[Captn_All_In]

I am hosting a 28 man, T1500, shootout this weekend. I am going to start with 4 tables of 7 players, and then play each table down to 2 players, then those players will merge into the final table. My question is this....what do I do if table A takes much longer than the other 3, lets say 30min+? Should I continue the blind structure and then start it over once the table is down to two? Or should I just keep the table playing at that blind level, until it gets down to 2?

Also should I start the final table with a specific blind level? Say 100/200, figuring that the average stack size is 5000?

Any and all help is greatly appreciated!!

[Brewster]

I would call a break when you get down to 14 people left and reassign everyone to two tables to keep things a bit more even. It may take longer to get to the final table but it will give the participants something to think about.

eg. you are down to ten players (6 from table 1 and 4 from table 2), the players at the first table may want to accellerate their game to build a nice stack for the final table or go conservative and try to outlast the others leaving them rather shortstacked at the final table. The smaller group at table 2 may decide to play things slowly and hang on to their chips and wait for the final eliminations to come from table one rather than risk their stack trying to outplay each other on their shorthanded table.

With regards to the blind structure, I would stop the timer and continue at that level until the final table is set. For the final table you will have 8 players battling for 48000 in total chips (assuming no rebuys or add ons). This will leave each contestant an average of 5250 in chips. 100/200 is going to accelerate the pace of the game and put some serious pressure on the short stacks at the table.

I have only run a few smaller tournies so I will hold judgement until some of the more experienced players/organizers on this site step up to the question. It does sound like fun though. Good luck and keep us informed.

[Strange]

Well, for your tourny to be a shootout, you can't really reassign to even up the tables. You just have to go with all four tables until you get down to the last two, even if one finishes a long time before the others.

You could set a starting time for the final table and gauge the blind structure to finish before that time, with steepening blinds and shorter rounds as you get closer to the 'must finish' time. Inevitably there will be a certain amount of waiting around though.

Also the final table should really start from scratch again. Once you have your first or second place secured, your chips are taken away and a new T1000 stack (or whatever) is given to each player with the blinds starting from the begining again.

You could always raise the starting stack to give everyone the 'big table' feel, so if the 4 table round has T1000 each at the beginning, you'll have T32000 in total, so the final table would start out with T4000 each and with starting blinds that are 4 times those of the first round.

[Captn_All_In]

Thanks Brewster. I hadn't thought about reshuffling the players after getting down to a certain number. I may go that route.


Thanks Strange, this is exactly what I was afraid of with the Shoot Out format, "Inevitable waiting around." I also ran the idea of restarting stacks past the guys who are playing and they were strongly against it. (They figured that it would add at least 2 hours onto the tournament, I figured closer to 1.5, but they were still against it.)



Other thoughts are still greatly appreciated!!!

[Brewster]

Another advantage to shuffling players at the half way point is to open up a couple of tables for a "losers lounge" ring game. That way the people who suffered some bad beats or exercised some poor decision making (it happens to us all) can still enjoy some poker goodness and not become totally bored watching the rest play.


Strange, as you can see I have very little experience running (or participating in) a shootout format. Logistically, I can see things taking far too long if you were to wait until every table got down to two players but if that is the way a shootout is played then that is how you run it.

Captn, I hope your plaques will be in play for the tourny.

[Captn_All_In]

Originally Posted by Brewster

Another advantage to shuffling players at the half way point is to open up a couple of tables for a "losers lounge" ring game. That way the people who suffered some bad beats or exercised some poor decision making (it happens to us all) can still enjoy some poker goodness and not become totally bored watching the rest play.


Strange, as you can see I have very little experience running (or participating in) a shootout format. Logistically, I can see things taking far too long if you were to wait until every table got down to two players but if that is the way a shootout is played then that is how you run it.

Captn, I hope your plaques will be in play for the tourny.

I already have tables ready to go for side games- .25-$1 Spread Limit, and .25-.50 No Limit, plus a dealers choice table- should offer lots of variety and fun for all! (Hopefully) Unfortunately Brewster the plaques won't come out, there won't be enough chips to make them feasable! But I am going to start a smaller tourney later in the evening and get them out- 6 man T50K Blinds start at 500-1000. Hopefully that will go over well to!

