Special thanks to Pokerlistings.com for providing this article on setting up a poker tournament in your home

Buy-in size

The size of the buy-in of course should depend on how much the players that are going to play in the poker tournament are willing to risk. If you’re going to allow re-buys and add-ons it’s preferable to have a lower buy-in.

Possibilities to re-buy

If you’re playing no-limit poker a player might lose all his chips in one single hand. That player probably won’t find it very amusing to just sit and watch the rest of you play for the remainder of the evening. That’s why you have re-buys and add-ons. However, you have to consider that the possibility to buy more chips will influence the way the game is played. People take greater risks under these circumstances and the game might get wild and reckless. You have to think about what character you want your poker game to have and adjust the tournament set up accordingly.

Usually the re-buy period lasts for an hour and the typical re-buy is either the same as the buy-in or half the amount. You can have either one (or some other specified amount) re-buy or unlimited re-buys.

Number of starting chips

The number of chips every player gets at the start of a poker tournament is normally 1,000 or 1,500. These are the standard starting stacks in online poker tournaments, and it’s obviously easier to run tournaments with conventional values that the players are familiar with. The betting patterns will be recognizable and the poker tournament will run smoothly.

Values of the chips

You should have at least four different color chips when you host a poker tournament. The value of the chips naturally depends on the size you want the starting stacks to have. With starting stacks of 1,000 or 1,500 the individual chips values might be $5, $25, $100 and $500.

The blinds scheme

Remember that the blind structure influences the pace and character of the game. If the blinds are too high it won’t take long before luck and chance takes over the game. Consequently is preferable to start of with low blinds, and that is also the standard in all major poker tournaments. At the start of a tournament the big blind should be around 1% of the starting stack size. If you want a faster, more aggressive tournament the big blind can be 2-3% of the starting stack size.

The pay out structure

There are conservative pay out structures and so called top-heavy pay out structures. In the top-heavy ones a high percentage of the prize money goes to the winner of the tournament. A lot of poker players prefer this kind of pay out structure since they will have a chance to win big. On the other hand, if there’s going to be many inexperienced players in the game, a more conservative (flat) payout structure might be better. This will give every player chance to win some of money, even if it’s just a small amount. If two players get knocked out in the same hand, the one that had the most chips before the hand started normally gets the higher place.

This article is provided by Pokerlistings.com