Poker Tournament Timer Overview
Poker Tournament Timer is a program that manages the blind/ante structure and time remaining in each round of a poker tournament. Using Poker Tournament Timer makes it easy for all players in a poker tournament to see how much time is remaining in a round. It also alleviates the host from having to announce when the blinds are increasing. Poker Tournament Timer includes these features:
- Create an unlimited number of tournament schedules
- Customizable blinds, antes, and duration of each round
- Schedules can include breaks with custom duration and description
- Start, Stop, Resume and Skip rounds
- Large countdown timer can be viewed easily from a distance
- Broadcast countdown timer to multiple computer across a network
- Customizable timer font
- Audible spoken alerts at the beginning and end of each round
- Audible spoken two minute round warning
- Supports Hold'em and Omaha
Poker Tournament Timer requires the Java Runtime Environment to run. Optionally, you can download the Digital Readout ExpUpright font and add it to your operating system. On Windows, use the Control Panel to install new fonts.
Download
Previous versions can be downloaded in the version history.
Screenshot
Creating Poker Tournament Schedules
Poker Tournament Schedules can be created using any text editor such as notepad.
A pts file contains one round per line.
Rounds can either be a level (a poker round) or a break (a non-poker round).
A space separates each field in a round.
For a level, the fields are:
timeInMinutes smallBlind bigBlind ante description
For a break, the fields are:
timeInMinutes description
Below is an excerpt from a tournament schedule used during a single-table tournament. The rounds were 30 minutes in length, with occasional 5 minutes breaks to race off the lower denomination chips. A 10 minute break after the first hour of play was used for players to take an optional add-on.
30 3 6 0 Round 1
5 race blue
30 5 10 0 Round 2
10 add-on
30 10 20 0 Round 3
Broadcasting The Timer
Poker Tournament Timer has the ability to broadcast its timer across multiple computers in a network. To enable this feature, start Poker Tournament Timer as normal and click Network -> Server. Start another version of Poker Tournament Timer on a computer in the same network then click Network -> Connect. Complete the dialog and click on the button labeled Connect. When you start the timer on the instance marked "Server", both instances will share the same countdown timer, ante and blinds. This feature is experimental. Pleaes contact me with any issues you may find.
Recommendations
Here is a reliable approximation on how to determine when your tournament will end. This applies to no-limit hold'em tournaments only where the levels are at least 20 minutes and there is no more than a doubling of blinds between rounds. The longer the levels and the smaller each level increase, the more accurate the forumla. Your tournament will end when:
