I run a heads up tourney with 16 people once a month for the last 4 months or so, it's been a huge success and is really popular. After tweaking my game for the last few months I've finally ended up with a good format. We start with T1200, blinds go up every 15 minutes starting at 5-10, 10-25, 25-50, 50-100, 75-150, 100-200 and then double from then on. You start with 1200 each match and do not carry on any chips you've won. We play a double elimination tourney so even if you take a bad beat along the line you still have a second chance.
Also, there was one week I ended up with 14 players making 2 players get a 1st round bye. Instead of 2 people just getting lucky and moving on for free, I offered the 2 seats for $10 more than the standard buy in and everyone was cool about it. (our standard buy in is $30, so 2 players paid $40 and got to skip the first round.)
One other twist we put on our game is we run a pool similar to an NCAA basketball bracket. I hand everyone a sheet with the tournament bracket on it, they fill in the blanks with who they think is going to win and we all pitch in $10 to the pool, whoever has the most right wins the pool. ( I think the best part about the pool is inciting some friendly trash talk for betting against your friends! It makes for a great time)
And my last tip for a running a succesful heads up tourney is to have an extra table set up for either side games, cash games or dominos (we play dominos for cash too). It's no fun to go in, lose 2 games and sit the rest of the night out so I have an extra table set up so as people bust out they can play their own games drink some beer and give them something to do while they wait to see who wins the tourney ( and their brackets for the pool!)
This format usually runs about 4 hrs give or a take a little bit, and I would recommend it to anyone. You can print out brackets from
www.darters.com if you decide to do the pool also.
Tracey
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