poker tournaments
texas hold'em home tournament set-up
Welcome to BURNandTURN.com home tournament set-up. This section is here to provide you with some insight of how you can go about organizing your own tournaments. Whether you are having these tournaments at a bar, a buddy's house, or even at family functions the tips below will serve you well in your tournament organization.
tournament structures
There are a variety of ways you can set up your home tournaments. There are generally three tournament types:
- Freeze-out
- Re-buys
- Add-on tournaments
The first style is the freeze-out structure, and this is what you have been watching on television over the past couple of years. This format is when all of your chips have moved from your chip stack to your opponents stack (never a good thing); you are eliminated from the tournament. This format does not allow you to re-buy or add-on more chips, once you're chips are gone, you're gone. As the tournament organizer you have an option to set up a side game with the players that have been eliminated to keep those players interested while the main event is still proceeding.
The second format we are going to look at is the re-buy tournament. You can set it up with allowing only one re-buy or you can have unlimited re-buys. The reason for having re-buys is to allow players to continue playing even if they get knocked out in the early going. Determining how many re-buys you should allow really should be determined by how long you want your tournament to last for. Typically, one re-buy is sufficient, but if you are going to have unlimited re-buys you can set up a restriction as to the last time you are able to buy re-buys. This format will provide real aggressive play in the beginning as players know they have the option to get back into the game.
The final tournament structure is add-ons. These types of tournaments are good ways to increase the size of the total purse and to help even out the playing field. Purchasing an add-on allows a player to buy an additional amount of chips to add to their existing stack of chips.
buy-in
The best way to establish the amount of a buy-in is to determine what amount your friends/guests would feel comfortable losing in a night. Home tournament buy-ins typically range anywhere from $5, $20, $25, $50, $100, or $1,000. As far as starting chips are concerned you can issue as many starting chips as you would like no matter what your buy-in value (the starting chips can range from $100 in value to a $1000 in value). The most important thing is to make sure that every player gets the same amount of chips. Each player shall receive their chips as they pass on their buy-in money.
The following chart demonstrates some sample chip values that you can use for your home tournaments.
BURNandTURN.com Chip Values
| $100 in Buy-in Chips | $500 in Buy-in Chips | $1000 in Buy-in Chips | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| White | $1.00 | White | $2.00 | White | $5.00 |
| Red | $2.00 | Red | $5.00 | Red | $10.00 |
| Blue | $5.00 | Blue | $10.00 | Blue | $25.00 |
| Green | $20.00 | Green | $50.00 | ||
| Black | $100.00 | ||||
payout structures
The majority of home tournaments will generally focus on paying out to the top finishers. There are a lot of variables to consider when determining the payout, but you really need to focus on the amount of players in the tourney and what the actual buy-in is. Here is a sample payout structure that you can follow and that is typical for most tournaments.
BURNandTURN.com Payout Structures
| 1-10 PLAYERS | 11-20 PLAYERS | 21-30 PLAYERS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Place | 50% of total buy in | 50% of total buy in | 40% of total buy in |
| 2nd Place | 30% of total buy in | 25% of total buy in | 25% of total buy in |
| 3rd Place | 20% of total buy in | 15% of total buy in | 20% of total buy in |
| 4th Place | 10% of total buy in | 10% of total buy in | |
| 5th Place | 5% of total buy in |
Just remember, as the organizer of a tournament make sure that these payout structures are explained clearly at the beginning of the tournament so that all of the players are aware of it before they put their money in. You just want to make sure that all the players are on the same page.
seating
The seating situation all depends on how many players are going to be playing in the tournament. Generally each table will have a maximum of ten players. The best way to decide who sits where is to get a deck of cards consisting of one card for each player that is participating. If you have 30 players in your tournament you will have three tables with ten players. So use a deck consisting of the A-10 in all the suits that you might need. For instance, if there are three tables just pick out three suits and begin to distribute each player a card. Once each player has received a card the tables are arranged in order of suit, so that you have all of the spades sit together, hearts sit together, and the diamonds all sit together. When the players have arrived at their tables, each player will then find their seat in accordance to the representation of their card. For instance, the ace is seated at the button, the 2 is seated at the small blind, the 3 is seated at the big blind, and then each remaining player is seated in the proper card order. Once players start to get eliminated a single player may be moved to another table to keep the tables somewhat balanced. The ten finalists will be combined at one table and be seated by another random drawing. We find this seating format to be the fairest and easiest way of deciding who sits where.
blinds
Texas Hold'em uses a structured betting system with limits and blinds. A good way to keep the tournament moving at a good pace is to increase the blinds every half an hour. Some tournament organizers like to have their blinds set every hour. We feel that increasing the blinds every half hour is a good way to keep your players interested and on their toes. Another way to keep the game moving in smaller tournaments is every time a player gets eliminated, raise the blinds. There are a lot of ways to do this, but these two are great ways to make sure your tournaments are run smoothly.
The chart below is providing you with examples of how you can set up your blind structures. We have provided you with four different scenarios.
BURNandTURN.com Blind Structures
| Buy-in Chips | 100 | 500 | 1000 | 2000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chip Values | 1, 2, 5 | 5, 25, 100 | 5, 25, 50, 100 | 25, 100, 500 |
| Starting Chips | 20(1), 20(2) 8(5) | 20(5), 12(25), 1(100) | 20(5), 5(25), 8(50), 4(100) | 20(25), 10(100, 1(500) |
| Blind Level 1 | 1-2 | 5-10 | 10-20 | 25-50 |
| Blind Level 2 | 2-4 | 10-20 | 20-40 | 50-100 |
| Blind Level 3 | 3-6 | 20-40 | 50-100 | 75-150 |
| Blind Level 4 | 4-8 | 30-60 | 100-200 | 100-200 |
| Blind Level 5 | 5-10 | 40-80 | 200-400 | 150-300 |
| Blind Level 6 | 10-20 | 50-100 | 300-600 | 200-400 |
| Blind Level 7 | 15-30 | 75-150 | 400-800 | 300-600 |
| Blind Level 8 | 20-40 | 100-200 | 500-1000 | 400-800 |
| Blind Level 9 | 25-50 | 150-300 | 600-1200 | 500-1000 |
| Blind Level 10 | 50-75 | 200-400 | 700-1400 | 750-1500 |
| Blind Level 11 | 75-150 | 300-600 | 800-1600 | 1000-2000 |
| Blind Level 12 | 100-200 | 400-800 | 900-1800 | 1500-3000 |
| Blind Level 13 | 500-1000 | 1000-2000 | 2000-4000 |
It is best to have somebody in charge of looking after the blind levels. Have that person announce the end of a betting level and once that signal is given the new limits will apply on the next deal. Don't be afraid to have short breaks between levels or as they are needed throughout the tournament.
That is BURNandTURN.com home tournament set-up. We hope that the information we have provided you with will help you with your tournaments and we're sure that if you follow these guidelines your friends and guests will enjoy themselves.
