Tourney Review Structure for possible Bday Tourney (8 Viewers)

[Preditor]

I want to host a large (for me) poker tourney for my Bday in November, inviting key players from the various clubs I play in to one big hoorah. I thought it would be cool to help out a school toy drive that's dear to me, though for legal reasons I can’t host a "charity" event. Social gambling is allowed in California, but redistributing money from a prize pool to charity requires registration. I believe I found a good and legal workaround, providing a chip bonus with an optional contribution to the toy drive.

I just managed a 40 person tourney at a local club I play at, and am confident I can do this one myself. I am confident in the structure, but wanted to post here for any additional thoughts. The idea of this is to make it as casual and fun as possible. If any has any tweaks how to spice it up, let me know!

BUY-IN: $60 (gets you 10K in chips). All money here goes to the prize pool.
TOY DRIVE BONUS: 5K chip bonus if you bring a $20 Target gift card for school toy drive.
ON TIME BONUS: 1K bonus if you show up and register by 2:00 PM.
REBUY: One $40 rebuy through level 5 gets an additional 10/15K stack (depending on your original stack). Short stack surrender allowed at the first break if you have 7K chips or less.

PLAYERS: 20-30
TABLES: 8-max
FINAL TABLE: 8 players
PAYOUTS: Goal is to pay all players at the final table if possible. 24 or more I will pay 8. 23 or fewer players, I’ll pay the top 1/3 of the field.

BDAY BONUS: I am turning 35. If someone wins a hand at showdown with 3/5 (suited or off), I will personally give them an Amazon gift card.

OTHER:

• Big Blind First (not Ante First)
• Keep full antes through end of tournament and heads up
• I am providing pizza at a dinner break, and will have board games available for anyone who busts out in round 2 and wishes to hang around

CHIPS:

• T25 Tourney with a 10K starting stack
• 8/8/4/7 breakdown for the first 10K, plus bonus chips (I've done the math; I have enough)

BLIND STRUCTURE :

SMALL BLIND	BIG BLIND	BIG BLIND ANTE	MINUTES
25	50	-	20
50	100	100	20
75	150	150	20
100	200	200	20
150	300	300	20
BREAK (T25 CU)	BREAK (T25 CU)	BREAK (T25 CU)	15
200	400	400	20
300	600	600	20
400	800	800	20
600	1200	1200	20
800	1600	1600	20
DINNER BREAK (T100 CU)	DINNER BREAK (T100 CU)	DINNER BREAK (T100 CU)	35
1000	2000	2000	20
1500	3000	3000	20
2000	4000	4000	20
3000	6000	6000	20
4000	8000	8000	20
BREAK	BREAK	BREAK	10
6000	12K	12K	15
8000	16K	16K	15
10K	20K	20K	15
15K (LIKELY LATEST END)	30K (LIKELY LATEST END)	30K (LIKELY LATEST END)	15
20K	40K	40K	15
30K	60K	60K	15

 

[TheRealStephen12]

Structure looks fine (maybe add the BBA for level 1 or change it to 50/100 no ante so there's not a 233% increase)
For payouts, I'd do the following percentages:

This give a guaranteed profit to anybody who is in for $60 ($74 for 10th in a 28 player tournament if rounding to the nearest whole dollar).

I realize I did it wrong, paying out a minimum of 8 or 1/3 rounded up, whichever is greater, but it spreads the wealth if you like that. I can redo it as well if you'd like for 7.

 

[Preditor]

Structure looks fine (maybe add the BBA for level 1 or change it to 50/100 no ante so there's not a 233% increase)
For payouts, I'd do the following percentages:

View attachment 1393776
This give a guaranteed profit to anybody who is in for $60 ($74 for 10th in a 28 player tournament if rounding to the nearest whole dollar).

I realize I did it wrong, paying out a minimum of 8 or 1/3 rounded up, whichever is greater, but it spreads the wealth if you like that. I can redo it as well if you'd like for 7.

Thanks for this! I actually wish there was some more discussion here regarding payout structure.

I do think capping at 8 is generous. If I get 30 (my max) that is still 25% of the field paid. Though I may reconsider.

If I get 24+, right now is to pay last 2 places $100. That gives them $20 profit if they do the bonus.

But I will allocate the rebuy money (estimating 4-8 people) to the top 6 places to unflatten the curve.

Still, these percentages are a great baseline.

 

[Preditor]

(maybe add the BBA for level 1 or change it to 50/100 no ante so there's not a 233% increase)

Also, I thought about this. I originally had a BBA at level 1 and may reinstate it.

Level 1 to me though is the "get into the swing of things" level. Everyone I am inviting know poker rules; but some people haven't played live poker in a bit. So to me, Level 1 is the "you have 200BB and 20 minutes to get into the flow."

 

[TheRealStephen12]

Thanks for this! I actually wish there was some more discussion here regarding payout structure.

I do think capping at 8 is generous. If I get 30 (my max) that is still 25% of the field paid. Though I may reconsider.

If I get 24+, right now is to pay last 2 places $100. That gives them $20 profit if they do the bonus.

But I will allocate the rebuy money (estimating 4-8 people) to the top 6 places to unflatten the curve.

Still, these percentages are a great baseline.

I built it based on how the EPT handles their payouts. They pay 15% of the field rounded to the nearest multiple of 8 minus 1 as follows:

1st: 60% more than 2nd
2nd: 40% more than 3rd
3rd - 9th: 30% more than the place before
10-11th - 21-23rd: 20% more than the places before
All other pay jumps: 15% more than the places before (sometime 10% at the bottom of the scale in the largest events).

I did yours similarly but with smaller jumps to accommodate the large percentage of the field paid (40%, 30%, 20%, then 15% for the rest). Then I rounded and adjusted as much as necessary to make them add up to 100%.

 

[TheRealStephen12]

If you pay out 7 players, the formula I used would give you:

26.5%
19.0%
14.6%
12.2%
10.5%
9.2%
8.0%

Minimum prize of 8% would be $96 assuming 20 players and no rebuys (a $16 profit with the add on, almost at your $100 figure).