Dr. Neau's Tournament Manager

Dr. Neau's Tournament Management System (DrNTM) automates virtually every aspect of a poker tournament for you, from creating the tournament to running the tournament to reporting results.

This application is 100% pure Java. That means that it runs on any system that supports Java...Windows, Macintosh, Linux, etc.

Multiple system configurations are supported, including:

• A single computer with a single display device

• A single computer with multiple display devices using extended desktop

• Multiple computers, each with their own display device (via the client/server capabilities)

All data used by the application is stored in a single repository (a single directory structure). You can have multiple repositories on a system if you wish. You can keep your repository on a flash drive. You can copy your repository from one system to another to run the app with all of your data on another computer.

The left side of this page has a quick usage scenario then goes into more detail on the main features, including:

• Betting schedule management and the timer
• The console
• Player management
• Financial management
• Seating management
• Chip case management
• Bounty and side bet management
• Match-based tournaments
• Tournament planning and data logging
• Scoring methods and league standings
• League management
• The hand timer and odds/insurance calculators
• Reporting, printing and exporting
• The repository
• Tournament types 
• The help system

The right side of this page has a download link, links to user-contributed components, system requirements, licensing and pricing, support information, info on the bulletin board, links to join/leave the mail list, testimonials and thanks.

Thanks for your interest!

Most of the features of the application are available to you for you at no charge. However, you will need a valid license to use the "extended features", which include the ability to:

• Manage leagues
• Activate custom console themes
• Utilize the networking features

Additionally, you will need a valid license to manage tournaments with more than 8 active players

If you would like a demo license to try out the extended features, please send an email to Dr. Neau. He will provide you with a license good for a few weeks...enough time for you to see what the application can do. Make sure to include your "Host ID" in the request...you can get your Host ID from the license dialog that appears when you start the application.

Note: Any part of your tournament can be saved into the component library for reuse in a future tournament.

Step 2: Running your tournament
Just before and during the tournament, you're primarily concerned with handling buy-ins, add-ons, rebuys, eliminations, seating, managing the clock, alerting players to new betting levels, tracking bounties, calculating payouts and managing your cash. All of that is handled by the application so that you can focus on playing.

While all this is going on, your players see the console...a dashboard of information configured to show them exactly the information you want to see.  The application comes with default dashboards, but you can use the designer to create your own dashboards (choosing from 30+ components) that look exactly the way you want them to. The goal of the dashboard is to stop people from constantly asking you questions.

When important events happen, the players are notified via audio and visual alerts on the console. You decide which types of alerts are important to you.

Step 3: Reporting results and rolling up into a league
Once the tournament is over, it's just a matter of presenting results to your players. If you have your own website, you can generate reports that can be saved as HTML, Excel, PDF or Word. If you use a league management system like Poker Genie or PokerDIY, you can export data into a format that can be uploaded into those sites.

DrNTM captures a complete history of what happened during the tournament, so you have the story of your tournament that you can share.

If you are running a league, you can also use DrNTM as your league management system. The application lets you create robust scoring methods that tournaments can use to calculate player scores. These scores can be rolled up into league standings if you add the tournament to a league.

The core of any tournament management system is "the clock": Letting everyone know what the current bets are and how much time is left at the current level. DrNTM excels here by supporting virtually any type of poker you want to play.

The betting schedule (I call it a "betting schedule" it isn't right to call it a "blinds schedule" in a stud tournament) consists of three types of segments:

• Pre-tournament - Used as a countdown period before the tournament begins. You could even use more than one...one to represent the countdown to the buy-in period, and another to represent the buy-in period with a countdown to the tournament start. If these segments exist, they are always at the beginning of the schedule.
• Play - A play segment represents active play. You can specify the game (Hold'em/Omaha/etc.), limit type (Limit, Pot-Limit, No-Limit, etc.), and bets (ante, bring-in, small blind, large blind, small bet and large bet.)
• Break - Represents the time when players are on break. There are actually three types of break segments:
  • Standard break - The type of break most people are used to...it occurs within the schedule after a specific betting level. You'll probably use this most of the time.
  • Fixed break - A break that occurs at a specific time of day. This is useful when there a reason to break at a specific time, maybe to watch the PPV fight.
  • Ad-hoc break - The pizza has just arrived and you want to break. Use an ad-hoc break!

