Multi-table seating changes during play

SteamboatWillie

For the first time we are doing a tournament with more than one table. I am wondering about seating as people get eliminated. Is there a hard and fast way to move a player from / to a table to balance things out? If anyone does do this, how do you decide who to move and when?

Steamboat.

Unknown

Let's say you have ten players at table 'A' and nine at table 'B'. That's fine... 10 and 9. However, someone then busts out (again) from table 'B', making it 10 and 8. Now you need to move a player from A to B, to make it an even nine and nine.

You look at the position of the player that just busted out from B to determine who moves from A. So, if it was UTG + 2 who just busted out, you take UTG + 2 from A and move him to B. This way, nobody complains that they just paid the blinds, and now have to pay them again, etc...

At least, that's how I do it. If you have any further questions, feel free to ask.

Yorkpoker

We usually take the BB from the table and move them to the open spot. Then nobody gets stuck paying 2x. This speeds things up a little, since people get used to the idea and you don't have to count the number of people backwards until the blind.

Now that I have made that sound complicated, it really isn't. Just keep the tables within one or 2 people of each other and people won't complain.

Zithal

There are two common ways to move people in tournaments when the tables go unbalanced (more than two person difference is #'s). The first is as all aces mentioned. It's my favorite and the fairest.

If you're running a big tournament, a faster way to run it is to take the person UTG and move them to the seat closest to the bb on the new table. It's faster, and no player is paying the BB twice quickly.

My preference is also to redraw seats before forming the final table.

SteamboatWillie

Thanks for the replies. I guess the big thing is that everyone knows of the procedure in advance, so there are no complaints during play. We are hoping for 18-21 people, so i anticipate a lot of shuffling to start. We plan to draw for seats to start, and for the final table.

Do you find moving people eats up the clock? What about logistical problems of moving or changing chips during tourney play?

I am assuming UTG means something like under the gun, or the next person to be BB.

Steamboat.

Mailman

We use the UTG method to move players and find it works well. You'll find that you don't need to shuffle players very often as the tables have a way of evening themselves out. We don't stop the clock or the play for moves. Once the player to be moved is out of the currrent hand, they move to the other table and are dealt in the next hand at that table. When we get down to the number of players for the final table, we redraw for seats.

For large tournaments, we have a whiteboard that we write all the table numbers on and under each table number we write the name of the players at that table. When a player is eliminated, we erase that player from the board and when a player is moved, we move them on the board. It helps to have someone who isn't playing run things but if the organizer is playing, he can just get up between hands to change the board. The board makes it easy to see at a glance which tables need players moved.

Colouring up chips is best done during breaks. If you schedule a 15 minute break after each bllind increase which eliminates the need for a colour, you should have enough time to do this.

Mailman