Live H2H tourney advice

As I have posted here several times, I play live nearly every weekend and help host a 50+ player MTT once a month. We've decided that in July we'd like to add a double-elimination heads-up tourney to the roster. I've done my research on blind schedules and how to structure the tourney brackets, but I'm looking for any suggestions or pitfalls to watch out for in this format.

Currently, it is planned to be a 16-player tourney but it may increase to 32 if there is enough interest. So anyone with any experience running (or even playing in) this type of live tourney?

TIA

We did one of these a while back. Had 16 people in it but only did single elimination. Finals for 1st/2nd was best of 3. (last four actually played semi-finals first, then losers played one game for 3rd/4th while winners played the best of 3 for 1st/2nd). After first round, the 8 that were out started a SNG. Once round 2 was over, the four eliminated players split up two to a table for the next round and functioned one as the dealer and the other as a shuffler. That really helped with keeping hands moving with a lot of folding. Plus the SNG was still going so they had nothing to do anyway.

Just make sure you have enough decks to cover the games but otherwise it went off pretty smoothly really. The biggest issue is having people sit around between matches waiting for others. If you're going with double elimination, I'd suggest having the entire bracket posted and move names after each game. Then let people sit and start that next match as soon as they are paired up with someone. Doing this could be tricky with timeclocks and blind levels though. But double elim with 16 could have you playing for many hours.

Feel free to post your blind schedule too. I'll see if I can find ours and we can compare to optimize it.

Well my current plan is to use the T-1000 recommended blind schedule from homepokertourney.com.

5 - 10
10 - 20
20 - 40
25 - 50
50 - 75
50 - 100

Blinds do not increase beyond the last level listed. Blinds would increase every 15 minutes and should result in matches that last about an hour max.
Total time for a 16 player double elim. in expected to be 8 - 8.5 hours (going to 32 players would only add 1 hour).

I am very interested to hear your blinds, JD. Did your group enjoy the format? I realize there is not as much play for those that lose early but side games are a certainty with this group and I think using the double elim style will help.

make the blinds decreasing.
just for fun.
start at 10/20 and decrease until you have .00........01/.00.....02

Well that would make for a lot of waiting. Never done anything like this but just from double elimination tournaments in baseball the winners bracket team would be sitting around for the losers bracket to finish up. Usually that just equates to teams having a few days extra rest but in a poker tournament this could be a couple hours. Of course if you've got side games going that may not be much of a problem, just something to think about.

You're right Zach the winners bracket winner will have to wait for 2 matches to decide who he will play. But the side games should keep them entertained while they wait. Also knowing that they've made the $$ in the tourney may make them play even looser at the cash tables while they wait.

Vanquish, you think so far outside of the box I bet you can't even see the warehouse.

WVHillbilly said:

Vanquish, you think so far outside of the box I bet you can't even see the warehouse.

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do you bite your thumb at me, sir?

Well, maybe just a little.