Heads Up Tournament

[michaelmlevin]

Our site is hosting 2 tournaments per week right now averaging about 25-35 players. We're thinking about adding a HEADS UP tournament, but am not quite sure how to do that. Has anybody out there done this (successfully) and if so, how was it set up? Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Kent Briggs]

If you set Shootout = Yes then all tables play down to 1 player before merging. Typically you would require the number of entrants to be a power of 2 (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, etc.) so the number of tables would be (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc.) And of course Seats per Table = 2.

[jadelaar]

Hi Kent,
I think you mentioned in a prior post that in this style of tournament, chip stacks and structures reset every round, correct?

Also, does the software do automatic byes if I get a number of players not to the power of 2 (e.g. 20 players)?

Jesse

[Kent Briggs]

I think you mentioned in a prior post that in this style of tournament, chip stacks and structures reset every round, correct?

Yes

Also, does the software do automatic byes if I get a number of players not to the power of 2 (e.g. 20 players)?

The odd man out will be placed at a table alone until all the other tables finish.

[Supersonics]

Bumping this topic as I am planning to put together a Heads Up tournament next month and I want to make sure to set it up correctly.

What is a good starting Chip Stack and Blind Level for this? 20x BB? 40x BB?

When players advance, do the Starting Chips and Blinds reset?

Thanks,
Supersonics

[Kent Briggs]

What is a good starting Chip Stack and Blind Level for this? 20x BB? 40x BB?

You could just use the defaults unless you have a reason not to.

When players advance, do the Starting Chips and Blinds reset?

Yes.

[Supersonics]

Good to know, thanks Kent.

Ideally I want to find the right BB / Chip Stack ratio so a 1 vs 1 match takes 20 mins max. I'm sure many will be over in minutes, but others may drag on. I could accomplish that by having a 50/100 (same blinds as the heads up match in the movie Rounders) and then go with 40x BB, so 4,000 chips.

5 Minute Blind Levels and use the default PM blind levels, so 21 minutes in, the table will have 200/400 blinds with a 25 ante which means if tied, both players will be short stacked w/10x BB.

-Supersonics

[Kent Briggs]

Ideally I want to find the right BB / Chip Stack ratio so a 1 vs 1 match takes 20 mins max.

Create a test tournament for yourself with two browser windows open and run a mock heads-up tourney. Experiment with the blind structure, level duration, and starting chips until you find a combo that works for you.

[Supersonics]

I finally hosted my first Heads-Up tournament last night with 32 players, 4 minute levels. It only took 1 hour and it was a big success. I will definitely keep that in the rotation going forward. Cheers

[The MPC]

I ran a test HeadsUp Tournament today and it had one major flaw which I believe to be a relatively easy fix.

There were 23 players registered, the tournament started with 11 HeadsUp Matches and one player had a bye and the moved through the tournament until there were 3 players left and one of those 3 players had a bye.

Ideally there would have been 7 heads up matches to start the tournament with 9 players randomly being assigned byes so that after round 1 there were only 16 players left.

The trick here obviously being that AFTER round 1 the tournament is left with a power of 2 scenario until the finish.