Ok, I'll get those latest WSOP blinds in the next version.

Anyone tried the new Color-Ups functionality? Is it ok (first version).

And another question - I want to include THNL rules (or maybe a couple of different rule sets) in the product... what rules should I use? I could have a dropdown with a selection and then if you are offline at least you can browse the rules? Thoughts?

Check the FAQ of this forum for links to rules.

We use a dead button rule as the blinds bust out. And it seems (no matter how long we've been doing this) we always stumble a little bit figuring out if it's a single blind, double BB and where the button goes. If your timer had quick access to that or something - kudos. Especially if it were to happen at a table where the host or more experienced player doesn't happen to be sitting at.

Likewise (and I'm not even sure on the exact rule on this) - when it gets to Headusp - who get's the button first? do you flip for it? Not sure if you can incorporate that in as well???

Sarge

The button just moves to the next player, and that's where it starts.

Hey Rodney, we are planning to cover tournament timers in an upcoming episode of the Top Pair Home Game Poker Podcast. Would you be interested in doing an interview on your creation and the items being covered here? Send me an e-mail; feedback@toppair.net

Great idea! Get the owner of BlindValet as well and have one of those Fox News panel shout downs!

Seriously, though, that would be a good feature.

Yeah, good idea - I'd love to discuss the future of PTM and what's needed in a tourney manager.. . I have sent you an email.

Ok, the new version is now live and has the payout calculator and some other enhancements:

1. Version 1 of Payout screen - ability to split buys in + rebuys + addons by % amongst x number of players (please raise feature requests for version 2 of the Payout screen depending on how you use it)
2. Added new Help menu with Hand Rankings/Poker Tourney Rules sections
3. Added WSOP 2010 Blinds as requested here (WSOP link)
4. Removed Chip Size from Blind names as suggested here
5. Added a warning when you knock out the 2nd-last player that it will end the tourney (too easy to make a mistake)
6. Included all backgrounds in install so will display when offline

Please try it out and tell me what is missing...

I ran this from the website. I have some general comments that I'll put here, because it seems like they would muck up the intent of your suggestion forum.

1. The first thing I was asked is if I want to go full screen, but I can't type in full screen. Sure, I can change some values with the arrow buttons, but typing in the name of the tournament, or making large value changes requires typing. So why would I want to go full screen when setting up my tournament?
   
2. In one of the first two screens, I would expect to enter a starting stack size. I can set the re-buy and add-on amounts, but not the starting stack. Actually, I've gone through the app, and couldn't see where I enter that.
   
   Is the intent for the user to do this by setting the chip quantities? I think this is backwards. Better for the user to enter the stack size, and have the app suggest chip quantities. There could be an option for the user to enter them, but personally, I don't see the value of entering how many of each chip denomination I am providing to each player.
   
3. While in setup mode, the buttons at the top should never be covered. I can see the benefit of covering them when the timer is running, but in no other mode. It just hides options I have available to me.
   
4. Prize and payouts is a little clunky to set up. You have to reduce one prize to increase another one. Not sure how to fix that, though. Maybe that is the best method.
   
5. It would also be nice to have the option to round the prizes to the nearest $10, $20, or to the nearest buy-in amount. I do like that the prize pool does recalculate as you do additional buy-ins and add-ons.
   
6. I also like that you can resize and move the elements on the timer to get the layout you like. If the app would remember those layouts, that would be cool.

Thanks for taking the time to feedback Eneely - this is great feedback

1) Ok, so 95% of people run PTM on their own computers - I guess the other 5% are people "just testing" it to see what it's about. The reason it resizes it that it just is too complicated to design for 2 size User Interfaces - it's best in fullscreen and targetted to be run in FS. However, Silverlight core has this silly security feature that wont let you type in Fullscreen (in case a dodgy programmer emulated a windows screen and captured your password) - hence the need to resize it, which I can see is very annoying (the offline version does not have this problem as it is digitally signed/trusted). So in summary, I see you point for the web version and have changed this back to the way it was...

2) Yes, I can see how this process flow would be natural. Currently you have to go to the Chips screen and adjust your chips to make up the chips per player. This is all going to be improved when I work on the auto-calculation wizard that seems to be in great demand (like BlindValet does so well). This is a large chunk of work and I want to design it well so I'll get some feedback on this in a few weeks when it gets to the top of my list. For example, you'll enter the number of players/length of tourny in a wizard format and it will suggest options to you... the hard part is making the UI easy to use like the rest of PTM.

3) Ok, this wont be changed for a while but I have made a note of this - I need to design the rest of the system first (when you have named players you will have the players pics at the bottom and all the controls so space is an issue).

4) Yes, this is an early version - my first requirement was ability to set X amount of payouts and split prize by %. I was in a tourney last night and wanted to make it live to try it out. I am considering an amount that is called "Unallocated Prize" and is the difference between the breakdowns and the actual prize (so it goes red if there is unallocated, green if right. You cant enter more than 100% which I think helps prevent errors). In the next major prize update you'll be able to specify the Prize Breakdown (e.g. total of all addons, buyins and rebuys, PLUS a bonus amount (just used for adhoc adjustments) MINUS a Rake/fee amount (adhoc amount to reduce prize). This offers the greatest flexibility and you can make the prize variable but sitll based on tourney info. Would this be useful? Also being able to specify fixed prizes (when not using rebuys/addons) would be good.

5) Good idea - I can add this in to the next major version- it will be a Rounding amount on the Options page

6) Yes... this is on my list but will take some time It's highly requested (along with custom images)

Sounds like you have some great improvements coming.

One additional note, when you click the timer button, it would make sense at that point to ask if you want to go full screen.