Ideas for a poker League?
After reading Xsqueezeme's post mentioned the poker club he's running, several bells and lights went off in my head and now I can't drop the idea of starting my own.
So, I thought I'd post a quick email out to see people think of various ideas / payouts / etc. The details are mostly in point form - feel free to comment and offer suggestions to improve the season.
Format : Season runs 6 months with 2 freeze-out tournaments each month and a possible final tournament to crown a grand champion. Tournaments are a variety of poker games with the first in the month being NL Hold'em and the other six the following..
Limit Hold'em
Seven Card Stud
Ohmaha
Razz
NL Hold'em Head's up Elimination
S.H.O.E. (or H.O.R.S.E)
16 player cap (to make the heads up game possible, and to keep everything at 2 table 8 max tables) The buy in for each event is $15. $10 for the event being played, $5 to the final "pot".
Alternately, the buy in for each event is $10 and the season fee is fixed at the beginning (i.e $50 or $60) - this may prevent people from dropping out and only gets serious people signing up. (People may, of course, send substitutes) I also like this because then the money can be put in a savings account for 6 months and pay for special prizes like a Winners bracelet.
Each event pays top 4 spots : 50/25/15/10
Points are awared based on finish (1st - 16 points, 2nd - 15 points, etc)
At the end of the season, your final score is awarded for your top 10 finishes (allows people to miss a couple tournaments)
1) Pay out the top 5-6 spots based on points.
2) Hold one final NL Hold'em tournament (final Saturday of the final month) where starting chips are based on points.
1st 3200
2nd 3000
3rd 2800
..
15th 400
16th 200
(or something a little more level.. ie (12th->16th : 500, 9th-11th : 1000, etc)
3) Split the "pot" 50/50 or 40/60 and pay a bonus for both 1) and 2).
Questions:
a) Cost? Is $15 x 12 session = $180 too much for a 6 month period?
b) Format of final payout? Is it fair? What would you prefer?
c) Idea of adding different styles of games? Like it or should it all be the same game?
d) Is 6 months too long? Better to run 4 month leagues, and do three a year?
e) Who should the winner's bracelet(s) be awarded to? Overall points leader? Winner of the final tourney? Highest money winner?
f) Thoughts/ideas/additions/etc would be greatly appreciated. If something materializes, I'll be looking for a January start date.
So, I thought I'd post a quick email out to see people think of various ideas / payouts / etc. The details are mostly in point form - feel free to comment and offer suggestions to improve the season.
Format : Season runs 6 months with 2 freeze-out tournaments each month and a possible final tournament to crown a grand champion. Tournaments are a variety of poker games with the first in the month being NL Hold'em and the other six the following..
Limit Hold'em
Seven Card Stud
Ohmaha
Razz
NL Hold'em Head's up Elimination
S.H.O.E. (or H.O.R.S.E)
16 player cap (to make the heads up game possible, and to keep everything at 2 table 8 max tables) The buy in for each event is $15. $10 for the event being played, $5 to the final "pot".
Alternately, the buy in for each event is $10 and the season fee is fixed at the beginning (i.e $50 or $60) - this may prevent people from dropping out and only gets serious people signing up. (People may, of course, send substitutes) I also like this because then the money can be put in a savings account for 6 months and pay for special prizes like a Winners bracelet.
Each event pays top 4 spots : 50/25/15/10
Points are awared based on finish (1st - 16 points, 2nd - 15 points, etc)
At the end of the season, your final score is awarded for your top 10 finishes (allows people to miss a couple tournaments)
1) Pay out the top 5-6 spots based on points.
2) Hold one final NL Hold'em tournament (final Saturday of the final month) where starting chips are based on points.
1st 3200
2nd 3000
3rd 2800
..
15th 400
16th 200
(or something a little more level.. ie (12th->16th : 500, 9th-11th : 1000, etc)
3) Split the "pot" 50/50 or 40/60 and pay a bonus for both 1) and 2).
Questions:
a) Cost? Is $15 x 12 session = $180 too much for a 6 month period?
b) Format of final payout? Is it fair? What would you prefer?
c) Idea of adding different styles of games? Like it or should it all be the same game?
d) Is 6 months too long? Better to run 4 month leagues, and do three a year?
e) Who should the winner's bracelet(s) be awarded to? Overall points leader? Winner of the final tourney? Highest money winner?
f) Thoughts/ideas/additions/etc would be greatly appreciated. If something materializes, I'll be looking for a January start date.