You might be wondering why you wouldn't just pause the timer rather than use a fixed or ad-hoc break. Here's why: When you simply pause the timer, it isn't clear why you did it and when play will start again. If you used a fixed or ad-hoc break, you can display a special console dashboard for that break with the necessary information (like time left for the break)...and when the break is over the timer will resume at the exact point you went on break! Much more professional looking than simply pausing the clock.

Each segment of the betting schedule has the following attributes: Level ID (auto-generated), Estimated Start Time (calculated for you), Duration, Estimated End Time (calculated for you), Available Add-ons, Available Rebuys, Chips to Remove (calculated for you, if you wish), Pause at End and Console Map Key (to denote the preferred dashboards for that level). Obviously, fixed breaks also have a configurable Start Time attribute.

The betting schedule designer offers plenty of features for creating, editing and monitoring the betting schedule:

• Buttons for adding new segments before or after any segment
• Buttons for moving segments up and down in the schedule
• Buttons for setting the duration, pause, limit, game, console key, ante, bring-in, small blind, large blind, small bet and large bet of multiple levels at one time
• Buttons for selecting multiple levels at once using the criteria you specify
• A timings panel that details all of the estimated timings for your betting schedule
• A graph that displays the progression of your betting schedule to help ensure it is constant
• Finally, the betting schedule wizard - Actually 16 different wizards: No-Limit Hold'em, Mixed-Limit Hold'em, Limit HO, Limit HORSE, Limit Omaha, Pot-Limit Omaha, No-Limit Omaha, Limit Omaha 8/b, Pot-Limit Omaha 8/b, No-Limit Omaha 8/b, Limit Razz, Limit SHOE, Limit Stud and Limit Stud 8/b. Each wizard asks you questions and generates a suitable betting schedule using your preferences, within the bounds of your chip case.

If you want, click on the report button to generate a betting schedule report. You can print it or save it to PDF, HTML, Excel, CSV, RTF or a text file.

Once you create a betting schedule you like to use, you can save it as a reusable component so that you can import it into future tournaments.

From the timer controller (or from the console), you can perform the following operations: Start Countdown (to beginning of tournament), Start Tournament, Start Clock, Pause Clock, End Tournament, Select New Level and Select Time Remaining.

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A console is what your players see. You can actually have multiple consoles if you like (but you'll normally have one). Each console consists of:

• A console dashboard - This is the collection of widgets such as time in round, current bets, etc. You can create your own dashboards using the dashboard designer with 30+ components to choose from, including: Active Chip Count, Active Level Name, Active Seat Count, Active Table Count, Add-on Count, Average Chip Stack, Bets for Active Level, Buy-in Count, Chip Case, Chip Consolidation, Deck Color, Empty Component, Game for Active Level, Horizontal Announcement Marquee, Image, Label, League Standings (Horizontal Marquee), League Standings (Vertical Marquee), Limit Type for Active Level, Next Level Summary, Occupied Seat Count, Open Seat Count, Payouts/Results (Horizontal Marquee), Payouts/Results (Vertical Marquee), Prize Pool, Rebuy Count, Remaining Player Count, Time In Round, Time of Day, Time to Next Break, Time to Start of Tournament, Tournament Description and Tournament Title. Each of these components is configurable in many, many ways via the dashboard designer.
• A console map - This is used in conjunction with the "console map key" attribute from the active betting schedule to determine which console dashboards to display at any point in time.  As an extreme example, imagine a HORSE tournament.. You might have a rotation of 2 or 3 different dashboards displayed before the tournament, a special "Hold'em" dashboard with a red background and "HOLD'EM" displayed for everyone to see, a special "Omaha" dashboard with a blue background, a special "Razz" dashboard with purple background, etc. 
• Alerts - Alerts are a way of drawing player's attention to the console at critical times. Active alerts will overlay text (and possibly images) on the screen while playing an audio (if you've defined one). Alert types include: Betting Level Started, Break Started, Elimination (First  Player Out), Elimination (In the Money), Elimination (On the Bubble), Elimination (Out of the Money), Elimination (With a Rebuy), Player Added On, Player Bought In, Player Rebought, Timer Started, Timer Stopped, Tournament Ended, Tournament Started, Time to End of Break, Time to End of Play, Time to Start of Break, Time to Start of Play and Time to Next Betting Level. The time-based alerts allow you to configure multiple alerts to occur at the times you specify. For instance, you might have an alert fire with a specific sound when there are 5 minutes left in a break and another alert with a different sound fire when there are 2 minutes left in the break.
• Overlays - Overlays let you present important information on the console for a short period of time. Examples of overlays include the chip distribution, chip leaders, league standings and seating charts.  
• Information - Information includes announcements, hand nicknames, quiz questions, quotation collections, rules, terminology and trivia collections. Elements of these collections can be displayed on the console in a random rotating fashion either for informational or entertainment purposes. If you use this feature, you'll probably only use it before a tournament or during breaks.  Think of it like what you see before the previews start at the movie theater.
• Announcements - Ad-hoc announcements can be entered and displayed (with an audio of your choosing) at any time. So, if you have your tournament in multiple rooms with multiple computers...rather than run all over the house to tell everyone that the pizza has arrived, you can just create an ad-hoc announcement with an annoying sound. Announcements can also be pulled from a collection and displayed in a horizontal marquee at the bottom of the console.

