[kodiak]

I'm hosting this Friday for a mixture of people. Half are from my normal game and the other half from another group I have played with before (total of about 12 or 13 people). Normally we play two $20 NL single table games in one evening starting about 7 pm. I have been using the blind schedule from HPT that is as follows:

Level	Small	Big
1	10	20
2	15	30
3	20	40
4	25	50
5	50	100
6	75	150
7	100	200
8	150	300
9	200	400
10	300	600
11	400	800
12	500	1000
13	600	1200
14	800	1600
15	1000	2000
2000 Chips

Levels changing every 15 minutes. Usually lasts about 3 hours. This time we are not starting until about 8:45 pm and one of the other guys suggested making it move quickly in order to play some .50/1 or 1/2 afterwards. I suggested the following:

Level	SB	BB	S Limit	B Limit	Ante
1	20	40	40	80	-
2	30	60	60	120	-
3	50	100	100	200	-
4	100	200	200	400	-
5	200	400	400	800	-
6	300	600	600	1,200	-
7	400	800	800	1,600	25
8	600	1,200	1,200	2,400	50
9	1,000	2,000	2,000	4,000	75
10	1,500	3,000	3,000	6,000	75
11	2,000	4,000	4,000	8,000	100
12	3,000	6,000	6,000	12,000	100
13	4,000	8,000	8,000	16,000	200
14	6,000	12,000	12,000	24,000	200
15	10,000	20,000	20,000	40,000	500
16	15,000	30,000	30,000	60,000	700
17	20,000	40,000	40,000	80,000	1,000
18	30,000	60,000	60,000	120,000	1,500
19	40,000	80,000	80,000	160,000	2,000
20	60,000	120,000	120,000	240,000	3,000

which is the PartyPoker SNG that changes levels every 10 minutes. Any suggestions on this schedule? Starting amount of chips for both is:

20 X $5
16 X $25
5 X $100
2 X $500

for a total of $2000. Thanks in advance for any help.

[hachkc]

Why not stick with the same blinds schedule but simply lower the stacks to 1000 instead of 2000. Also, what is the SLimit and BLimit columns for? Are you playing a limit tourney? Also, if you are looking to speed things up, skip the antes. Antes usually slow the game down especially if your group isn't use to them.

Another comment, why rush the tourney to play a cash game when you can just play a cash game?

[__JR__]

Right, lower the stacks, play 1 tournament, and then play cash until you get tired of poker afterwards (be it 15 minutes, or 2 hours or more)

You could go ultra hardcore turbo style and play with 35 starting chips and blinds of 1/2 that go up everytime a person is eliminated. (although I don't recommend this) This was the primary way I had to play in the freshman dorms 2 years ago.
O, and make sure you have dice chips for this one too (big J/K on that one)

[kodiak]

Originally Posted by hachkc

Why not stick with the same blinds schedule but simply lower the stacks to 1000 instead of 2000. Also, what is the SLimit and BLimit columns for? Are you playing a limit tourney? Also, if you are looking to speed things up, skip the antes. Antes usually slow the game down especially if your group isn't use to them.

Sounds good. The SLimit and BLimit columns were just on the PartyPoker web page. I just copied the whole thing to get the levels and blinds.

Originally Posted by hachkc

Another comment, why rush the tourney to play a cash game when you can just play a cash game?

The cash game was just a suggestion by one of the guys. I would rather play a fast T1000 and be able to play two in one night.

[Lucky Louie]

I'd agree with reducing the starting stack. Changing blinds every 10 minutes might get annoying and confusing.

[missingdonut]

I'm new here but I'll agree with most people that it's better to lower the starting stacks than to remove levels in the chip structure. I'm of the opinion that the only time you should have the blinds double is between the first and second levels (and possibly between the second and third levels). There's nothing worse than to have a medium stack one hand to be cut in half the next. The HPT schedule has that 25/50 to 50/100 jump which just sucks because that's right when the game is settling in.

As far as the cash game goes, it's actually probably best for the health of the game if you also run a cash game after a tournament. First, it gives people something to do if they bust out early from the main tournament. Second, some people like -- and it's psychological -- the fact that they won't lose their entire buyin in a cash game as opposed to the tournament.