Bringing tourneys to a close when they overrun

[ericklam92]

So had an odd one last night. Format was 2 very quick 2 hour freeze-outs (this was very casual), 5 players with 5000 chips. Game should have finished round the 2 hour mark, when there were just 20 big blinds on the table, but instead when it went heads up, there was a protracted "blind swapping" exercise where both players obviously wanted to win, but neither were getting even semi-decent cards.

The game ended when there just 8 BB's on the table, at roughly 2h 45 minutes. Never seen anything like it.

I should point out that this format *usually* finishes at or about the 2 hour mark, so it's not like the blind levels/times are screwed.

So... When this happens, what options are available to bring things to a head? Would you jump a couple of blind levels, speed the blinds up, introduce a BB ante? Sudden death? Say whoever has most chips after a certain time wins?

Or would you just let it continue?

(PS thanks to responses in another thread, I realise BB Antes are usually dropped altogether when the numbers of players is reduced down to 3 (or close), but I was just considering it as a last resort).

Open to any suggestions, as last night's nice and quick format became a looong drag (because exactly the same thing happened in the second game too!)

 

[DegenerateSheep]

Was it a homegame you ran, or a tournament at a local card club?
If it was a homegame, you can always introduce dealmaking. In case you are afraid it would make the other players upset, you can:

- Introduce some other form of entertainment for people who bust (I remember 15 years ago a friend of mine ran a small home-game, and the people that busted were just playing a PS2 game together with some drinks)

- Introduce a blind-raise not after a certain timeframe for heads up, but after a certain amount of hands were dealt. that should speeds the game up as well.

Good luck!