The above elements of a console are aggregated together into a "console theme", so that rather than defining all of the settings for all of those items for every tournament, you just create one or more themes and have your tournament use a theme. Console themes can also be exported to a dataset for importing into another repository. Dr. Neau will add users' themes to the website as cool and interesting ones are submitted.

Displaying the console: A console is actually contained in a separate window from the main program, so when it comes to displaying a consoles, multiple system configurations are supported, including:

• A single computer with a single display device
  Example: A laptop sitting on the bar next to your poker table.
  Run DrNTM on the laptop with the console (displayed on the right) in the foreground. Most tournament-time operations can also be performed from the console with hot-keys or pop-up menus, but the application is still running in another window if you need it.
  This is good model for single to multi-table tournaments that are all in the same room.
• A single computer with multiple display devices using extended desktop
  Example: A laptop connected to a projector (or a secondary monitor, or a casino video system) using extended desktop.
  If your computer gives you the ability to extend the desktop to another display device, you can have the application's main window (and a console, if you wish) displayed on the computer's primary monitor and a separate console displayed on each of the other monitors. This way, the players always see the console while you are performing administrative tasks.
  This is a good model for bars, casinos, large tournaments or home tournaments...basically anyone that has one or more secondary display devices. If you have multiple secondary devices, you can actually display different types of consoles on each device. So, for example, you might have the main tournament information displayed on one monitor and the current chip leaders displayed on another monitor.
• Multiple computers, each with their own display device
  Example: A multi-table tournament spread throughout your house and possibly spilling into the garage game room.
  You can use the networking capabilities to designate one machine as "the server" and the other remote machines as "clients".  Clients can be anywhere, as long as they have a network connection to the server. Note: No filesharing is required. In fact, the server and clients don't even need to be the same platform (one could be a Mac, the other a Windows box and another a Linux box). All information required by the client is transmitted over the wire using TCP/IP...including audio alerts and images.
  This is a good model for the "distributed home tournament": One table in the dining room, one in the basement, two in the garage.  Bring a few laptops, hook them up to your home network and you're all set.

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The tournament roster provides detail about every player in your tournament. From the roster, you can view/manage the following information about every player:

• Core/contact attributes: ID (every player gets an automatic but customizable unique ID), first name, last name, nickname, display name (how they appear on the console), address, phone numbers (4), email addresses (4), city, state, zip/postal code, country, age, birthday, audio (for use in alerts) and avatar (for use in alerts and for identification purposes)
• Financial attributes: Buy-in expense, add-on expense, rebuy expense, bounty expense, bounty revenue, bounty net gain, place revenue, text award, primary expense, primary net gain, primary revenue, secondary expense, secondary net gain, secondary revenue, side-bet expense, side-bet net gain, side-bet revenue, total expense, total net gain, total revenue
• Chip purchase attributes: Buy-in count, add-on count, rebuy count
• Seating attributes: Table, seat, game expert (true/false...to assist in making sure you have knowledgeable people at each table) and clock operator (true/false...to ensure someone who knows how to work DrNTM is sitting near the computer)
• Tournament status attributes: Status (listed/active/eliminated), expected (true/false), present (true/false), has been paid (true/false), has paid (true/false), current chip stack, current chip rank, finish, number in spot, knockout count, additional starting stack
• Scoring/league attributes: Method points, manual points, league points, qualifying tournament count, qualified league rank, qualified for league ranking, unqualified league rank

The roster is sortable (by any attribute) and configurable with pre-defined views to show you the exact information you need to see at any point. You can also customize the view by selected the columns you desire and the order you wish to have them appear.