Thanks Again Guys!!

[Strange]

Originally Posted by Captn_All_In

I also ran the idea of restarting stacks past the guys who are playing and they were strongly against it. (They figured that it would add at least 2 hours onto the tournament, I figured closer to 1.5, but they were still against it.)

I'm not sure why this would be so. Or maybe I wouldn't see why it would be any different.

I've used this analogy before somewhere else I think, but in most sports (all?) the score in the semi final is thrown away when you get to the final, with each team starting from zero again. This is the shootout tourney. each table is regarded as its own game/tourney and each round is treated independantly, like winning a buyin to a major tournament from a satellite.

The 'normal' tourney structure is closer to one gbig table that everyone is playing at, or at least as close as you can get to that with a 52 card pack

One major point here is:

You should run your tourney any way that you want

if you shuffle the tables etc then it wouldn't be a shootout in the strictest sense, but that's not really important if it works out and you have a good time running it and playing.

Personally i get a great kick out of running these things and half the fun is experimenting with changes to shake things up every now and again.

Best of luck!

[Captn_All_In]

Originally Posted by Strange

One major point here is:

You should run your tourney any way that you want

Personally i get a great kick out of running these things and half the fun is experimenting with changes to shake things up every now and again.

Best of luck!

Thanks Strange, the only problem is my current location, which will never change, there are only a few poker players in my area. Most of them I have been converting from old school 1 chip = 1 chip no matter the color. If they don't like what they see, then they don't show. Which means that I have invested enourmous amounts of time and money, then I see no return on it (i.e. fun)

I tried to post my current blind structure but I cannot upload doc's for some reason. Anyway, I have decided to shuffle players at certain points in the tourney. When I am down to 14, and down to 8. This should keep things mixed up while at the same time not make it such a hassle to completely balance the tables every time a player is knocked out. I know it is not the official way, but I think it will be the easiest.

Hopefully it will all work out in the end!

Thanks Again!!

[spicychili]

Originally Posted by Brewster

I would call a break when you get down to 14 people left and reassign everyone to two tables to keep things a bit more even. It may take longer to get to the final table but it will give the participants something to think about.

eg. you are down to ten players (6 from table 1 and 4 from table 2), the players at the first table may want to accellerate their game to build a nice stack for the final table or go conservative and try to outlast the others leaving them rather shortstacked at the final table. The smaller group at table 2 may decide to play things slowly and hang on to their chips and wait for the final eliminations to come from table one rather than risk their stack trying to outplay each other on their shorthanded table.

With regards to the blind structure, I would stop the timer and continue at that level until the final table is set. For the final table you will have 8 players battling for 48000 in total chips (assuming no rebuys or add ons). This will leave each contestant an average of 5250 in chips. 100/200 is going to accelerate the pace of the game and put some serious pressure on the short stacks at the table.

I have only run a few smaller tournies so I will hold judgement until some of the more experienced players/organizers on this site step up to the question. It does sound like fun though. Good luck and keep us informed.

What is the difference between your structure and a regular Multi Table Tournament?
It seems that you are just restructuring the players at certain time levels instead of keeping the tables just one player off.

I always thought that a shoot out tourney was similar to a couple separate SNGs and the top two or three move to the final table where the blinds start over and everyone starts with a fresh load of chips.

I am thinking of running a HU shoot out tourney and the way I would run it would be.

16 people.
1500 chips to start
Blinds start at 10/20
Eight tables to start.
When all the eight tables finish start up four tables.
When those finish start up two tables
Then start the final table.

At every start you reset the blind timer and start everyone with 1500 in chips again.

If another table takes longer than the other people can shoot pool, play darts, play shuffle board, or start a cash game while they are waiting.

[Strange]

Spicy,

Heads up will always be shoot out, so its a little different.

I agree with Capt's last point though, its one thing to come up with a great idea, and quite another to hussle up the enthusiasm in people to support it.