WhiskyRiver 0 Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 .......what were some of the complications that came up that you didn't expect? I'm running a charity tournament tonight with possibly 70-80 people. I'm more than comfortable with the basics of running a tournament, but am sure that there will be some things that come up that I won't expect. Any anecdotes? Link to post Share on other sites
Suited_Up 2 Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 Where the button and blind moves when someone busts out.and people not knowing they have to bet and/or raise the size of the blind. Link to post Share on other sites
ForKeeps 0 Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 Yeah you need to anticipate a bunch of people not knowing what the fck is going on. A pre-deal lecture of about 10 mins talking about string bets, blinds, table talk, etiquette, and letting you know when the bust out is very key; i've seen big tourneys do a lot better when that's done first. Link to post Share on other sites
PMJackson21 0 Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 .......what were some of the complications that came up that you didn't expect? I'm running a charity tournament tonight with possibly 70-80 people. I'm more than comfortable with the basics of running a tournament, but am sure that there will be some things that come up that I won't expect. Any anecdotes?Download some tournament software that does most of the hard work (figuring out who gets moved, when to break a table, etc) for you. We use this: http://www.thetournamentdirector.net/, which surprisingly is what UB used in Aruba as well. Patrick Link to post Share on other sites
macphec 0 Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 Make sure you have a system for combining tables/moving players as tables become short handed. Link to post Share on other sites
Hotmark777 0 Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 Where the button and blind moves when someone busts out.and people not knowing they have to bet and/or raise the size of the blind.That's a huge one at the game I run max 100 people, monthly tournament.Overall interpretation of the rules, Dealer mistakes. One guy looks down and finds a 2 he wants a re-deal, another finds an Ace and says no way.Get everyone's attention before you start, make sure they know the basics that YOU want them to know, i.e. button move, language, drink on the table, when it's a bet and when it's not whantever it may be, etc. THEN make sure they know who the Director is and that their (your) ruling is FINAL.http://www.homepokertourney.com/Good luck, and overall make it fun for everyone. Link to post Share on other sites
Royal_Tour 0 Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 make sure you have enough people to cover questions and rules, for 70 or so players you need about 4 guys keepin track. (also state at the start that Verbal declarations will be final, and tell people this is how they should announce their plays)try to do a 2 (two) deck rule at every table. while 1 guy is dealing, the other deck is being shuffled for the next hand (speeds things up)always cut the deck to behind to make everyone feel "fair"make sure you have your color up procedures set before the tournament starts.Find out when you want to color up, and who can help run around and do it.Do not introduce any antes, leave it it simply the blindstry to limit the amount of denomination chips in the game, start with 3, and maybe a 4th chip that is worth 1/4 of the starting stack or soex. in a 100 dollar game, have 1 $25 chip. in a 1500 starting game have 1 chip that is worth 500. etc.. this large chip help to keep things running quickly for stack counts etc... Link to post Share on other sites
Royal_Tour 0 Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 www.thetournamentdirector.net is what i use.great fast and easy Link to post Share on other sites
PatchesOhoulihan 0 Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 make sure you know how to color up chips properly... if it takes too much time you can probably just round up or something . What we normally do is we run off the extra chips (each player gets a card for each extra chip they have left and high card wins) to keep accurate chip counts . Link to post Share on other sites
WhiskyRiver 0 Posted February 10, 2006 Author Share Posted February 10, 2006 Good comments so far, there have been some things mentioned I wouldn't have thought of. I'm using Tournament Director, and what I like most is the flexibility. I'm working with some pretty tight time constraints, and no real way of knowing how many are going to show up (just basing it on last year), so TD will allow me to tweak in the middle of the game if need be. Link to post Share on other sites
leftygolfer 7 Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 Print out the blind levels on a sheet and post on the walls or hand out to each table so everyone knows.I have even seen a little cheat sheet that indicated chip colors/values.You'd be suprized. Link to post Share on other sites
WhiskyRiver 0 Posted February 10, 2006 Author Share Posted February 10, 2006 Print out the blind levels on a sheet and post on the walls or hand out to each table so everyone knows.I have even seen a little cheat sheet that indicated chip colors/values.You'd be suprized.The problem with printing the blind structure is I might be changing them mid-way. Like I said, I'm on a short time frame, so I want to hit the perfect spot to allow decent play but also get done in time. Link to post Share on other sites