Player database: If you're tracking players in your tournament, then you'll have at least one player database. A database lets you centralize your player information so that you don't have to duplicate it in every tournament. Using a database also makes it easier to create a tournament...just add people to the roster from the database. All core/contact attributes on the roster are actually attributes of the player stored in the database.

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DrNTM offers many features to help you manage finances.

First, there's the collection of funds for the prize pool: Buy-ins, add-ons, rebuys optional bounties and side bets. For each of these, you specify the total cost, the amount that goes to the prize pool, the amount that goes to the house and the amount that goes to the league.

Next, you can specify a lump sum that's added to the pool, a fixed amount that extracted for the league and a fixed amount that's extracted for the house rake.

We know what we collected. We've deducted our rake and our league contributions. We've deducted our expenses.  We also know what we need to pay to the side bet winners (see the section on side bets for more on that.) Everything that's left over is our tournament prize pool.

The tournament prize pool is distributed via the payout schedule, and DrNTM offers very flexible payout schedules.

A payout schedule is divided into tiers (example, tier A might be 1 to 5 players, tier B 6 to 10 players, etc.) Tiers are typically based on number of buy-ins, but can also include number of add-ons and/or rebuys (if you want to pay more people due to having a high number of additional chip purchases.

For each tier you create, you decide how many spots get paid and how the payout is distributed among those spots. The number of spots paid can either be a fixed number or some percentage of the number of buy-ins. The distribution among those spots can then either be pre-defined or based on a formula.

The appropriate payout schedule is calculated automatically for you based on the model you've created, and updated as needed as the tournament progresses.

Once you create a payout schedule you like to use, you can save it as a reusable component so that you can import it into future tournaments.

A tournament has an associated cash flow report to show you exactly where all the money comes from and where it goes.  Each chip purchase, bounty and side bet provides detail on all incoming and outgoing funds. Finally, you can view a cash flow report for each individual player. 

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First, you enter your table names and sizes, ordering the tables in preference of breakdown. You can also specify the tables that are in the proximity of the software (more to come in a bit). BTW: You guessed it, table configurations can be saved as reusable components so that you don't have to do this for every tournament.

Once you're ready, seat a group of players.  You can either select their seats one at a time or seat them randomly. The random seating algorithm does the following for you:

• Ensures tables are balanced,
• Ensures that there is a clock operator seated near the software (if you desire), and
• Ensures that the game experts are spread out among the tables (if you desire).  This is a feature you can use if you are introducing a new type of game into your league and want to make sure that the people who know all the ins and outs are spread out.

Now that you have a seating chart, display it on the console for your players to see. This is one of the many types of console overlays. Seating can be displayed by table or by player, and you can select how many tables/players are visible at once. If there are more items to show than can fit on the screen at once, the overlay will rotate through the data.

As players are eliminated, you'll need to consider table balancing and consolidation. DrNTM will tell you when this is necessary and recommend the appropriate action.

If consolidation is required, the app will let you choose two options:

• Move the people from the breaking table and seat them randomly (you'd probably do this if you still had 5 tables), or
• Randomly reseat *everyone* (you might do this when down to 2 tables)

If balancing is required, the Table Balancing Wizard will automatically select the two appropriate tables and walk you through the process. It helps you with 5 possible courses of action:

• Replace the eliminated player,
• Move the next big blind,
• Move the button,
• Random, and
• Manual

Each option is explained completely right in the dialog so that anyone can do it.

Seating charts are periodically logged to the tournament history, for your future reference.

