately I'm speaking from experiences on this one).

Also don't be afraid to make adjustments after running a tourney. You'll want to tailor the set-up around your players. If they players have fun, they'll come back and they'll tell their friends about it and that will help grow the game.

 

[merkong]

Well said. This member knows his tourneys.

 

[MoeRichard]

I appreciate all of the advice guys (albeit a little over my head). Planning to use all of this info while picking out a poker chip set

 

[Defarse]

Welcome, I'm also in MN.

I run almost the same tourney, 9 guys, 25,000 starting stack, rebuys for first hour, and aim for 3 hours and we do 3 of these when we get together (only a few times a year).

I started with a T5 base, then went to T25 and finally landed on T100 since that is what all the casinos and cardrooms use. BR Pro Poker chips are what I use (Tiki Kings).

I have 400 chips in a Nanuk 910 with a rack each 100, 500, 1000, 5000.

10/8/10/x is a great starting stack distribution. If you wanted to start with 20,000 you would have 10/8/10/1 of 100/500/1000/5000. Rebuys with all 5000 chips.

Blinds:
100/200
200/300
200/400
300/600
400/800
600/1200
1000/1500
Break: color up 100 and 500
1000/2000
2000/3000
2000/4000
3000/6000
4000/8000
Break: color up 1000
5000/10000

Color up with one 5000 chip per starting stack as this is the total of 100s and 500s in each starting stack.

I do 20 minute levels for the first 6 levels (gives a good 2 hours to try build a stack) and 10 minute levels for the next 6 (to speed things along as players are getting knocked out and can play more hands due to less players) and leave an infinite 5000/10000 level to finish the tournament up. Usually gets chopped if this is our first or second game and then we have a third "Main Event" with a larger starting stack and longer rebuy period.

 

[BGinGA]

New to the forum, I'm curious what people recommend for a home game structure

-typically 8-10 players (mostly casual players)
-$20 buy in
-goal of 2-3 hour game
-buy backs allowed the first hour (change to set number of buy backs allowed?)
-I have a poker case that allows for 400 chips

What chip denominations would work best for this format? Any recommendations of blind sizes/progression?

Thanks

400 chip T25-base set covering 10 players with 10k stacks (12/12/5/6, 100bb with 50/100 starting blinds) plus 10 rebuys (1 per player):

125 x T25
125 x T100
50 x T500
75 x T1000 (15x for color-ups)
25 x T5000 (5x for color-ups)
-----------
400 chips

Set can also be used for larger 20k stacks (12/12/5/6/2) with no re-buys, or 15k stacks (12/12/5/6/1) with 3 re-buys (30% of field, which is about average).

L1 50 100
L2 75 150
L3 125 250
* color-up T25 chips, end re-buys
L4 200 400
L5 300 600
L6 500 1000
L7 800 1600
L8 1200 2400
* color-up T100 and T500 chips
L9 2000 4000
L10 3000 6000
L11 5000 10000
L12 8000 16000

A 10-player 10k event runs 2:30 plus breaks using 15-minute levels, or 3:20 plus breaks using 20-minute levels. Using 20-minutes for L1-L3 until re-buys end, and then 15-minute levels from L4 to event completion lasts 2:45 plus breaks.

 

[JackJack]

I appreciate all of the advice guys (albeit a little over my head). Planning to use all of this info while picking out a poker chip set

There is good advice on the structure but for the chip set … make sure the denominations climb by 4-5x at each level ( 1-5-25-100 for example). Some sets have denominations that are too close together or too many in general (25 - 50 - 100 - 250 - 500 - 1k for example).

As for the game structure itself you should expect the game to end when the Big Blind is approximately 6% of the total chips in play (10k chips in play should end around 300/600 blinds).

I have a printout that I created that tells me the blinds and level duration based upon how many players I have, all with a target time of 3.5 hours. I structured it so that blinds raise a little slower for the first 1.5 hours so folks feel like they are getting their money/time investment out of it. After that first 1.5 hours the blinds are more typical.

There is no universal right or wrong answer, it really boils down to what the objective is.