Tourney Judge my T100 MTT Structure (2 Viewers)

[maloviz]

I'm going to be hosting a 2-3 table T100 tournament. I've looked at a ton of threads on this forum about the best structures, things that people like/dislike, etc. and have come up with the following structure. I want to get some feedback on it and hear what others think about it. I've hosted a few single table cash games and a STT before, so this isn't my first time hosting NLHE, but it is my first time hosting a MTT.

Goals:

• 16-20 players preferred (Prefer to use 2 tables instead of 3). 30 maximum (10 per table - Not ideal)
• 4-6h length.
• Reward good players, but still create a fun game for bad players.
• Create a easily understandable structure/game. I often have new poker players, some of which may have never played in a tournament.

Chips available:
Total tournament chip breakdown available:

100x $25 = $2,500 - (Not planning to use)​

300x $100 = $30,000​

120x $500 = $60,000​

260x $1000 = $260,000​

220x $5000 = $1,100,000​

1000 chips total

Specialty chips:​

30x bounty chip - (Not planning to use)​

30x seating chip - (For drawing seats)​

30x rebuy chip - (For tracking who has rebought)​

10x Rabbit Hunt chip - (Not planning to use)​

Starting stacks:
T100 base
For 20 players or less: 15/5/11/1 + 1 rebuy chip
For more than 20 Players: 10/4/7/2 + 1 rebuy chip
Rebuy stack:
0/0/5/3 or 0/0/0/4 depending on how many T1000 are available

Structure:

Things I'm still contemplating:

1. (Most important one) Who will deal? - Since we have some very inexperienced players I expect some of them to not know how to shuffle or deal. My currently plan for 2 tables was to make sure that each table had 1 player who I could trust to act as designated dealer and a player at the same time. This would likely be me at table 1 and a friend I have in mind that I know likes to deal at table 2. This would mean that both of our seats would be fixed (We would not draw seats, instead we would be sit in the center of our respective tables). I also considered giving this friend a (partial?) rebate on his buy in. I still want him to have a good time and even though I know he likes dealing I don't mind spending an extra $20 to make him happier about taking on the extra responsibility.
   I don't love being designated dealer for long stretches of time, but it's usually what's most convenient at my home games. I don't want to slow down the game too much and don't think this would be a good time to introduce "self-dealt" to my home game (especially with my oval tables). This will already be the first 2+ table event I'm hosting so I'd like to keep things as simple as possible. I'm worried that trying to teach people how to deal during the game, or saying "Please know how to shuffle/deal before showing up" could leave a bad taste. Hiring a non-playing dealer is most likely out of the question.
2. Giving a free small bonus to players who didn't rebuy/reenter at second break (maybe 5k) - Just a fun idea I had. I'm not married to the idea. My goal with this would be to give players with a small/medium stacks a better option than surrendering at the second break and spending another full buy in. I am slightly worried how it would impact the length of the game and willingness to rebuy though.
3. How many levels between breaks. 3 vs 4 levels. - Many players are smokers who cannot smoke at the table. Also, changing break times might require changing color up times
4. Whether a cash table will open on the side as people bust. - I'd be happy to play cash after I'm out, but don't know if I'll have enough interest as the night goes on. How can I keep people around for this to start/get them interested in it?
5. Table sizes. - If I do end up getting something like 19 players, should I set up a 3rd (shitty) table and do something like 6/6/7 players at each instead of 9/10 players at 2 nicer tables?
6. Final table size. - 9? 10?, my main table seats 9 snuggly and 10 very snuggly.
7. When to plan for pizza to arrive. - Break 1 vs 2. I'll likely add an extra 5 minutes to this break too.
8. Payout structure. - I plan to pay 20-25% of the field and think I would like it to be weighted heavily toward the top. Maybe something like 45%/25%/15%/10%/5% for 16-20 players .
9. Should BB ante be used? - I've seen people say that as the game gets bigger is a good idea to add an ante. Again, my players are new to poker so I don't want to confuse them or have to explain whether BB or ante is posted first and what the differences are. I want to game to be as simple as possible. It should be easily approachable for new players.
10. Should I send out the structure pdf (Image above) to players? - Will new players even know what it mean/care? Should I just send it upon request for more info? Should I print it out and put up on the wall for the tournament?
11. Where to put the tables! - There are 2 possible options:
    1. (Preferred currently) One in the living room and one in the kitchen (Very close by, you can see the other table). I could probably squeeze a 3rd table in the living room too.
    2. All tables in the garage. - A few problems with this option: I live in FL so it's very hot some nights (No good AC options for garage). No outside door or window. Bathroom is inside (and up the stairs). Fridge is inside. Lots of stinky, dirty laundry I'd have to clean up or hide in the garage. Wife doesn't want smoking in the garage. I don't know that I want nosy neighbors seeing the game if the garage door is left open (Closed would probably be way too hot)
12. What drinks/snack to get? - I put BYOB on the invite, but said I'd have pizza, water, snacks, and sodas. What kind of drinks/snack do you like at your games? I usually do individual bags of chips, veggie tray, water bottles, 1 caffeinated soda option, and 1 non-caffeinated soda option + whatever I have around the house.

