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My First Home Tournament

  
 
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johnnyawe
Old 11-18-2004, 11:03 PM     Post subject: My First Home Tournament #1 (permalink)  
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Well, I hosted my first tournament game two night ago and it went off pretty well.

I started everyone with 1000 tournament chips. Blinds started at 10-20 and increased every 20 minutes. I used Tournament Director software to keep track of the blinds and the clock. I designed the blind schedule so that after 3.5 hours, the blinds would be 500-1000, because I wanted the tournament to be over at about that time..

Well, we started playing at probably 7:40pm with 7 people. Would you believe by 9:25pm that it was down to heads up? The tournament ended at about 9:40pm. The blinds were only 75/150 when it ended!

I won, by the way.

Anyways, is this normal, or is everyone in my home game actually that bad?

The good thing is, and maybe this was just coincidence, the players I believe to be 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th best as far as poker skllls, actually finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th
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a500lbgorilla
Old 11-18-2004, 11:15 PM #2 (permalink)  
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JESUS TAKE THE KEYBOARD

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It sounds like it went well. I find that in our home tournies there is a huge discrepency between those good players and those bad players. Becuase of this, the best usually manage to find their way to the final table. We play 3 table tournies and usually all 5 of the good players make the top 10 final table. Not always do they finish in the order i believe they should (Cuz i can't win everyone.) But the cream always rises.

-'rilla

Smithers, use the amnesia ray.
You mean the revolver, sir?
Precisely.
 
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SteveO
Old 11-19-2004, 01:10 PM #3 (permalink)  
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Sounds pretty normal for only 7 players. You get a lot of hands in quick. I normally play 2 and 3 table home games that last 5-6 hours, but we have 20 people and start with more chips.

Funny you mention the rankings. The top money winners in our game have a bounty on their head. If you knock them out you win a small prize. Last time it was down to 4 of us and we all had a bounty on our head.
Send lawyers, guns and money - the sh*t has hit the fan!
 
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Jes_Gru
Old 11-19-2004, 02:43 PM #4 (permalink)  
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For 7 players and your starting chips that seems about right for being at heads-up.

My last tournament, I had 6 last minute cancelations, so only had 12 players...and I was very surprised at how quickly we got to the final table and then to heads-up.

I am planning on increasing the starting chip amount if we have a low number of starting players for future tournaments.
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a500lbgorilla
Old 11-19-2004, 03:19 PM #5 (permalink)  
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Jes, i love you. You just made my heart skip a beat! A short handed tourny! 3 tables of 6 handed action and the final table is 6! *faints* Thank you for your inspiration!

-'rilla

Smithers, use the amnesia ray.
You mean the revolver, sir?
Precisely.
 
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johnnyawe
Old 11-19-2004, 05:12 PM #6 (permalink)  
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lol @ rilla.

Then I guess the old theory of "the tournament will end when the BB is equal to the starting chip count" is pretty much bogus for only 6-8 people.

Hmm.. I feel another topic coming on..
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elanto
Old 11-20-2004, 05:34 PM #7 (permalink)  
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Johnnyawe, where did you get that Home tourney software you mentioned earlier, because im going to organize a big tourney soon and could use some help


-anto
<dwarfman> No I had sex for the first time on 23rd March 2005 at 11.56pm.
 
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johnnyawe
Old 11-20-2004, 07:14 PM #8 (permalink)  
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http://www.thetournamentdirector.net/

Highly recommended, and its donation-ware. I found out about it from other posts on FTR.

You can customize the blind schedules, the display screen, pretty much everything. I made a super simple layout that shows the chip values, current blinds, next blinds, and the timer. I can e-mail it to you if you want.
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evilevilmatt
Old 11-24-2004, 05:21 PM #9 (permalink)  
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How much of a factor was being the director and playing in the event? Probably wasn't to bad with only one table. but rilla and jes is it distracting with multi table action?
Now with more Evil and a side of Hatred
 
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Jes_Gru
Old 11-24-2004, 07:31 PM #10 (permalink)  
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I do not find it distracting being the director/host, since there really isn't a lot of decisions that come into play, provided that you have competent dealers running the table(s) you are not on and you have a set of published rules. The most common question is if one of the blinds busts out, who posts what and who has the dealer button.

What is more distracting is being a dealer/player. I get volunteers to be house dealers before we assign seats, I am always a dealer. The dealers will randomly be assigned the seats in the middle on either side of each table. Then all the other normal players are randomly seated in the remaining seats. As one dealer is dealing the other is shuffling, as they will deal the next hand. So you are either dealing or shuffling, and thus can miss any tells when players first look at their cards. Also it is harder to remember their betting history, as you are more concerned with who's next to act, how much the bet is, and burning a card.

I use TournamentDirector(TD) which is a huge help: the clock, blind levels, marking people that paid, tracking rebuys/addons, and when players get eliminated.

Some other things that make the night go smoothly:

1. Know roughly how many player are coming. I use evite.com to assist in this.
2. Have the chips at the seats before any guests arrive. It is easier to add/remove a few sets than to pass out 15+.
3. Make sure the chip values are posted in a couple of places. I have the computer with TD running in plain site, but then I clone the display on a TV at the other end of the room. This way the clock, chips and blinds are easily viewed by all
4. Use 2 decks per table, so the next hand can be dealt almost immediately
5. Have house dealers that know how to control the table. There are many drawbacks to this (distraction being the main one), but they should almost eliminate any issues that might make some players get pissed. Things like string-bets, acting out of turn, making sure the player verbalizes his action, making sure blinds and antes are correct, etc
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johnnyawe
Old 11-25-2004, 02:00 AM #11 (permalink)  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by evilevilmatt
How much of a factor was being the director and playing in the event? Probably wasn't to bad with only one table. but rilla and jes is it distracting with multi table action?
Not a factor at all in my case.
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FyrFytr998
Old 11-25-2004, 06:01 PM #12 (permalink)  
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Having a printed set of your house rules as well as a copy of Robert's Rules of Poker can pretty much handle an situation that might arise.

As the host of a tourney. The only thing I do to help myself out, is stop the timer if I'm currently involved in a hand. Answer the question accordingly and resume play after.

Big Lick
 
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