[agalvan]

The title says it all. I've been hosting No Limit Hold Em tournaments for the past 2 years. Now, I would like to mix it up a little and throw in some other games. I figured the first step was a true limit tournament. When setting the blind structure, I typically plan for a 10 person tournament that ends after around 3 1/2 hours.

Can somebody suggest a T1000 Limit Hold Em tournament blind structure that will last between 3 and 4 hours (using the 10 person assumption as before)? Also, how would the structure differ if I offered rebuys and/or addons?

I know somebody on this site has an answer for me. I've searched all over this site and homepokertourney.com and I couldn't find what I was looking for.

Thanks,
Tony

[agalvan]

bump...

The tournament is next Tuesday (4/3). I want to make this as successful as possible so that the guys will be more open to even more games.

[Double Eagle]

I like the Tex's Tears Structures. Link. This particular structure is designed for limit events with short durations.

The rule of thumb is your tourney will end about the time the big blind is equal to the starting amount of chips. With 20 minute levels, this should end at about three hours. With 30 minute levels, it should be over in about four hours.

Good luck!

[agalvan]

Originally Posted by Double Eagle

I like the Tex's Tears Structures. Link. This particular structure is designed for limit events with short durations.

The rule of thumb is your tourney will end about the time the big blind is equal to the starting amount of chips. With 20 minute levels, this should end at about three hours. With 30 minute levels, it should be over in about four hours.

Good luck!

Thanks for your help!!

Maybe I'll split the differenct and use 25 minutes levels with the following blind structure (from Tex Tear's).

Level Blinds Limits
1 25 - 25 25 - 50
2 25 - 50 50 - 100
3 50 - 100 100 - 200
Remove $25 Chips
4 100 - 200 200 - 400
5 200 - 400 400 - 800
6 300 - 600 600 - 1,200
7 400 - 800 800 - 1,600
Remove $100 Chips
8 500 - 1,000 1,000 - 2,000
9 500 - 1,500 1,500 - 3,000

[agalvan]

Any opinions on the structure suggested below (from rqpd at HomePokerTourney.com):

Even with Limit Holdem, the tournament will end when the BB is about 5% of total chips in play. In this case that would be around 500 or blind level 6.
Your suggestion starts at BB of 25 which only gives you 40 BB's. IMO, thats a bit short. I'd start with 5-10 and go from there. Maybe something like
5-10
10-20
25-50
50-100
100-200
200-400
300-600
With 30 minute blinds and a 15 minute color up, the tournament would end in 3.5 - 4 hours.

[Double Eagle]

Originally Posted by agalvan

Any opinions on the structure suggested below (from rqpd at HomePokerTourney.com):

I would never use T$5 chips as it creates a lot more work since you will have to color them up. Yes, the starting chips amount is a little low but if you want to end the tourney in 3-4 hours this will work very will. I would not have any concerns about starting with T$1,000 since this is a limit event.

I have used this Tex's Tears limit structure for short events several times and have found it works very well. My previous statement that the trourney will end about the time the big blind equals the starting chip amount has proven to be very close, both in limit and no-limit events.

Hope this helps.

[agalvan]

The verdict is in. I used the following blind structure on Tuesday night ($15 buy-in; no rebuys; no addons; T1000). We had 8 players and the tournament ended during round 6 (lasted 2hr 21min). Needless to say, the tournament was way too short. Everybody felt short stacked the entire tournament. Unfortunately, we may not be playing any limit tournaments for a while.

Level Blinds Limits
1 25-25 25-50
2 25-50 50-100
3 50-100 100-200
Break
4 75-150 150-300
5 100-200 200-400
6 150-300 300-600
Color up 25’s
7 200-400 400-800
8 300-600 600-1200
9 400-800 800-1600
Color up 100’s
10 500-1000 1000-2000
11 500-1500 1500-3000
12 1000-2000 2000-4000
13 1500-3000 3000-6000
Color up 500’s
14 2000-4000 4000-8000

[4ceps]

was there anything else about the tourney that turned your group off? the only problem i see is that your starting blinds/limits were too high in comparison to the starting stack.

rpqd's suggestion woulda worked out better. if you wanted to do away with the t5 (although i don't see why), then you could have started with t2000 or t2500

i've had a limit tourney that started with t1500 and first level was 20/40 (10/20 blinds) and 30 minute levels...it lasted about 3h with 6 players

[agalvan]

It is hard to say what was wrong. I think everybody is just used to playing No Limit. I'm the one that wanted to try other formats, and I even felt it was a little boring. The strange thing is (I hate to admit it) I actually enjoy playing 2/4 Limit when I go to Vegas. Maybe it is because I have a pretty good win rate in Vegas, but I really have a lot of fun at the table. I find the 1/2 No Limit tables in Vegas just as easy to win at but not as fun to play at.

We've played Pot Limt before and people seemed to like it much better than Fixed Limit. My ultimate goal is to introduce Limit into our regular rotation. I'd also like to get some Hi/Lo games and some other games (Stud, Omaha, Razz, etc) so that someday we could play a HORSE tournament. What do you think my next step should be (after a few weeks of No Limit to get the bad memory of last week's tournament out of everybody's head)?

[CK15c]

Omaha is usually a good stepping stone from Hold'em. Start with just the high version, and maybe introduce Hi/Lo in the near future... Then with knowledge of Hi/Lo, you can introduce Stud and Stud Hi/Lo, and maybe even Razz if the Lo aspect doesn't confuse everyone. For Omaha, you can play No Limit, but I'd suggest Pot Limit as the game often has a lot of action, and Pot Limit will usually make the pots big enough while allowing more people to see flops.

If they like all of these games, who knows, maybe a little Kansas City Lowball is in the cards