Bottle

The Texas Hold'em Tournament



Please read the rules very carefully, as they are quite complex. It is advisable that you know the basic rules of Limit Texas Hold'Em Poker if you want to enter this tournament.

The tournament will be accepting exactly 18 signups. Reasons for this are explained below. Please state the table you wish to join if you sign up. If you wish to join a table that is already full, you may do so, but you will be put on the waiting list (again, see below) with no guarantee you will be able to play.

Ever wondered how TAO would work if it was crossed with Poker? Here's your chance to find out.

The players will be split into 3 separate "tables", and given a starting stack of 100 TAO chips. The routine at each table will be the same and will follow the usual rules of Texas Hold'em with a TAO twist.

The game

The first player to sign up for a table will be designated the "dealer" for the first hand. The second player to sign up will be the small blind of 1 TAO chip and the third player to sign up will be the big blind of 2 TAO chips. The fourth, fifth and sixth signups will then continue to be seated clockwise around the table.

Each player will then be dealt two "hole units". To ensure that no impossible units are duplicated, all hole units will be drop units (cleric, chanty, BW, assassin, pyro, witch, BR, mud and frost; the furgon will not be a hole unit in case someone is dealt two of them). Each player will be PMed with which units have been dealt to them by their table dealer (probably a member of the LTR committee) to ensure that they remain secret. A round of betting will then commence starting with the fourth signup and continuing round as normal in Texas Hold'em. The options will, as usual, be to call, fold, or to raise. To ensure that the tournament runs for a decent length of time will will be playing Limit style; the maximum bet is the size of the big blind, 2 TAO chips.

Once the first round of betting is over, three "community units", the flop, are revealed in the thread. A second round of betting ensues, starting with the second signup (as usual in Hold'em), with the maximum bet again being 2 TAO chips. Once this round of betting is complete a fourth unit is revealed, followed by another round of betting (the maximum raise this time being 4 chips), and then the river unit is revealed followed by a final round of betting with the maximum raise again being 4 chips. The pot may only be "re-raised" once to prevent everyone going all-in on the first hand.

By this time, either all the players but one will have folded, or we will have between 2 and 6 players contesting the pot. If 5 players have folded, the whole pot goes to the remaining player. Otherwise, the TAO part of the tournament begins.

Players will use the 5 community units that were dealt in the thread, plus their additional 2 hole units that only they know about. So every battle will only consist of 7 units in a freestyle setting. The player that loses the game can no longer win the pot, just like everyone that folded. Games continue to be played until 1 player is left standing; that player then wins the pot.

If there are 2 players left in at the end of betting, it is a straight fight between them. Winner of the battle takes the pot.

If there are 3 players left in, a round-robin tournament will take place. The winner of 2 battles takes the pot. If all three players win one game each, the pot will go to the player with the best hand (see below).

If there are 4 players left in, the player with the best hand plays the player with the worst hand, and the other two players play each other. The winners of each battle then face off to see who wins the pot.

If there are 5 players left in, the player with the best hand advances, and the 2nd best hand and 5th best hands face off, and the 3rd and 4th best hands face off. The 3 remaining players then enter the round-robin for 3 players as described above.

If all 6 players are left in, best hand plays 6th, 2nd best hand plays 5th, and 3rd plays 4th. The winners enter the round-robin for 3 players as described above.

Once only one player remains in the hand, they take the pot, and a new hand begins, with the small blind from the previous game now being the dealer, big blind becoming small blind, etc. as in normal Hold'em.

If a match between two remaining players is drawn, the pot is split equally between the two of them. Other drawn matches must be replayed.

The cards

There will be 76 cards in the TAO deck compromising 19 units in 4 suits. The suits are Legends, Great Lakes, Banff and Armageddon (corresponding to Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds and Spades). The units are given equivalent numerical values:

Cleric: Ace
Witch: 2
Golem Ambusher: 3
Barrier Ward: 4
DSM: 5
Berserker: 6
Stone Golem: 7
Assassin: 8
BR: 9
Mud Golem: 10
Pyro: 11
Wisp: 12
LW: 13
Furgon: 14
Frost Golem: 15
Dragon: 16
Scout: Jack
Enchantress: Queen
Knight: King

So, as an example, you might be dealt the Enchantress of Armageddon and the Cleric of Legends as your hole cards, equivalent to the Queen of Spades and the Ace of Hearts. (Unfortunately the number of TAO units is not perfect, but never mind.)

The hands

As in normal Hold'em, each hand will have a hand strength. In order from worst hand to best hand, you will have:

High card
Pair
Two Pair
Flush
Three of a Kind
Straight
Full House
Four of a Kind
Straight Flush

(Note: a flush is easier to get since there are more units than the usual 13 in a deck, so its relative hand strength is reduced.)

