I've been playing every Wednesday night in the Landmark Bar re-buy tournament for about three years now and for the last five months I've also been running the game. This came about because Dan, the original game organizer, decided to quit last year and nobody else stepped up to take over. I like this game and didn't want to see it fold so when there was no sign of it re-starting by the end of February this year I went up to the Landmark, talked to the management, and volunteered to run it myself.
I'd run a couple of tournaments previously at my old club and had a pretty good idea of how to go about running this game. The hotel has all the essential equipment: a couple of rather tatty but still usable 8-player poker tables (leftovers from the National Pub Poker League), a couple of cases of tournament chips, some packs of cards, cut cards and dealer buttons. As for the tournament blinds timer, Dan originally used an app on his phone for this, then he changed to using a tournament timer that was in the shape of a dealer button. He passed this on to me but I found that the battery connection wasn't good; sometimes it worked okay and sometimes it didn't. So in the end I bought a cheap kitchen timer and have been using that ever since.
When I took it over, this was a turbo-style re-buy tournament. For a buy-in of $20 players got a chip stack of 4,000. The blinds started at 25/50 and then went to 50/100, 100/200, 200/400, 300/600, 400/800, 500/1k, 1k/2k. 2k/4k... Late entries were allowed for the first hour of play (7 pm to 8 pm) with a maximum of 18 players. Players could re-buy if they lost all their chips, getting a stack of 2,500 for $20. Re-buys were allowed until the prize-pool reached $500 (the maximum allowed for this type of game under New Zealand's gaming laws). With a maximum prize-pool the prizes were $250, $150, $60 and $40 with a couple of bar vouchers provided by the hotel management for 5th and 6th places. We usually got two full tables and a maximum prize-pool, with the tournament ending around 10.30 pm.
There were a couple of things that I wanted to change when I took over. I never liked the short re-buy stack and as a result it was my policy to never re-buy. So I changed the re-buy stack to 4,000, the same as the buy-in. I also changed the blind intervals. Originally, the first two blind levels lasted for 25 minutes, followed by a break. Then they went to 15 minute blinds with a break after every 4th level. I've never been a fan of variable blind intervals in a tournament so, after making a few calculations, I changed the blind intervals to 17 minutes all the way through, with a 10 minute break after every 3rd level. Apart from making it more consistent this also worked well for the timing of the chip-ups on each break.
My first game was in mid March and only 7 players turned up. I had advertised the game on Eventfinda, an event listing website, and the hotel had listed the game on their 'upcoming events' blackboard. I'd been in touch with Dan and got contact details for some of the regulars, but he only had a few available. The second week was also a small field and it wasn't looking too good for a reboot of this game. But over the next few weeks the number of players grew and pretty soon I was paying out the $500 maximum. The 'old hands' finally got the word that the Landmark game was back and I started getting a few new regular players. Even Dan turned up for most of the games.
It took a while but I eventually got into the routine of setting up the tables and chips, taking down names, announcing new blind levels and so on. I had to work out some basic procedures for moving players from one to two tables and for seating new players, but now that's all pretty straightforward. Now I don't really get a break when everyone else does, because I have to do the chip up. It also means I can't just go home when I'm eliminated. I have to stay to the end and pay out the prizes, and I also do the dealing for the final four players if I'm not still in the game. On the plus side, I get to use some of the bar vouchers for myself, so I get a couple of free beers for my trouble.
When I started out I received some files which included a fairly basic set of tournament rules. But I dropped those and adopted the Tournament Directors Association Rules for my game. Applying the rules in a typically loose pub game can be a bit of a challenge. On the one hand, this is not the World Series Main Event, but on the other hand, you've got to make sure the game is played in a fair and consistent way. With so many different players with varying amounts of live poker experience you find yourself having to pull people up over really basic stuff like string betting, keeping cards on the table, talking about a hand, rabbit hunting and so on. I try not to intrude too much into the general flow of the game but I'm coming to the conclusion that I've been a little too relaxed and things are getting a bit too loose. So I think I'll be cracking down a bit more on etiquette breaches over the next few weeks, just to bring things back into line.
As far as juggling the roles of player and Tournament Director goes, it's a challenge. I always keep the same seat, close to the chip case, because I'm constantly getting up to buy in and seat new players or organize re-buys, especially in the first hour. I'm also acutely aware that, as a TD who is also a player, I have to be seen to be fair and impartial. In particular, I'm careful to ensure that the chip-up process is open and transparent for all players to observe if they wish. Despite the constant interruptions I don't think my game has suffered significantly. I'm definitely less able to concentrate on the game in the first hour or so, but if I make it through to the second period it's not so bad. I've had a few cashes over the last few months and I'm definitely ahead overall. My change to the re-buy stack size also means I can sometimes re-buy if I need to, which I think improves my chances of cashing.
Apart from the two changes mentioned earlier I've kept the game pretty much the same as it was in previous years. But I had to make another change a few weeks ago. The original procedure was to set out 8 stacks of chips on both tables and have players deal to all the stacks and have all stacks pay the blinds in turn. New players were then seated at one of these stacks at random. I thought this system was a little unfair, because new players would get varying stack sizes depending on which table they were seated at and at which position. It was also a headache for me to keep track of the 'dead stacks' especially when I had enough players to make two tables. So a couple of weeks ago I changed to an 'earlybird' system. There are no stacks on the tables; when players register they get a starting stack to play with. If they register after the game starts they get a shorter stack of 3,800. This system is much easier to administer and it seems to have encouraged some of the habitual late-comers to turn up on time. So I'll be continuing to run the stacks this way.
I'm pretty happy that I've been able to rescue the Landmark game, even if it does mean having to run the game as well as play. Despite a shaky start the game is now going well. There are 4 or 5 regulars who turn up every week as well as a larger pool of semi-regulars and quite a few casual players who turn up from time to time. I'll definitely keep on as a TD/player for the rest of the year. After that, probably not. It's my intention to try and find someone else to take over the reins next year. The thing is, I have no interest in being a Tournament Director. I took on the role because it was the only way I could see of keeping a good, profitable poker game going. But I just want to play, not run the game. So for the rest of the year, I'm TD for the Landmark Poker Tournament. Next year it becomes somebody else's problem.
