Tips on Running a Texas Holdem Tournament

The best thing about the proliferation of online poker tournaments is that you can jump into a hold’em tournament at literally any hour of the day or night. But no matter how convenient, online poker tournaments just don’t have the same feel or excitement of playing a live tournament.

Unless you’re fortunate enough to live near a casino, playing in live poker tournaments can be inconvenient as well as unaffordable. If you’re the type that needs a regular live game fix, running a texas holdem tournament from home may be the best alternative.

The key to success in running a home poker tournament is preparedness. As the host, you’ll be responsible for ensuring that your home tournament runs efficiently, that your guests are comfortable, and, most importantly, that the games are fair.

Poker Tournament Supplies

The first thing you should think about is what kind of poker supplies you’ll need to run a poker tournament. At a bare minimum, you’ll need a poker chip set, several decks of playing cards, and a poker table. If you don’t have any of these, you might want to review my articles on poker chips, poker tables, and poker chip sets.

Aside from the basics, there are some other poker accessories that you should consider buying if you’re planning on running a Texas Holdem tournament.

If you want your game to feel authentic, you probably don’t want to use an old sock or a crumpled potato chip bag as your dealer button. You can buy a real dealer button online for less than 10 bucks. Better yet, some holdem poker chip sets come with one as part of the set.

Another nice item to own if you’re planning on making your home poker tournament a regular event is a mechanical card shuffler. Owning one will eliminate a lot of the wasted time that comes with hand shuffling cards, particularly if you run one deck through the shuffler while playing with the other. On the other hand, a home poker game is often as much about socializing as it is competition, so if the goal of your game is spending some time with your buddies, you can skip this item.

One poker accessory that I think is absolutely crucial if you’re running a home poker tournament is a poker timer. Sure, you can use a wristwatch or other time keeping device, but with something as important as timing blind increases, I think it’s important to have an official timer.

Home Poker Tournament Rules

Hosting a poker tournament will require you to act as an arbiter of all disputes. This can be a real pain in the butt, especially when money is on the line and tempers are flaring. The best thing that you can do to minimize disputes, hurt feelings, and broken chairs is to lay down some house rules for your poker tournament. As the host of the game, these rules are up to you, but here are a few standard ones you might want to use as a guide.

A player does not need to call his hand. Cards speak for themselves. Players must announce check, call, or raise before moving their chips into the pot. No string betting. No player may discuss a hand in which he is not a participant. The dealer must burn one card before dealing, both preflop and on the flop. Player must display all their chips openly on the table.

The actual rules aren’t as important as the need to discuss them with your guests prior to the start of the tournament. I recommend writing down your poker rules on paper and having them accessible for reference in the case of a dispute. If you ever need to make a ruling that you haven’t covered, add it to your “poker bible” so that your home game rules are consistent from tournament to tournament.

Poker Tournament Structure

When organizing a home poker tournament, you should give thought to the structure it will follow. A few things to consider are starting chip counts, blind structures, and payout structure.

You can base your starting chip count as a multiple of your beginning blinds. You’ll want somewhere between 40x and 60x the big blind to begin with. Basically, you’ll want the blinds to have some meaning, but leave a little room for people to make a mistake or two early without being assured of getting knocked out.

When deciding on a blind structure, you’ll want to raise the blinds slowly enough so that players can play a good deal of post-flop poker, but quickly enough to create a sense of pressure. You don’t want to spend hours with a bunch of guys sitting around waiting to play pocket aces. I usually double the blinds every 30-45 minutes for home games.

Poker payout structure can have a great deal of effect on a poker player’s strategy, so choose your payouts in a manner that most encourages the style of play you desire. If you’re playing with 6 players or less, I like winner-takes-all, as it encourages aggression. Any more than 6 players, it usually makes sense to split up the winnings among multiple finishers.

Communication

The most important thing you can do when running a holdem tournament is to communicate the rules, tournament structure, and payout structure prior to the beginning of the tournament. If you’re running your first home poker tournament, you can put various issues to a vote; however, once you’re running a regular game, your guests will expect consistency. Tweak as you go and then lock in whatever best suits the style of you and your guests. Remember, unless you’re a serious poker professional, the name of this game is fun.

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