I'm very excited to be trying out a MTT and want it to be very enjoyable for all my players. Let me know what you think and what you'd do differently

 

[BGinGA]

Structure looks fine, expect it to finish by L15 (16 players) or L16 (20 players) -- so roughly 5:00 to 5:20 max playing time plus the breaks, shorter by a level or so if using a BBA.

Addressing some of the other questions:

1. Using a designated player/dealer at each table is a good idea.

2. Issuing a free add-on to players with an unused re-buy button works great. Anything between 10% to 25% of original stack size is fine.

3, 7. I'd go with a 20-minute pizza break after L3, a 10-minute bathroon/smoke break after L6, and a 15-minute color-up break after L9. Put a final 10-minute break after L12 and then play it out to the finish. Adds 55 minutes to your playing time, so still under your 6 hour goal.

5, 6. I'd keep it at two tables for <= 20 players, only going to three at 21+ (and break the third table when down to 18 total players). Redraw seats for the final table of 9 players.

 

[Bacon Dad]

@maloviz
You forgot to include the most important part in your original post.
PICS OF THE CHIP SET!!!!!

 

[buzzmonkey]

In regards to breaks I always include the caveat that "Breaks may be skipped or cut short if agreed to by ALL remaining players."

 

[maloviz]

Structure looks fine, expect it to finish by L15 (16 players) or L16 (20 players) -- so roughly 5:00 to 5:20 max playing time plus the breaks, shorter by a level or so if using a BBA.

Addressing some of the other questions:

1. Using a designated player/dealer at each table is a good idea.

2. Issuing a free add-on to players with an unused re-buy button works great. Anything between 10% to 25% of original stack size is fine.

3, 7. I'd go with a 20-minute pizza break after L3, a 10-minute bathroon/smoke break after L6, and a 15-minute color-up break after L9. Put a final 10-minute break after L12 and then play it out to the finish. Adds 55 minutes to your playing time, so still under your 6 hour goal.

5, 6. I'd keep it at two tables for <= 20 players, only going to three at 21+ (and break the third table when down to 18 total players). Redraw seats for the final table of 9 players.

Awesome, thanks for the EOT estimate, I was wondering about that. Sounds like I will do the free add-on if you think it works well.

 

[maloviz]

@maloviz
You forgot to include the most important part in your original post.
PICS OF THE CHIP SET!!!!!

You're so right. How could I let this happen. I'll fix this right now

Tournament set:

Bonus - Cash set:

Bonus x2 - @rjdev7 topper on my Barrington:

 

[doublebooyah85]

Booyah! Looks good!

But not a fan of skipping 500/1000 such a good level bc ease of chips.

Same w 1000/2000 instead of 1100/2200. Just makes it confusing when raising, getting blinds out etc.

 

[maloviz]

Booyah! Looks good!

But not a fan of skipping 500/1000 such a good level bc ease of chips.

Same w 1000/2000 instead of 1100/2200. Just makes it confusing when raising, getting blinds out etc.

Good point. I might have to alter it slightly to have these levels.

Gotta be honest, I don't' love 1100/2200 much either. I just didn't like the BB jumping like this: 1200->1600->2000->3000. I thought 2200 might easy it slightly

 

[doublebooyah85]

1000-2000
1500-2500
1500-3000
2000-4000

Maybe? Plus you can color up and remove T100s and minimize T500s but keep a few barrels out there.

 

[maloviz]

1000-2000
1500-2500
1500-3000
2000-4000

Maybe? Plus you can color up and remove T100s and minimize T500s but keep a few barrels out there.

Yeah, this could definitely work. I'm a little nervous to add an extra level just because of time limitations. I might implement this in the next game if the tournament runs faster than expected.

It's a very fine line between having good level jumps and having a decent EOT time. I have a feeling a lot of my casual players would be put off if I said the tournament could last 7+ hours.

 

[doublebooyah85]

Yeah, this could definitely work. I'm a little nervous to add an extra level just because of time limitations. I might implement this in the next game if the tournament runs faster than expected.

It's a very fine line between having good level jumps and having a decent EOT time. I have a feeling a lot of my casual players would be put off if I said the tournament could last 7+ hours.

How long are levels?

 

[maloviz]

How long are levels?

20m

 

[doublebooyah85]

Yeah I’ve done 18 min to squeeze in a level or 2 lol!

 

[Bacon Dad]

Excellent!!!! Thanks for sharing.

