Tourney How to spice up lulls in the game (1 Viewer)

[Wils]

The games I run at home are usually very small affairs - 7 players if I'm lucky. That means the games are subject to huge variance in terms of who goes out when - there can be 6 players in until the final 15 minutes, or we can be down to 3 handed after the first 5 (extreme, I know, but it can happen).

When we're down to say the final three, play can drag. If they have plenty of BB's they can just sit back and put the brakes on and so on, and no one wants to bubble. That makes for a lot of blind swapping, and hands where shuffling takes longer than the hand itself.

Does anyone else have this issue and what did you do to fix it? Anyone saying "Play cash instead!" will get a friendly slap. I don't have room to do both, and in any case the guys don't want to play cash. I'd like to introduce some mechanic that isn't too gimmicky (like maybe if play becomes 3 handed with more than an hour to go, a BB ante applies? That might make preflop worth fighting for)... Dunno. Maybe introduce kill pots if no one has been knocked out in the last 15 minutes lol.

I'm interested to hear your thoughts.

 

[Moxie Mike]

I assume this is a straight freeze-out?

I'd suggest you add rebuys for a period of time.

You could also speed up your blind structure if you get 3-handed too early. Take a round or two out to speed things along. As long as everyone knows the stipulations ahead of time, it shouldn't be an issue.

 

[Rakrul]

Seems to me like your tournament structure could be improved. By determining the length of the tourney (e.g. ~2 hours) you design blind levels from that. The way I've structured mine is very slowly in the start and then almost bingo a couple of levels to force players all in and then easy up a bit so there's some room 3 ways. That allows more play in the start so everyone gets an hour of play (of course set ups will happen, tough luck). We actually changed to rebuy first hour and it lasts about 3 hours. That way you have 1 hour of guaranteed play, then you need to adjust to next steep levels that's coming and there's some room for bubble play if the chip distribution allows it (i.e. one player doesn't have 50%+ of the chips in play).

Another point of having "luck levels" means you're reducing the edge of the best players, distributing winnings more evenly.

 

[Labrat]

Antes will solve later round play, IMO, but I still don't get the BB ante thing, though. I don't understand why they don't make the blinds what the BB ante essentially makes them. But that's on me, I haven't held a tourney in probably 8 years.

But you could always start a cas....er...nevermind.

 

[merkong]

Structure issues. Introducing any sort of gimmick simply affects the purity of the tourney.

 

[merkong]

Seriously, you have 5-6 people that would rather muck around and maybe get knocked out early on with no chance of a cash game and if they survive to the bubble they want to go Nitty…

You need to expand your Rolodex.

 

[CraigT78]

Can you post your structure? I have the nitty problem even with the structure I use, if it's the perfect three final table, they will get down to each having 1-3 BB before it's over. Not much I can do about that. If you're gonna fold QQ with 1.5x BB......... anyway it sounds like it could be a matter of structure and level times.

 

[WedgeRock]

But you could always start a cas....er...nevermind.

 

[TheRealStephen12]

But you could always start a cas....

(Sidenote, if somebody can tell me how to insert gifs directly into the message, that would be appreciated).

 

[Jeevansluck]

(Sidenote, if somebody can tell me how to insert gifs directly into the message, that would be appreciated).

AFAIK, you upload it to the message you are typing, and “insert” the gif, as a full image, and it should load up, as a gif, and not a still image.

There. I copied and pasted your gif into this message. Great gif too. Ahahaahahah!

 

[doublebooyah85]

Sometimes we do Vegas night, when it gets down to three players, everyone gets up, takes their tournament stack over to the blackjack table, and we finish the tournament at blackjack with continue escalating blinds.

We don’t do this every time, but it’s been a lot of fun and exciting. It also circumvents when everyone just wants to chop when it gets down to two or three players.

 

[AWenger]

Why is this even a problem? (Is it because your group runs 2 or more tournaments a night, and you want them to be shorter so everyone else doesn't have to wait around?)

When I play in single or multiple table tourneys, I very much prefer that blinds to be reasonable when it gets down to 3 players, so the tournament doesn't just become an all-in or fold decision preflop.

That makes for a lot of blind swapping, and hands where shuffling takes longer than the hand itself.

Yes, this happens in home game tournaments when it gets down to 2 or 3 players where the shuffling takes longer than the hand. In home games I've played in before, the host or other players (who might be sticking around just to hang out/talk, or for a cash game to start after), often would volunteer to shuffle and/or deal. If your group is waiting around for the 2 or 3 players to finish, have one person be a dedicated shuffler and another be a dedicated dealer, and use two different decks (I'm assuming you're doing this already.)

 

[dkersey]

I resolved this by - When we get down to in the money players, the tournament stops. We then count chips of each player and pay out to chip counts, 1st 2nd etc.

 

[NotRealNameNoSir]

I resolved this by - When we get down to in the money players, the tournament stops. We then count chips of each player and pay out to chip counts, 1st 2nd etc.

Oooh I appreciate this thought but I think this changes ICM pretty dramatically. Totally fine if everyone agrees and knows the situation but I love those end game scenarios, I worked hard to get there with whatever stack I've got, bummer that it just ends.

 

[dkersey]

If it isn't clear, I do not pay ICM. I pay the posted percentages, eg 60%,30%,10%. So if you have a chip (and a chair), you still get 3rd place money.

And yes, this is known upfront, in evite.