Author Topic: How do I set up my initial lay-out?  (Read 5723 times)

redsoxva1

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How do I set up my initial lay-out?
« on: January 12, 2007, 01:58:49 PM »
The Help section in TD 2 does not make it clear how I setup my initial layout. I have a lot of inexperienced players tonight and I would like to display blinds, chip colors, time in round clock etc to keep the simple questions to a minimun.

Corey Cooper

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Re: How do I set up my initial lay-out?
« Reply #1 on: January 12, 2007, 05:22:58 PM »
If you have a tournament tonight, I wouldn't try creating your own layout... just use one of the layouts supplied with the program.  There are 6 included.

redsoxva1

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Re: How do I set up my initial lay-out?
« Reply #2 on: January 17, 2007, 04:06:46 AM »
Where exactly do I find the six layout templates?

tandemrx

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Re: How do I set up my initial lay-out?
« Reply #3 on: January 17, 2007, 10:58:03 AM »
The sample layouts are in the templates folder of your TD program files.

If you click on the "layout" tab, then select "load layout" from the left hand column, I think it should automatically open up the "templates" folder and you should see a bunch of layouts named "BlackAndGreen.tlo", "BlackAndWhite.tlo", etc.  Choose one of those.

Here is a picture of my simple tourney layout for games with inexperienced players.  I am thinking about even removing the "next blinds, next ante's" info because even that confuses some people (they think it is the current blinds).  But, I like that there so I have a heads up of what is coming (as dealer).



I have attached the layout for this tourney as well.  Change the Tourney name, maybe the chip colors to meet your needs and you are all set to go (well, I guess you have to set up the other tourney stuff as well, rounds, etc).

The only other thing I have in this layout is some pre-tourney screens and after the rebuy period, the player ranking screens alternates with the main screen (only problem there is that when the player ranking screen is up, the blinds are not displayed, but I only have it rotate in for 15 seconds while the main screen above shows for a minute, so the blinds come back pretty quickly and by the 4th round, most players start to get the hang of what the blinds are).


redsoxva1

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Re: How do I set up my initial lay-out?
« Reply #4 on: January 18, 2007, 02:20:28 AM »
Thank you very much. Your example will work better than the default one I ended up using on 1/12. The problem with that was that the blind info was too small to easily see across the room. During a break we tried to adjust the cell and font size but had no luck. I'll try using the different templates. Thanks again.

tandemrx

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Re: How do I set up my initial lay-out?
« Reply #5 on: January 18, 2007, 09:16:08 AM »
Yes, for inexperienced players, really the only important information is the blind amount - so I tried to make that as big as I could.

I should probably eliminate ante's altogether as that is just more info on the screen to confuse, but I like have ante's in some late-middle rounds to speed things up a bit and to give players the experience of playing with ante's.

Chip denominations is another issue.  I have made small laminated denomination cards (a little smaller than a playing card) that have chip denominations/colors on one side and hand ranks on the other.  The inexperienced player REALLY like these, and use these much more than looking at the screen for chip denoms,  but as a dealer, I am not very fond of them because sitting on the table they tend to look like a playing card and throw me off a little bit (I keep thinking I didn't collect all the cards, or think they are in a hand when they folded earlier, etc).

I used to use actual pictures of the chips that I use - but my laptop is too slow to process images in TD program, so I had to revert to blank disc system chips.

I am considering going to 3 chip denominations rather than 4, just to simplify things further.

I honestly think that no one ever looks at the prize amounts either (at least not the inexperienced players), so sometimes I feel I should get rid of that too for my "couples" tourneys.

Only thing I think I will add at some point is total chip count.  Since we do a single rebuy or add-on, it would be helpful for me as the tournament gets down to 2-3 people to know the total chip count to help figure the all-in amounts (only have to count 1 person's chips to figure if they have another covered).

Vulch

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Re: How do I set up my initial lay-out?
« Reply #6 on: January 22, 2007, 09:13:51 AM »
I have spent hours playing with the layout of my main screen.
I am constantly finding ways of improving it or tinkering with it.

For what its worth I have attached it (I hope).

It is based on one of the included ones and it contains everything I need, as well as everything the players need (their bits nice and big).

Vulch

mdsd77

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Re: How do I set up my initial lay-out?
« Reply #7 on: February 27, 2007, 07:25:52 PM »
hey whats the red bag thing under prizes?


tandemrx

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Re: How do I set up my initial lay-out?
« Reply #8 on: February 27, 2007, 09:08:07 PM »
For social tourneys I often have a variety of bad beat and other prizes.  I always give out either a "first out" prize or usually a "first man out" and a "first woman out" prize.

I stick whatever the prize is in a bag (like the gift bags they sell at dollar stores and what not) and whoever gets busted out gets the back and whatever is in it.  Sometimes it is a poker magazine or a poker for dummies book or chocolates (often milk duds), sometimes a deck or cards or a poker odds sheet.  Whatever I have around or pick up along the way.

Pinguaq

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Re: How do I set up my initial lay-out?
« Reply #9 on: March 01, 2007, 10:06:51 PM »
For social tourneys I often have a variety of bad beat and other prizes.  I always give out either a "first out" prize or usually a "first man out" and a "first woman out" prize.

Hi everyone, I downloaded/purchased a couple days ago and am using for the first time in an 18-27 man tourney tomorrow night. So far no questions... the app is great and does everything I could want. I've ran a few "test" tourneys and am ready to go. I've looked at the templates here, and played with making a few of my own changes, but am going with the basic one for my first game. I'm stating all of this since it is my first post.

I really wanted to reply to the quote above. I love the idea... I think I'm going to get some "Texas Hold 'Em for Dummies" books, or something like that, to give as a booby prize to last place, just for fun.

Thanks Cory for the app, and everyone else for the useful tips I've found in the forum.