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 Each tournament has a "chip case". The chip case is used:

• To display the chips and their values on the console,
• By the chip distribution wizard to create an appropriate chip distribution,
• By the betting schedule to recommend the best times for chipping up,
• By the betting schedule wizard to create a betting schedule suited to your chip case, and
• By the chip distribution console overlay to display the initial chip distribution with chips and values

Each chip in the case is associated with a "chip design" that determines the way that chip looks when displayed on the console. DrNTM comes with 16 (and growing) core chip designs that you can use...or you can create your own using the chip design designer (and save it as a reusable component).

Note the chip values can also include numbers to the right of the decimal point...

Once you create a chip case you like to use, you can save it as a reusable component so that you can import it into future tournaments.

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DrNTM

For bounties, there are five different types of bounties you can create:

• Public Global: Everyone who enters the tournament is eligible for a reward, and everyone is a target.
• Public Targeted: Everyone who enters the tournament is eligible for a reward, but the bounty is only on the players specified by the bounty.
• Private Global: Players must buy into this bounty to participate. Everyone is a target.
• Private Targeted: Players must buy into this bounty to participate, and only specific players are targets.
• Private Group: Players buy into a "group" where only the participants are targets.

Every bounty type has options to specify where the entry fee goes, how players are rewarded, what types of knockouts count (first/last/all) and whether or not someone gets a bounty if nobody else knocks them out.

DrNTM also tracks other types of side bets. The following are included for you:

• Bad Beat: Generally the best losing hand of the tournament.
• Best Hand: The best hand of the tournament.
• Last Longer: Who lasts longest before being eliminated for the first time.
• Most Knockouts: Who knocks out the most people.
• Generic: Anything else you want to create a side bet around.

Each of the side bets can be public (everyone participates) or private (people must buy in to participate). Each has an associated payout plan if you want to pay multiple spots...like the top three best hands.

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Running a good tournament requires a lot of planning.  DrNTM can help there also.  Each tournament has a checklist that you can use to keep track of your progress on all the tasks involved in planning and running your tournament.

The checklist is divided in sections that can represent whatever you want (I suggest time periods, like "One Month Before the Tournament", "Morning of the Tournament", etc.)

Each section can have any number of tasks. Tasks can have supplementary help text (maybe details on how to complete the task). You can also take notes on a task it you need to.  Finally, tasks can be marked "complete" once you've performed them.

Once you create a checklist you like to use, you can save it as a reusable component so that you can import it into future tournaments.

Once the tournament is complete, you don't just want to know the end result...you want to know what happened along the way. DrNTM keeps a complete history of everything that happened...all buy-ins, add-ons, rebuys, eliminations, level changes, breaks, seating, chip stacks, etc.  Each item in the log is completely editable and tracks the level and time at which it occurred. I like to put the history on my league site for everyone to see.

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DrNTM offers three methods for assigning scores to players:

• Scoring formula: You create a formula that uses any combination of:
  • Numeric constants
  • Numeric formulas: absolute value, add, ceiling, divide, exponential, floor, maximum, minimum, multiply, natural log, power, round, square root and subtract
  • If/then/else statements
  • Boolean constants
  • Boolean formulas: "and", "or" and "not"
  • Numeric comparisons: =, !=, >, >=, < and  <=
  • Player variables: add-on count, add-on expense, bounty expense, bounty net gain, bounty revenue, buy-in expense, finish, knockout count, manual points, net gain, place revenue, primary expense, primary net gain, primary revenue, rebuy count, rebuy expense, secondary expense, secondary net gain, secondary revenue, side bet expense, side bet net gain, side bet revenue, total expense and total revenue.
  • Tournament variables: add-on count, add-on revenue, buy-in count, buy-in revenue, net prize pool, rebuy count, rebuy revenue and total revenue
• Scoring spreadsheet: You define the min/max of each tier and how many points each spot in each tier receives.
• Manual: You can just type their scores into the roster

Once you create a scoring method you like, you can save it as a reusable component and use it in other tournaments.

Scores are then rolled up into the league standings (if your tournament is part of a league.) Within a league, you can decide:

• Which tournaments count toward league rankings (for instance, you want your championship to be part of the league, but it shouldn't count toward rankings...or maybe it should...it's up to you)
• How scores are aggregated from all qualifying tournaments: Total or average
• How many of each players top scores to count...or to count all.
• Qualification criteria: Do players have to play in a certain number of tournaments to qualify?
• Excluded players: Do you need to exclude any players from the league standings for any reason?

