home holdem tourney, do's and don'ts

[peterbucknut]

for the last 4+ months, friends and i have had a weekly home no limit hold'em tournament, inspired by the TV tourneys, of course.

the general rules of our tourneys have been:

Money In:
$5 buy ins (friendly game), poker chips valued at $1, $5, $10, & $25 (i never got the reason they started the $10 chip - i guess they are relating chip value to quarter, dime, nickel)

Money Out:
3 players=$15 to 1st place
4 players=$15 to 1st place, $5 to 2nd place
5 players=$20 to 1st place, $5 to 2nd place
6 players=$20 to 1st pl,$10 to 2nd pl
7 players=$20 to 1st pl,$10 to 2nd pl,$5 to 3rd
8 players=$25 to 1st pl,$10 to 2nd pl,$5 to 3rd
9 players=$25 to 1st pl,$15 to 2nd pl,$5 to 3rd
and so on.....amounts are incremented due to $5 buy ins.

Chip count / starting money
typically, with one host, everyone is given about $100 in total chips. the small blind total is the minimum bet. We play that when a player gets knocked out, the ante / small / bb increase. below is the format

#players, ante, sm blind, big blind
Start# w/all players, $1, Ante + $1, Ante + $2
Start# less 1 player, $2, Ante + $2, Ante + $4
Start# less 2 player, $3, Ante + $3, Ante + $6
Start# less 3 player, $4, Ante + $4, Ante + $8
Start# less 4 player, $5, Ante + $5, Ante +$10
Start# less 5 player,$10, Ante +$10, Ante +$20
Start# less 6 player,$15, Ante +$15, Ante +$30
and so on......

head to head final:
we were playing:
dealer = big blind and always acts last
non-dealer = small blind and always acts 1st

last week, the host observed a tv tourney and changed the rules to the following:
dealer = small blind and acts 1st only before the flop.
non-dealer = big blind and acts 1st only after the flop.

which way is correct?


edicate:
1. folding in order,
2. in a showdown,calling the remaining players best hand, (question: is this right? if someone calls 3 of a kind and actually has a full house, is it proper to correct him? if not, how long does he have to correct himself, or is the 1st read the only read?)

question: is it right or wrong for the dealer or other players to verbalize the best potential hands or read on the board? i.e. if 3 spades flop and someone reads / speaks "whom ever has the high spade will win this one."

any suggestions about, payouts, antes, min bets, chip values, edicate, blinds, starting chips, etc......? are there variations that make it work better? is there anything being done that is not proper edicate / rules of play?

Note on time: the above format will typically make about 1 hour to 1.5 hour tourney, and we will get about 5-8 tourneys in per night.

thanks for your feedback

 

[Matt24]

showdowns- cards speak. meaning it doesnt matter what the player says, his cards speak for themselves.

 

[peterbucknut]

Thanks Matt. Does anyone else play with/without antes in their tourneys, or antes toward the end? Does anyone else use higher or lower chip values (beginning and different sb/bb)? On the head to head game, which way is correct?

 

[peterbucknut]

FYI: a recent modification we made to this. we do not increase the ante until the last 2-3 people are left. Ante stays at $1 and after a few rounds increases to $2. This way, if you have a 11+ person game, the ante will eat you up without playing any hands, if 3 or 4 people go all in early and are out, soon the anti becomes 10-20% of your chip stack five-ten minutes into the tourney.

Blinds are also not increasing as fast until the last 2-3 people.

In making these modifications, this will exend a 30 minute tourney to an 1-3 hour tourney.