How to Host a Poker Tournament
Here are some quick details on how to host a No Limit Poker Tourney. This assumes you know the basic rules for the game (such as Hold-Em) and is most concerned with blinds and chip counts.
[edit] Steps
- Start with 1500 "dollars" in chips.
- Work with three chip denominations. I use White, Red and Blue - the color itself is irrelevant.
- Start with 20 Whites of $5, 40 Reds of $25, and 4 Blues of $100. Be sure to have plenty of blues set aside (at least eleven additional per each player.)
- Pick a blind structure: I use 10-20, 15-30, 20-40, <pause to 'color change' and remove $5 chips from play>, 25-50, 50-100, 75-150, 100-200, 125-250, 150-300, <pause to remove $25 chips>, 200-400, 300-600, 400-800, double thereafter.
- Increment the blinds every 12-15 minutes.
[edit] Tips
- This game will last about ten rounds for an eight-player game. (Two hours for 12-minute blinds, 2 1/2 for 15 minutes.)
- You can change the blind increment duration to speed up or slow down the game, but 12 minutes is about right for the normal home game.
- Have a read of Homepokertourney.com as they have a ton of information for those of you who want run your own games










