How to run a multi-day poker tournament

Choose the format of the days

A multi-day tournament has one or more Day 1 sessions, called flights when there are several (1A, 1B…), then a Day 2 that brings their survivors together. Each player plays one Day 1, or several if they bust and the rules let them come back.

• One Day 1, then a Day 2 played down to a winner. The common format in clubs: two evenings, not a third.
• Several Day 1 flights, one Day 2. Flights let you seat more players than the room holds, over several days or sessions.
• Several Day 1 flights, two Day 2s, then a final. The Day 1 flights split in order: with four Day 1 flights, 1A and 1B feed 2A, 1C and 1D feed 2B, and both Day 2s meet in the final.

Count the days per player, not per flight: a tournament with four Day 1 flights, two Day 2s and a final has each player play three days, not seven. That number tells you how long the structure has to last.

One structure, picked up day after day

A multi-day tournament has a single blind structure, and each day picks it up where the previous one left off: Day 2 starts at the level after the last level played on Day 1. Build it over all the days a player plays, with longer levels than for a one-night game; the blind structure calculator gives you a starting point from the total duration.

Stacks are never recalculated: everyone restarts Day 2 with what was in their bag.

Decide when Day 1 ends

Day 1 always ends at the end of a level, and the rule is announced before the first one: a player needs to know how far they are playing that night.

• At the end of a set level: the choice of a club that has the room until a given time. The number of survivors is not known in advance.
• At a percentage of the field: the choice of a festival that wants a Day 2 of a given size. With four Day 1 flights of 60 players and a stop at 15% of each flight, Day 2 brings together 36 players, or 4 tables of 9.
• At the last level the day’s length allows: the stopping level follows from the end time. It is the only rule that cannot contradict the schedule: announcing “end of level 12” on a day that only fits eight levels goes unnoticed until the night itself.

Re-entries and players who qualify twice

Write down what a busted player can buy back: nothing, one entry per flight (they can then come back on another Day 1), one entry for the whole tournament, or no limit. Each re-entry adds to the tournament’s entries and prize pool; the player still counts once.

A player who survives two flights keeps only one stack for Day 2. The rules say which one, before the first flight; the simplest to explain is to keep the bigger one.

Bag & tag, step by step

Bag & tag is the controlled bagging of chips at the end of the day. It takes four steps:

1. Stop play. The director announces the end of the day at the end of the planned level; the players still in are the qualifiers.
2. Count. Each qualifier counts their stack at the table, puts it in a bag and announces the total. Each bag carries a number unique across the whole tournament: a 1A bag and a 1B bag must never share a number, since they meet again on Day 2.
3. Floor check. A floor recounts each bag and seals it. An announced total far from the last known stack, around 30% off, is recounted before sealing: it is often a zero forgotten or added.
4. Tag and storage. The tag on the bag carries the player’s name, bag number, flight and stack, with two signatures: the player’s and the floor’s. The bags spend the night under lock and key.

Check the chips before closing

The total of the bags must match exactly the chips put into play during the flight. Every entry and every rebuy brings a starting stack, every add-on its own stack. With 80 entries and 20 rebuys at 30,000 chips, and 40 add-ons at 20,000, the flight put 3,800,000 chips into play: the bags must hold 3,800,000, no more and no less.

A difference means a stack was miscounted. Find it before closing the day: once the bags are put away, nothing tells you which one.

Draw the Day 2 seats

Day 2 starts with a full redraw: no Day 1 seat is kept, the original tables no longer exist, and survivors from the different flights mix.

• Tables are balanced to within one player: 87 qualifiers at 9 per table take 10 tables, seven of 9 and three of 8.
• The draw covers all qualifiers at once, across all flights: that is what mixes the Day 1 fields.
• Two options depending on the event: spread the biggest stacks across different tables, so they do not meet as play resumes, and separate players who sat at the same table on Day 1.

Before play resumes, publish the chip counts across all flights and the seating chart: everyone knows where they sit and who leads.

Prize pool and paid places

All the entries from all the Day 1 flights feed a single prize pool, split under a single payout scheme: the number of paid places is based on the total number of entries, not flight by flight. The payout calculator shows it for a given field.

Running a multi-day event in MyPokerCaptain

MyPokerCaptain handles multi-day events on the Casino plan, at €47.99 a month. The setup wizard sets the format: number of Day 1 flights, one or two Day 2s, a final or not, the stopping rule and the re-entry rule. The Bag & tag screen follows the four steps, flags stacks to recount, compares the bag total with the chips sold at the cash desk, and blocks closing as long as a bag is not sealed or a difference remains; the tags print from the screen. The Day 2 draw balances tables to within one player, with the two options above, and a day’s PDF report is sent to its players.

Flights are played one after another on the same device; simultaneous Day 1 flights in two rooms are not supported today. The tournament keeps working without internet on the director’s device, as the Works offline page explains. The other features are on the Features page.