I’ve run a few home poker tournaments (playing no-limit Texas Hold’em) and they’ve went quite well. I figured someone else could benefit from the rules and setup that I use. My rules/setup is a compilation from various things I found on forums, newsgroups, and websites.
I’m posting this as a guide so that people don’t have to go through all the work that I had to when I wanted to setup tournaments. It’s meant as a simple starting point, change it to fit your situation.
Shuffle Up and Deal!
THE GAME
- No Limit Texas Hold’em
- Buy-In: $20
- Payout:
- 1st – 60%, 2nd – 40% (4-6 players)
- 1st – 50%, 2nd – 30%, 3rd – 20% (7-8 players)
INITIAL CHIP DISTRIBUTION
| Players | $10 | $20 | $50 | $200 | Total |
| 4 | 45 | 30 | 25 | 11 | $4,500 |
| 5 | 40 | 30 | 20 | 10 | $4,000 |
| 6 | 30 | 25 | 16 | 8 | $3,200 |
| 7 | 28 | 21 | 14 | 7 | $2,800 |
| 8 | 24 | 18 | 12 | 6 | $2,400 |
SEATING
- Seating will be determined by drawing cards (A-8 are used for 8 players).
The A will be the button (first to deal), deuce will be small blind
(SB), 3 is big blind (BB), etc.
BLINDS
- The two players to the left of the dealer are required to post “blind”
bets before seeing their cards. The 1st is the SB and the 2nd is the
BB.
- If the SB is knocked out, the button essentially goes into his empty
seat.
- If the BB is knocked out, then the BB moves on to the player who
would have had it next and there isn’t a SB on this hand (SB
moves into the empty seat). On the following hand, the button would
wind up in the empty seat. The player who just had the BB would have
SB, and the BB moves on normally to the next player.
- When play is down to two players, figure out who would get the BB
next if nothing had happened. He will be the BB on the next hand.
The SB is always on the button and the other player is the BB.
THE DEAL
- The player to the right of the dealer must cut the deck before the
cards are dealt.
- The dealer is responsible for making sure that all bets have been
called before dealing each round of card(s).
- Order of the deal:
- Dealer deals two cards (one at a time) face down
to each player.
- Betting round 1 occurs.
- Dealer burns one card and
deals 3 cards (flop) in the middle of the table face up.
- Betting round 2 occurs.
- Dealer burns one card and deals one card (turn/4th street) in the middle.
- Betting round 3 occurs.
- Dealer burns one card and deals the final card (river/5th street).
- Betting round 4 occurs.
- Dealer deals two cards (one at a time) face down
- Mucked cards cannot be retrieved from the pile.
- If a card is exposed during the deal, the deal is declared a misdeal
and the hand is re-dealt. The button does not move.
- If a burn card or a mucked card is exposed, the card is made available
to the table. The hand is not re-dealt.
- If a community card is exposed prior to the action being completed,
the card remains as is. It will not be burned.
- If there was a bet or raise on the end, the person who made that last
bet or raise shows his/her cards first. If it’s checked around, the first
person to act (left of dealer) shows first.
- If a player is shown a better hand, he is not required to reveal
his cards.
BETTING
- Check and raise is allowed.
- The minimum bet is equal to the size of the BB.
- The raise must always be at least the size of the previous bet or
raise.
- Any player can bet all of their chips at anytime (ALL-IN).
- Betting round 1 begins with the player to the left of the BB.
- Betting rounds 2-4 begin with the player to the left of the button.
- When only two players are left sitting at the table, the BB is dealt
to first, the button acts first before the flop, and the BB acts first
after the flop.
- Do not splash the pot. Stack your bets in front of you and push them
into the post after the betting round is complete. This will eliminate
some confusion that may occur with no limit betting.
- Do not bet, check, call, fold, or raise out of turn.
SCHEDULE FOR BLINDS
| Time |
SB |
BB |
| 20 minutes | $10 | $20 |
| 20 minutes | $20 | $40 |
| 20 minutes | $30 | $60 |
| 20 minutes | $40 | $80 |
| 20 minutes | $60 | $120 |
| 20 minutes | $100 | $200 |
| 20 minutes | $200 | $400 |
| 20 minutes | $300 | $600 |
| 20 minutes | $400 | $800 |
OTHER
- Agreements can be made between players at anytime to split the payout.
