Author Topic: Using TD for the first time  (Read 1226 times)

etay0330

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Using TD for the first time
« on: January 25, 2014, 09:47:23 AM »
Hi this is my first time using TD and I've noticed something that I haven't been able to find a solution for.

Let's say I want to run a tournament that I expect 20-30 players. I set up 3 10 players tables and start buying players in and get them seated at the same time. Why doesn't TD balance the table during this process too? Is there some kind of setting that will make TD to that?

Thank you

Stuart Murray

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Re: Using TD for the first time
« Reply #1 on: January 25, 2014, 09:59:07 AM »
effectively no, The Auto-seat option is a random seating draw based on the parameters you provide, so in order to use it effectively you need a really good idea of how many people you have turning up, so if you set-up 3 tables it will randomly seat the players as you buy them in on the three tables you have set-up.  You can tweak it by deleting the last few seats at each table/make them unavailable if you think you'll get around say 26 players, to try and keep the tables a little more balanced.  The only way for this facility to work as designed is if you know exactly how many players are showing up.  If the auto-seat function balanced the tables as it went it wouldn't be a random seating draw.
Stuart Murray

Corey Cooper

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Re: Using TD for the first time
« Reply #2 on: January 25, 2014, 01:45:37 PM »
If the TD were to balance the tables as players bought-in, then the first 10 players to buy-in would be at table 1, the next 10 players would be at table 2, and the final 10 players would be at table 3.  Not very random.

Actually, what would more likely happen is the first 10 players to buy-in would be at table 1.  But when the 11th person buys-in, 4 players would be moved from table 1 to table 2, to balance the 11 players at 2 tables.  When the 12th player buys-in, he would be placed at table 2, the 13th at table 1, the 14th at table 2, etc, until 2 tables are filled.  When the 21st person buys-in, 2 players from one of the tables and 3 players from the other table would be moved to table 3, to balance all 3 tables (7, 7, and 6).  Then repeat the process as the remaining players buy-in.

The point is, you'd have players seated, then moving, possibly twice, before the tournament even started.  The TD takes a different approach: if you know how many players will be showing up (or approximately how many players), you can randomly seat them at buy-in.  Because balancing isn't considered, the players are randomly seated and won't need to be moved before the tournament starts.  If you don't know how many players will be showing up, you're probably better off NOT seating at buy-in, but waiting until buy-in is closed and then seating players.