I am assuming those chips are from BR Pro. Do you like them well enough that you would keep them for the long haul? Or are they just good intermediate chips? I am trying to decide if the BR Pro ceramics are good enough to order custom ceramics because I would probably have them forever.

Also, does your Barrington table fold up? Would you buy it again or go with something different?

Sorry for all the questions, but I like to know what works for others and why.

Thanks.

 

[BGinGA]

Good point. I might have to alter it slightly to have these levels.

Gotta be honest, I don't' love 1100/2200 much either. I just didn't like the BB jumping like this: 1200->1600->2000->3000. I thought 2200 might easy it slightly

Skipping 500/1000 makes perfect sense, if your goal is to have consistently sized percentaģe increases at every blind level. Same for using 1100/2200 instead of 1000/2000 (in your specific structure(.

Otherwise the blinds increase is sometines really small (in relation to the average stack size), and sometimes it's really large. Imo, it's better to have all increases be consistent and predictable.

I wouldn't change anything.

 

[maloviz]

Excellent!!!! Thanks for sharing.

I am assuming those chips are from BR Pro. Do you like them well enough that you would keep them for the long haul? Or are they just good intermediate chips? I am trying to decide if the BR Pro ceramics are good enough to order custom ceramics because I would probably have them forever.

Also, does your Barrington table fold up? Would you buy it again or go with something different?

Sorry for all the questions, but I like to know what works for others and why.

Thanks.

Don't apologize! I'm very happy to answer any questions you have. I'm just happy to have someone interested in everything lol.

Answering your questions in order:
1.) Yes they're BR Pro. I loved the Dia De and Tiki King sets from them. I got a sample set of both and was much happier with them instead of the dice chips I was using lol. I don't have any experience with "high-end" chips like I see so many people talking about on this forum. So I'm probably not the best person to judge the long haul of the chips. But from the games I've play I absolutely love them!

I don't plan on upgrade my chips any time soon. I'm definitely treating these chips as my permanent chips and I'm very happy with them. Completely custom ceramics are a little bit more expensive I believe. I just went with mostly stock chips, and a few semi-custom (my 5c and $20 chips). You might want to order one or two of their sample sets first just to get a feel for the shuffling and how you like the actual chips. Then you could decide if you want to place a big order.

Their custom service is fantastic, so as an actual company I can't recommend them enough.

2.) Yes the Barrington folds up. I got this specific model on Amazon: Amazon Link
Which I guess is sold out right now. It was ~$240 USD for a while. But I've seen it up to $350ish.

It's a very good "budget" table. I doubt it compares well at all against something from TChan or even expensive semi-custom tables like from Gorilla Gaming or BBO. But for me it was perfect. It's not overly big but can fit 10 if I need it to, it folds up for better storage (I put it in a closet), can be moved with 1 person (although I like to have help to flip it onto it's legs). My biggest complaint with it is the god awful design on the top (Thread on that). If you're going to buy this table I'd definitely recommend spending the extra $125 to get a Custom/Semi-custom topper from @rjdev7 . Besides allow for you to have a design you enjoy (See my image above of the semi-custom Mario themed "Super Poker World" topper). It also functions way better than the felt it comes with. Cards slide amazingly (Good for self dealt games, or just dealing easier), I believe it's spill proof, etc.

I'd prefer to have a better table and if I found one second hand that was around the same price point I'd probably use that instead, but because the value is so good I could see myself buying another if I were to host additional tables and didn't want to spend all the extra money / shipping time from a newly made, higher quality one. Which reminds me about another great thing about the Barrington... The shipping time. Since it's usually stocked by Walmart and Amazon you can easily get one in less than a week. With higher end tables you'll likely need to wait many months for it to be built and shipped to you.


I think that covers most of my opinions on those questions. If you have more please feel free to ask, I'm very happy to answer them

 

[Bacon Dad]

Thanks for the reply. Greatly appreciated.
I think your setup is looks great!
Good info on the table topper too.

 

[maloviz]

@BGinGA Do you think it's possible that there will be too many chips in play at the end of the tournament? I don't have any plaques or T25k, but I should have lots of extra T5k.

Should I remove some T1k from play at break 4 and replace them with T5k? or does more chips = more fun?

I've seen you say in other threads that the ideal amount of chips in play at the end is 80-200 preferably 120-160. But I'm unsure how that would look with this structure.

 

[BGinGA]

A quick tally indicates that there will be roughly 245 x T1000 plus 66 x T5000 in play when starting L10 (assuming 20 players and using T5000 for all color-ups). That's a total of 311 chips -- a bit higher than optimal, but certainly playable.

I'd recommend reducing the number of T1000s in play to just two barrels per remaining player during the 4th break (keeping 160 x T1000s in play if four-handed, 120 x T1000s if 3-handed, etc). Make sure every player has at least a barrel (if possible).

