Having a Party - Poker Style
Having a Party - Poker Style
PokerWorld helps you launch the Ultimate Poker Party!
One of the best things about PokerWorld is the friendly competition in our daily tournaments. Poker players love tournaments, so much so that we're often asked, "how can I organize a live tournament like the ones in the PokerWorld cardroom?"
With that in mind, we're pleased to offer this quick guide
to hosting your own ultimate poker party and tournament.
Players
If you want to host the ultimate poker tournament, the first question is how many players can I comfortably seat? As a rule of thumb, you should limit Stud games to no more than eight players per table. For other poker variations, 8 to 10 players per table is the optimal seating arrangement. Of course, the main consideration is making sure that you have enough players for your poker party!
Tournament Buy-in
Once you have an idea of the number of players participating, you'll need to determine what amount you'll require for a poker tournament buy-in to ensure that you have an adequate and attractive prize payout. Nothing guarantees a successful turnout for your poker party more than a great bonanza. However, if that bonanza comes at too high a price in terms of buy-ins, you may scare off players with smaller bankrolls that are genuinely interested in your tournament.
To calculate the ideal buy-in for your poker tournament, you must therefore determine the amount the vast majority of your players would be comfortable losing if they were unable to recoup their buy-in through winnings. This should be the amount they're comfortable putting down as a buy-in.
Prize Payout
If you're hoping to have more than one poker party, you'll need to pay particular attention to the calculation of your tournament prize pool.
- First off, calculate the total pool based on all of the entries received.
- Then, determine how many prizes you want to pay out, remembering not to spread your pool too thin. The ultimate poker tournament would never be one where everyone receives a miniscule prize ; )
- Finally, once you've decided on the number of prizes, divide the available monies to ensure a competitive poker tournament (i.e. first place should be significantly higher than second and so on).
Poker Rules
With so many poker variations to choose from, why limit your poker tournament to just one? You can always split your tournament into different poker variations as long as you make sure everyone is familiar with the rules for each game. To ensure, a friendly poker party, it's always a good idea to have the pertinent rules available as a ready resource.
Of course, some basic rules are common to all games. For more information, please refer to our Poker Rules section.
Tournament Style Play
Depending on the size of the poker tournament you're hosting, you'll need to make some decisions to ensure that play flows smoothly. The primary factor to consider is when to merge tables to ensure that the number of players at the tables continues to be evenly divided as play progresses and players drop out. If you're looking to host the ultimate poker tournament, it's important to be flexible but decisive in this regard. The number of players you have will inevitably dictate the flow of your tournament. As long as you stay flexible and keep your player's needs in mind, your tournament should have a nice pace to it.
Stakes
Poker is typically played with "table stakes," meaning only the chips in play at the beginning of each hand may be used throughout the hand. Players may bring the additional money to the table only at the beginning of the hand and never during the hand.
For most poker tournaments, it is desirable to increase the stakes as the tournament progresses or play can continue for far longer than you would like. Typically, stakes are raised according to one of the following criteria:
Time Elapsed: Stakes can be increased according to increments of time (e.g. every half-hour, every hour, etc.)
Player Elimination: You can increase the stakes every time a player is eliminated. This method always enlivens a good poker party keeping the interest of those players that have already dropped out.
Combination Method: To greatly accelerate the flow of your poker tournament, you can combine both of the above methods.
Don't forget the PokerWorld posse is always available to assist you in organizing your next poker tournament. Not only can we sweeten the pot for your next home poker party, we can also lend a hand if you're thinking of organizing a poker tournament for a charity, sports team or non-profit organization. Click here for more details.
For those of you who'd like to test-drive the ultimate poker tournament concept before you go to the trouble of organizing a live event, PokerWorld offers private online tournaments - 24/7. Just drop us a line and we'll set you up in the comfort of the PokerWorld cardroom with the tournament of your choosing: your friends, your tables, your tournament!
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