How to Host a Home Poker Tournament (Exact Stack, Blinds & Payouts)

Every home tournament goes wrong one of two ways. Either it's over in 40 minutes because the blinds went up way too fast or it's 2:00 in the morning, five people still have chips, and somebody's phone keeps buzzing because they said they'd be home by midnight. Both of those are math problems and you fix both of them before anybody sits down. So, I'm going to give you the exact setup for eight to 10 players and a 3-hour night. The stack, the blinds, the payouts, all of it. And I'll show you the one number that tells you what time your tournament ends before the first card is even dealt. But, the structure isn't actually what wrecks most home tournaments. It's the host. We'll get to that because it's the part nobody talks about. I'm Kevin. We run tournaments at our home game, and I built the app our group uses to track every game, Home Game Poker. You'll see it on screen as I go because it's how we run ours. One quick note so nobody's confused, the app takes no bets, holds no money, and moves no money. It just keeps score and you settle up however your group already does. Start with the head count because everything else is built on it. One table seats nine comfortably and 10 if you're all friends. >> [music] >> Text the group early, get real yeses, and plan for one person not showing up because one person never shows up. If you get 11 or more, run two tables, and as soon as everybody left fits at one, combine them and redraw seats for the final table. >> [music] >> Then, pick the buy-in. Keep it low enough that a re-buy doesn't ruin anybody's week. For most friendly games, that's somewhere between 20 and 50 bucks. The point is that people play real poker without anybody sweating it. Now, the starting stack, and here's the rule that matters. Don't think in chips, think in big blinds. You want everybody starting with at least 100 big blinds. Any less and the first hour is just people shoving. Way more than that and you're there all night. For a 3-hour night, I'd give everybody 15,000 in chips with the first blinds at 50 and 100. That's 150 big blinds, which is deep enough to actually play poker for the first hour. Here's how I'd build it with four colors. Eight 25s, eight 100s, four 500s, and 12 1000s. That's 32 chips and 15,000. For eight players, that's about 260 chips on the table plus a stack set aside for every re-buy you're going to allow. And if your chips have cash values printed on them, it doesn't matter. Just tell everybody what each color is worth tonight and leave a little card on the table so nobody forgets. The rest of the gear is simpler than people think. Two decks, so one is getting shuffled while the other one is dealt. A dealer button, and something to run the clock on that everybody at the table can see. If you spend money on one thing, make it plastic cards. Paper cards are bent and marked by the second hour, and plastic ones just wipe clean. Now, the blinds. >> [music] >> This is where most home tournaments go wrong, and it comes from one belief. Most people think a fast structure means a short night. It doesn't. A bad structure means a random night. It can end at 10:00 or at 2:00, and you don't find out which one until you're in it. So, here's the number I promised. Add up every chip in play and divide it by 30. That's roughly the big blind your tournament ends at. Eight players * 15,000 is 120,000 chips. Divide that by 30 and you get 4,000. Whatever level has a 4,000 big blind, that's your finish line. Then you just count. If go up about a third to a half each level, you hit a 4,000 big blind on level 12. At 12 minutes a level plus two short breaks, that's about 2 hours and 45 minutes. Add the seat draw and a pizza run, and you're done right around 3 hours. >> [music] >> This only works if you follow one rule. Never double the blinds from one level to the next. Going straight from 500 to 1,000 cuts everybody's stack in half for no reason. Go 500, then 700, then 1,000. Or skip the math completely. In the app, I tell it how many people are coming and how long we want to play. Eight players, 2 to 3 hours, and it builds the structure for me. 15,000 chips and 12-minute levels. Before you start, draw seats. Don't let people pick because the same two guys will sit next to each other every time and talk through every hand. Pull an ace through eight from an old deck face down. Everybody draws, and the ace starts on the button. Or hit shuffle seats in the app and read them out. Here's a trick that fixes late arrivals. Give an extra 2,000 in chips to everybody who's paid and seated when the clock starts. Watch how fast people start showing up on time. Then before the first card goes out, settle three rules out loud because these are the arguments that eat 20 minutes later. What happens on a misdeal? Whether you have to show both cards to win the pot? And how long somebody gets to think before anyone can call the clock on them? Decide it now while everybody's still friends. Rebuys, I'd keep them open through level four, cap them at two per person, and close them at the first break. Then offer one add-on at that break for anybody who wants more chips. That keeps the early levels loose without one person buying in six times. And if your group likes a little extra, put a bounty on every player. Part of each buy-in goes on your head and whoever knocks you out collects it. It gives people a reason to go after the short stacks instead of just waiting for everybody else to bust. Now the thing I said wrecks most home tournaments, it's the host because the host is usually playing too. You're in a big hand, the timer goes off, nobody raises the blinds, and 20 minutes later somebody goes, "Wait, weren't we supposed to be on level five?" Or you get up to grab the pizza, the clock keeps running, and you come back to blinds you never saw coming. Either way, the structure you planned so carefully is gone. It's not fast or slow anymore. It's just whatever happened. So whatever you run the clock on, put it where everybody can see it and make it wait for you. In the app, the clock goes up on the TV and at every new level it stops and waits until I tap start. If we're shuffling, coloring up, or on break, I pause it and pick the reason so nobody thinks I'm stalling. Use the first break for food and the color up. Once the blinds stop using your smallest chip, pull them off the table and trade them up. 25s turn into hundreds and if somebody has a few left over, round it up for them. It's a home game. And keep the food dry. Pizza, chips, a meat and cheese tray. Not wings unless you want sauce on the ace of spades for the next month. >> [music] >> When somebody busts, I tap them out and the app asks who knocked them out so the bounty goes to the right person. If I tap the wrong guy, undo is free. A re-entry is a new paid entry. That's the difference between a mistake and a rebuy and it matters at the end of the night. Payouts, under 10 players pay three spots. 60 30 10 if your group likes a big first place. 50-30-20 if you'd rather more people drive home happy. At 10 entries or more pay four. The app actually suggests it when you hit 10 entries, which beats doing it on a napkin. >> [music] >> Say it's a $30 buy-in, nine players and three rebuys. That's 12 entries and 360 in the pool. Pay four at 50-30-15 and 5%. That's 180, 108, 54, and 18, which at least covers the pizza. Then the final table, and this is where friendships get tested. Five people left, it's late, and somebody asks if everybody wants to just split it up. If the whole table agrees, split it by chip count, not evenly. The guy with a third of the chips shouldn't get the same as the guy with two big blinds. The app does that math for you, even by chips or custom. Last thing is the end of the night, because that's where a perfect tournament can still go sideways. Who rebought twice? Did anybody actually pay for that add-on? Who had the high hand? If the answers live in somebody's memory at 1:00 in the morning, somebody's paying for it out of their own pocket. So, I review the places and payouts, confirm, and send the results straight to the group chat with who owes who. Everybody sees the same numbers, we settle up our own way, and the standings carry over to next time so the trash talk has receipts. So, here's the whole night on one page. Eight to 10 players, 15,000 chips, 150 big blinds deep. 12-minute levels that never double. Chips in play divided by 30 tells you when it ends. Rebuys through level four, add-on at the break. Pay three or four at 10 entries, and a clock that waits for the host. >> [music] >> If you want the structure without doing the math, Home Game Poker builds it for you, and your first game as a host is free with every pro feature. It never touches the money, it just keeps score. Download HG Poker on the App Store or Google Play. And if you're more of a cash game group, my whole home game setup video is right here. I'll see you on the other side. >> [music] >> Hey.