Poker

Home
Up
Travel
Lu-gats
Hotels
Photography
Skiing
Sports
Poker
Technology

I enjoy hosting a semi-annual poker tournament.  It's gotten bigger and fancier each time with new improvements, tweaks and technological advances.  Every aspect of running a decent-sized tournament has been tuned and improved.  The rules and procedures below are optimized for running a tournament of 40-60 people that runs under 4 hours of actual playing time and takes around 5 hours of actual elapsed time to complete.  See below for past tournament summaries and results.

Howard's Poker Parlor House Rules Tournament Director Software
bulletEach player has 1 re-buy and 1 add-on during the 1st hour for $1000 chips. Rebuy-1x cost of buy-in only if out of chips; Add-On-2x cost of buy-in regardless of chip count
bulletBlinds structure: Will increase every 20 minutes (Small/Big blind)
1st hour: $10/$20, $15/$30, $20/$40
2nd hour: $25/$50, $50/$100, $75/$150
3rd hour: $100/$200, $200/$400, $300/$600
4th hour: $500/$1000, $1000/$2000, $1500/$3000
bulletThere will be a 15 minute intermission every hour after which tables are completely reshuffled.
bulletNo limit on bets or raises of at least the Big Blind.
bulletNo sharing or giving away chips or having others play for you (help is allowed). If you have to leave, you may forfeit your chips to the bank.
bulletBig Blind rotates around the table regardless of those that get knocked out
bullet$1 will be set aside per player for a bonus elimination payout to whoever you eliminate from the tourney. Give up your name card to the player who takes you out of the tournament. When you are out of the tourney, cash in your name cards (for those players you took out) for $1 each. Honorable mentions to the Top Terminators.
bulletPrizes: Top x places will win 100% of pot less the $1/player elimination bonus where x = Ceiling(# players/5)
bulletThis is a friendly game. If you're experienced, please help those who are learning and be tolerant of beginner errors. If you are less experienced, feel free to ask anyone not actively in the hand for help when needed.

Complete Rules in PDF format

 I use Tournament Director www.thetournamentdirector.net software to help me run the tournaments.  It is a very nice program that helps keep track of all aspects of running a tournament and is very reasonably priced at $25.  It is also very customizable and tracks all the statistics of rebuys, add-ons, players busting out, hitmen, etc.  Below are a few of the customized screens that I've designed and use during my tournaments.

Pre Tournament:

During the Tournament:

Post Tournament:

 

horizontal rule

Semi-Annual Poker Tournament Summary and Results

horizontal rule

# Date # Players Prizes Results Hits Notes Winner
I

P
H
O
T
O
S

 9/13/2003
$15 Tournament
Dealer's Choice		 14 Players $210 1. Howard L
2. Greg H
3. Chau-Wen T
4. Diane Q		 N/A 1st of my tournaments, a dealer's choice no limit tournament that I ended up winning!
II

P
H
O
T
O
S

 2/27/2004
$10 Tournament		 20 Players $200 1. Amy P
2. Fan Y
3. Howard L
4. Dave L		 N/A The first Double No Limit Texas Hold'em Tournaments
2/27/2004
$20 Tournament		 11 Players $220 1. Howard L
2. Mike M
3. Werner M
4. Alan T		 N/A The last tourney at the Condo which was limited to 2 tables
III

P
H
O
T
O
S

 7/24/2004
3PM
$5 Tournament		 10 Players $50 1. Amy P
2. Chau N
3. Rob C		 N/A Day after moving into the townhouse, I had the BYOC (Chair) tournament
7/24/2004
8PM
$10 Tournament		 24 Players $240 1. Dan K
2. Greg H
3. Yu-Lun L
4. Alan T
5. Jack C		 N/A Last tournament to use the Egg Timer software
IV

P
H
O
T
O
S

 1/29/2005
3PM
$5 Tournament		 28 Players
5 Rebuys
10 Add-Ons		 $215 1. Kara S
2. Roger Y/Rob C
3. Dwayne S
4. Jianing
5. Ken W
6. Dave K		 N/A Tournament Director first used to track blinds, tables and players
1/29/2005
8PM
$10 Tournament		 42 Players
7 Rebuys
30 Add-Ons		 $790 1. Yu-Lun L
2. Terry L
3. Alan C
4. Jesse Z
5. Will C
6. Mandy W		 N/A 1 Rebuy and 1 Add-On allowed per player for 1X cost of buy-in
V

