[smoore]

Feel free to critique, copy or integrate these ideas. I designed this to allow the "fish" to gambool it up and get lucky sometimes while biasing the blinds and payouts to favor skilled players. I only wish I could have the rounds longer. Latecomers are given 30mins "grace" period in which to purchase thier first buyin. There is no pre-registration. Seating is random, using cards in certain suits to determine table and position. Ace through 10 of hearts and spades, Ace of spades chooses table and seat, Ace of hearts chooses seat and everyone lines up on them.

Chipset, Desert Sands from Nevada Jacks:
Color/Value/800 set/1000 set
Red/5/300/300
Green/25/220/200
Black/100/220/300
Purple/500/40/100
Yellow/1000/20/100

Right now I have 800 of them and allow 1 rebuy if busted (close, actually.... under 200 we let ppl rebuy) with an addon of 1500 (all allowed to take addon). When I get the other 200 high denom chips (and replace those 20 green w/black) I'll be able to allow unlimited rebuys whenever the player is at or below the starting stack during the rebuy period as I'll have enough for 5.9 rebuys per player and enough left over to allow a 2000 addon. The chipset is a little light on green chips but from experience it works fine because as we get to the levels where greens are the "basic" chip people like to bet the blacks anyway. There is some need to make change early in the game but everyone manages.

20 players max:
Red - 15
Green - 9
Black - 7
Starting stack = 1000 $T
Freezeouts start at 1500

One rack of black available for first 10 rebuys, then onto the purples. 20 greens and 10 blacks color up all the red, 50 blacks color up the greens. If max rebuys are achieved, never color up blacks (mmmmm, TV stacks!), otherwise there are 30k worth of black chips, easy to color w/purple and yellow.

Blinds:
Time/SB/BB/Ante
20/5/10/0
20/10/20/0
20/15/30/0
10/BREAK
20/25/50/0
20/40/80/0
20/50/100/0
20/BREAK - Color red chips - Rebuy period ends
15/75/150/0
15/100/200/0
15/100/200/25
15/150/300/25
10/BREAK
15/200/400/50
15/300/600/50
15/400/800/100
15/500/1000/100
20/BREAK - Color Green
15/600/1200/100
15/800/1600/200
15/1000/2000/200
15/1500/3000/300
15/2000/4000/400
15/2500/5000/500
15/BREAK
15/3000/6000/600
15/3500/7000/700
15/4000/8000/800
15/4500/9000/900
90/5000/10000/1000

If I manage to get all the chips in play (180000) the tournament should end at the 4500/9000 mark. Freezeouts end around 1000/2000 if the last two players play well HU. The last round is 90 minutes because the tournament timer I have only does 30 levels. I can only hope we ever get there though.

Right now we play $10 with that single rebuy and addon, I really want to go to $5 when the unlimited rebuys come into play to make a complete gamb0000000l fest Some of my friends are comfortable playing $50 freezeouts but most only like to risk $20-30 on any given day.

Prize structure - percentage:
Players/1st/2nd/3rd/4th
15-20/40/30/20/10
8-14/50/30/20
5-7/60/40
<5/100

So... At $10 if we have 18 players, 9 rebuy+addon, 5 addon and 4 no additional buys, we end up with $410:
1st $164
2nd $123
3rd $82
4th $41
which I round to:
1st $170
2nd $120
3rd $80
4th $40

I use coin envelopes to package the prize money after the addon, this makes it super simple to pay the winners, simply hand them the envelope with thier placement on it. I get the envelopes back, I'm a cheap bastard.

Dealing is accompolished with the "two deck method". You shuffle the deck you just dealt and pass it off two to your left who will deal the next hand. That player offers the cut to his right. Three people are involved in the shuffle. We use the cut card to indicate the "dealer button" in case of confusion. I used to have two cut cards on the table at a time but with one it makes everything crystal clear. The hand is started with the act of handing off the dealer button/cut card for blind level purposes. It hasn't happened yet but if the wrong color card is discovered in a deck it's treated like a boxed card (scrap of paper), and the hand is completed. Then the clock and action stops and all decks in play are counted down and verified. When shorthanded there always seems to be someone willing to shuffle each deck for the players.