Here is a somewhat verbose (tribute to Bolgenmod!) report of my hosting experience last night.
I hosted my first full tournament last night in my poker room for some co-workers/friends. It went great! Thanks to the Chiptalk community for all the advice and resources that made this easy and a great success! Chiptalk has become an integral part of my poker/chip illness!
The goal was to have a low buy-in ($5) friendly game. I wanted to maximize particpation and not bust anyone out early so they would have to go home or just sit around for a long time being social while the rest of us played so I used a T1000 structure with unlimited rebuys in the first 4 rounds (only had 4 people re-buy once) and a T1500 add-on at the end of the 4th round (6 people participated).
The blind structure worked great, except for one snag - we colored up the $25's when the small blind reached $100 and then realized later that the blind schedule called for $25 Antes so we opted to just drop the antes since the $25 chips were off the table.
I used a new Poker Genie Pro for the timer and had entered a custom schedule. The Poker Genie is AWESOME! I had previously used a dealer button with built in timer that had no real bells and whistles. It was fine but the Genie was so much more automated and helped the rounds run very smoothly and there was no question as to blinds.
I went with 20 minute rounds and with the re-buys/add-on, the game lasted 4.5 hours which was the perfect length.
I used my BJ Mullet Bay chips and they were a big hit. My set of 650 chips was perfect for this structure and with the rebuys, I was able to handle all rebuys, add-ons and color-ups with no shortage of chips. I should be able to run up to a T3000 tournament with it with no rebuys or add-ons.
I used TV trays for drink carts positioned behind the chairs and that was awesome. No spills or food on my table. Drinks and snack plates could still be in reach and I wasn't stressed about spilled coke on my velveteen!
Everyone had a great time and I received numerous comments such as "Your setup is awesome!", "Invite me back any time.", "Let's play here from now on."
I ended up winning the tournament, which I feel a little guilty about
but everyone had a good time without going broke, which was the point.
I made a point of running things smoothly and with structure. Each position had a rank-of-hands card and a rack of their starting chips in front of them. Players were seated by "picking a card" from 2-10 which corresponded to the same numbered cards at the positions. I read the rules clearly to everyone and answered any questions. We then high-carded for the button and ran through a practice hand for the beginners.
Everyone liked the structure very much. It clearly created a more pleasant, professional experience than the other home games I have gone to in which there is little to no preparation by the host, its assumed everyone knows how to play and no house rules are defined. Those games are more of a chaotic experience that result in a card-game with quite a few snags. I'm happy my planning avoided those issues.
Next time, I am going to offer a bounty on myself and give prizes to the top 3 finishers like a deck of Copags, Lederer instructional DVD, etc. I might eventually graduate to some neat custom plaques or chips that have winning positions on them if I can get a good price on them. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.
Here's a photo of my setup pre-game as I was getting everything ready.
Linear Mode
