wildbill7145

First off, I'm not good at setting up NLHE home games. That may sound donklike and amateurish, and If you want to criticize that, go ahead.

So, been playing a NLHE home game with the same friends for years. Smallish buyin. Basically a hand full of couples, chip values parred with the same values as the local points based bar league to keep people who don't play a lot happy.

The problem...We used to be able to get in two games in a night over roughly 3-4hrs. depending on who starts falling asleep (sorry, we're old and drink alot of beer) without a problem. Over the past year or so we've been unable to get in two games as the first one seems to go on forever.

I'm looking for suggestions as to how we can speed the game up in effort of being able to play two games. Don't need suggestions like 'drink less beer' as that's not going to happen. Smokers have now been told they will simply be blinded out if their arses aren't in their seats. I've started playing with two decks having next to deal shuffling the other deck for their deal.

I've tried the easy setup thing in Tournament Director (yes I paid for it), which had a step asking how long you wanted the game to last. It made changes accordingly, can't remember what they were. That game went on foooooooreeeeeeevvvvvver.

Chip values (yes, the cheap Costco set)=black @$100, green @$25, blue @$10, red @$5. We took the white @$1 out of the game hoping that would help and started our blinds at 5/10 increasing from there.

We were playing blind levels at 15min, but reduced that to 10min. Game still takes too long.

Anyone have any ideas? Suggestions? Past experiences with same? Blind structures, etc.?

Throughout the game, people are being directed when it's their turn to act so focus on the game isn't a problem.

moose

Play double or nothing games.

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JohnnieH

This. DoNs are a great way to play a few quick games while having fun.

I assume you've been to Home Poker Tourney - How to Run a No-limit Texas Hold'em Poker Tournament There you'll find suggestions for quicker blind levels and better chip distribution.

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trigs

i suggest just one tourney game and then cash games for the rest of the night. therefore, you can end the cash game whenever you want. and it gives the others who bust out early something to do instead of waiting for the next tourney game to start.

ReefAquarium

Play cash games..

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wildbill7145

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'd totally forgotten about the home poker tourney site! Found a seriously aggressive blind structure on there, cranked the blind rounds down to 10 min., added an air raid siren to Tournament Director to indicate blinds going up, and cranked the amp up nice and loud.

And for the first time in over a year, we managed to grind out two games in one night! It was like playing a turbo sng on Full Tilt!

Anyhoo, thanks again.

PS. Playing with Tournament Director is fun! I added a WAV file of "Ladies and Gentlemen...Let's get ready to rumbbbbbbbbbllllllllle!" to start the game which also went over well.

Must find more WAV files now.

Muddguts

how about just making the game a rebuy tourney? One rebuy each no matter how far along the game is. This way the players knocked out don't have to wait around. It might make it feel like you've played two games.

JohnnieH

Would you mind posting your new blind schedule?

Also, you have PTD 3, right? Could you post a review of it?

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Hang on, I'm calculating my Suck Out Odds....

wildbill7145

Johnnie, basically I just used the T1000 template from the home poker tourney website. Nothing special. I guess calling it "seriously aggressive" in my previous post might have been a bit overzealous on my part. It's pretty standard I think. They suggested that the game will basically be over when the BB = the starting chipstack for each player. I wanted each game to last about 90 min. so I gave each player 400 chips. It ended up being so easy to figure out I felt like a bit of an idiot even asking how to get to that point.

The TD software is fairly easy to use once you fiddle with it for a while. Corey Cooper the software author has created a forum on the TD site, and is very active on there. He's also very quick to respond to questions regarding options/errors/all others. Well worth the money.

Wait a minute. You mentioned PTD3. I'm using Tournament Director v2.5.3. Not sure if that's the same thing you were asking about.