[Slow Play Ray]

Nobody ever talks about T2000 tourneys around here, so I thought I'd post our structure. We have experimented with a lot of different ones, and I find this to be a great balance of playability and length. This is for a one- or two-table tourney, with or without rebuys (rebuys through 1st 3 levels only).

Starting stacks:

5 x 10
25 x 10
100 x 7
500 x 2

20 minute blind levels:

5-10
10-20
15-30
(color up + race 5s)
25-50
50-100
75-150
(color up + race 25s)
100-200
200-400
300-600
500-1000
700-1400
1000-2000
1500-3000

There is always a debate whether or not there should be a 150-300 level, and sometimes we throw it in to lengthen a non-rebuy game. For the most part I have pretty much squashed it though, because I always host, we usually play on weeknights, and I like to get to bed at a reasonable hour.

[jmc]

That looks like a nice slow structure -- I'm guessing your tournaments take about 4 hours to play?

[Slow Play Ray]

Originally Posted by jmc

That looks like a nice slow structure -- I'm guessing your tournaments take about 4 hours to play?

3 - 3.5 generally...we always start a little after 8:00, and we are almost always done before midnight.

[MeridianFC]

I really like the T2000 structure. I came up with this based on Texas TEARS but tweaked for my usual 1 table (could expand to 2) set up:

Ante/Small/Big
X/25/25
X/25/50
X/50/75
X/50/100
X/75/100
X/100/200
X/150/300
25/150/300
50/200/400
Color up 25
100/200/400
100/400/800
200/500/1000
300/500/1500
400/1000/2000
600/1500/3000
Color up 100
1000/2000/4000
1500/3000/6000
2000/5000/10000
3000/5000/15000
4000/10000/20000

Gives lots of play early, flows nicely, and has worked really well for me. I computed out to the extreme level for the once a year big game based on larger starting stacks (you get a stack = to the normal start for each event you've won). Normal tourney takes about 4-4.5 hours depending. Can be tweaked for Stud.

[Slow Play Ray]

I'll never understand why people use antes for anything less than a 40- or 50- person tournament...there's just no point; the blinds do the trick just fine.

[4ceps]

Originally Posted by Slow Play Ray

I'll never understand why people use antes for anything less than a 40- or 50- person tournament...there's just no point; the blinds do the trick just fine.

i'm not getting your point.

i use antes in my 20 player tournaments; what's wrong with that?

[Slow Play Ray]

i'm not saying there's anything "wrong" with it; i just don't get the point. they don't really speed the game up at all - to me, it just confuses/clutters the table with unnecessary extra chips.

i run a tight ship

[MeridianFC]

I've actually found it forces the action quite nicely. I used to hate the idea of antes for flop games as it did seem to complicate the proceedings, but after giving it a try it throws just that little bit extra equity out in the middle that makes the middle/late rounds, when every starts to get cagey because they can see the finish line, a bit more spicy and live.

It does take getting used to but precisely because I run a one table game most folks got used to right away, that and we play a fair bit of Stud, so it really wasn't much trouble.

On the bonus folks have larger stacks for longer which makes people feel good even if it sometimes is a false economy. And let's face it, within reason, the more chips the better.

YMMV.

[abby99]

Neither of my groups uses antes for tourneys (up to 3 tables). Antes might not make much of a difference in early rounds, but they do make a difference as blinds increase: they make stealing more lucrative and put more pressure on the short stacks.

[smoore]

Antes are good. They force everyone to pay money every hand. They should be started midway through a tournament, after an early inflection point where people get eliminated. It changes the whole dynamic of the tournament, forcing looser play in order to play correctly. They are best with deep stacks.

Of course, I'm a LAGtard