A friend of mine is hosting a home tournament for approximately 30-40 players. I am mostly a cash game player but occasionaly enter smaller home game tourneys. Any suggestions or critiques with the following structure?

It looks good to me except I would want the levels to last a bit longer to allow for a bit more play. Look in the home poker FAQ for some great tourney advice

Thx. All levels should probably be the same or the later rounds longer times. Will check out the FAQ.

The second rule (bonus chips for those that don't rebuy) is kind of strange / not standard.

There could be an extra level or two between 10-11 and 12-13, Both of those jumps are really big.

This isn't standard in a casino/cardroom/online but I know of a few home games that allow it. I don't agree with it but I see it a decent amount

I see it in a couple of home games around here. I like it and it works well but that's IMO.

OP, this structure is terrible. For a $100 buy-in I would want at least 20 minute levels if not 25 or 30. Making the early rounds longer than the later rounds is backwards because you're going to want more play later. You will already have plenty of play early because of the large stacks but your levels go up too fast and skip too many levels. You're basically doubling the levels late which is terrible for the players. If I saw this structure sheet there is no way I would play in it. Unless you specifically want a turbo-style tournament, there is no way rounds should ever be 12 minutes long.

If you're short on time then what you want to do is speed up the early levels and slow down the later ones. In other words, start at 50/100 instead of 25/50. Get rid of the 75/150 level. Cut early levels and add late ones, your players will thank you.

That being said, here is how you create a good structure. Answer the following questions:
How many players are you expecting to seat?
How long do you want the tournament to last?
How many chips will each player start with?

The big blind in the final level of play is the total number of chips in play divided by 20. This is almost always true. In your example, if you have 30 players, 10 of whom re-buy and 20 of whom add-on, you're going to end up with:

10,000 * 30 + 20,000 * 20 + 10,000 * 10 = 300,000 + 400,000 + 100,000 = 800,000 total chips in play.

This means that the big blind will be 20,000 in the last level of play which is exactly how far your structure goes, so I would add another couple of levels after that to be sure. Also if you are expecting 40 players, or expecting fewer people to use their re-buy, your tournament will end later than you expect it to.

Once you have a handle on how many chips you expect to have in play and how long you want the tournament to last, you structure the levels accordingly. You can also decrease the starting stack to force it to end earlier. This is what I use for my home games which last 5 hours (weeknights) and get anywhere between 25 and 35 players:

Every player gets 5000 in chips. No re-buys, no add-ons. Insert breaks where appropriate.
25/50 15 mins - first 4 levels
50/100
100/200
200/400
300/600 20 mins - from here out
400/800
500/1000
600/1200
800/1600
1000/2000
1500/3000
2000/4000
3000/6000
4000/8000
5000/10,000

We normally finish by 4000/8000.

Antes - is this a self-dealt game? If so I do NOT recommend using antes. It takes up entirely too much time (collecting, making change) especially with the inevitable arguments about who ante'd and who didn't. Your levels are already super short and having antes will make them even shorter. With 12 minute levels you will be lucky to get halfway around a full table before they go up again. Also, why are you starting them at 400/800? I would just get rid of them altogether.

Is 2k/3k a typo?

I don't actually mind levels getting shorter as it goes on assuming that the number of players will be less and the number of hands per level is roughly the same. Although saying that, they are kinda short to start with.

I'd also bring antes in earlier (100/200/25) if you're going to have them, plus they're a bit small in relation to the blinds (between 1/6 and 1/8 of the big blind is my preference). If most of the players are "proper" players and won't have to be reminded to put the antes in then I'm a big fan. If you have to remind 6 people every hand you'll want to kill yourself after 2 rounds.

A friend of mine is the one hosting the tourney. I will share the information and advice to him. It seems the structure is flawed and basically will become a shovr fest in the later rounds.

Thx for the advice.

Interesting that the host seems to want to discourage rebuys, in a rebuy tourney.

But, it also sounds as if the rebuys are free, along with the 2x add-on, so maybe I'll be quiet now.

I'd want the times to be longer and maybe flip fast/slow for early vs. late rounds. Does the host have a max time limit he's aiming for? Check blindvalet.com for some help, perhaps.

I think that is what the host intends (more like a second chance tournament). But there is no rebuy-period specified. That would mean that only the winner might benefit from the 2x add-on.

Otherwise the structure should result in a very slow start with few eliminations in the first two hours. After that it will become a shove fest that will end the tournament in another two hours. If that is what the host wants, then the structure is fine.

Sent this to my friend so hopefully its better than original and changes are implemented.

If not I will still participate because tourney is going to be amazingly soft.

Level 8. Should be 700/1400 instead.
Level 14. Does not fit the pattern. Scratch that and add:
Level 9. 2000/4000
You still have 15 Levels.

I don't like the tiny antes. Take them out or increase them to (small blind)/4 rounded down.

If your friend wants to use rebuys/addon, he needs to specify a rebuy-period (e.g. till end of level 4). Otherwise there will be a fight about when the add-on can be used.

Noted.

serio,
Somewhere around 10% of the BB is good. 5% is a bit low, unless you want to keep the action from being pell-mell.

Much more than 12% (jh's SB/4) and you'll probably drive too much action for everyone, increasing the luck factor.

And, of course, you owe us a trip report afterwards.

I have run a weekly home tournament for 30-35 players since 2005. I strongly recommend against having any antes at all in a tournament where players deal for themselves.

We deal our first hand at 8:25pm sharp, and about 95% of the time we have a winner between 12:15 and 12:40pm.

Starting stacks are 500. Blind levels are 30 minutes. First level is 5/10.