Author Topic: Help with automatic seating  (Read 6869 times)

AJ

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Help with automatic seating
« on: March 19, 2006, 10:21:15 AM »
Hi -

I was hoping someone may be able to help me with what I am trying to do.  I have a monthly multiple table tournament and up until now I always had the players pick their seat assignment from a hat.  I had designated facilitators which always took seat 1 at each table and they did not move so I was excited to see the Locked Player option.  We have 3 large 96'' holdem tables so keeping the facilitator in the middle of the action helps greatly.

I want to change our buy in process so I can take advantge of the randomized seating.  Here was my thoughts on what I am trying to do.  At buyin time, we form a line at the TD and everyone buys in, get their chips and the seat so I am trying to randomly assign a single seat, one seat at a time.  The problem is when I choose Seat Players, it puts everyone at table 1.   I am trying to dispurse the players across all the tables.  The other problem is that even with locking the facilitators in place, they are included in the seat movement.

The other problem is since I am trying to generate a random seat one by one, by the time we get to the 3rd or 4th person and I do another seat assignment it moves the people I just gave seats to.  I got this idea from Bally's who I frequent for their weekday tournaments.  You walk in an hour or so early, you register and they give you your seat then.  The are running TD so I hope they are paying appropriatley :)

Last question, is there an easy way to change the font color in the layout?  I search the help but I can't figure it out

Thanks

AJ
« Last Edit: March 19, 2006, 02:51:21 PM by AJ »

Corey Cooper

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Re: Help with automatic seating
« Reply #1 on: March 19, 2006, 07:53:59 PM »
The problem with seating as people buy-in is knowing, in advance, how many tables will be needed.  In other words, if you've got 5 tables of 10 seats, and people begin to buy-in, can they be seated anywhere?  What if, after everyone buys-in, you've only got 25 players, and hence only need 3 tables?  Kind of sucks if you've got the players already spread out over 5 tables.

The point is, you don't know how many tables you need until you know how many players are playing.  I don't know how Bally's does this.  I guess you could spread players out over all of your tables, and when you're ready to start, move players seated at the unneeded tables to empty spots on the needed tables.

So, if you don't know how many players will be ultimately buying-in, or who those players are until they buy-in, you are kind of stuck with the method of buying them all in and then seating them all at once, IF you want to have random seating.  Otherwise, seat them one at a time and they'll end up at tables with the players close to them in line.

If you do know at least most of the players who will be buying-in, you can pre-buy-in players and then mark them Paid In Full as they actually pay you.  This works best if you have a regular tournament where a good portion of the players are regulars.  Buy-in everyone who usually plays ahead of time.  Seat them.  Then mark them Paid In Full as they pay you.  When all is done, remove players who didn't show.  Then balance the tables.

AJ

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Re: Help with automatic seating
« Reply #2 on: March 19, 2006, 08:54:02 PM »
Thanks for your response.  I guess my situation is that we always have 2 tables but sometimes 3.  Never more than that.  We do reservations weeks before so we know exactly who is showing up on game day unless there is a last minute cancellation.  So I was hoping that if I new 21 people were coming, I would set TD for 3 tables and already have the players listed before they show.  I would then proceed with the buy in and table seating.

Pre buying in the players is a good idea I was just hoping for an easier way.

Do you happen to know the answer to my font color question?  Is that possible?

Thanks!

tandemrx

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Re: font color
« Reply #3 on: March 20, 2006, 09:07:28 AM »
I don't think there is a way to change the font color globally.  But, it is relatively easy to do within any cell (and then just copy this info anyplace you want to use it).

You just need to use html code to change font color - so place any text you want between these tags:

<font color="#ffffff"> text you want for this color </font>

I use an image editing program (paint shop pro) to find out the number required for a particular color.  I am sure there are other ways to find the numbers required (#ffffff is white).

You can include tokens within these font tags and the token information will also show up in that font color.

Does this help?

cousguy

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Re: Help with automatic seating
« Reply #4 on: March 20, 2006, 09:52:37 AM »
Regarding the seating, it's not like you want but i register everyone in TD as they arrive and collect their money and let people mingle until i'm ready to start, i then assign seats and show show the seating chart and ask every one to take their seats.


TimDugan

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Re: Help with automatic seating
« Reply #5 on: March 20, 2006, 10:58:25 AM »
Regarding the seating, it's not like you want but i register everyone in TD as they arrive and collect their money and let people mingle until i'm ready to start, i then assign seats and show show the seating chart and ask every one to take their seats.



