I wasn't necessarily suggesting all at once -- you could just double the starting stacks, for example, for a subtle tweak of the game that just mixes it up a little. But sure, why not if people will think it's a special occasion.

I'd go double with the stacks instead of 1.5x. 1.5 isn't enough of a change, just one more level at the end.

with 150 buyins + 30 bounties, you've pretty much doubled the stakes, which you say is too much for people. Maybe just do one or the other. (or are you including the $30 in the 150?).

Go with $150 buyin, double starting stacks, $30 bounty and throw in $ from each buyin towards bonuses

1: Lose with pocket aces you get $XX
2: First player to show Trip Queens gets $XX
3: Bad beat- highest hand that lsoes gets the
...

$150 all in which would include the $30 bounty. We are pretty deep (20k) so if I double the stack it would take too long and the bar would likely want to kick us out at some point. Right now it takes 5 hours to finish which is pretty deep for 30-36 players playing a $100 tourney, right?

These are all cool ideas but do you think the players would get annoyed at money being taken out of the prize pool for all these bonuses?

"deep" and "long" are not the same thing. You could drop some blind levels or shorten the rounds to end at the same time.

You know the 1/20 rule? Tournaments generally end when the big blind is 1/20 the total chips in play. Since you've been running this for a while, you probably know what the final blind level usually is. If you double the starting stack, you'll get to blinds twice as high, but that's usually only 2 or 3 more rounds. Simply shave a few minutes off of round lengths to compensate.

edit =====================

oh, just reread your original post and see that you're already starting 400bb deep! 800bb would just be crazy, so I wouldn't do that.

how about a rebuy? start with 8k chips, with a 1-time 8k reload, and a 10k addon, all for $50 each? Essentially everyone will do the addon, and figure 1/4 to 1/3 will rebuy. This will be more work for the host, naturally, so I might consider sitting the game out, at least the first time you try it. It's not as bad as it sounds, though, since only the first hour is different.

Not too sure how I would feel about you free-rolling yourself...
Other than that, try different game formats, such as shootout tournaments or bounty chips, maybe a heads-up tourney event, all of the above sound like good ideas.

Make the bonus $50 and pick 3. It comes to almost 1 buyin, its not that much money. If guys complain when you announce it, you could always drop 1

Thanks for all the advice guys, really appreciate it.

Hope the anniversary tourny goes well! Please share a TR to let us know how it went (and what new things you incorporated).

Will do!

We had tourney #21 yesterday, so the 2 year anniversary will actually be in January.

Yesterday we had 31 players and a 5 hour 1/2NL cash game. Great times.

I'll be moving it back to a weekday for next month to see if I can pull a full 36 players.

For the anniversary I really like the idea of $25k starting stacks, $150 buy in with $30 bounty on each player. The extra $$ from the buyin will be added to the regular prizepool for a bigger payout.

I've read all the posts in this thread and unless I missed something there is one thing nobody suggested.

Ask the players what they want.

I mentioned the bounty idea to most of the regs and they all seemed excited about it

Latest update:

Got rid of ante's and I'm running it on a Thursday evening this month (it has been Saturdays the last couple months). Sent out the invite yesterday late afternoon and already have 30 rsvp's!

Good move on the antes. Are you doing the bounties or anything else new?

I'm going to save the bounty idea for the 2 year anniversary in January. If it goes over well ill keep it long after that. My worry is that with the current buyin, the antes might take too much $$ out of the prize pool and folks won't like it. During the 2 year anniversary I'm upping the overall buyin.

Testing out the new structure tomorrow evening (no ante's). Full 36 players expected (4 tables).

Will follow-up with a recap!

A consistent game of 25+ and you think the game is dying? C'mon man!!

On a side note, my friends and I run a POY system. First of the month we do a tournament, each month its a different game rotating Hold'em, Omaha, Omaha/B, and Mix. Before the year each player ponies up $100 and that money is put to the year end prize. There is a point system, player at the end of the year with the most points uses have the prize money to play in a larger tournament for 50% of himself and the other 50% is divied up through the group. The 2nd place player gets to play in a larger tournament and gets 25% of himself and the other 75% is divied up through the group. It keeps it interesting, and its pretty much the only time we have a decent group of 8 - 10 guys, the other weeks we play cash game and struggle to get 5 guys.

I've been part of a weekly tourney group that has been running for almost ten years. When I joined, tourneys were routinely 3 tables, with 20-25 players each week. Over the course of a year, a lot of regs moved away, lost interest in poker, or got pissed over a squabbling incident that I won't go into.

Blammo - the group went from filling three tables to barely filling one. Nobody was recruiting, and the game was dying.

I started a recruiting effort in the group by talking first to the host, then to the rest of the group. Since then, we've been able to grow the group a bit and get back to a solid 10-15 players each week. Our end of year event last week was the biggest game we've had in years: 28 players at 4 tables.

Never underestimate the need for recruitment in a home game, even a big one.

fyp - congrats again!

Hey guys,

Wound up with 37 players over 4 tables and everything ran very smoothly. The bar was loving all the drink business and we decided that Thursday evenings are the secret sauce. Started at 7 and finished just before 1am.

The 2 year anniversary will be early January (due to holidays in December) with the following changes:

5k more in starting chips
$30 bounty on every player
$150 buyin instead of usual $100 buyin

Mentioned this to the group on Thursday and they loved it so that's a good sign!

So with the bounty, you're upping the buy-in from $100 to $180?

I'm glad that the group likes it, but be careful. People often say they like increases in stakes, but the losing players are going to feel the bigger losses and may quit. Hell, in a tourney format even winning players can hit long downswings and end up priced out.

Good luck with the new format, but watch your attendance and player attitudes carefully.

Upping it from $100 to $150 just for the 2 year anniversary, then going back to the regular $100 buyin for the rest of 2013.

Ah, my misunderstanding. Good luck - take it down!

If you dont want to take $30 out of each buy in for the bounty, consider the increase for the 2 year anniversary, and only put a bounty on the returning winners from the previous month's tourney. It creates a bit of a competitive atmosphere and cliques the 5 winners from the month before. But dont worry, cause obviously next month there will be another 5. It could also add to secure returning players if you dont have that strong a regular base, to let the 5 try to defend their titles.
Increase in buyins usually adds excitement, but dont do it too often, cause it may deter the regulars.
Throw in a bonus, like the Ace of Spades get you an extra 1k. I like the idea about giving someone an extra chip amount for bringing in a new player.
Good Luck!