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Debacle
11-24-2011, 07:51 PM
Several guys that play poker want to get a league going where year end prize is at minimum a $250 seat to the WSOP Harrah's St. Louis event in April. When I got back from the Mouse Races last night (google it) I drew up a quick rules outline. I want to make everything cut and dry with no room for personal interpretation. First time I have ever done anything like this, so if you guys could give me some thoughts or changes, Id appreciate it. Hoping for first game next Friday evening or Sunday afternoon.

League Rules
1.) The starting chip count will be $5,000 in chips.
2.) Blind structure will be as follows:
Small Large Ante Interval
5 10 0 10
10 20 0 10
15 30 0 10
20 40 0 10
25 50 0 10
50 100 0 10
BREAK
75 150 0 15
100 200 0 15
150 300 0 15
200 400 0 15
BREAK
250 500 0 15
250 500 25 15
250 500 50 15
250 500 75 15
BREAK
500 1000 100 15
500 1000 200 15
750 1500 200 15
1000 2000 200 15
After this point blinds will double every 15 minutes, and antes will go up by 100 every 30 minutes
3.) No discussing of the current hand while it is in play.
4.) No unesscary noise while others are involved in a hand.
5.) Buy-in is $20. Of this, $15 is put back into the prize pool, and $5 is committed to year end pot. Ultimate goal will be to buy ATLEAST one $250 satelite tournament seat into the main event.
6.) Tournament finishing point values will be as follows:
10 points for first
8 points for second
6 points for third
4 points for fourth
2 points for fifth
1 point for entering a tournament regardless of finishing position.
7.) End of year championship game(last tournament before WSOP at Harrah's St Louis) will be open to everyone, regardless of how many games they have played during the previous season
8.) Starting chip stack for the championship game will be $5,000 in chips plus 1000 for every 10 points earned. For instance, if you have 23 points, you will start the championship game with 7300 in chips.
9.) Verbal comittments play.
10.) No string betting. If chips cross the racetrack (or 6" past the common chip stacking area if playing on a surface with no racetrack) they will be considered a call or raise (if chips are more than current betting).
11.) Minimum bets are equal to the current big blind.
12.) Minimum raises are 2x the current bet.
13.) It is a players responsibility to protect their own hand. If a players hand touches a mucked hand, that hand will be voided.

Guma
11-24-2011, 10:37 PM
Blind Structure - With your current blind structure you have way too many denominations on the table. Do away with the 5 10 20 30 stuff... Start at 25/25 or 25/50, this brings your chip denominations down to a managable factor. 25/100/500/1000/5000 denom chips. I don't know your players, but some of my players can't manage their own chip stacks, so when they go to count out a 450 bet, they would be counting out small denom chips taking way too much time.

Blind Level times - Are you going to have a dealer at each table or will the deal rotate to players? 10 min levels can go by in 3 hands if you are rotating the deal and have slow players.

Here is a blind structure and times I use for these same types of tournaments. It is slow in its progress, allows for some great poker, and allows a player to take a hit and still come back.
Small/Big/Ante/Time
25/25/0/20
25/50/0/20
50/100/0/20
100/200/0/20
150/300/0/20
200/400/0/20
300/600/0/20
300/600/25/20 - First Ante
400/800/25/20
600/1200/50/20
800/1600/75/20
Break for Chip Up and remove 25 denom chips
1000/2000/100/20
1500/3000/100/20
2000/4000/200/20
2500/5000/200/20
Progress from here as you see fit in regards to how many players are seated and your starting stack. i.e. 20 players X 5000 = 100,000 in play.

Points - First, I don't agree the Championship tournament should be open to everyone. Let me explain, John Doe hasn't played any tournaments leading up to the Champ round, so he has not contributed to the prize pool that has been withheld ($5 from $20 buy-in) from all the other players who have played. Yes he is at a disadvantage in chip stacks, but I don't feel that makes up for not having contributed to the WSOP seat being awarded.

K.I.S.S - Give everyone a point for playing and points for finishing position. i.e. 12 players
1st Place - 12pts + 1 for playing
2nd Place - 11pts + 1 for playing
3rd Place - 10pts + 1 for playing
etc...

Again here is what I did, use it, adjust it, ignore it..:D
1 -If you won a tournament leading up to Champ round, you got a free seat in the Champ Round
2 -Top 3 in points (not counting tournament winners) got a free seat to Champ Round
3 -Points placement 4th to 10th in Points paid a very discounted rate to play in Champ Round
4 -Points placement 11th to 20th paid a less discounted rate to play in Champ Round
Etc... I took mine alway up to 30th position because in any one season I could have 40+ players in 6 tournaments.

Keeping track of all this.... I used to use Tournament Director (TD), which you can download for free from www.thetournamentdirector.net/ (http://www.thetournamentdirector.net/) It used to be free, but to unlock some of the advanced pieces you had to buy a license for $30. It is well worth the $30 if they are keeping it updated. I have not used it in a while, so I can't give any insight to that. Also it only works on PC, it will not work on MAC.

TD though has great suggestions for blind structures, payouts, and keeping points. It will tally points as players drop from the tournament, and it will keep running totals for your entire season. Making it very easy to keep track of all your players.

JumperJeff
11-25-2011, 03:10 PM
I don't have time to comment on too much right now, but I really don't like the wording of this rule:

10.) No string betting. If chips cross the racetrack (or 6" past the common chip stacking area if playing on a surface with no racetrack) they will be considered a call or raise (if chips are more than current betting).


That means that you are not allowed to pick up a stack of chips, move them forward, cut off enough chips to call the bet, and return the rest to your stack. That's a very common practice from what I've seen.

I agree completely with disallowing string bets, but the rest of that line doesn't describe a string bet and should be deleted, imo.

Hemps
11-25-2011, 04:38 PM
I'd follow Gumas point structure and like sniper does in his league give bonus points for finishing is top 4 (he pays top 3, but this rewards the bubble.) I also wouldn't let anyone play the final game. I'd make it a X games min out of X games in the series to qualify.