Managing A Home Poker Tournament
Poker tournaments are great. Especially when you only have a few hours to play. Cash games can go on forever and your profits or losses can be erratic since there’s no limit to how much you can put on the table.
Tournament times are restricted. Losses may not be as heavy because they are limited to buy-ins and re-buys. Tournaments also prevent people from leaving early and getting an unfair advantage. In addition, the time restrictions will make sure that the game does not take too long.
But what do you need to run a tournament? What rules should you follow? Here’s a quick guide to help you get started setting up a home poker tournament.
Supplies
The most important thing you will require is a poker chips set. Cash can be used for regular games but chips are used by the pros and for tournaments. A quality poker chips set will provide you with a dealer button. This organizes the deals and eliminates the delays caused by dilemmas over whose turn it is to deal.
You’ll also need two decks of cards. With two decks, the dealer-to-be can shuffle his deck while the current dealer is sending out the cards. This also helps keep things moving. Remember to have a blank card on the bottom of each deck so no one can sneak a peak at the bottom card.
A good card table is also nice to have. If you’re going to spend the money to get high quality clay poker chips, you don’t want them banging around on a hard kitchen table.
Last but not least you will need an egg timer so that you know when to raise the blinds. Now you have everything you need to enjoy the game.
The Rules
The first thing you need to determine is the blind levels and payout structure. Our home games usually consist of ten people so we have a $25 buy-in with a maximum of two re-buys in the first hour only. The tournament pays out 50% to first place, 30% to second place and 20% to third place.
Every 15 minutes blinds will be increased; this is decided at the beginning of the game. When the small blind becomes 100 players chip up. When it becomes 400 plays again put down their chips.
There you have it. Tournaments are really more enjoyable and more money can be made than in regular poker games. Plus it is nice for people to know how long they will be playing for.