How to Set Up a Texas Holdem Tournament

Your friends are coming over to play in a Texas Holdem Poker Tournament. You have everything you need but how do you set it all up? The following is an easy and great way to start and manage a successful tournament.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Cards
• Poker Chips
• Timer/Stop Watch

1. Assign a seat to each player. There should never be more than 8 people at a single table. If there are more than 8 people, evenly divide players to other tables.

2. Determine the buy-in amount. This amount is whatever you and your friends feel comfortable with. It can free, $5, $100 or even more. Base the payout winning distribution upon the number of players. Generally, less than 4 players is winner take all. With between 4 to 8 players, there is usually a prize for second.

3. Divide an even number of chips to each player. There are customarily 5 chip colors in a poker chip set. Provide each player with 1,000 worth of chips divided in the following manner:
   10 white (worth 5 each) = 50
   10 green (worth 10 each) = 100
   10 red (worth 25 each) = 250
   6 blue (worth 50 each) = 300
   3 black (worth 100 each) = 300

4. Set the blind structure to raise every 10 minutes if there are under 8 people playing. Setting the blinds to less than that reduces the importance of skill. If there are more than 8 people playing, set the blinds to 15 minutes. If you were to set the blinds further apart, the tournament would take too long.
   
   Round 1: small blind 5, big blind 10
   Round 2: 10, 20
   Round 3: 20, 40
   Round 4: 25, 50
   Round 5: 50, 100
   Round 6: 100, 200
   Round 7: 150, 300
   Round 8: 200, 400
   Round 9: 250, 500
   Round 10: 500, 1,000 (generally safe to keep the blinds at this level)

5. Assign a reliable person to keep track of the blinds using an egg timer or stop watch.

6. Determine the initial dealer by flipping over 1 card to each player. The highest card deals first. If there is a tie, the first person to receive the card deals first. If someone is dealt an ace, they automatically deal first.

7. Provide each table with 2 decks of cards. The dealer will have 1 deck. The second deck should be passed to the player left of the dealer, that way the cards will already be shuffled and ready when it's time for the next hand to be played.

8. Place the correct buttons in front of the players. The dealer gets the dealer button. The player to the left of the dealer gets the small blind button. The player left of the small blind gets the big blind button.

9. Start your timer and deal the cards.

Tips & Warnings

• Provide a regularly scheduled 10 minute break from play. A break usually occurs every 40 minutes, but it can vary.
• Play around with blind structure. If you think your tournament runs too fast at 10 minutes, then change it next time to 12 or 15 minutes. Different levels of players often determine what is right for your particular game.
• Consider buying plastic cards, they last forever.
• Also consider buying clay poker chips, a fold up table top and poker timer.
• Make sure you get everyone's buy-in before a single card is dealt. Always place the money away in a safe spot once everyone is accounted for.

Resources

• Everything you need for a successful poker tournament.

[grouch]

on 12/8/2007 This is great I have a group that I play with all the time. Now if we could find other groups we could put your plan to action.