[ericmalone]

I would like some input about this idea I have to wean our group off of a full rebuy tournament to more of a Freeze-out form.

$4 buy-in (low-stakes) gets 10,000 chips, but you can partition them in 2500 chunks.

For example; Joe wants the full 10,000 chips, Fred wants his chips in 4x2500 chunks, and I want 5000 to start with.

Joe can't get any more chips, but at any time (not during an active hand) Fred can get another chunk of his initial 10,000. Basically this is letting crazy players take some of their chips out of play and use it as a "safety net."

After an hour of play, a 2500-chip add-on will be offered and anyone's extra chips get distributed.

I'm rambling... what are some strategic advantages/disadvantages for types of play?

[jdunford]

Generalizing a bit, a decent aggressive player should buy in for the full T10,000 and walk all over the short-stacked competition... so if your players are interested in this, I highly advocate letting them take their 2500-at-a-time and spank them like the babies they are!

(did I actually type that out loud?)

[guinness]

Yikes...if I was playing and I was the banker....then that is just too much management for me.

[Jonah 99]

I put together a tournament where I wanted deep stacks and longer play,
but I didn't want players busting out in a few hands, so this is what I came up with:

Each player started with $5000 in chips and three bounties
if you were all in you placed one of your bounties in the pot
one of the two worth $5, or the other worth $10
if you used a $5 one and lost you would get $10,000 in chips
(sort of like your reserve)
if you used the $10 one and lost you'd get $20,000 in chips

So you could choose to use the $10 one early to get more chips but then you wouldn't have it to cash at the end of the game if you won.

It worked pretty well, with some players getting busted early, then mounting come backs with their other chances.

This was a championship game so we kept the buy-in $20, which covered all the bounties, for the prize pool we used funds that had been gathered over the course of the year for monte carlo jackpots.

[beekeeper]

Originally Posted by guinness

Yikes...if I was playing and I was the banker....then that is just too much management for me.

My thought, too.

Why not just allow rebuys during the first three rounds? If players consistently bust out early...oh well. I understand, as a host, that you want everyone playing. But I've found that that's impossible. Try to provide something else for them to do.

[jojobinks]

yeah, just have the buyin be 2500 with up to 3 rebuys.

for those that want to play deep allow them to rebuy anytime they're at 2500 or below (ie immediately).

[guinness]

Originally Posted by beekeeper

Why not just allow rebuys during the first three rounds?

This is what we do but we allow full rebuy in the first 5 rounds with 15 min rounds for our regular weekly games. A handful times a year we do "big" tournaments of $50 - $100 and those are no rebuys but your friends likely don't apply to that...or at least if they participated they would understand, and prepare for, the one time freezeout occasions.

[Felix]

In my T10,000 games we have unlimited rebuys for the first 4 rounds. One round is 30min. One buy-In is €5. Rebuy is also 10,000 for €5. After the 4th round, everybody who has less than 10,000 chips can add-on in increments of 1,000 for 50c each to a max of 10,500.
This guarantees at least 2 hours of play for everybody. In our group that way is highly anticipated. Before we allowed one rebuy per-person (rebuy-chip), that you can take if you are broke. No matter which round we´re in. Also it was allowed to give your rebuy-chip to someone else. The problem was, that somehow nobody went out in the first time and in the end we had at least 5 smallstacks at the table and the play suffered from that.

[beekeeper]

Originally Posted by Felix

Also it was allowed to give your rebuy-chip to someone else.
.

That's a good idea. I remember playing in a home game tournament a few times that allowed 1 rebuy. I a player busted out and used his rebuy, he could buy another player's rebuy for a predetermined price. For instance, if the buy in was $10 and the rebuy option $5, that player would buy the rebuy for $5 from the player.

I think if you include the rebuy option as part of the buy in, then if a player buys another player's rebuy, the money would not go into the pot, but to the player.

[UsIreland]

What the first poster suggested is a tournament usually referred to as a "double chance" (all though his description is a quad chance if that exists). Double chance tourney's are very popular in Europe. Basically they are a freezeout where players receive half their stack at the start and may take the remaining half at any stage up to the first break (not during an active hand). Its a good game to play either take it all early and have a double stack to most players or have the safety net just in case you get a bad beat. I usually start with half and take my second stack when I need it. Worked out well the last day when after 3 hands a player who covered me raised in early position, I re-popped with AA in late position, he shoved and showed Kings and proceeded to catch the king on the flop. If it was a regular freezeout I was gone cursing my bad luck but with the double chance I was back in and ended up taking 4th place.

To me breaking the stack down into 4chunks is too many, two is plenty and still leaves enough room for play.

Regards
Ian