- If two players tie for the high hand, the pot is split. If there
is a split pot, not equally divisible by the number of players in
the hand, the “extra” chips will be awarded to the player
closest to the left of the button.
- If two players get eliminated in the same hand, the person who started
the hand with the most chips gets the higher finish and awarded the
corresponding prize pool for that placement.
71 Comments
Nick ~
Your rules look pretty solid and straightforward. My friends and I play a regular Friday game that includes between 10 and 20 people, tournament style for the past 12 months.
The only thing I don’t like is this:
The first player to show his cards after all cards have been dealt and betting is complete will be the player to the left of the dealer
That doesn’t make sense.
The first player to show his cards should be the one that initiated any betting or play on the final round. If three-handed and the first two check and player three bets – followed by the first two players calling, then the third player would be the one to show. NOT the first to act.
Your thoughts?
Now that you bring it up, I’ve thought about this before and never looked into it. Is this how they do it in the real tournaments?
Who shows first if there wasn’t any action on the last round? Does it then go back to who initiated any betting or play on the previous round?
I’ve played in approximately 10 tournaments split between the Tropicana and the Borgata and that is always how it is played. If everyone checks, then the first to act to the left of the button shows. Otherwise the player that makes the last bet and has everyone call to him shows first.
I play online at truepoker.com and that is also how it is played there.
I did some more research and Rob is right. I’ve just modified my rules to include:
-If there was a bet or raise on the end, the person who made that last bet or raise shows his/her cards first. If it’s checked around, the first person to act (left of dealer) shows first.
I’m starting a home game and this beats me having to look tese rules up or make them up myself. Thanks a whole lot.
Like above the showdown is a little off but i’ll alter that myself.
Nelson,
Glad I could help. I’ve modified the rules after the discussion with Rob. Let me know if you have any other suggestions.
could you explain this to me. i need info for my home tourney.
OTHER
Agreements can be made between players at anytime to split the payout
An example would probably serve best here:
Say you have two players left with roughtly the same amount of chips and they don’t feel like playing anymore. They could agree to split the payout, which means, add up the money paid out for first and second place, and divide it between them. Make sense?
Going to use this set of rule in my home game tourney this weekend. Had to make a few changes to chip amounts and blinds structure, but this has been a great help….thanks
I have a question on the blind situation. Hopefully you can be of some assistance. Have you ever had the blinds go past 400/800 or do you play with a cut-off point. I’ ve played both ways and wonder if there could be a happy medium. I’ ve noticed if you stop the blinds the game seems to go on forever however if you keep the blinds going eventually someone could lose the game solely because of the blinds being so high and they are short stacked. My opinion is the blinds should keep going to assure an end to the game. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.
I haven’t had to increase the blinds past 400/800 with that structure, but I’ve only had two home tournaments of my own so far. I played in a tournament the other day with 13 people and a lower chip count per person, but more chips overall. It ended up being a four and a half hour tourney, which was perfect and the blinds never went above 200/400. I think if you raise the blinds too much, especially when down to two people, you risk losing the enjoyment of the game for one of them. So I think some type of cutoff is necessary, but it all depends on how many total chips are used, the type of players, and many other factors.
Your rules are an excellent starting point for someone running their own tournament. I am being very ambitious my first time out, hosting a multiple-table tournament (24-27 guys, starting at three separate tables). I deviated very little from these basic rules, and expanded them for multiple tables. A great help, and we are hoping to run this tournament twice a year. Thanks again!
I’m running a home tournament for the second time. Last year, I had everyone redraw for seats before each half-hour round. This took a little too much time, and although no one could claim that it was unfair, some did complain about seeing too many of the same players over and over. This year I’m considering a systematic rotation for the first three rounds. The object will be to get everyone to play against as many of the other players as possible. Developing the best rotation is non-trivial, especially since I won’t know exactly how many players until we’re about to start. I’m hoping for three tables of 5-7 players each. (This is NOT a hold-em tournament, so 7 per table is the max.) Has anyone seen a model for this kind of rotation? Thanks.