Real Deal 0 Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 Or post the chip values so you don't have to keep repeating yourself. Link to post Share on other sites
Theraflu 1,035 Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 The problem with printing the blind structure is I might be changing them mid-way. Â Like I said, I'm on a short time frame, so I want to hit the perfect spot to allow decent play but also get done in time.i understand the fact that charity tournies generally have time limits, but god i hate time constraints. Link to post Share on other sites
rog 0 Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 The problem with printing the blind structure is I might be changing them mid-way. Â Like I said, I'm on a short time frame, so I want to hit the perfect spot to allow decent play but also get done in time.If any of your players are taking the game seriously, changing the structure mid-way is a pretty bad idea. It's going to affect someone negatively, and you're going to take crap for it. Link to post Share on other sites
WhiskyRiver 0 Posted February 10, 2006 Author Share Posted February 10, 2006 The problem with printing the blind structure is I might be changing them mid-way. Â Like I said, I'm on a short time frame, so I want to hit the perfect spot to allow decent play but also get done in time.If any of your players are taking the game seriously, changing the structure mid-way is a pretty bad idea. It's going to affect someone negatively, and you're going to take crap for it.Correct, but if I don't post the structure, how is anyone going to know . Seriously, I understand what you're saying, but it's the lesser of two evils. Either I do what I'm doing, and try to have a structure that SHOULD get us done in time while making sure it's not a total all-in fest, or I make CERTAIN it's done in my time frame, which would make it a definite all-in fest. And if anyone gives me crap, I'll point out that the whole thing was -EV to begin with, so they shouldn't have played in the first place if they are going to be poker elitists . Link to post Share on other sites
alf13 0 Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 Everything everybody has said and another big one is to instruct your dealers to keep the action moving and to "prompt" very slow players..... Link to post Share on other sites
mrfrankhg 0 Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 Very good advice guys. I was about 20 minutes away from posting the same thread when I saw this one... Link to post Share on other sites
jjgoldy5 0 Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 I would have a set of printed rules / blind structure for each table and/or player so that there are no disputes. You should be able to just point to the rules when a dispute arises.A couple rules:A bet must be = to the big blind, and a raise must be at least double the previous bet/raise.Do not string betIf your cards touch the flop they are considered dead even if they are face up at show down. -- KEEP YOUR CARDS OFF THE FLOP Link to post Share on other sites
ToddFuller 0 Posted February 11, 2006 Share Posted February 11, 2006 when the pay outs are determined, we use envelopes to put each place pay out in, it is less confusing especially if you are holding onto the money and you are playing in the tournament as paid places begin to get eliminated. Link to post Share on other sites
WhiskyRiver 0 Posted February 11, 2006 Author Share Posted February 11, 2006 Thanks for the advice all, I took your advice and did a brief lecture on 1) String Bets 2) Declaring your raise 3) Keeping me informed of people busting out. Another person actually did a mini-tutorial on the basic stuff (min raise, that kind of thing, how to deal) so I didn't have to cover that.The tournament itselt went pretty well. We ended up going about an hour over time, and even at the end of that the blinds were ridiculous. Had a minor problem at the beginning with people who were not me deciding that they should put more chips on the tables without me being notified until right before, so I had to scurry and create some new blinds. Which is another minor minor issue with TD, it uses the minimum chip throughout when you ask it to suggest a blind structure, so that needed some tweaking. I had a hard time getting people to ask me if there were any questions about the rules. We had ten tables going for the first hour (re-buy period), and it was only at the hour and a half mark that I discovered one table was completely ignoring the minimum raise/bet rule (they would even raise a hundred dollar bet to a hundred twenty five. Only question that really came up over and over was what to do with the button when someone busts. Tournament Director was fantastic. I had planned on using it for moving and breaking tables, but too many people didn't sit in asigned seats or tell me when people busted out that I had to learn on the fly how to move folks and break tables. It's funny, I spent an entire summer playing in a live tournament four days a week, but never paid attention to what they were doing, I just went where I was told. So yea, thanks for the tips everyone. Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now