Need Help W/Poker League Bylaws

[ericmalone]

Could you guys look at some of this and see if it makes any sense and what could be fun/better to do? Thoughts?

Sample Poker League (Revise Me)


Poker League

A poker league, like any other league, consists of a series of games in which players compete to win. The results of the games are recorded and displayed through a "leader board." After all series games (circuit events) are played, the top winners of the "leader board" are rewarded and the top player is named League Champion. A number of promotions and incentives are offered to increase turnout, participation, and fun. The league encourages members to have fun, get to know everyone, meet new people, and share knowledge about how to play better poker.


Membership

Anyone can join at any time. Non-members can still play in circuit events, but they aren't eligible for the Leader Board or the Main Event.


Circuit Events

Circuit events are the standard tournaments that are played for the circuit pot and leaderboard points. Circuit event payout structure:

    * 5-6 players. $3, $2
    * 7-9 players. $4, $2, $1
    * 10-12 players. $5, $2, $2, $1
    * 13-18 players. $5, $3, $2, $2, $1
    * 19-32 players. $10, $3, $2, $2, $1, $1


Leader Board

The Leader Board is an incentive that keeps track of the performance of the members of the league and rewards the top players each season.

Sample Leader Board payout structure  (for 10 events):

    * 6-7 members, $20, $10
    * 9-10 members, $20, $15, $10
    * 12-14 members, $25, $15, $15, $5
    * 15-18 members, $30, $20, $10, $10, $5
    * 18-21 members, $30, $20, $20, $10, $5, $5


Main Event

The main event is a tournament with a substantially higher prize pool than normal circuit events. There is one per season and only League Members are allowed to play. The payout structure will be determined at a later date, but will be similar to the Leader Board payout structure.

Promotions

Promotions are intended to increase participation and excitement, they are implemented in a few different ways.

Side Pots are a promotion to encourage play and participation. Sidepot hands must be made in an active hand, no rabbit chasing.

    * Bad Beat (4 of a kind beat by 4 of a kind or better), $30 loser, $20 winner
    * Royal Flush, $20
    * Straight Flush, $10
    * Four of a Kind over 9 $5
    * Buckets full of Ducks (44422), $5
    * Pockets of Rockets, AA in two consecutive hands $5
    * Four of a Kind 9 and under, $2


Promotion Cards are "coupons" that can be redeemed in exchange for a prize or privilege.

    * Chip and a Chair Card - Receive a 500 "Add-On" chip. Can be used after a bust-out before the next hand. Cannot be used to buy-back in later.
    * Free Guest Buy-In Card (worth $4).
    * Two+Two Card. Two hands are better than one! Announce use before a hand and get dealt two hands, choose one and discard the other, no card mixing.
    * Sixth Street Card. Announce before any bets are made and get an extra community card. Best used with drawing hands.


Other Promotions

    * Every circuit event, a bounty of $2 is placed on the dealer of the first hand.
    * First person out of every circuit-event gets a "Chip and a Chair" card for next time.
    * Every member gets one "Free Guest" card.
    * Bring a new person to the tourney and both get a "Two+Two" card.
    * Pineapple Night, played before the Main Event, not for points, guests welcome. Get dealt 4 cards, discard two then begin betting.
    * Double points night
    * Double money night
    * Heads-up tournament, double elimination



Cost & Fees

The membership fee for the season is calculated at 2.50 per circuit event. Guest fee's are $4 per circuit event. Fees go toward upkeep, promotions, incentives, and hosting costs. Credit is given for late-joiners at $1 per past circuit event. Since members pay in one lump-sum instead of per-event the membership fee seems to be very high, although it is ultimately cheaper than any typical low-stakes re-buy event. Example: You play in 25 tournaments a semester, twice a week and a few others. The buy-in is $2, and two re-buys are allowed giving you a minimum of $50 and a maximum of $150, when spread out, it doesn't seem like much at all... $2 here, $4 there, but when paid up-front it seems large.


Breakdown

For every circuit event, $1 from each player guest goes into that circuit pot.

For every circuit event, $.50 from each player goes to the event host.

For every circuit event, $.50 from each player goes toward the Leader Board.

All remaining monies go to the misc. pot for promotions/incentives including Side Pots and the Main Event.

Issues
Number of events needs to be determined for 16 weeks/semester (including finals week) and one Main Event as well as a Promotion
The possibility of a split/league needs to be discussed (ex. Thur. night league/Sat. night league).
Absence policy, if any needs to be discussed.

[Phaze]

heh, lots of stuff there man, I'd play in your league, where you live at?

The pots seem a bit small though, buy-in a bit cheap... I don't know where you live and how much interest there is, but running two tournaments a week is a pretty hard go, or would be for me and the people I play with. If you have enuf poker fanatics then it won't be a problem, but one thing I have learned, even your best friend cannot be trusted when he says he will come to poker night

[ericmalone]

Joplin, MO

I think once a week is a pretty good idea, since it would keep attendance high.

[Jarmy]

Wow    You have put a lot of thought in to this!  I must agree with Phaze....your buyins and payouts are too low.  These low buyins encourage CRAZY play because the players can't lose much money.  I would suggest raising the buyins, which in turn, would allow you to raise the pay out structure.  The quality of your games will be much better and your rake will be virtually the same because the higher buyins will produce the same money even though your turnout may be a little lower.  I would compare this to playing with "play" money online.....people play completely different when they have nothing (or little) to lose.  Just my thoughts.....

[bfcadmin]

I am instituting your ByLaws after editing them to suit my Leagues format.

In agreement with the others, Buy-ins are too low. We play twice per month with a $25 Buy-in. 25% of total Buy-In goes towards Main Event at the end of year.
The house rakes Add-Ons ($1) and a percentage of Re-Buys for maintenance, refreshements, etc.

The promotions ideas were good to entice participation, as my experience is that participation averages out to be somewhere around 30-50% (over a year) and I would like to up that.

The LeaderBoard is good, throw out some Quarterly Leader awards and keep em coming back. Feed the ego and they'll never go away.

Thanks,

SS

[jeff b]

Sounds like some fun stuff. I'm assuming since you said "semester" that the buy-ins are what they are because your players are college students? If those buy-ins work for you and you're having fun, just stick with them.

I assume you've done some math to make sure the money should work out for paying out the prizes for the side pots - the straight flushes, quads, etc.? You can figure out how often they should hit over the long run based on how many hands you probably play each week. You should make sure you have a qualifier of using one hole card (casinos usually require using both, but you at least don't want the entire table to claim the prize if there are quads on the board, for instance). Assuming you're doing your leaderboard payouts on a percentage basis of what's left over, I guess it doesn't really matter.

Sounds like you have it mostly worked out. If you're looking for some ideas, you could consider basing the starting stack for the Main Event on the leaderboard points. We don't pay any money based on our points, they only determine the starting stack for our main event.

Not sure what you want to do about absences. Our first season, we had an up-front fee and dropped the lowest 3 scores, which could be either from tournaments you missed or just went out early in. This season, we went with paying only for the tournaments you play in. Since our points only determine your starting stack in the championship tourney, your raw total isn't quite as important as it would be where you pay the money out based on the point standings. In our case, if you only play 1 or 2 season tourneys, you're starting short-stacked (unless you happen to do really well in the  ones you play), but getting in at a discount.