How to start a Home Game Poker Tournament
To start a good home game we would recommend the following items
Poker Chips - The amount you need will depend upon the number of players. A set of 500 is enough for between 8 to 18 players.
Playing Cards - Two decks of good quality wide index plastic coated playing cards. It is important you get good quality playing cards as they can last months and stand up to a lot of punishment.
Dealer button - If you haven't got a dealer button then you can use any similar object. It is important that everyone knows who the dealer is without having to ask.
A Clock - A countdown timer like a stop watch or egg timer will be needed for the blind levels.
Playing Surface - A poker table is best but if you haven't got one then some baize (felt) to cover the table would be good. This is not essential for starting but makes it easier to deal the cards when they don’t stick to the table cloth.
A Postilion - This a plastic card which goes at the bottom of the deck when dealing.
And most important of all, table, chairs and players!
It is important that you know the rules of tournament play because as host of the game you will be expected to do rulings.
At our home game we play the same rules as you would find in UK casinos. The person to the left of the dealer shuffles the cards, and person to the right of dealer cuts the cards onto the postilion (plastic card at the bottom of the deck) so that no one can see the bottom card. We recommend you stick to this way of doing it rather than have someone shuffle, deal and cut by themselves, for obvious reasons. It is also worth getting into this habit so that when you visit a casino or card room you will not have to change how you do things.
Re-buy or Freezeout tournament?
The next thing you have to decide is whether your tournament is going to allow re-buys and if so for how long. At our home game we have 90 mins of re-buys then after this initial 90 mins everyone can top up. So at our weekly £5 re-buy tournament, everyone first pays £5 for 1500 in chips. During the first 90 mins any player can re-buy another 1500 in chips for another £5 when they have 750 or less in their stack. At the end of the initial 90 mins everyone (regardless of the amount of chips they have) has the option of a top up. For a further £5 they can buy another 1500 chips. After this there are no more re-buys and when you're out you're out!
At our monthly freezeout tournament it works differently. Everyone initially pays £25 and starts with 8000 in chips. There are no re-buys (hence the freezeout bit) and when you're out you're out. It is upto you what type of tournament you want to play. Some people prefer the freezeout style as they know exactly how much they will spend, whereas some people prefer the re-buys as they can sometimes (and quite often) be maddness!
How much should you play for? This of course depends on how much money your players have and how serious a game you want. We have our re-buy tournament set at £5. It is a cheap yet enjoyable game and has a really friendly atmosphere. Despite it being a cheap game, the quality of play is still good. Even though it can be a bit mad at times. You may prefer to set your re-buy poker tournament at a higher level such as £10, £20, or even more. If you are total beginners then you might like to make it even cheaper than £5 until everyone at your game is familiar with how to play. As for a freezeout competition, this should always be a higher buy in than a re-buy tournament because otherwise there is not much to win.
How many chips should you start with?
The next thing you have to decide upon is the amount of chips to start off with. For our re-buy game everyone starts with 1500 in chips (usually consisting of 1 x 500, 8 x 100, and 8 x 25). In our freezeout game the starting stacks are 8000.
What should the blind levels be?
The blind levels are an important part of your tournament and blinds can be set depending on how long you want the tournament to run for. Blinds should go up at a steady rate like the below structure:
25-50
50-100
100-200
200-400
300-600
400-800
500-1000
700-1500
1000-2000
1500-3000
2000-4000
2500-5000
3000-6000
3500-7000
In our re-buy game the blinds intially go up every 30 mins. After the first 90 mins we take a break and then the blinds move up every 20 mins. However in the freezeout game the blinds move up every 20 mins from the start. This is because there are more chips in play from the start.
How to split the prize pool?
If you have 9 people at your game you may pay the top 3 places. I would suggest if paying top 3 the money be split:
1st 50%
2nd 30%
3rd 20%
The more players the more places it would pay, but as the host you could make a decision on that.
I hope this article has been helpful to you. Best of luck setting up you're own home game!