For full details on hand strength, see any good poker website.

The rounds

Each table will have 1 round of 6 hands, so that everyone gets a chance to be dealer, small blind, big blind, etc. At the end of the round, everyone will almost certainly have different chipstacks remaining. The top 2 players from each table will then go to the final table and LTR points will be awarded as follows.

6th place and below: 5 LTR Points
5th place: 10 LTR Points
4th place: 15 LTR Points
3rd place: 20 LTR Points

At the final table another round will be played and then points awarded as follows:

6th place and 5th place: 25 LTR Points
4th place: 30 LTR Points
3rd place: 40 LTR Points
2nd place: 50 LTR Points
Tournament Winner: 70 LTR Points

Furthermore there will be a few additional bonuses.

Best Hand of the Tournament: 5 LTR Points
Most Chips Won during the tournament: 5 LTR Points

The tables

Due to the real-time nature of betting in poker-style games, all 6 members of a table will need to be online at the same time for the betting rounds. This is why the tournament is split into three tables. It is VITAL that you are online at the time of betting, otherwise you will be designated as "sitting out" that hand. Since there are only 6 hands in a round, this will have a great effect on your chances of getting a large number of chips. To help this, the tables will be given different times you will be required to be online. Betting can take place either on the forums, in the Legends lobby, in the shoutbox, in an IRC chatroom, via MSN, whatever the 6 players agree on.

Table One will start its betting phase at exactly 3pm GMT on the designated days. Table Two will start its betting at exactly 10pm GMT. Table Three will start its betting at exactly 4am GMT. PLEASE ONLY SIGN UP TO A TABLE IF YOU ARE SURE YOU CAN BE ONLINE AT THOSE TIMES ON THE REQUIRED DAYS. IF YOU ARE LATE YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO TAKE PART IN THE HAND. The times are spread over the world's timezones to try and allow everyone a chance of entering. The betting phase will take place every 4 days, so be sure you can be on at that time on any day of the week.

Once betting has ended matchups will be confirmed by the table dealer and you will have exactly 4 days to play the game. No more, no less. DQs will be extremely unforgiving and double DQs may well be commonplace (and almost desirable if there are large numbers of players contesting the pot). This means that the each round of the tournament will last for 24 days.

If at any time a player choose to leave the table (quit the tournament), they will be replaced by someone on the waiting list for that table. The number of chips they left with is recorded and taken into account when the table ends. Hence why "6th place or below" is on the LTR points chart.

The signups

Please include your in-game identity AND the table you wish to join in your signup post. Any posts not containing this information will be ignored. And once again, please make sure you are sure you understand the rules, because ignorance will not be an excuse when the tournament starts. If you have any questions, please ask now.

Table One

Table Dealer: Xiahou Dun

Seat 1: SNIPER (Sniper__Master)
Seat 2: machiavelli (Determination)
Seat 3: Bottle (The Exile)
Seat 4: Girshwin (-=kabob=-)
Seat 5:
Seat 6:

Waiting List:

Table Two

Table Dealer: Bottle

Seat 1: Flash Demon (Flash Force)
Seat 2: Xiahou Dun (Sun Tzu)
Seat 3: EverL (Alpha Helix)
Seat 4: *ZADICO (amidamaru)
Seat 5: Simon Underwood (Show no Mercy)
Seat 6: XOHOX (xohox)

Waiting List:

Table Three

Table Dealer:

Seat 1: BaxVarlet (gryphon89)
Seat 2: vintage (Vintage)
Seat 3:
Seat 4:
Seat 5:
Seat 6:

Waiting List:

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Courtesy of ExpectDeath
Official Best and Worst Moderator of 2007 and 2008

SNIPER

I'll be playing on the account Sniper__Master
Table 1

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isuckatthisgame121

I love this tourney, its a brillaint idea.

Too bad I'm going to be away the next week or I would've entered.

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Flash Demon

Table 2. Flash Force.

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BaxVarlet

Table 3.

gryphon89

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Dave McKean

Xiahou Dun

Table 2 Sun Tzu.

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Cold as ice cream, but still as sweet.

machiavelli

I'll sign up up.

Table 1.

EDIT: Account: Determination.

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Bottle

I'll have to run Table 2 then, so I'll play on Table 1.

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Courtesy of ExpectDeath
Official Best and Worst Moderator of 2007 and 2008

vintage

Awesome idea, although confusing. I'll have to re-read rules a few times.
Table 3. Vintage.

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Gifts: BW*S3RO*Gypsy*Apart*Junier

Why the colorful posts? Play Calvinball!

Simon Underwood

It looks great, i'll read again and again so i understand everything. Please put me in table two.

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