Tourney How to start a tournament with a weird number of people (1 Viewer)

[Preditor]

Hey PCF, last tournament I hosted I came across a sort of awkward problem at the start of the tournament and I wasn't sure what the best way to handle it would be.

The situation was this: I was hosting a 2 table tournament and was expecting ~16 players. My idea was to seat players evenly between the 2 tables at the start and we would start on time, nothing strange. Well the problem happened when 3 players flaked last minute (One player literally texting me at the start time that they're not coming) leaving us with 13 players, 5 of which were "almost there/~5 minutes away" at the start time.

This left us with 8 players that arrived on time (That I had seated 4 at each table) and more players expected to show up "soon".

I felt weird starting the tournament so short handed at each table, but I also didn't want to tell everyone to combine to 1 tables for just a few minutes. In the moment I decided the best thing to do was to wait for 10 players total to arrive and start with 5 at each table. Well the people who were "5 minutes away" ended up being more like 15-20 minutes away... So after sitting there apologizing to the players for 15m I just decided to start the clock 15m after the start time and we began with 2 tables of 4 and 5.

As expected, players started arriving a few minutes in and filled into the tables normally.

Just to note, I did have a early bird bonus that I stressed to players more than once so that something like this wouldn't happen.

My question for you guys is what would you have done in this scenario and are there any tips for a situation like this?

Lots of good advice here. I haven't had this situation yet, but I am always on the bubble of 8 people, and can see myself in this situation soon.

For me:

1. Making clear on the invite the various times. For me that means:
   • 6:00: Doors Open.
   • 6:10: End of on-time bonus (10% of starting stack). This is when we draw seats.
   • 6:20: Cards dealt.
2. We take breaks every 3 levels. I allow one rebuy/top-off until the first break (one hour). If a player shows up after the chip bonus? They don't get it. If they show up after cards are dealt? I consider that their "rebuy". Now they have two things to lose by being late: their bonus, and a rebuy/topoff.
3. I try to make tables of 8, but for the starting table, I would do 9 people. If a 10th shows up, then redraw. This can be the only time you have a table of 9.