That should get your final count down to roughly 211 - 243 total chips, which should work fine.

However, once blinds get up around 5000/10000, having a few T25k chips in play can really improve game play. 10 chips is enough to cover 250 x T1000s.

 

[maloviz]

A quick tally indicates that there will be roughly 245 x T1000 plus 66 x T5000 in play when starting L10 (assuming 20 players and using T5000 for all color-ups). That's a total of 311 chips -- a bit higher than optimal, but certainly playable.

I'd recommend reducing the number of T1000s in play to just two barrels per remaining player during the 4th break (keeping 160 x T1000s in play if four-handed, 120 x T1000s if 3-handed, etc). Make sure every player has at least a barrel (if possible).

That should get your final count down to roughly 211 - 243 total chips, which should work fine.

However, once blinds get up around 5000/10000, having a few T25k chips in play can really improve game play. 10 chips is enough to cover 250 x T1000s.

Thanks for the advice, I like 2 barrels of T1k per person at break 4, I'll definitely implement that.
I'll have to pick up some T25k for the next tournament. I don't think I can get any shipped and delivered by next Friday so this time we'll just have a bunch of chips for now.

 

[maloviz]

Update for anyone coming across this thread in the future and wondering how the game went:

Due to a bunch of flakey players we ended up having 13 players total (Some of which arrived 20m-1h late). So that changed the dynamics a little bit.

Besides that though the tournament went well. ~25% of the field rebought, the rest got a free addon of 5k at the 2nd break. ~8 players got the early bird 2k bonus.

Starting stacks felt good. I definitely prefer having 15 T100 chips because I have a few players that limp and min bet every street. The only downside being that the first color up (T100 and T500) the monster stack at the table had entirely too many chips lol. It wasn't unmanageable, but the next tournament I think I'm going to find a way to ditch the T100 chips sooner and color up the T500 at a different time.

The blind structure felt exactly how I wanted. A very slow start to allow players to play cards and not stress too much, but then after L6 the pace picked up and you had to start thinking about proper sizing much more. The tournament did end MUCH sooner than I expected however. Maybe it's because my players are a little crazy with their calling ranges, or just because of 2 of our players just getting dumb lucky and steam rolling the whole tournament calling down anything but we ended about halfway through L11 with the remaining 2 players chopping the remaining prizes to they could join the cash table.

I stayed pretty busy during the tournament so I forgot to take pictures. But I did take some pictures before people showed up:

 

[buzzmonkey]

Update for anyone coming across this thread in the future and wondering how the game went:

Due to a bunch of flakey players we ended up having 13 players total (Some of which arrived 20m-1h late). So that changed the dynamics a little bit.

Besides that though the tournament went well. ~25% of the field rebought, the rest got a free addon of 5k at the 2nd break. ~8 players got the early bird 2k bonus.

Starting stacks felt good. I definitely prefer having 15 T100 chips because I have a few players that limp and min bet every street. The only downside being that the first color up (T100 and T500) the monster stack at the table had entirely too many chips lol. It wasn't unmanageable, but the next tournament I think I'm going to find a way to ditch the T100 chips sooner and color up the T500 at a different time.

The blind structure felt exactly how I wanted. A very slow start to allow players to play cards and not stress too much, but then after L6 the pace picked up and you had to start thinking about proper sizing much more. The tournament did end MUCH sooner than I expected however. Maybe it's because my players are a little crazy with their calling ranges, or just because of 2 of our players just getting dumb lucky and steam rolling the whole tournament calling down anything but we ended about halfway through L11 with the remaining 2 players chopping the remaining prizes to they could join the cash table.

I stayed pretty busy during the tournament so I forgot to take pictures. But I did take some pictures before people showed up:
View attachment 1224239View attachment 1224240View attachment 1224241

One tip on the T100s. As players get eliminated and one or two players start accumulating the T100s, you can preemptively buy up a stack here or there with T1k chips. You don't want to do it too soon as you'll still need some, and it's possible a player with a bunch of them may need to get moved.

 

[maloviz]

One tip on the T100s. As players get eliminated and one or two players start accumulating the T100s, you can preemptively buy up a stack here or there with T1k chips. You don't want to do it too soon as you'll still need some, and it's possible a player with a bunch of them may need to get moved.

Good tip on the T100s. We broke down to a single table before the color up and the monster chip leader needed over a full rack to move his chips lol

 

[Defarse]

1100/2200 is tilting

Instead of 800/1600 and 1100/2200 I would use 1000/1500 and 1000/2000 instead.

And if you are using 2000/3000 then I would change the 100/300 to 200/300...........also tilting lol.

 

[BGinGA]

There are sound mathematical reasons for using both 100/300 (vs 200/300) and 1100/2200 levels -- it keeps the blind increase percentages in a more consistent and narrower range.

And if it tilts some of your players, so much the better for you.