The holidays bring in players you don't see the rest of the year. People are home from school, family is in town, and regulars have a few days off in a row. A series built around those days can fill the room. One thrown together in December mostly fills the floor staff's week with problems.
Here's how we'd plan one, working backward from the dates.
Start with this year's calendar
The dates set the shape of the series, so start there:
- Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26. The weekend after runs from Friday the 27th to Sunday the 29th.
- Christmas falls on a Friday, with Christmas Eve on Thursday the 24th.
- The week between runs from Saturday, December 26 to Wednesday the 30th.
- New Year's Eve is a Thursday, and New Year's Day is a Friday.
It usually works better to pick one window and do it well: either Thanksgiving weekend or the stretch from Christmas to New Year's. You can do both, but that doubles the planning and splits the same players across two series.
If Thanksgiving weekend is the one, lock it in now. December still leaves you time to plan.
Give every week before the series one job
Working backward from the first event keeps the series on track.
- Six weeks out: pick the events, the buy-ins and the guarantees. Decide whether the main event gets flights and satellites.
- Four to five weeks out: build the level and payout structures, put every event on the schedule, and announce the series.
- Two to three weeks out: start the satellites, set the staff schedule, and set up any promotions that run alongside the series.
- The week of: walk through registration with everyone who will work the window, and check every TV.
Size the series to your room
Start with numbers you already have. Last year's holiday events, if you ran any, and this fall's regular events tell you how many entries a given buy-in draws on a given day. Put the guarantees where those numbers already reach. A guarantee your regulars can cover on their own is a promotion. One that needs twice your usual field is a bet.
In CardOpz, the Tournament Results report shows entries, prize pool and guarantee for each past event. The Tournament Events dashboard shows each event's minimum qualifying count and marks it Qualified once registrations reach that number, so you can see early which events are on track.
Flights for players who can't make every day
Holiday schedules are messy. Some players are traveling, some are working, and some can only get away on one particular night. Starting flights let them pick a day that works.
Decide the flight rule before you announce anything. Either each player gets one flight, or players can play more than one and combine their stacks for Day 2. Both formats are out there, and players will ask which one you run. Satellites can award a voucher good for any Day 1 flight.
In CardOpz, you build the main event first, then clone it for each Day 1 flight. The guarantee sits on the main event, and qualified players carry through to Day 2 seating.
Build the structures once
Level and payout structures are templates. You build them once, and every event in the series uses them. Payout templates scale with the number of entries, so one structure works for a small field and a big one.
One tip: add payout groups past the biggest field you expect. A holiday event can outgrow your normal range, and the clock can't show payouts for a field size the template doesn't cover.
Nightly events that repeat through the series can be cloned from the first one.
Tell players where and when
Put every event in the player app as soon as the schedule is set. Players see the date, the buy-in and the structure, and they can register from their phone. Mobile registrations start on the alternate list, and staff assign seats before the start.
Use the room's TVs too. The tournament clock has a message line along the bottom. That's a free spot to promote tomorrow's event while tonight's is running. Room announcements go to players' app inboxes.
Staff for the registration rush
Registration tends to bunch up in the hour before a flight starts, especially after a satellite the night before. Put an extra person at the window for the first hour of each flight, and plan for an alternate list once the tables fill.
Registration itself should be quick: find the player, take the buy-in, and print the receipt with the seat drawn. Walk through it with everyone who works the window before opening day, not during it.
Connect it to the rest of the room
A series brings in players who don't usually play cash games. Players who bust out are still in the building. Keep the waitlist board on a TV next to the clock, so they can join a list from the QR code or at the desk.
If an hours reward runs alongside the series, set it up with the series dates. In CardOpz, a time-based promotion switches on at its start date and closes at its end date. Staff start high hand sessions and jackpots, so put those on the shift checklist.
If your model includes short-term memberships, set up the one a holiday visitor would buy at the window before the rush, the way your state and your room call for.
After the last hand
When the series ends, pull the results while they're fresh. The Tournament Results report has the finishing order and prizes for every event. It can also export results in Hendon Mob format; check the export before you submit it. Players like seeing their results posted. The registration report ties each buy-in to the cashier and the time, which makes reconciliation quick.
Keep those numbers. Next year's series starts with them.
If you'd like to see a series built in CardOpz, from the main event to the clock on your TVs, book a demo and we'll walk through it on a real room setup.