Comments
But other then that Im in
We used to play HORSEY at our home games, but have switched to Holdem almost exclusively.
I think the winner of the final championship tourney should have to play against the overall point leader (if different) in a heads up match to determine the championship.
You have some great ideas.
The O.P.C. is strictly a NL Holdem Club. I like the idea of playing different games as well. There are a couple there I am unfamiliar with. It is true though, almost everyone is horny over NL Holdem.
I don't think the cost is too high. You will fill up quickly. The O.P.C. is 40 members and it costs $75 per month. $50 going to the monthly tourney and the remaining $25 going to the season pot. You would be playing twice as much as us going twice a month thou.
6 months for the O.P.C. is perfect, but it is only 6 tourneys. Maybe 6 months is too long when playing twice a month? Not sure on that one. There would be nothing wrong with trying a 4 month league and changing to a 6 month if everything works out well?? Maybe a trial league with the shorter 4 month??
I don't think the payouts are that important. No one is getting rich off this. Whatever you come up with I'm sure will be fine, judging from your previous tourneys I have been at. Which you ran quite well. This league thing is definitely up your alley.
Not sure about the bracelet prize. In the O.P.C. we have 2 specific things we are playing for. The monthly prize and the season prize. 2 separate games is what it will come down to. I think the top money winner is a reward in itself. We don't have a finals day ( or championship tourney ). If you have this, then I think you would have to reward that winner. Sometimes in leagues of other types (sports) a reward is given to the team in first or with the most points. But it is the championship that everyone is playing for.
As for paying out the league leaders. The O.P.C. rewards the top 5 at each tourney and top 5 at season end and we have 40 members. The rewards are greater and at higher percentages. Mind you we are only playing one style of poker and this is what we decided. Paying more at a smaller percentage is fine too. Playing different games with smaller buy-ins may take the emphasis off the rewards versus learning and "just playing". Which would be my case since I too have resorted to the NL Holdem exclusively club.
If you are worried about people dropping out you could make the players sign a contract. Which is what the O.P.C. did. This was needed to show their committment to the club and fair play to the other members. I don't think it is needed for you. I like your idea of getting the league finals money upfront or within the first month. This should be committment enough for any player. We were unable to do this since it would require the player to pay a larger sum of money that a lot of us don't have. I think this would be fine for your club since it won't put anyone too far 'out' with their finances.
The substitute thing is very important in our club. No player wants to miss out on their season points for the season total. A substitute in our case pays the tourney fee and the member pays the season fee. The sub then gets their reward for how they do that particular tourney and the points are rewarded to the club member. If someone is unable to find a substitute, I have a substitute list which I can get someone for them.
Some little problems arose for me when it came time to sign the contract and collect the first fee payment. Many people always say they are interested and all for it until crunch time. People back out all the time even last minute. Luckily I had a lot of interest and had a list already started of 'people who wanted in, but I was full at the time' started. So the first week or 2 before the actual first tourney were a little crazy. Everything worked out and should become easier as it goes on.
Well I've typed enough, hoped it helped Zithal. I think it's great what you're doing.
What nights were you thinking of running your league?
I work shift work, so this becomes a factor for me.
Good luck with it Zithal
Which poker game do you choose then ??? :rolleyes:
well to me all the games listed in the first are fair game. i'll be honest i'm primarily a holdem dog myself but i'm willing to venture out and try other games. it makes it more challenging
will it be gold or silver??
I've been planning something like this for quite awhile too. My idea is more of a Tri-Cities Poker "Tour" than a membership club, i.e. anyone can play, we just need a web RSVP form, allow sign-ups until filled, etc.
We seem to have plenty of people willing to host, so we can have regular (i.e. weekly) games of different stakes and different games, depending on the host. A $10 buy-in tourny I think we can expect 30 people for, a $20 buy-in maybe 20 people, etc. Then, borrowing a page from the WPT, we take a portion out of each prize pool to give the winner free buy-in to the end of the season bigger buy-in "final" tournament, say $50 buy-in.
Anyways, I think this is all best discussed in person, so what I'm thinking is, sometime in the next few weeks, everyone who's interested in this league/tour/etc. should meet up to play a tournament and discuss how this is being run. Sound good?