Tourney Tourney vs Cash game for one table? (1 Viewer)

[Lester86]

Is it worth messing with a tournament for only one table? I find that my cash game can get a little stale sometimes and sometimes we have to raise the blinds.
Thanks in advance and sorry if this has been discussed already.

 

[NotRealNameNoSir]

Yes, a single table tournament, STT as we call it on here. Great format, lotta fun.

 

[Lester86]

Yes, a single table tournament, STT as we call it on here. Great format, lotta fun.

Ok great thank you. Should I search STT for blind structures etc. or is there a single place this kind of thing has been posted?

 

[allforcharity]

Ok great thank you. Should I search STT for blind structures etc. or is there a single place this kind of thing has been posted?

This subforum is full of structure advice. Search away!

 

[FearlessFred]

Is it worth messing with a tournament for only one table? I find that my cash game can get a little stale sometimes and sometimes we have to raise the blinds.
Thanks in advance and sorry if this has been discussed already.

Rather than raising the blinds you could play with a straddle?

 

[NotRealNameNoSir]

Ok great thank you. Should I search STT for blind structures etc. or is there a single place this kind of thing has been posted?

Yup, search STT and start looking at breakdowns, there's been hundreds of threads about how to optimally run a tournament for any amount of people or chips.

I like tournaments, good way to mix it up. It forces players to prioritize and play differently; some people will play the same but thinking players will quickly learn they have to adjust to the rising stakes and pressures.

 

[Nymor]

Tournaments can be fun, I host them occasionally for a change of scenery but make mine deepstack and structure them in such a way that everyone gets a good few hours of play. You can do that with rebuys as well. I don't want people making a trip, however short, to get knocked out early.

You don't mention what you play when you play cash but if it's only Holdem then a sure fire way to spice things up if the games are getting stale is to mix it up a bit. I host one group that moved from Holdem tournies to full-on Circus Cash in about 4 sessions. Start with Holdem and variants, the various Pineapples and Super Holdem etc, then add basic 4 card Omaha, then 5 cards, double boards etc, Hi/Lo, some Stud varieties and then on to the more exotic.

 

[rjbf65]

Is it worth messing with a tournament for only one table? I find that my cash game can get a little stale sometimes and sometimes we have to raise the blinds.
Thanks in advance and sorry if this has been discussed already.

Everyone has their own preferences but IMO when you have just one table then a cash game is preferable. If you have enough players for multiple tables then tournaments make more sense.

My reasoning is when you have 7 or 8 guys show up for a night of poker then it's pretty tough on the first few guys that get knocked out of a tournament. They either have to decide whether they want to stick around for a cash game, another tournament, or go home. If you play cash then guys keep reloading until they don't want to anymore. A cash game offers the most amount of poker to be played per player versus a tournament.

If you have multiple tables of players then you'll more likely get multiple people knocked out at close enough intervals that a cash game can start reasonably soon.

Our group played hold'em only cash for a long time and it did get stale. Once we opened it up to dealers choice the game took on new life.

 

[Nine_high]

Is it worth messing with a tournament for only one table? I find that my cash game can get a little stale sometimes and sometimes we have to raise the blinds.
Thanks in advance and sorry if this has been discussed already.

I usually don't, unless there's a specific reason to such as a beginners/learning game.

I alternate between dealers choice cash and holdem tourney. If I don't get two tables on tournament night I just do single table cash Holdem.

 

[detroitdad]

Is it worth messing with a tournament for only one table? I find that my cash game can get a little stale sometimes and sometimes we have to raise the blinds.
Thanks in advance and sorry if this has been discussed already.

I will always choose cash. I think the dynamics of a cash game are more fun. It is all subjective.

If your cash game is getting stale, have you tried introducing any other game? PLO or PLO8? What about any stud or draw variants? If that doesn't work. You could add some prop betting games into the mix?

 

[Labrat]

@rjbf65 nailed the reasons why we play only cash any more. Some folks have a 45 minute drive (if not more) and to get knocked out in an hour or two just sucks. We've set our stakes pretty low with the aim to have multiple re-buys for those that get felted to extend their playing time until they don't want to play any more. The night's winners feel accomplished, and the night's losers spent what they'd spend at a bar in the same amount of time.

Without knowing what your definition of "stale" is, I'm going to say Dealer's Choice is the way to go. We used to play nothing but hold em but now we're playing a good-sized mix of limit, no-limit, and pot-limit dealer's choice games along with some silly circus games (which I hate, but I roll with it).

We've never looked back.

 

[decker04]

It's both fun and a lot of times less stressful for if you have any newer players because they tend to get more action for a cheaper price.

 

[Kentucky]

I do tournaments, I do cash, depending on the mood.

You can add a bomb pot every 30-60 minutes (maybe with PLO, or Pineapple, or double board) to spice up your cash game.

 

[Lester86]

To be honest keeping up with the blinds doesn’t too hard but coloring up seems a little intimidating. Any tips or guides for that? Thanks for all the help

 

[AlbinoDragon]

To be honest keeping up with the blinds doesn’t too hard but coloring up seems a little intimidating. Any tips or guides for that? Thanks for all the help

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/how-many-chips-needed-for-color-ups.122348/#post-2513219

This, or just round up at color-up time. I started with that, then did a "proper" color up later. Practice on your own time to get the hang of it. It's actually not that challenging once you have tried it with real chips, even as a test.

 

[Kentucky]

The Manzoni Video

 

[Taghkanic]

If I were hosting one-table tourneys, I would probably make it a league. That way players could be working toward a bigger payoff and be motivated to attend to accrue points.

 

[Nine_high]

To be honest keeping up with the blinds doesn’t too hard but coloring up seems a little intimidating. Any tips or guides for that? Thanks for all the help

Figure out how much is coming off the table. I recommend rounding up as opposed to messing with chip races. For instance, if you're coloring up 25s, and you started 8 players with 12 each, that's 2400 plus some round up. I would bring an empty rack and three 1k chips from the bank and put them in the middle of the table.

Have everyone stack their 25s out front before they walk away. Most people will naturally break them down into stacks of four, but you might need to ask them to or do it for them. If you're rounding up you can just count each partial stack as a whole.

Now you can just break the 1k chips straight up with one or two players, getting some mix of 100/500. Use those to swap everyone's 25s and rack them in the middle as you go. You're probably going to color up a handful of 100s in this process, depending on the distribution of odd 25s. If all eight players happened to have one odd chip then you should not have any 100s coming off, etc.

After you do it a couple times you'll get pretty efficient. For instance you can combine steps by having a couple people who are heavy on 100s add enough to their color up to make each a smooth 1k, and now you have two or three people done and all the small chips you need for the other players. It's also very easy to practice this by yourself. It takes me a couple minutes to color up a whole table.

 

[UncleSalty]

I host both cash & tourney.
Start with a 3 hour cash game, no hit and runners, end with a tourney with bounties.

Some come for just cash, some come for just the tourney and some both.

Always a full table.

Cash game is S.H.O.E or dealers choice and tourney is either PLO8, Omaha NL, Holdem NL or a mix. Sometimes a freeze out, sometimes with 1 re-entry.

6-8 players, 6-7 hour session. It's always a blast!

Have fun!

 

[CincinattiKiddo]

If I were hosting one-table tourneys, I would probably make it a league. That way players could be working toward a bigger payoff and be motivated to attend to accrue points.

You have a link to a great league system thread. I am interested in this