Tourney T5 Tournament - First Time Host (1 Viewer)

[emunster18]

First post here, so thanks in advance for your input. I am hosting a two table (16-18 player) tournament next week. Only recently got back into hosting cash games the past couple months. We play 0.25/0.50 with a $50 max buy-in.

Now, I won't belabor the conversation with optimal chip stacks, as I see many people have posted about it and have many opinions. However, my question revolves around coloring up chips. Trying to raise the blinds quick enough that the game only lasts about 3 hours. Below is the schedule I am proposing.

T5 Starting Stack - 2,500 made of 5/25/100/500/1,000 - 10/6/8/1/1
Blinds - Time
5/10 - 25 (0:25)
10/20 - 25 (0:50)
25/50 - 20 (1:10)
50/100 - 20 (1:30)
75/150 - 20 (1:50)
100/200 - 20 (2:10)
200/400 - 20 (2:30)
300/600 - 15 (2:45)
500/1,000 - 15 (3:00)
1,000/2,000 - 15 (3:15)
2,000/4,000 - 15 (3:30)

By the time we get to 1,000/2,000 there will only be 20-25 BBs on the table depending on re-buys. I have 3 primary questions:

1. Should we build in a 5 minute break every hour or so?
2. How often should we color up, and what are the mechanics of it? I am planning on dealing all night, and playing. It would feel weird to color up the pot with chips out of a rack while I am the dealer and have a playable stack in front of me. Would it be better to schedule a break and color up then?
3. At or beyond the 500/1,000 level, should we color everything up to 500s and 1,000s? Or should we leave stacks of 100s on the table?

Thanks for letting me join the group, and good luck out there!

P.S. Bought some Nevada Jack Skulls a couple months ago to start hosting cash games. This is my first ceramic set, and I love em!

 

[Kentucky]

You need to watch @Chris Manzoni ’s YouTube-

It won’t match your exact structure but the mechanics are all the same.

 

[Santa123]

In my opinion your blind schedule is at least very unconventional however maybe you should just give it a try. You let the players start very deep with 250BB but want to finsih a two table tourney in 3 hours. You reduze the length of the blnd levels and you raise the blinds by 100% than 50% or less and than again 100%.

Here is my T5 structure.

Ignore the hole reload thing. If I would want to end this tourney in 3 hours I would start with 1k, skip level 1 and reduce the blind levels to 12 minutes.
(Probably need to add levels 300/600 and 400/800 to finish the tourney.)

 

[emunster18]

Thanks for the commentary here. I'll likely adjust the blinds to add a 15/30 level and raise them a little less aggressively. Most of the people playing are less experienced. The deep stack and slow first few levels were to ensure that they get a good amount of playing time in before the blinds eat up their stacks. However, sounds like a 2 table tournament in 3 hours is quite fast. I'll add a couple levels and have the expectation that the game lasts 3.5 - 4 hours instead.

 

[BGinGA]

For an 18-player T5-base tournament lasting 3 hours, I recommend the following:

T1500 starting stacks (10/10/7/1)
Blind levels starting at 5/10 (150bb)
Color-up T5 and T25 chips during scheduled breaks (no need to color-up T100s)

20-minute levels for L1-L4:
L1 5/10 --
L2 10/20 100%
L3 20/40 100%
L4 40/80 100%
10-minute break
(use 2 x T500 to remove T5 chips)
15-minute levels for L5-L12:
L5 75/150 88%
L6 125/250 67%
L7 200/400 60%
L8 300/600 50%
10-minute break
(use 5 x T1000 to remove T25 chips)
L9 500/1000 67%
L10 700/1500 50% ***eot***
L11 1000/2000
L12 1500/3000

Event will end by L10, or 3:10 total time (including breaks)

* Note that your structure gets to 75/150 after 90 minutes, while this one reaches 75/150 after 80 minutes but using uniform blind level times and increases -- and leaving more time for the more meaningful middle- and late-levels of the tournament, and without the need to double those blinds.

Chips required:
180 x T5
180 x T25
126 x T100
20 x T500 (includes 2x for T5 color-up)
5 x T1000 (for T25 color-up)
---------
511 chips

 

[SlowPokeTony]

T5 squad!!! Best format imo. 10/10/7/x always runs best because you just need 10/10/10 per player since the 10/10 colors up nicely into the 7 to make the next 10. Rebuys with 500s if necessary. Shouldn’t even need to color up the 100s.

 

[emunster18]

You need to watch @Chris Manzoni ’s YouTube-

It won’t match your exact structure but the mechanics are all the same.

This was extremely helpful. The color ups went very smooth. I had breaks scheduled every hour or so and colored both tables smoothly.