Need to share your league standings? Click the report button to generate a league standings report. Print it or save it to PDF, HTML, Excel, CSV, RTF or a text file.

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League contributions are automatically rolled up from all league tournaments to calculate the league prize pool. From that, you can deduct league expenses (leagues have the same expense tracking capabilities as tournaments).

League standings can be displayed on the console via components or overlays so that everyone in your tournament knows exactly where they stand.

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You can create components that can be reused to minimize rework. For example, if you always use the same betting schedule, just create it once...then load it into every new tournament you create.  If you've modified it within a tournament, then save it back into the repository as a new component. The application takes advantage of the following types of components:

• Announcement Collections - An announcement collection is a set of announcements that you want make during a tournament (possibly notices about future tournaments, past results, etc.) These can be displayed in a rotating fashion *over* the console (typically before the tournament or during breaks) or via the scrolling announcement marquee during play.
• Audios - Audios are used by alerts to call attention to console. They can also be associate with players so that, for example, a player's theme song plays every time they eliminate someone.
• Betting Schedules - Most people call these "blind schedules", but those people don't play stud. Save your favorite betting schedules as components so that you can reuse them in future tournaments. See below for more detail on betting schedules.
• Checklists - A way to keep track of what needs to be done for each tournament. Just create a checklist and add it to each new tournament so that you don't forget to do something important.
• Chip Cases - If you're hosting tournaments, you probably have one or more chip cases. You might even use a friend's chip case from time to time. Save each configuration as a component for easy loading into new tournaments.
• Chip Designs - Chip and their values can be displayed on the console. If your chip isn't represented by one of the designs built into the tool, you can create your own (and then send it to me to include it in a future release)
• Console Dashboards - The dashboard is the collection of information the players see on the screen. You can create your own dashboards to use over and over. Tournaments can also use multiple dashboards. For example, you might have 5 different dashboards for a HORSE tournament.
• Console Themes - A console theme defines the dashboard, alert and announcement settings for a tournament, as well as what information from the various collections should be displayed and when. Rather than having to define the settings for each tournament, you just create a theme that has the settings you want, then tell the tournament which theme to use.
• Hand Nickname Collections - Purely for entertainment purposes. You can have the console display hands and their nicknames (usually before a tournament) to keep people entertained while they are waiting for the tournament to begin.
• Images - Images are used two ways: As images on the console, and as player avatars. The player avatars can be used for identification purposes, but for more fun they can be used to display a picture of the person on the console during an alert (for instance, display someone's picture when they are eliminated).
• Payout Schedules - Rather than redefining a payout schedule for each tournament, create components and reuse them.
• Player Databases - If you are tracking players in your tournament, those players are part of a database. That allows you to simply add players to your tournament roster from the database (or you can create them on the fly and add them to the database at buy-in time if needed.) Create as many player databases as you wish. See below for more detail on player databases.
• Quiz Question Collections - Again, for entertainment purposes. You can have the console display quiz questions and their answers (usually before a tournament) to keep people entertained while they are waiting for the tournament to begin.
• Quotation Collections - Again, for entertainment purposes. You can have the console display quotes and the name of the person who said that quote (usually before a tournament) to keep people entertained while they are waiting for the tournament to begin.
• Rule Collections - Like the other collections, but this one has a more important purpose. You can have the console display your tournament/league rules (usually before a tournament) for people to see while they are waiting for the tournament to begin.
• Scoring Methods - If you want to track performance using a scoring system, you can create your own scoring methods and save them as reusable components...then just tell each tournament which scoring method to use.
• Table Configurations - Rather than naming, sizing and ordering tables for each tournament, just create reusable components and load them up at tournament creation time.
• Terminology Collections - Again, for entertainment purposes. You can have the console display terms and their definitions (usually before a tournament...and you'd probably limit it to poker terminology) to keep people entertained while they are waiting for the tournament to begin.
• Trivia Collections - Again, for entertainment purposes. You can have the console display bits of trivia to keep people entertained while they are waiting for the tournament to begin.

Utilizing components makes the creation of a new tournament a snap.