This is what we do too.  However, then having 20 people try to squeeze around a laptop and the other 15 yelling "Dugan, where am I at?" gets annoying after a while.  The only way I can think to do this would be having people draw for their seats as they walk in and just manually assigning them.

CanopicJar

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Re: Help with automatic seating
« Reply #6 on: March 20, 2006, 11:05:25 AM »
I connect a projector to the laptop so that everyone can see the screen clearly.   ;D

Corey Cooper

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Re: Help with automatic seating
« Reply #7 on: March 20, 2006, 11:33:59 AM »
Thanks for your response.  I guess my situation is that we always have 2 tables but sometimes 3.  Never more than that.  We do reservations weeks before so we know exactly who is showing up on game day unless there is a last minute cancellation.  So I was hoping that if I new 21 people were coming, I would set TD for 3 tables and already have the players listed before they show.  I would then proceed with the buy in and table seating.

Pre buying in the players is a good idea I was just hoping for an easier way.

Do you happen to know the answer to my font color question?  Is that possible?

Thanks!

Most of the included layouts use Global property sets where ever they can.  This makes it easier to go to one place to change properties, such as font colors and styles.  Since layouts tend to use different sizes for different elements, different property sets are necessary.  To change the font color globally will mean changing it in probably a dozen or more places.  A little painful, but easier than if there were no global properties (think: the default layout has about 35 cells, each with 1 to 4 property groups, each group has 1, 2, or 3 property sets; this could mean changing the font color in hundreds of places).  On the Layout tab, press the Global Properties button and change the font colors in those sets.  Press the Apply button each time and you can immediately see the effect of your change.

And next to every font color input is a color button which will allow you to interactively choose a color.

Using <font> tags is perfectly fine, as is using just about any HTML element, but I would generally advise staying away from them when possible.  They make it a little more difficult to edit your layout, and the TD doesn't really "see" them.  So, if you use a <font size="25"> element, for example, instead of just using the font-size field of the cell, the TD will not be able to dynamically resize that cell, so screen auto-sizing will not work.




AJ

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Re: Help with automatic seating
« Reply #8 on: March 20, 2006, 12:08:33 PM »
Thanks everyone for your replies..

AJ

brunobus

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Re: Help with automatic seating
« Reply #9 on: March 20, 2006, 09:03:31 PM »
With the ease of use of the new software, I have all players already randomly seated and I print out one page of the seating chart and place it on each table (60 player max., so I have 6 tables).  All of the players are bought in, but are not marked at Paid in Full (I have the default for this turned off) and then as people start checking in and paying, I mark them as paid so I know who has paid.

It totally eliminates all of your seating issues.  You can also do a little manipulating, i.e. if you have couples (husband and wife) showing up, I usually move them around so they don't start at the same table.  After that it's up to the software.

AJ

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Re: Help with automatic seating
« Reply #10 on: March 20, 2006, 09:08:33 PM »
Sorry, but I had another question about the font color.  Corey, I am following your suggestion about changing the font color in the Global Property sheet but I don't see how....

I went to Layout > Global Properties >and I see Backround Color, Foreground Color and Border Color but no Font Color.  Am I blind?  Sorry for all the questions...

BTW, I use my laptop and 4 19'' monitors for displaying the tournament director.  Switchboxes and VGA cables from www.monoprice.com.  You cant beat them.  I bought a 100ft VGA extender cable for $20 and a powered VGA distribution box for up to 4 monitors for another $20.  Just thought I'd share

AJ
« Last Edit: March 20, 2006, 09:11:21 PM by AJ »

Corey Cooper

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Re: Help with automatic seating
« Reply #11 on: March 20, 2006, 09:12:07 PM »
Foreground color = font color

AJ

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Re: Help with automatic seating
« Reply #12 on: March 20, 2006, 09:17:47 PM »
Eeeww...Gotcha 

thanks again!

tandemrx

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Re: Help with automatic seating
« Reply #13 on: March 20, 2006, 09:30:01 PM »
well, there you go,

I didn't know that foreground was the font color - I just kind of ignored foreground and had assumed there wasn't anyway to change font other than through HTML code.

Should have figured there was a better way to do it (after making dozens of changes throughout my layout :o).

I bet if I read the help section this would be in there :-[

Corey Cooper

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Re: Help with automatic seating
« Reply #14 on: March 21, 2006, 01:24:19 PM »
Yep, the docs say "The foreground (text) color of the..." where ever foreground is used.  This is also true of all of the tooltips.  Hover your mouse over the word Foreground on the Cell dialog.