Author Topic: Questions about directing a tournament  (Read 7419 times)

Luca P.

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Questions about directing a tournament
« on: August 23, 2010, 08:05:49 AM »
Hello guys,
I'm directing my tournaments using a software, Tournament Director which is IMO one of the best.
But now I want to learn how to direct a tournament manually, without the use of a software which can move players, break tables and so on.
I want to do all this stuff on my own...
Can someone explain this process to me step by step, or send me some links?

Thank you in advance
luca
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Stuart Murray

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Re: Questions about directing a tournament
« Reply #1 on: August 23, 2010, 08:19:29 AM »
luca,

I also use Tournament Director which is a very good piece of software, howevere do not use the software for balancing and breaking tables.

When balancing tables I try to keep moves as close to each other as possible, by moving the big blind of a new hand to the worst available position at the other table.

When breaking tables, I will have manually wrote down the amount of free seats at each table and the seat numbers, scrambed some cards at the table being broken for example is there is 8 players to move from a table breaking I will take A - 8 scramble them and then randomly assign those players new seats where available at other tables.

during large tourneys I use the 'bust any' method, where instead of having to enter the correct name busted from the tourney I just bust the first player from the list and then when close to the bubble the names are corrected to reflect the people who are still in. and to give a redraw for the final table seating, enter chip counts and display this on the clock screen.

Regards
Stuart

Luca P.

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Re: Questions about directing a tournament
« Reply #2 on: August 23, 2010, 08:47:00 AM »
hi Stuart, and thank you for answeing me so fast.

So you are using TD only for blinds, and info display, not for moving players.

When you said: I move the BB of a new hand to the worst position possible
you mean the UTG of the hand in progress, in which position?
i don't understand what means the worst position possible
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Stuart Murray

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Re: Questions about directing a tournament
« Reply #3 on: August 23, 2010, 09:48:10 AM »
no problem, yes the next big blind / UTG if the hand is in progress, if the hand has not yet started take the big blind of that hand. the worst position on the new table is the BB if you can sit them there if not the seat that is free as close to the BB as possible so for example if you had the button on seat 10, SB seat 1 and BB seat 2, try to move them to as close to seat 2 as possible. If seat 4 and seat 9 are both vacant the player would be placed in seat 4 of the table they are moving to.

I use TD to register and initially seat all players, then manually balance and consolidate until the final table. The thing I don't like about TD is it suggests movement of players irrelevant of position unless you set the buttons (which takes some time especially in a large tournament) before asking for a suggested movement, which is why I stick to manual balance.

Stu

Luca P.

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Re: Questions about directing a tournament
« Reply #4 on: August 23, 2010, 10:00:32 AM »
you said "I use TD to register and initially seat all players"
Ok so do I, but when you have to move players, how do you do that?
I mean, I understand you are using a block note... but do you give players a sort of sticker in which there's table and place written in it?
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Stuart Murray

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Re: Questions about directing a tournament
« Reply #5 on: August 23, 2010, 10:20:49 AM »
linker,

I or my floor staff will wander round the card-room, with a notebook which will look like this:

1-8-58
2-9-1
3-F
4-F
5-F
6-9-7
etc etc
TABLE-PLAYERS-SEATSVACANT

When you scramble your cards and the players moving from a broken table pick their cards I will assign the low tables 7/8 from top to bottom of the list them fill the rest of the seats, when they pick their card for example the player that picks Ace will goto 1-5 and so on.

On balances it more straight forward as i would just be taking BB from 3 to 1-WorstPosition as it's the closest to 1 etc.

This method ensures random re-seating throughout the tourney, without disturbing positions at tables, which actually keeps the tournament running smoother.

This method also gives me an accurate head count so I can bust out some names if we didn't see eliminations occuring, there is also on occasion situations where tables will become short handed i.e. 7 v 8,9,10 but only 1 player needs to go until a collapse occurs so I let it run on (despite the TDA rule of 3 or more short halt play) as more often than not you pick a player to move and then another players busts so the collapse needs to be done.

I also treat multiple areas as blocks where large tournaments are running - for example 3 seperate consolidation areas where they are run by different floor staff and consolidated as groups rather than a whole card-room, with regular reviews to see when we can move tables from another group into the main card-room group.

Regards
Stuart
« Last Edit: August 23, 2010, 10:23:16 AM by Stuart Murray »

Luca P.

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Re: Questions about directing a tournament
« Reply #6 on: August 23, 2010, 10:26:39 AM »
one last question:
what are those numbers and letters on the notebook?

#EDIT

you added info about them, thank you Stuart again

linker :)
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Stuart Murray

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Re: Questions about directing a tournament
« Reply #7 on: August 23, 2010, 10:36:00 AM »
lol yeh, i realised that after posting!

Cheers
Stuart

AleaLeedsCardRoom

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Re: Questions about directing a tournament
« Reply #8 on: August 25, 2010, 11:21:35 AM »
Hello, just thought I would add my opnion!!  I do everything the same as Stuart except when it come to breaking tables, I keep a little note of where the empty seats are then when I break a table, I give the deak a shuffle and deal each player a card face up. (starting from seat one.)  The highest card goes into the first seat on my list (Spades, hearts, diamonds, club if necessary) then the next highest the second seat and so on.  I find this works fine, but sometimes needs a bit of common sense to keep the tables balanced!!!!

Anyhow, tis how I do it:)

Lewis