As stated at the top of this page, all data used by DrNTM lives inside a repository. The repository is just a directory structure, but the fact that everything is in single directory makes it simple to move it to a new location on your file system, copy it to another system, zip it up and email it to a friend, or even zip the whole thing up and email it to Dr. Neau for debugging if necessary.

When you start the application, it remembers the location of the last repository you used.  If you moved it or want to use a different one, you just point to it and hit "OK".

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• Traditional-Standard: This type lets you take advantage of all of the features above. This type of tournament is great for:
  • Home or bar leagues where you need to track every player and every finish because points are awarded all the way down to the first person out
  • Home tournaments where you want to track the complete history of everything that happened
• Traditional-Simple: This is a stripped-down tournament.  It does not have an associated player database. Rather than buying players in, you simply denote how many buy-ins (or add-ons or rebuys) you have. Rather than eliminating players, you simply change the number of remaining players.  Because you aren't tracking players, there is no tracking of bounties or side bets. You still define chip purchase options the same way. You still have all the same capabilities for the betting schedule management, chip case management, payouts, expenses, checklist.  You even get a scoring calculator where you can enter parameters to calculate a score.  You just don't track players. Note that even though you aren't tracking players from a database, you can still enter player names in the standings for recordkeeping and display on the console. This type of tournament is great for:
  • Any tournament (home/bar/casino) where you don't really care about tracking all the players but still want a quality tournament management system to do everything else.
• Shootout-Standard: Like a Traditional-Standard, but with special help for planning and managing a shootout.
• Shootout-Simple: Like a Traditional-Simple, but with special help for planning and managing a shootout.
• Bracketed Heads-Up Standard: Players participate in a heads-up bracketed tournament, just like the NBC Heads-Up Challenge. The application manages everything you need from player seeding, bracket creation (single or double-elimination...triple and quadruple coming soon), recording match results, etc.  No more relying on printed out brackets.  Display the updated bracket on the console!
• Round-Robin Heads-Up Standard: Players participate in a heads-up round-robin tournament.  The player with the best record wins. Normally, you'll have everyone play everyone, but partial structures are allowed also.  The application provides a wizard to create the match structure, manage and track results, etc.  Matchups are displayed on the console.
• Round-Robin Heads-Up Fixed-Elimination Standard: Just like a Round-Robin Heads-Up, except that players are eliminated after a defined number of losses.
• Sit-and-Go Series Standard: A series of "sit-and-go" multi-player matches.  Players are awarded points for their finish in each match.  The player with the most points at the end of the tournament wins.  The application provides a wizard to create the match structure, manage and track results, etc. Matchups are displayed on the console.
• Sit-and-Go Series Rising Water Standard: Just like a Sit-and-Go Series, except that each round has a minimum point threshold that players must reach in order to continue playing.

• Complex: If we eventually get there.  Could be a multi-stage tournament with a freeze-out followed by a seeded bracket, or whatever you want it to be.

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Included in the application you'll find a hand timer for putting people on the clock. You'll also find full-featured odds calculators for Hold'em and Omaha (Omaha 8/b coming soon). In addition to simply getting odds on live hands, the odds calculators also let you denote hands and cards that you know are dead so that they aren't included in the odds calculation.

Each of these tools are executable from the server or the client.

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• Print
• Save as PDF
• Export to Excel
• Export to RTF
• Export to HTML
• Export to CSV
• Save as a text file

If you have a league website, you may be able to take advantage of these reports to quickly get data onto your site.

If you use sites like PokerDIY or StatsGenie, you can export an entire tournament in a format that those sites can import.

First, the application has built-in help utilizing the Java Help System. That means that you're getting a full-featured, structured help system with a table of contents, searching, indexing and printing. The help system will eventually provide detail on every entity, every panel and every dialog as well as providing tool mentors. Now it's just up to Dr. Neau to make the content as robust and helpful as possible.

Second, many of the more involved operations have wizards to walk you through them...such tournament creation.  Wizards tell you exactly what you need to do when you need to do it.

Third, Dr. Neau provides provides videos on drneau.com that demonstrate and discuss the various uses of the application.

Finally, there's the forum...a great place to pose question and get the answered...not only by Dr. Neau, but by other users.

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