This is Part 2 of my "If I Ran A Poker Room" series, and it covers Tournaments. Everything I say in this post would be dependent on State Regulations, as well as "Supply & Demand" issues regarding the players and nearby casinos.
- Daily Tournaments are important to a Poker Room because they bring in players who don't play in Cash games. These are also good for newer players because they will only spend a fixed amount, and the tourneys only take a couple of hours.
There would be a robust schedule, with 3 - 4 each day. One in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening. I may even try a late night tourney on weekends.
Most of the tourneys would be NLHE, but there would be some variety. I would be actively pushing other games, so there would be at least one Limit Hold'em, Omaha-8, and PLO. Also some variety NLHE tourneys like a Bounty, a Rebuy, and a Cash Me Out.
The Buy-Ins would be in the $50 - $125 range. I would like to try at least one higher buy-in each week.
The structures would be on the quick side. I understand that some players hate these tournaments because they become Push-N-Pray so quickly, but that's how it must be. Obviously, the higher buy-in tournaments would have a better structure than the $50 tourneys.
The number of players paid will be (# of tables +1). For example, a one-table tournament will pay two spots, and a three-table tournament will pay four spots. The actual payouts will be flatter than most rooms. (60/40, 50/30/20, 45/30/17/8, 40/25/17/11/7, etc). Most rooms have top-heavy payouts to encourage players to chop and end the tournaments faster. But the players are probably gonna chop anyways, so why encourage it.
- Tournament Series are a great way to bring out-of-towners into your room, which also means they will be spending money in the casino and hotel.
The series would last a week or two, and would have a variety of tournaments. In addition to the tournaments that are run every week, there would also be a Main Event, a Shootout, a Heads-Up tournament, a 6-max, and Mixed Game tournaments like HORSE.
The payouts would be flat just like the daily tournaments, and we would payout 15% of the field. More players would get paid which makes the recreational players happy, and the winners will still get a large chuck of money.
The structures would be much better than the daily tournaments. After running a Home Game for three years, I understand how tournament structures work. I'm definitely a fan of the Matt Savage philosophy, which is "Less Chips, More Levels". There is no reason to ever start a NLHE tournament with more than 200 BB. By not starting with super deep chip stacks, it means that we can add levels later in the tournament when it's more important to have some play, rather than getting to the Push-N-Pray sooner.
Limit tournaments are a different story. Most casinos just take their NL structure, and covert it to a Limit tourney. These structures fail miserably because they have too many Big Bets in the beginning, and accelerate too quickly. The best way to structure a Limit tournament is to start with around 30 - 40 Big Bets, and have the level gradually increase. (For example, 6000 chips - 100/200, 125/250, 150/300, 200/400, 300/600...) I have never ran a Limit tournament, so all of this is theoretical based on my experience in playing Limit tournament. There would need to be some trial and error until I figure it out.
- Promotions are a useful tool to get recreational players in to the room. One of the promos that I see commonly around Reno is giving extra chips (up to 1000) for either playing in the Cash game, or showing a previous tournament receipt.
One thing that I would like to have is something that I've only seen in two poker rooms (Blue Chip & Showboat AC), a Bad Beat Jackpot (BBJ) for tournaments. It would be an extra $5 added to the buy-in, and it would be the same qualifications as the regular BBJ. The $5 would be split like this; $3 for the Main Jackpot, $1 for the Back-Up Jackpot, and $1 for other promotional stuff. The BBJ might be capped at a certain amount, like $25k. I know that the BBJ is a dirty word for some players. But recreational players love the BBJ, and good players love playing against recreational players.
Another promotions would be a monthly or quarterly freeroll for tournament players. You would earn points for playing in tournament, and more points for cashing, based on what place you finish. The top 20 or 30 would play in the freeroll. If it was a $1000 freeroll, the payouts would be something like $500, $300, $100, $50, $50.
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