You might want to check out http://homepokertourney.com/. That site has a lot of useful info for setting up poker tournaments.
I like your rules and chip count however i am in a bit of a dilemma. could you tell me how to run a 200 person tournamet. We are trying to fundraise at our local school and we cant figure out how many chips each person should start of with and with which value. the winners get prizes and not money and we are trying to figure out the best way to keep the game under 6 hours. PLEASE HELP
THANK
Check out the site I listed in the comment before yours. I’ve never dealt with running a tournament anything close to the size you are putting on.
I am having my first poker tournament at home tomorrow and these rules helped alot. Thanks a bunch!
These rules are great! I’ve been trying to find the answer to how the blinds are rotated when people start getting eliminated. Thanks a lot! One question:
I won’t be holding a multiple table tournament myself, but in the casinos, how do they determine when to consolidate tables? I played in a tournament at the Sahara in Vegas and even the employees seemed to get confused. Thanks again.
I’m not exactly sure how they combine the tables, but I plan to have a 2 table tournament in a few weeks, so I’ll be looking into. When I get everythign figured out, I will update the rules.
I recently typed up my own set of rules that I was planning on using for a tournament we’re holding at a restaurant for gift certificates, but they got deleted off my computer. I just stumbled across these while looking at the chip tricks. Thanks a lot, ill be using these!
Nice. My only difference of opinion is when two players get eliminated in the same hand. We play that the payouts for the two posistions are split.
no time to read it all, but is there mention of poker etiquette (sp?)? for example: string bets, table talk and more…
Home Poker Tourney
Hey these are great. One question though. I am running a small (7 player) tourney at my house this weekend. Can you explain the section on the blinds? Why do you have rules regarding what happens when players get knocked out? I always thought that if a player gets knocked out then the blinds and button just rotate around and his spot is just gone. Am I missing something here?
Well, you don’t want the Big Blind to skip someone…each person should have to pay the small blind and big blind once during each trip around the table. Basically it’s as simple as that.
We ran into a situation and I just wanted to get some more opinions on it. We were playing a poker tourney at home, and someone (who happened to be chip leader) wanted to leave. It was $15 buy in and he left with 5 people left (started with 9) and took his $15 buy in plus $5. So $20 total. Ends up winner took $60 and second place got $20 ($15 buy in plus $5, the same amount). Where do you guys stand on this, I mean in theory 5th got as much as 2nd. Is there a rule that in tourney you have to stay? I am really looking forward to hearing from you guys on this and thanks all for commenting…
I would say that he should get whatever 5th place pays. If you only had 9 people playing, 5th place shouldn’t get anything though. He could make a deal, but everyone left at the table would need to agree on it, and who in their right mind would make a deal with 5 people left in a 9 person tournament? I’d say he’s shit out of luck and should have gotten a “Thank You” for his donation, then send him on his way.
I would have to agree with MtDewVirus…when you get into a tourney you cant just stand up at any time and ask for money, you need to play to the end to get a pay out. It doesnt matter if he was chip leader or not.
i had a situation that came up that a person moved all in out of order does his bet still stand or does he have to pull it back
If you had him pull it back, he could just push it all right back in when it is his turn to bet. I’d say give him a slap on the wrist and tell him to bet in turn!
Thanks for the rules. I am having a $50 and a $100 buy in…Do I just double and triple the chip distribution?
No need to change chip distributions. A buy in just an entry fee and doesn’t have any correlation to the amount in chips.
I was just wondering, does the person right of the dealer have to cut the cards or is it the dealers preference?
Someone should always cut the cards in case other players saw the bottom card. The cards are always cut in a casino and a cut card is then place on the bottom of the deck so that the bottom card is never exposed throughout the hand. It doesn’t really matter who cuts, but after shuffling, the deck should always be cut.
Comment about 26-28
I played my first tournament in March of 2004.
The payout was as follows:
1st 60%
2nd 30%
3rd 10%
There were 18 people at $100 each.
