[TL_PRIME]

I run about 2 tournaments a month. But once every summer I have the "big" tourney which is a alot higher buy in than my group normally plays. Normal buyin being $5 buyin the "big" one is $25 buyin. The big tourney also has a much bigger starting stack and attracts more people. Normally we start with T10000 sometimes T25000 the big tourney starts with T50000 per player. I use the same structure for both formats, so naturally the T50000 tourney will last alot longer, but my players expect this cause it's the big poker sumemrtime bash that happens every year. ANyway this has gotten long winded and I'm just looking for opinions on the structure. I feel it's pretty decent and allows for some skillfull playing due to the large starting stacks. Feel free to give your thoughts.

15 minute rounds

25/50
50/100
75/150
100/200

200/400
300/600
400/800
500/1000

600/1200
700/1400
800/1600
1000/2000

2000/4000
3000/6000
4000/8000
5000/10000

6000/12000
7000/14000
8000/16000
10000/20000

15000/30000
20000/40000
25000/50000
30000/60000

and so on...

thanks for any and all replies

[compost kid]

I have posted on this before and my opinion is that antes are an important part of the tournament structure. Something along the lines of 1/7 to 1/8 of the big blind puts money into the pot and really encourages action.

I ran a 61 person fundraiser last spring and we were not allowed to have antes by the licencing dept of Lotteries (stupid government rules). Anyway when we got near the bubble the play tightened up so much that it was painful to watch and dragged out forever. Antes would have forced some of the shorter stacks to act a lot sooner.

[TL_PRIME]

I agree totally. I used to run antes but no one in my game liked them. Mainly because most of the people would forget to put them in every hand and it was up to a few to get their attention to put their antes in every round, and people felt it held the game up severly (which it did) My group is about 12 people, sometimes more, but only 2-3 of us are diehard poker players that understand the antes. The concept seemed hard to grasp for alot of the other players because the first few rounds there are no antes, then suddenly they are confused because now they have to put chips in on every hand. The bright side is my game never seems to slow down too badly because of not having antes. There's enough people that play loosely enough to keep action going.

I might try again this year though.

[ky70]

I don't like the structure for two reasons:
1) The game starts out each player with 1,000x the Big Blind (assuming 50k starting stacks). I understand you want this tourney to last longer than normal but 100x the BB is a "standard" starting stack and being 10x greater than the "standard" is hard for me to imagine. The deeeeep stacks are somewhat offset with 15 minute blind levels but I would prefer longer blind levels and higher blinds. I think the play would be more stable if the blinds are not jumping so often.

2) Having 1st round blinds of 25/50 and a 50k starting stack must mean an insane amount of chips and too many different denoms in play. I would Imagine you would have at least 5 denoms in play (25, 100, 500, 1000 and 5000) and it just sounds like a chip nightmare. And if you don't have a lot of chips in play (because of having many high denoms in the starting stacks) then you'll find yourself having to make change at the table during many of the early rounds.

With 50k starting chips I would start the blinds for level 1 at 100/200 at the minimum. That would give you a starting stack of 250x the BB (which is huge) and it would allow you to remove the $25 chip from play. Then I would lengthen my blind levels to 20 or 30 minutes/round (and I would reduce to blind lengths to 20/15 minutes in the later rounds as I would expect players to be dropping). I would make those adjustments BUT if you and your players have played this structure in the past with good results, then you don't need to change anything.

[hachkc]

I agree with the concept of antes and actually prefer them but in a lot of games it seems to unnecessarily complicate them. IMHO if its primarily a social/friendly game, drop the antes and increase the blind progression. In a more serious game, keep the antes.

[TL_PRIME]

Originally Posted by ky70

I don't like the structure for two reasons:
1) The game starts out each player with 1,000x the Big Blind (assuming 50k starting stacks). I understand you want this tourney to last longer than normal but 100x the BB is a "standard" starting stack and being 10x greater than the "standard" is hard for me to imagine. The deeeeep stacks are somewhat offset with 15 minute blind levels but I would prefer longer blind levels and higher blinds. I think the play would be more stable if the blinds are not jumping so often.

2) Having 1st round blinds of 25/50 and a 50k starting stack must mean an insane amount of chips and too many different denoms in play. I would Imagine you would have at least 5 denoms in play (25, 100, 500, 1000 and 5000) and it just sounds like a chip nightmare.

With 50k starting chips I would start the blinds for level 1 at 100/200 at the minimum. That would give you a starting stack of 250x the BB (which is huge) and it would allow you to remove the $25 chip from play. Then I would lengthen my blind levels to 20 or 30 minutes/round (and I would reduce to blind lengths to 20/15 minutes in the later rounds as I would expect players to be dropping). I would make those adjustments BUT if you and your players have played this structure in the past with good results, then you don't need to change anything.

Yes we start out with 5 denoms (4 in my normal tournies). I guess i just realized that since we don't have antes, chips get colored uo alot quicker.. so it's not too much of a nightmare lol

I guess this structure is based from many many of my players suggestions and likes/dislikes. THey like the structure and they like having lots of chips in play (this comes from watching poker on tv).

thanks for the response

[VARoadstter]

If yours works for you then that's fine. The starting stacks/blinds ratio is wacky but hey, it's your game.

Me personally, I just mimic the WSOP main event structure if I'm going to have more than 3 tables and shorten the levels to 15 or 20 minutes each.

Good luck.

[ky70]

Originally Posted by TL_PRIME

Yes we start out with 5 denoms (4 in my normal tournies). I guess i just realized that since we don't have antes, chips get colored uo alot quicker.. so it's not too much of a nightmare lol

I guess this structure is based from many many of my players suggestions and likes/dislikes. THey like the structure and they like having lots of chips in play (this comes from watching poker on tv).

thanks for the response

How many players are you expecting? Let us know how it goes.

[TL_PRIME]

for the big tourney it's usually anywhere from 14-20 people

for my bi-monthly tournies its 7-10 usually

[__JR__]

IMO, you only need to use antes if you're going to have 3 plus tables of players.

Also, i believe T50,000 is way to many chips to start with blinds of 25/50. T10,000 is too many chips to start with blinds of 25/50 (unless you're playing a large tournament of over 100 players). If you want to keep that structure use anything between a T2000 up to a T7500. I usually run a T2500 or T3000.

If they like having lots of chips in front of them, just use more smaller denomination chips.

Hope this helps