[Hagar]

(First of a couple of new tourney ideas - as promised.)

I was reading a book and came across a section where the author was talking about a big national "Heads-up" tourney and thought I'd throw it out and see if there was any interest.

It would work like this:

Players are randomly set up in a bracket much like the NCAA's "Big Dance" or a softball tourney. We'd need 8, 16 or 32 players to make this work.

Players would then square off in a series of heads up (one on one) tourneys with the winner advancing to the next level - lose and you're done. Eventually, there'd one one player standing, the big winner.

If we were to start with 16 players, I see 1st getting 8 x buy-ins, 2nd getting 4 x buy-ins and the players who lose the semifinals each getting 2 x buy-ins. Something along those lines.

As far as the structure, we could try to set it up as one long day (for the winner and runner up) with a set structure or we could just let the players set up all thier own matches and play any fomat they want.

Before I get into any serious organizational issues with this concept, I just wanted to see if there was any interest in this concept.....

Please pipe up if you have any thoughts.

 

[Rob]

I think a headsup tourney would be fun.

 

[Quads]

I've read about them, and I've seen them and have always wanted to play one. I think it's a great idea if we can get enought people on board. If not, (say we get 10 people) then I say we still do it and up the stakes a bit to keep it interesting.

 

[Hagar]

10 wouldn't work but 8 would.

It doesn't need to be big stakes to "make it intersting". I think it would be great practice for all of us who have tourney aspirations. There's just not many opportunties to practice our heads up play.

 

[Quads]

10 woudn't work?
5 and 5?

 

[Hagar]

No - 10 wouldn't bracket up evenly.

8 players to 4 to 2 to 1

10 to 5 to ?

We'd have to have some "byes" (either first round or along the way) if we did a number that wasn't 8, 16, 32, 64 etc and I wouldn't want to go that route. (If we ended up with say 15, I could live with one person getting a first round pass, but not much more than that.)

 

[Quads]

OK, I was figuring there would be a buy or rotation for the odd man out.

 

[Hagar]

Well I suppose it would work out if those who recieved first round byes would have to pony up twice the fee.

It would suck though. In a 16 slot format, you'd have to win one match to break even and make the finals to make any money.

 

[Quads]

How do the do them elsewhere when there are odd numbers / players.

 

[Hagar]

Don't know - they probably don't allow odd numbers.

But if they have like 128, 256 or more, a first round bye would be as dramatic an advantage as it would be with only 16. 16 is only a 4 game series - a first round bye gets you out of 25% of the competition.

 

[DA]

cool

I like the idea....something different...could be fun...and good practice!

 

[Gordo]

I think I would enjoy losing my money in a tournament like this 8) . I have never seen this done before, but it seems like it will be over quickly. If there are 16 people are all 8 groups of 2 going heads up at the same time?

 

[Hagar]

My expectation is that it would actually stretch out over several weeks.

Here's a couple possible scenarios:

Option 1
Assume we get 16 players. That would be 8 first round matches.
Schedule the top 4 matches (of the brackets) to be played at 5:00 on a normally scheduled event. 2 matches ea. on 2 tables. First round should end at about 7:00, in time for the cash game to start. When all 4 matches have ended, the winners of those 2 matches play their second round match on one table, while the others start the cash game on the other table.

Next week (or in 2 or 3 weeks) the bottom 4 matches are played in the same way.

In a few weeks the semi-finals and finals are played in the same method.

32 players would extend this type of schedule to a 7 weekend schedule.

Scheduling could be a problem for this option.

Option 2
We could also set it up so that each match is scheduled and played at the 2 players' convenience. Report the results and continue until the finals, which I'd like to see held before or during one of our regular events.

Option 3
To do it all in one day could take 6-8 hours to complete (16 players - 32 players could turn in to 14-16 hours). I'm up for that, but I don't know about everyone else. Start at say 10:00 on a Saturday or Sunday and go until we're done. I imagine that this is how the "real" tournament is run.

 

[Playboy]

Hags..I've been reading along here on you heads up tourney...sounds like fun. What if you started a pilot tourney of say only 8 players (you'll learn what works and what doesn't). Give each match the normal tourney stack, a deck of cards. They would have to time their own blinds and deal,,,kinda like a chess tournament.

I invision two tables here..two matches on each table. Once a player is knocked out, you can move winners to one table while the other table plays a cash game. Depending on how long each match takes, you may get the first two rounds of the tourney played in one night. You could always do the championship match on another night and promote a cash game to follow....give the two fianl players a something to look forward to as this is their night with the standard cash game to follow for all.

Double elimination or round robin where everyone must play each other once would be a nice twist here too!

 

[Hagar]

You're pretty much describing one of my options.

The round robin, double elimination type tourney would just take too long to get done and would be an extended scheduling nightmare.

With only 8 players, there wouldn't be much of a payout. You'd have to go something like 5 x buy-ins for the winner and 3 x buy-ins for runner up. It could work though.

 

[Guest]

I am ALL for a heads up tourney!! I would much rather see it start and finish in one day though. Like you said, Start at noon or earlier and let it run!

I am envisioning option 3 as the best way to do it. Start and finish in one day.

Count me in!!!

 

[WORM]

Count me in!

Worm

 

[Guest]

Anymore thoughts on the heads up tourney?

 

[Hagar]

It looks like there is interest, now I just gotta figure out the when part of it and try to figure out a workable timetable that won't be an absolute nightmare. Part of the problem is that we don't have enough players that participate in the discussions here to be able to get some realistic concepts of what most will or will not do.

Let me get past the Feb 5 turmoil before concentrating on an event like this.

 

[Guest]

sounds like a plan! Thanks Hags!!