would you play in this game?

[StevenH72]

My Cricket Club is holding a Poker night in a couple of weeks, and I have been asked to sort out a tourney structure, we are expecting a maximum of 20 people, for a £50 buy-in tourney….but I have been asked to make the structure no more than 3 hours!!!

Most people are very recreational players, who do not have a great grasp on the game.

Now for a £50 buy-in I want everybody to have enough chips to get a decent amount of play with, but not too many to make the tourney last too long. Would you guys be happy with the following structure?

At the moment I am thinking:

T5,000: Starting stacks:

8 x 25
8 x 100
4 x 500
2 x 1,000

Blind levels: 15 min clock

25 – 50
50 – 100
100 – 200
150 – 300
>>
200 – 400
300 – 600
400 – 800
600 – 1,200
>>
800 – 1,600
1,000 – 2,000
1,500 – 3,000
2,000 – 4,000

[ts4z]

Players usually go broke in a tournament when they get short and have less than ten big blinds. So, the last level of a tournament will usually be around the level when the big blind is no less than 1/20 the number of chips in play. Also, weaker players tend to make wimpy raises. If you get a couple sharks in the water, it's not a problem, but a room full of poor players will stretch out a tournament a little bit.

With 20 players and 5K starting stacks, you'll have 100,000 chips in play; heads up, the players will have about 50K each, so your structure sounds about right.

I used a similar structure for tournaments with coworkers, except we started with 3000 chips (8x 25, 8x 100, 4x 500 -- fits exactly in one slot of a standard rack). Our tournament is usually one table or so and lasts a couple hours.

If it's a hard limit of three hours, you'll have to drop a couple levels for breaks for color up, etc., particularly if you're following the usual rules for colorup, etc. You might consider dropping the 800-1600 level to move things along and make sure you have time for a couple five-minute breaks for coloring up chips.

Good luck!

And, yes, I'd gladly play!

[edit: did a bunch of math wrong. fixed.]

[CRD]

IMO you can't put a timelimit on a tournament. If there is a timelimit - play a cash game.

[StevenH72]

Originally Posted by CRD

IMO you can't put a timelimit on a tournament. If there is a timelimit - play a cash game.

as Ts4Z stated, normally tournies end around the stage where the BB = 1/20 total chips in play, so that is where I am ending my time limit (roughly, I know I'm a level short).

[/quote]You might consider dropping the 800-1600 level to move things along and make sure you have time for a couple five-minute breaks for coloring up chips.[/quote]

I was thinking about this although, I have been told 3 hours play time, with a 30 min break half way.....so at the 300-600 level I will colour up the 25's. I think due to the short tournie period I will just leave the 100's in play.

I have considered using ante's to possibly hurry the tourney up a bit....but do you think this is possible/ a good idea with inexperienced players. I can see a lot of confusion/ arguments from people forgetting to post their antes.

[CRD]

Novice players and 15 minute blinds - it's bound to be a lottery, not poker.

[guinness]

If you take out the 150/300 level I think you'll get your 3 hours with 15 min levels. We've done 20 people with those exact levels and it pans out about 3 hours. If not, the remaining 4 people or whatever won't mind playing longer. If anyone complains that they don't want it long, they will not be playing long anyways.

[StevenH72]

Originally Posted by CRD

Novice players and 15 minute blinds - it's bound to be a lottery, not poker.

Thanks a lot for the constructive comments, much appreciated.......


@ Guiness

I put in the 150-300 blind, to try to give a little more play earlier on, but I will definately consider taking it out....

I suppose it depends how many people turn up on the night.

[JD Roark]

Given your parameters I would do something like this:

Blind Structure
Level	Small Blind	Big Blind	Antes
1	50	100	-
2	75	150	-
3	100	200	-
4	150	300	-
5	200	400	-
6	300	600	-
7	400	800	-
8	600	1200	-
9	1000	2000	-
10	1500	3000	-
11	2000	4000	-
12	3000	6000	-
Level Time = 15 minutes
Total Chips in Play = 100000
Starting Chips = 5000

Although you only start with 50 BB, the blinds never double from one level to another.

View structure with Blind Valet

[StevenH72]

Originally Posted by JD Roark

Given your parameters I would do something like this:

Although you only start with 50 BB, the blinds never double from one level to another.

View structure with Blind Valet

I like this structure.

With the passiveness of the game I like the idea of a smaller starting stack...as pots early on are bound to be smaller than your average game anyway, it should still allow for plenty of play....thanks alot

[ts4z]

Originally Posted by StevenH72

I have considered using ante's to possibly hurry the tourney up a bit....but do you think this is possible/ a good idea with inexperienced players. I can see a lot of confusion/ arguments from people forgetting to post their antes.

Antes with inexperienced players slow the game down a lot. I find them very difficult to deal with in a player-dealt tournament. I would leave them out.