Before even thinking about organizing a home poker tournament, you should first have a basic understanding on poker chip denominations and betting structure. The basic idea behind any poker tournament is for all players to start with the same amount of chips until one of the said participants has them all. To ensure that the game does not go on forever, poker tournaments are played with set levels. After a definite duration of time, the game price goes up.

Simply put, as any knowledgeable poker player would say, the blinds go up. As it is, a certain amount of time, you can also start to add in antes to make the game even more exciting for the participants.

What controls how long a certain tournament goes?

There are two aspects that control the amount of time that each poker tournament goes on. These are how long the levels are and the number of chips each player starts with. If for example you want a quick game, let us say one that ends within one to two hours duration, then you might start each player with two thousand chips in a 20 minutes level tournament. For a longer poker game play, that is a 2-4 hours tournament, start each player with around ten thousand chips in a 30 minute level game.

There are some advantages and disadvantages to whichever tournament option you can go for. For example, if you opt for a short tournament, then it is possible to play two players in any given game. This is the most ideal option to opt for if the participants are inexperienced beginners. As it is, a longer poker tournament is best suited for those players have sufficient experience in poker playing. This sort of a tournament allows a competition of more strategy for the participants.

Chip value assigning

Upon deciding which tournament type to go for, you will now need to assign values to the chips you will be using. Although you may assign any values on your chips as per personal or group preference, just make sure that the set value in clear and that you have adequate chips of each value to distribute around. Remember that the lowest value chips should be the majority.

Here are some of the common poker chip values.

• Blue $5000
• Black $1000
• Red $500
• White $100
• Green $25

A perfect chip distribution for two thousand chip game might have 4 greens, 2 reds, 9 whites and so forth while a ten thousand chip contest could have 8 greens, 6 reds, 1 blue, 8 whites, 2 blacks and the likes. The choice as to how to distribute your chips and the denoted values is all yours.

All in all, if you plan well and assign clear values on your chips, it is then possible to hold one of the most exciting tournaments around. Poker playing has been there for decades, and so there isn’t any reason why you also can not enjoy the game even while at your own home or office!