P
H
O
T
O
S

 7/23/2005
3PM
$5 Tournament		 23 Players
18 Rebuys*
8 Add-Ons		 $285 1. Kyle P
2. Andrew S
3. Robby X
4. Paul T
5. Dave L		 N/A 2 Rebuys/Player at any time.  1st rebuy = 1x cost of buy-in, 2nd rebuy = 2x cost
7/23/2005
8PM
$10 Tournament		 48 Players
36 Rebuys*
5 Add-Ons		 $940 1. Brian X
2. Ray X
3. Will C
4. Tip C
5. Jeanie W
6. Kevin L
7. Anthony W
8. Tommy X		 N/A 2 Rebuys/Player  Introduced the Grey chip as worth $5,000 and utilized all 6 tables for the first time
VI

P
H
O
T
O
S

 3/18/2006
3PM
$5 Tournament		 29 Players
6 Rebuys
11 Add-Ons		 $285 1. Al C
2. George X
3. Jenny L
4. Romeo Z
5. Gary S
6. Janice S		 Al C (8)
Janice S (4)
Kevin L (4)
Romeo Z (3)		 $1 set aside per player for elimination bonus and tracked
3/18/2006
8PM
$10 Tournament		 55 Players
17 Rebuys
20 Add-Ons		 $1,120 1. Haiying M
2. Tommy H
3. Tim M
4. Jo D
5. Kevin L
6. Werner M
7. George X
8. Helen L		 Tommy H (14)
Haiying M (5)
Jo D (5)
Helen L (5)
Amy V (4)
Kevin L (3)		 Biggest tournament to date with most # players and prizes.  Rebuys can only be purchased if out of chips
VII

P
H
O
T
O
S

 7/29/2006
3PM
$5 Tournament		 32 Players
6 Rebuys
11 Add-Ons		 $300 1. Anthony W
2. Fan Y
3. Luying P
4. Dave K
5. Sherman M
6. Sam E		 Albert C (5)
Zhora K (4)
Fan Y (3)
Dave K (3)		 New flat-panel display for living room.  Enforced chip-ups between rounds
7/29/2006
8PM
$10 Tournament		 43 Players
9 Rebuys
13 Add-Ons		 $780 1. Jack C
2. Allen K
3. James S
4. Kevin L
5. Andrew S
6. Kelly S
7. Patty L
8. Jon K		 James S (5)
Kevin L (5)
Jack C (4)
Derek F (4)
Allen K (3)
Yuhui W (3)		 Removed Pink chip $250 from play and used Yellow chip $200 instead for easier chip-up purposes
VIII

P
H
O
T
O
S

 1/27/2007
3PM
$5 Tournament		 28 Players
12 Rebuys
13 Add-Ons		 $330 1. Mike S
2. Frank S
3. Rob K
4. Emilio B
5. Manish M
6. Ricardo H
Complete Results		 Mike S (12)
 Frank S (4)
Howard L (3)
Ben S (3)		 Blinds structure modified to start at 10/20 instead of 5/10.  New TD Layout and Export of Results
1/27/2007
8PM
$10 Tournament		 43 Players
11 Rebuys
14 Add-Ons		 $820 1. Ben S
2. SK Kim
3. Jack C
4. Dave L
5. Jesse Z
6. Howard L
7. Greg H
8. Brian L
Complete Results		 Ben S (10)
SK Kim (8)
Greg H (4)
Kyle P (3)
Mark C (3)		 Prize structure and percentages reallocated to give 1st place a little more than previous tournaments
IX

P
H
O
T
O
S

 9/8/2007
3PM
$5 Tournament		 13 Players
6 Rebuys
3 Add-Ons		 $125 1. Chau-Wen T
2. Howard L
3. Roger Y
Complete Results
 		 Chau-Wen T (5)
Howard L (3)
Anthony W (2)		    
9/8/2007
8PM
$10 Tournament		 27 Players
7 Rebuys
8 Add-Ons		 $500 1. Kyle P
2. Son P
3. Werner M
4. Dave L
5. Fan Y
6. Ming C
Complete Results		 Kyle P (6)
Son P (5)
Fan (3)		    

__________________________
Questions or Comments: Sign Guestbook
Last updated on September 14, 2007