Are breaks too long?

[Simsy]

Does anyone else think the breaks at the regular npl tournaments are too long?
Personally I think, go have a smoke, a drink, give TD time to chip up have smoke and a drink themselves and back into it..
Any Thoughts???

[Bacon]

how many runners does the venue/s you play average?

The games with less than 50 can be done in 10 minutes probably, but with 120 stacks, some breaks need to go over the allowed time... Especially when it takes 3 minutes to clear the poker area of some hanger-oners.

If people moved out quicker, it wouldn't take so long. And if people kept their chips stacked, it would help... But then people just love betting with their smaller chips, so they really don't think about time and other people.

If i have the chips, i try to change people's greens for them during the last 3 hands, so that the majority of greens are with 1-2 players.

[AceLosesKing]

No. I think that sometimes, but that's just me itching to get back and playing poker. The break is needed for smoko/toilet for the players, and the TD's smoko/changing the chips.

[bennymacca]

i find that at the smaller venues, if the TD has finished all of the chip ups, then he/she will generally call the players in early and get going - well matty and darren seem to do this anyway. if everyone is hanging around then there is no point waiting any longer.

but at the bigger venues, the break is needed to do all of the chip ups.

[queen9]

at another poker group here in victoria, you sell all your green chips to who ever has the most chips on the table. You still keep your excess that are not able to be made up into who $100 or so, that way, the majority of the chips are with one player, and others may only have 1,2 or 3 chips, needing one black chip each. and they get the players to put them out the front of their chips.

if we all did this, (if it was ok with Garth etc. ) then we would save the td a lot of work and a lot of time. He need only count one big stack instead of maybe 8 smaller stacks.

[Matty Norwood]

i find that at the smaller venues, if the TD has finished all of the chip ups, then he/she will generally call the players in early and get going - well matty and darren seem to do this anyway. if everyone is hanging around then there is no point waiting any longer.

but at the bigger venues, the break is needed to do all of the chip ups.

only the second break mate. the first break will always run the complete 15 minutes.

[BigPete33]

at another poker group here in victoria, you sell all your green chips to who ever has the most chips on the table. You still keep your excess that are not able to be made up into who $100 or so, that way, the majority of the chips are with one player, and others may only have 1,2 or 3 chips, needing one black chip each. and they get the players to put them out the front of their chips.

if we all did this, (if it was ok with Garth etc. ) then we would save the td a lot of work and a lot of time. He need only count one big stack instead of maybe 8 smaller stacks.

I think that would mean a loss of integrity.

Lack of integrity is what is normally associated with other poker leagues (at least here in SA).

[Garth Kay]

In a normal tournament environment, generally the big stack will chip out most of the smaller denominations from the smaller stacks on the table so only one or two stacks need to be coloured up whilst all other stacks with an odd chip would chip race.

I like the idea and whilst I normally do it if I am playing and try to buy all the green chips off other players as we head towards the break I have huge concerns if it became common practice in NPL competition.

The 15 minute break as it is now allows ample time for all stacks to be coloyred out and the last thing I want to hear about is players arguing about how many green chips were handed over and how many black chips were handed back in return.

Whilst I don't mind the method, we have enough problems with players stacking their chips neatly and counting accurately. I would prefer that the punters just concentrate on the poker and having fun rather than the logistics of chipping out and swapping chips during play.

Whilst I will say I do not want it to become common practice I have no issues if all players on the table are quite happy for this practice to come into effect and agree to swap out their chips with the big stack. As long as the dealer is involved in coordinating this process and it does not take up too much playing time.