Tourney Outcome

Captn_All_In · #1 (**permalink**) 06-13-2005, 11:42 AM

Well thanks for all the suggestions from Space and Spiff, my tourney went off without a hitch. 23 guys T2000. We had great time: lots of ups and downs- 4 of a kind lost to a straight flush--and Kings Full lost to A's full-- that was a really crazy hand- one new guy kept raising and raising and had jack squat, meanwhile the 2 guys with Full Houses keep calling and calling it was something else!!

Game lasted just under 3 hours, not to bad, we started with tables of 8, 8 , 7 and then split the table of 7 up until it was gone them merged the last two tables when it got down to 10 guys- that was a little tricky, and I may do it different next time.

Well thanks for taking the time to read this stuff, and thanks to the guys who offered suggestions before!!

Spaceman Spiff · #2 (**permalink**) 06-13-2005, 02:21 PM

Glad it worked out well. Just under 3 hours is pretty good for 23 guys. I don't remember your setup. Did you just have a freezeout, or were there rebuys? I would have expected a 23 man game to last a little longer, especailly if there were rebuys. Could have just been a fluke though. Did you feel like you got good play in without it becoming an all-in fest too soon? If so, you've done it right.

As for breaking down tables, I've yet to have a 3 table tournament.

Probably for the best though because I think I would need a bigger house. I'm not quite following what you said you did. Your goal should be to keep the tables as balanced as possible at all times. If you started with tables of 8-8-7 and lost a guy from the table of 7 first, you should move someone from one of the tables of 8 to balance things out to 8-7-7. Lather, rinse, repeat until you're down to 6-6-6 or 18 total players, or at least that's what I would do. Nothing wrong with breaking down to two tables at 20 though either. Anyway, then you'd have 9-9. Play down again until you have your final 9 (or 10 is fine also). Making sure to continue balancing the two tables if necessary.

As for the inevitable question of who should move, there are various schools of thought. In my game, I move by position. For instance, if I've got tables of 8-7 and the UTG player at the table of 7 busts, I would move the player from the table of 8 who would be the next BB (the guy who is UTG in the current hand). This way, no one misses a blind or gets hit with a double blind as the result of moving. In your case where you'd have two tables of 8 to choose from, you just have to do a draw to see who moves.

SpaceMonkey · #3 (**permalink**) 06-13-2005, 05:02 PM

Glad to hear it went well for you!

I'm having my first two table tournament early next month. I'm going to let Tournament Director handle all the seating arrangements/switches. It seems to do a good job keeping tables balanced from what I can tell. Not sure if it's good in terms of blinds though. Don't see how it could be, so hopefully it won't be too big of an issue.

I agree with Spiff, you should try and keep all three tables as balanced as possible. If I weren't using TD, I'd probably deal out high card for the person switching, and move him to a similar seat on the short table.

Captn_All_In · #4 (**permalink**) 06-13-2005, 08:13 PM

There were no rebuys, the regulars in my game think they take out the skill!!??!! Anyways, we had a number of people who had never played and thought they could bluff just like they see on tv! So they went out pretty early. Well to address the combining tables issue, the table of 7 shrank pretty quickly, I would say that it was down to three guys by the end of the second level (40 mins), I happened to be at that table, and it was quick with the blinds and all but it wasn't that bad because I had knocked out two guys trying to bluff, the other guys were also pretty expirienced (sp) and we ended up muckin several hands in a row until the whole Aces Full Kings Full debacle!! Then our whole table merged with the other two.

I do like the idea of moving guys to the smaller tables in order to combine them! I will have to do some more research on that as well, Spiff we did move guys according to their position and every time a seat opened a guy moved it didn't matter to which table he went, we werent to serious about that I guess.

I went out in fifth place and took home my entry fee so I was pretty satisfied ($10). I also did not hear anybody complain so that was a real big bonus!!

Well thanks again for your advice, I will let you know when I am planning the next big tourney--I am hoping to get the same number again maybe even a few more!!!

smoore · #5 (**permalink**) 06-14-2005, 12:57 PM

Yeah, you gotta balance tables. It not only keeps the people on the "short" table from having to pay more blinds but it gives someone else the chance to get at that money. I LOVE getting moved to the short table, because I'm bringing my stack over and these guys just busted one or two people out. They're in gamb000l mode and they have more chips than everyone else. mmmmmmm.

