Poker Tournament Clock Software

[Ahmend Studioz]

Thereare several different types of poker game timers available today. The best poker timer will depend on whether you are playing a friendly game or a live poker tournament. For recreational players in private games, the preferred poker blind timer is often an app. In recent years there has been a massive increase in quality poker game timer apps available, many of which are for free.

Big Blind Ante: Outside of the stud portion of the event, we would use the big blind ante format. For those unfamiliar, this just means that the big blind covers the ante for the entire table once a round. Paying roughly the same price per round, just not slowing the game down with everyone being bothered to make change and ante every hand. Theoretically we could do this for Stud as well, but we will leave the purity of that game alone for now.

Chess Clock The most important consideration for my perfect poker tournament is a chess clock rather than a shot clock. Currently, shot clocks are used in many events that allow players 30 seconds to make a decision with some time bank cards available for tougher decisions. This is a step in the right direction, but a chess clock is far superior and punishes the right people: the ones who tank with 7-2 off suit from under the gun to just waste time. Here is how it could work:

Side events Since the structure for these events will start out pretty fast, that means more players will bust on day one. That would suck for a player traveling across country to play, so it would be important to offer side events starting the next day. Those events could vary in terms of format.

For those new to shot clock format, the basic premise is once it is your action, the dealer starts a 30 second timer. You are given a set number of time extensions worth 30 seconds each. In this tournament, we were given seven additional time extensions for a total of 3 min and 30 seconds of time bank. This was with 106 players remaining. At 24 players, our time extensions would reset to 6. If you have not made an action when your time is up and you have no time extensions, your hand is either dead if facing action, or an auto check if not facing a bet.

The shot clock in poker has been discussed for a while. As far as I know, the World Poker Tour is the first major tour to implement it into non high roller events. While there are many positives of the shot clock, I think there are improvements that should be made as it evolves. First, and most obvious, a shot clock punishes players who make long tanks in hands. I am talking about the player who takes 3 min on the river facing an all-in bet. What the shot clock does not currently do is punish the player who takes 15 seconds for EVERY preflop decision no matter the action. The latter is much worse for a poker game than the person who plays quick then takes 3 minutes on a single river decision.

The other issue I have with how the shot clock is currently being utilized is that it is brought into play one table BEFORE the money bubble. The original thought was having the shot clock on the money bubble would help reduce stalling to make the money. In reality though, the exact opposite thing happens, once the shot clock is brought into play, it is a reminder to players that they should be stalling, and it is to their benefit to stall. Now instead of maybe fake tanking for 10-15 seconds, most players use the FULL 30 seconds and simply fold before they require a time extension. By implementing the shot clock before the money bubble, we are encouraging players to stall on the bubble and slow the pace of play. My suggestion would be to implement shot clocks AFTER the money bubble has broken to avoid any extra stalling that already exists.

The best way to improve the system is to use a chess clock format. In this format, instead of every action receiving a 30 second time limit before using extensions, we get rid of the extensions and give the players all the time up front. Every player would simply have a 3-minute time bank to use at their leisure. In this example, every player would have 10 seconds to make an action, after 10 seconds, the players 3-minute time bank begins to tick down. If a player has no time bank remaining, they simply have 10 seconds to make every decision until the time banks reset. The advantage of this system is the player who tanks 15-30 seconds every preflop decision is severely punished as he is forced to use his timebank every hand. This also rewards / does not punish the player who acts within 10 seconds every time, but uses 2 minutes on a difficult river decision.

Here are reviews of poker tournament clocks and timers. Some are simple poker blinds timers that do little more than beep when the timer expires. Others are full-featured poker tournament managers that will assist you with the buyin, seating and moving players at multiple tables, time the blinds, calculate the payout, and keep league stats. Some clocks can be run over a network on multiple computers and/or television screens.

You need to decide what level of features you want in your poker clock. Some hosts want a simple timer that their players can see while playing the game. They want to start the clock at the beginning of their game and then forget about it until the game is over. Other hosts want to track the buyins and rebuys of each player, they are constantly entering information into a computer about which player purchased a rebuy/add-on or was eliminated.

Using a poker tournament manager/clock is almost a necessity if you are going to run a poker league. Several of the programs reviewed here will track the results of each game and assign points to each player depending on their finish. You can also track the winnings, and loses, of each player. You can use all this information for a championship at the end of the year.

Some of these programs will suggest a blinds schedule to use and all programs have pre-set formats for various Hold'em, Stud, Omaha, Limit, No-limit, and Pot-limit games. You can also set up your own customized blinds schedules and tournament formats and then re-use the same formats at a later date.

Please be advised that some of these programs can be a bit challenging to set up and use for the first time. You have to do a bit of work, entering player data and tournament data (buyin, rebuy, blinds, etc.) before you can start your game. Make sure you run through a test tournament before you actually use the program in a live game.

The clocks that are reviewed here range from full-featured stand-alone programs to simple little timers. Some of these programs have been written for local poker leagues and then released on the internet by the author. Most of these timers run in 1024x768 screen size.

The Poker Timer is one of the most flexible and customizable poker timers on the internet. The all new Poker Timer lets you create your own tournaments from sctatch or use the classic preset tournaments already built into the application. The best part is that you can now save your tournaments and jump straight into playing poker whenever you want.

The Poker Timer is now ready to help you host even biger pokertournaments. We have built in a new player management system that will keep track of all your entrants, prize money, re-buys, add-ons and calculate entrants final payouts.

The Poker Timer is now ready to fill your screen no mattter what size you are running. We have also built in a new customizable layout so you can set the screen up to show just what you want it. Use the layout controls to set up your display to just the way you like it.

Using The Poker Timer Pro you will no longer have to worry about making sure you have an internet connection. You can now take The Poker Timer anywhere you want and know it's going to perform. Using The Poker Timer Pro you will also no longer be bugged by advertisements, you can now concentrate on playing poker!

Want to set up a large tournament or play a "friendly" game with your poker buddies? The Poker Timer is the perfect addition to your poker kit. Choose from one of our preset tournaments or edit one to suit your needs. The application is easy to install and just as easy to use.

We have given you total control of your poker night. With the poker timer you can build a quick turbo game or build a tournament that will take you through to tomorrow. Edit the amount of rounds, round lengths, breaks, ad-on breaks to create your ultimate poker tournament structure.

Have you ever held a home poker tournament and wished that were was a better way to keep track of the blind levels? As long as you have a computer somewhere near where you are playing (and laptops are very handy for this) you are in luck! There are a number of tournament clock software products available today. They come with preset blind structures, like you might find in Full Tilt Poker software, and also allow you to enter a custom blind structure. Most poker tournament clocks have audio and visual alerts for when blind levels are approaching completion and when they actually do change. You can pause the clock in case someone spills a drink and even modify the blind structure on the fly if the tournament is going too slow.

For any home poker tournament organizer some kind of tournament clock software is a necessity. Some of the options available include Poker Tournament Supervisor, Poker Timer, and The Tournament Director. All of these are excellent pieces of poker tournaments clock software.

The 48th Annual World Series of Poker kicked off 54 days of play Tuesday, enticing tens of thousands of players from around the world to Las Vegas with an estimated prize pool of more than $200 million.

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