[mac40k]

For my league last year we did best 10 of 15. That way missing games didn't hurt you. Also, the points system was skewed heavily towards winning, so players that joined late in the season, but did really well passed others that just "showed up" for all 15 games. This way, there were no minimum games required and we could accept new people throughout the season. The top 9 in the standings automatically qualified for the tournament of champions and everyone else played a playoff game for the 10th seat. Stack sizes for the TOC and playoff were determined by your regular season performance, so more points meant more starting chips at the final table. This helped keep even the folks low in the standings involved throughout the season because a) even one win could vault you up the leaderboard several places and b) the playoff game meant that you were never really out of the running. On the other hand, those that did the best in the regular season did get something for it in the form of a chip advantage at the TOC. Seemed fair to everyone.