Started at 8 PM and at 4:30 AM there were 2 people left, me and one other guy. We decided to split the remaining cash 50-50. We shook hands, played one more round to determine first and second and that was the end. I actually took second but made more money by splitting than playing to the end. Great game…….Had a blast. Haven’t been in the money since then but oh well. The point is that the two of us agreed on the payout.
Hey i have a question concerning the table structure. I am having a tournament soon with about 20 people in it, and I am wondering how i am going to filter in people to the tables when a certain number of people bust out. I have 3 tables of about 7, so what should i do when one table gets down to 4 and the other two tables still have 7 and 6? Should I equalize the tables by putting new people at the table with 4?
Definitely! It would be very unfair to the people playing short handed vs. the other table, or vice versa. Depends on how you look at it, but you want to keep the tables as equal as possible through the tournament. I think Home Poker Tourney has some good information on a way to do it the right way.
If you home tourney guys are using a blinds timer, one I downloaded from http://pokerino.gmoore.net worked pretty welll for my home games.
What are your thoughts on late entries? I’m hosting a charity tournament with 1 rebuy. Some people can’t make it at the start time. I was thinking of allowing them to enter late without the option of the rebuy. Your thought?
If people can’t make it at the start time, just make sure they have paid in advance. Then what you do is seat “them” with their chips and take their blinds each rotation. That way it’ll be as if they had just folded every hand so far and when they arrive they won’t have all of their starting chips. This is a common practice in most professional tournaments from what I’ve read. If they arrive in time for the rebuy, let them rebuy if they wish. No sense in penalizing them for arriving late when they are paying the same entry fee as everyone else.
Great, with the help of your site and homepokertourney, I’m sure to have a successful tournament. Thank you!
I am starting my own home game, but your site should really explain what happens when 3 or more people go ALL IN. Some people really don’t understand what happens when there is a second or third pot. …..nice site!!! it will help
there are two ways to move the button. forward moving and dead. i like forward. this way there always is a bb and sb.
Me and my friends play no limit hold-em every Friday night. We usually only have 8 -10 people so we play only one table. We played one night and had 18 so we split into 2 tables. Problem was we decided to combine when there were 8 people left, and one table ended up getting down to 3 while the other table was still at 6 players. So the players at the table with 3 left got to stop and wait for the other table to lose 1 player. This took almost an hour of waiting. We are having another big tourney this weekend (30 people probably) and would like to know how the tables at casinos (or wsop) shift players from table to table.
Running a home tourney. Expecting between 20-30 players.
Here are the chip colors i have
White – 250
Red – 250
Blue – 150
Green – 150
Black – 100
Purple – 100
$20 buy in, 1-$10 rebuy/add-on in first hour.
Any suggestions or help on chip values for the amount of chips with max 30 players would be a great help.
Thank you.
That many chips might work if you have 20 players, but if you get 30, each player will barely have any chips. Check out homepokertourney.com for tons of info on chips counts and other stuff.
When you are playing a multi-table tournament, when one table has 2 or more people less than the table or tables with the most people, u must randomly pick someone from the higher table to go to the short-stacked one. Best way to do this is high-card. This person takes the empty seat, if he comes in on a blind position, he doesnt post and sits til the dealer button passes, any other position and he plays automatically.
We are setting up a ten week tournament where the winners get points each week and try for a position to play for all the prizes at the end. Do you have any suggestions for this kind of tournament? Particularly I am intersted in what to do if someone can not play… how can we make it inviting for them to participate even though they will not be able to play each week (we have some players that work offshore and can not be here consistently). Any input will be helpful
I would just like to thank you for posting a straight froward set of rules. I have been looking and have found that many sites post much more information than I need. I play at a local bar and we vary our blind’s increasing them when ever someone is elemitated. This keeps the game between 1 hour and 1.5 hours for 10 players.
I am hosting a no limit texas hold em tournament fundraiser $50 buy-in no rebuy and was wanting you to know what the payout % should be. We are expecting 30-60 players.How much should we keep for the fundraiser and hosting the tournament?
Thank you!