Home Game Guide
When setting up a Texas Holdem' Tournament for your home game some things to take in consideration are:
- How to select the blind timer duration? / How long do you want to play?
- How to select the chip values? / How many chips can we put in play?
- Is there going to be rebuys?
- How should the prize pool be divided?
How to select the blind timer duration? / How long do you want to play?
When selecting the blind timer you also have to consider the number of blind levels you want to play with. Estimate how long you would like to have the game last. For a game that will last a night I would recommend a total tournament duration of 4-4.5 hours. So pick the time between blinds and calculate how many blind levels to use.
Example:
Selecting a 20 minute blind duration
4 hours = 230 minutes
240/20 = 12 blind levels
How to select the chip values? / How many chips can we put in play?
When hosting a home game we are usually limited by the number of chips we have and the number of players playing. When selecting chip values and quantities it sometimes takes some playing around with the numbers to get the right values.
Example:
If your chip set has 500 chips with the following colours and quantities:
White = 150
Red = 150
Blue = 100
Green = 50
Black = 50
Number of Players = 10
Colour |
Value |
Quantity |
Total Value |
White |
5 |
10 [100] |
50 |
Red |
10 |
10 [100] |
100 |
Blue |
50 |
5 [50] |
250 |
Green |
100 |
5 [50] |
500 |
Black |
500 |
2 [20] |
1000 |
In the example above we made use of 320 chips of our 500. This set up takes care of the possibility of rebuys with the exception of the green chips (since all are used up). Typically with rebuys, players at the table will have to colour up so the person rebuying
Is there going to be rebuys?
When hosting a tournament it is a good idea to have a rebuy cut off point. The rebuy cut off is a set time in the tournament (either a blind level or elapsed time after the tournament started) that rebuys will be excepted before but not accepted after. Allowing rebuys usually allows aggressive play early on and can add some interesting play.
Example:
In a 4.5 hour tournament we would recommend the blind cut off
time should be 1 hour
How should the prize pool be divided?
A good rule of thumb is to always reward the winner. It's not easy to win a tournament and the winner should be rewarded. It is also a good idea to payout as many people as possible, with the minimum prize amount equal to the tournament entry fee. Paying out a number of places usually makes finding people for your next home game easy.
Prize pool = $200
1st |
$100 |
2nd |
$50 |
3rd |
$30 |
4th |
$20 |
