Eight people showed up for the office poker tournament. One guy freely admitted he didn't know much about it. That was cool, everyone was welcome to play. I think everyone else had played at least a little bit before.
It turns out one of the players once worked as a dealer at the Halifax casino. After a few hands he offered to deal the tournament. We all readily agreed. Actually, I readily agreed and as tournament organizer my decision was law. He was great, shuffling fast and flinging the cards easily across the long table.
I decided to go with a 40 chip stack instead of 30. Thirty just wasn't enough. The blinds went up fast according to the schedule. That worked well. One guy grumbled when he was short stacked and they were going up to 3/6, claiming it wasn't fair. But it was fair, he was just short stacked.
The play went well. It took around 1 hour. My goal had been for the tournament to run 45 minutes to an hour and a half, so I'm happy about that. The no side pots rule worked superbly to keep play moving fast and avoid any misunderstandings or disputes.
Sow how did I do, you're wondering. Well I won it!
I was getting good cards, AA once, KK twice, and QQ once. When I was strong people kept calling me and losing big.
When it got to heads up, the other guy had a slight chip lead. The blinds were 10/20 by this time. The first hand I had Q2o. I called the blind and he checked. Not much happened, he bet the turn and I folded.
The next hand I had K8o, but he folded preflop.
The next hand was the important one. I had KJs. I raised the preflop by 25. He reraised all in. I called and he showed KTs. yes! My dominant hand held up, leaving me with almost all of the chips.
After that he barely had enough chips to cover the big blind. He went all in with his remaining chips. I was getting about 6:1 to call so I did. I had high card but he caught a pair on the flop.
The next hand he suggested to go all in without looking at the cards. I agreed. He pushed without looking. I called without looking. He turned over 73s. I turned over QQ. ladies! He hit a pair on the flop to make the turn and river interesting but they were blanks and I was the winner.
Friday, February 17, 2006
Monday, February 06, 2006
Office poker tournament
At the office they are having a "winter olympics". The office administrator was looking for ideas for events.
I suggested we have a poker tournament as an olympic event. The administrator was enthusiastic and thought that was a pretty good idea. So I'm organizing the poker tournament.
I sent out the e-mail below describing the tournament. There are around 30 people in the office. I was hoping for around 5-10 would sign up for the tournament. Right now I know of around 7 people already who said they would play so that's pretty good. I can go up to 20 if there are more than 10 interested. In that case I'll run a two table tournament and combine into the final table when enough people get eliminated.
The tournament is on February 17. I'll give a report how it went.
- the poker game is no limit Texas hold'em
-- all skill and experience levels welcome to play
-- location is the mezzanine boardroom. Nice view with a good wide narrow table
- tournament structure
-- each player gets a starting stack of 30 chips
-- I know that's not a whole lot, but we want to keep things moving
-- might go with 40 depending how many players there are
-- standard rules around chip stacks: once you lose all of your stack you are out of the tournament, there is no re-buy or add ons, chips are non transferable between players
-- the minimum bet is always the big blind
- stakes
-- the tournament winner will get the "SPRT bracelet"
-- this is our version of the WSOP bracelet
-- sorry, no stacks of $100 bills
The office administrator is a keener. I suggested I'd go over to Zellers and get a cheap trinket bracelet for around $5-$10 with petty cash. Instead she asked me for a picture of the WSOP bracelet. I sent her the link. She said she'd get an engraved plate to put on a bracelet to make a nice prize.
- blinds
-- the blinds will go up on a 10 minute timer
-- blinds will go according to this schedule
1/2, 2/4, 3/6, 4/8
then 6/12, 8/16, 10/20,
then 15/30, 20/40, ...
-- no ante
- blinds at heads up
-- when there are only two players left, the blinds schedule above will be replaced by this schedule
-- the timer interval will be reduced to 8 minutes
-- the blinds will go up in multiples of 5 starting with the next multiple of 5
-- for example if the blinds are 6/12 when it gets to heads up, then when the running 10 minute timer expires, the next blinds will be 10/20, 15/30, 20/40, ... and the timer will be set to 8 minutes
- no side pots
-- when someone goes "all in", the other players can either call or fold, but cannot raise
-- the reason for this is side pots can slow play down considerably
-- keeping track of side pots can get complicated, especially when there is more than one side pot. The rules around side pots may not be well understood by everyone, which could lead to misunderstandings
-- a special case would be if someone goes all in, then someone else with fewer chips calls. In that case the smaller stack is all in and any bets above the smaller stack already in the pot are returned uncalled
-- for example, suppose player A has 20 chips, B has 50 and C has 15. Suppose A goes all in with 20. B calls with 20. If C calls with 15, then C is all in and 5 chips are returned to A and B uncalled
I suggested we have a poker tournament as an olympic event. The administrator was enthusiastic and thought that was a pretty good idea. So I'm organizing the poker tournament.
I sent out the e-mail below describing the tournament. There are around 30 people in the office. I was hoping for around 5-10 would sign up for the tournament. Right now I know of around 7 people already who said they would play so that's pretty good. I can go up to 20 if there are more than 10 interested. In that case I'll run a two table tournament and combine into the final table when enough people get eliminated.
The tournament is on February 17. I'll give a report how it went.
- the poker game is no limit Texas hold'em
-- all skill and experience levels welcome to play
-- location is the mezzanine boardroom. Nice view with a good wide narrow table
- tournament structure
-- each player gets a starting stack of 30 chips
-- I know that's not a whole lot, but we want to keep things moving
-- might go with 40 depending how many players there are
-- standard rules around chip stacks: once you lose all of your stack you are out of the tournament, there is no re-buy or add ons, chips are non transferable between players
-- the minimum bet is always the big blind
- stakes
-- the tournament winner will get the "SPRT bracelet"
-- this is our version of the WSOP bracelet
-- sorry, no stacks of $100 bills
The office administrator is a keener. I suggested I'd go over to Zellers and get a cheap trinket bracelet for around $5-$10 with petty cash. Instead she asked me for a picture of the WSOP bracelet. I sent her the link. She said she'd get an engraved plate to put on a bracelet to make a nice prize.
- blinds
-- the blinds will go up on a 10 minute timer
-- blinds will go according to this schedule
1/2, 2/4, 3/6, 4/8
then 6/12, 8/16, 10/20,
then 15/30, 20/40, ...
-- no ante
- blinds at heads up
-- when there are only two players left, the blinds schedule above will be replaced by this schedule
-- the timer interval will be reduced to 8 minutes
-- the blinds will go up in multiples of 5 starting with the next multiple of 5
-- for example if the blinds are 6/12 when it gets to heads up, then when the running 10 minute timer expires, the next blinds will be 10/20, 15/30, 20/40, ... and the timer will be set to 8 minutes
- no side pots
-- when someone goes "all in", the other players can either call or fold, but cannot raise
-- the reason for this is side pots can slow play down considerably
-- keeping track of side pots can get complicated, especially when there is more than one side pot. The rules around side pots may not be well understood by everyone, which could lead to misunderstandings
-- a special case would be if someone goes all in, then someone else with fewer chips calls. In that case the smaller stack is all in and any bets above the smaller stack already in the pot are returned uncalled
-- for example, suppose player A has 20 chips, B has 50 and C has 15. Suppose A goes all in with 20. B calls with 20. If C calls with 15, then C is all in and 5 chips are returned to A and B uncalled
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