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After you’ve been playing online poker for some time, and you’ve mastered the
mechanics of the game, the next logical step is to start hosting home poker
tournaments. There are several factors that make for a successful home poker
tournament: having the necessary supplies, determining a freeze out
competition or one that allows re buys, starting chip counts and the nature of
the blinds.
The most obvious items needed for a home poker tournament is a table and
chairs. While you can play on your regular dining room or kitchen table just
fine, you might want to consider having an actual poker table or at least a
poker table top- both of which can be purchased for your local department
store or online through any number of retailers. The table isn’t going to make
or break your game, but it certainly adds to the playing experience. If you
decide to go with your everyday table, you should at least cover it with felt
in order to make dealing the cards easier.
Once you have the seating figured out, you’ll need people to sit in those
chairs! You probably have a group of friends that already know how to play
Hold ‘em, and another group of your friends who want to learn. Your first few
games will help teach the new players the ropes, and help you, as the host,
work out the kinks of hosting a home tournament. Just keep the buy-ins low for
the first couple games, to give everyone a chance to learn the mechanics of
the game.
You’ll need at least two decks of cards. You don’t want the dollar store
cards- go all out and get two decks of the plastic coated, high quality
playing cards. Cheaper cards will start bending within the first few hands
from shuffling, and you want cards that will be sturdy for your home
tournaments.
For tournaments of up to about eighteen players, you need a set of 500 poker
chips. Poker chips come in several different varieties- and in this case, what
you pay for is what you get. You can get plastic chips from just about any
store’s toy department, but if you’re planning to host tournaments on a
regular basis, it makes sense to purchase a nicer set of chips. Higher quality
chips, the type you would use in a casino for example, are made from clay and
have substantial weight to them.
Most poker chip sets come with a dealer button, but if not, you can use any
object to designate whom the dealer is. Everyone in the tournament should
always know immediately who is in the dealer position, without having to ask.
The last necessary item for hosting successful home poker tournaments is a
timer or clock of some kind. You’ll need to keep track of the blind levels,
and you don’t want to have to try to remember to look at the clock while
you’re playing. A kitchen timer or stop watch will do the job, but if you want
to get really fancy- you can purchase a specially designed poker timer, such
as the “Game Genie”, to keep track of the blind amounts, antes, and ring a
buzzer whenever it’s time to advance to the next level of blinds. The Genie
can also clue you in as to how many chips to give each player at the start of
the tournament, based on the length of time you want to play and the number of
players.
Once you’ve obtained all the necessary supplies, you need to decide on your
game play. As the host, you are expected to be the final decision maker in any
and all disputes that might arise during your tournament. Your first decision
is whether or not your tournament will allow re-buys or if it will be a
freeze-out. Games that allow re-buys will typically have a low buy in, and you
should predetermine when players will be allowed to re-buy. For example, you
can set a time limit of one hour to allow re-buys if someone’s chip count
drops below a specified dollar amount, and once that time period has come up-
anyone can choose to top up their stack with a re-buy, regardless of their
current chip stack. After the hour time limit (or whatever you set) has
passed, no one is allowed to re-buy.
In a freeze-out tournament, the initial buy in is usually higher, and you
might start with more chips. Once a player is out of chips, they’re out of the
tournament as there are no re-buys allowed. Many home tournament players will
start cash games on a separate table when they are out of the tournament in
order to keep playing the game.
Before your guests arrive, you should have your blinds established. They
should increase steadily at predetermined time intervals. Here is a popular
blind structure:
25/50
50/100
100/200
300/600
400/800
500/1000
700/1500
1000/2000
2000/4000
In a re-buy game structure, you might want to increase the blinds every 30
minutes, while in a freeze out game structure, you might move the blinds every
20 minutes since you typically start with a greater amount of chips. The
important thing is to establish your blinds and time limits before you start
the game, and post it for all players to see.
Finally, you need to set the prize pool. How will you distribute the buy ins?
Many home tournaments pay only the top 3 places, in which case you probably
would want to pay out 50% of the total money to the winner, 30% of the total
money to the second place finisher and the remaining 20% to the third place
finisher. If you’re hosting a tournament with several tables of players,
you might consider paying more than three spots.
Following the guidelines in this article will help ensure that you host a
successful home poker tournament. Playing in home games will develop your
playing strategy, and help you win more online poker games, as well as casino
tournaments!
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