Spaceman Spiff · #6 (**permalink**) 06-14-2005, 01:40 PM

Ah yes, the old rebuy takes away all the skill argument. I can agree that it probably does up your variance, but no above average poker player should be against rebuys. Here's the conversation that I've used to convince some of my complainers:

Me: You're a pretty good player, right?
Fishy: Yeah, I guess so.
Me: So you don't think it's fair that we go ahead and let the weaker players pay 2 to 3 times more than we do to play?
Fishy: Well, I mean...
Me: Even though the better players are still going to cash more than their fair share?
Fishy: Yeah, but...
Me: And when we do cash it's going to be 2-3 times more because of all the extra rebuys in the pot?
Fishy: Oh.

Spaceman Spiff · #7 (**permalink**) 06-14-2005, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpaceMonkey

Glad to hear it went well for you!

I'm having my first two table tournament early next month. I'm going to let Tournament Director handle all the seating arrangements/switches. It seems to do a good job keeping tables balanced from what I can tell. Not sure if it's good in terms of blinds though. Don't see how it could be, so hopefully it won't be too big of an issue.

I agree with Spiff, you should try and keep all three tables as balanced as possible. If I weren't using TD, I'd probably deal out high card for the person switching, and move him to a similar seat on the short table.

I tried letting TD handle it, but yeah, it has no idea where the blinds are, so I think it just moves players at random. It does serve as a nice reminder when you need to move players or break a table down though. Actually, I'd be curious to know how it decides who to move. In theory, if seat 5 busts out, you just move the seat 5 from the other table I guess, but in practice, the buttons probably get out of sync pretty quick.

Honestly, with two tables and probably even three, I think it would be easy enough to just manage manually. I can see when you get up to 4, 5+ tables having something like TD handle it all is pretty nice. Anyone know how they manage all the moving a table breakdowns at something like the WSOP? With over 200 tables, I would think you could possibly breakdown a table about every few hands if you wanted. That seems like a lot of moving.

Captn_All_In · #8 (**permalink**) 06-14-2005, 02:52 PM

I have never seen TD can I get a demo of it somewhere??

How does it know who has busted out?? Can you play while using the program--what I mean is...is it a distraction to you as a tournament director and player??

Again help and suggestions are appreciated!!

Spaceman Spiff · #9 (**permalink**) 06-14-2005, 03:35 PM

www.tournamentdirector.net I believe. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

It's donationware, no demo. The download is fully functional. If you like it, you kick a few bucks through Paypal to the programmer. I've used it for a few games and I like it, so I probably will be making my "payment" soon.

It's not perfect, but it's highly customizable and pretty easy to use once you kick around in it for a bit. There are hot keys to do just about anything you need while the game is running. If someone is knocked out, you press 'X' (I think) and it will then prompt you to click on who got knocked out. If that causes imbalanced tables and you have that feature turned on, it will tell you who to move to balance things out.

As for being a distraction, I don't know. I sit my laptop on the bar and let it run. When I have to get up to put in knock outs or rebuys, I'm usually up anyway to collect the rebuy and get the rebuy chips, so it's no big deal. If you have more space, which I don't, you could have the computer on a side table next to you and you wouldn't even have to move.

The program lets you set up and save any number of blinds schedules, payouts, etc. There are some things I'd like to see added and that's where the donationware comes in. I'm certain he's going to be much more likely to make additions and refinements if he's actually seeing some benefit. When you figure any of the other clocks out there are $40 and up, it's a great deal for a nice piece of software.

SpaceMonkey · #10 (**permalink**) 06-14-2005, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spaceman Spiff

As for being a distraction, I don't know. I sit my laptop on the bar and let it run. When I have to get up to put in knock outs or rebuys, I'm usually up anyway to collect the rebuy and get the rebuy chips, so it's no big deal. If you have more space, which I don't, you could have the computer on a side table next to you and you wouldn't even have to move.

I do the exact same thing (big surprise at this point). Except I have each player knock themselves out of TD. They call it "the walk of shame".

Quite the opposite of a distraction, using a tournament program on a laptop makes it easier for whomever's running it. At least it does for me. I don't have to constantly deal with questions like:

"What are the blinds again?"
"How many minutes are left at this level?"
"What do the blinds jump up to next?"
"When's the next break?"