Need advice for running charity tournament
I'm running a charity poker tournament in a couple of weeks, and I'm looking for advice on how to structure it. I've got a good handle on blind structure, but there's some disagreement on what we should do for add+on, buy-ins, etc.
It's a $100 tournament with a $20 add-on. I would like to have an 80-20 payouts-charity split, with a shorter starting stack (25K) and an add-on after the late reg/rebuy period ends. The shorter stack would lead to more buy-ins due to more early eliminations/rebuys, but might lead to some players not needing an add-on.
Some of the other people helping me organize this thing insist we do the add-ons at the start to ensure that pretty much everyone buys the add-on. They agree to the 80-20 split, but think the add-on should go entirely to the charity. This would effectively make it a 67-33 split ($80 to payouts, $40 to charity per buy-in+add-on).
It's for a very good cause (high school student recently paralyzed), and I doubt anyone playing would object to the higher "rake," but I think we would probably make about the same amount of money either way we do this, and my way would have more money in the tournament. Also, my thought is, if people simply wanted to donate money, they can go to the GoFundMe page. If they're in the poker tournament, they want to play poker, not get ripped off, and also help the cause as well.
I guess what I'm asking is, does anyone have experience running one of these things, and if so, what is your advice? Or, if you were playing in one of these, and you didn't care so much about the poker as you did the cause, what would you like to see from the tournament? How much percentage to the charity gets to the point where it's too much? Is 20 percent not enough? Is 30 too much?
6 Replies
The rake for tourneys at most casinos is in that 20% range. For example I recently played a local $120 tourney where the house took $25, which is just over 20%. Players will usually play at that rake. The tourneys I have played usually have an optional add on for dealer tips. In the one I just played it was $5 for 5000 in chips (with a 20000 chip starting stack without the add on). In almost all cases they offer the add on at the beginning of the tourney and with any rebuys. I have played tourneys with rebuys at the end of registration but that seems less common.
I’m not saying this is right, but casinos do know their business usually. They will charge the max rake they can get without losing players. For a charity event, you probably could go a bit higher without losing players. Making the add on a bargain (like my example - 25% of the starting stack for just over 4% of the buyin) will give players an incentive to do it regardless of how it affects the final overall rake.
if people simply wanted to donate money, they can go to the GoFundMe page. If they're in the poker tournament, they want to play poker, not get ripped off, and also help the cause as well.
Since it's a charity tournament, people shouldn't think they're getting "ripped off" if the payout structure and splits are clearly explained.
I'm running a charity poker tournament in a couple of weeks, and I'm looking for advice on how to structure it. I've got a good handle on blind structure, but there's some disagreement on what we should do for add+on, buy-ins, etc.It's a $100 tournament with a $20 add-on. I would like to have an 80-20 payouts-charity split, with a shorter starting stack (25K) and an add-on afte
I haven’t done one of these in years but always did a 50-50 split for whatever charity it went for. These tourney’s were ten or more years ago when poker was booming and people did not care about the split. We made add-ons available at the break and re-buys anytime before the break. These tournaments were so much fun and everyone was happy to just play for a good cause.
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I haven’t done one of these in years but always did a 50-50 split for whatever charity it went for. These tourney’s were ten or more years ago when poker was booming and people did not care about the split. We made add-ons available at the break and re-buys anytime before the break. These tournaments were so much fun and everyone was happy to just play for a good cause. Sent fr
Anyway hood luck.
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If you don't know what you are doing in terms of rebuys or add ons, then to say you have a good handle on blind structure is ridiculous. Unless you have a solid idea of how many chips are going to be in play and how long you have to play out the tournament, then you have no clue whether your structure will be absurdly fast and you're finished three hours early, or the opposite and you still have two full tables running when you're being kicked out of the venue
Speaking as a recreational, I dislike any form for add-on. To me, it feels like a dirty way to hide rake as I haven't found many/any tournaments where adding on isn't extremely +EV. If it is for charity, I strongly prefer it to be far more straightforward and say "$100 + 30 for Joey's recovery" as opposed to "$100 + 10 with optional $20 add-on for 50% more chips in 8 levels for Joey's recovery if you don't bust before level 8".
