Poker Tournament Manager Review

www.pokertournamentmanager.com

Poker Tournament Manager (PTM) is a full-featured poker clock and poker tournament management system. Even though it is full-featured, it is also one of the easier poker clocks to use. The program has excellent data entry screens that walk you through the steps needed to set up your poker tournament from start to finish. It will assist you with chip distribution and calculate a blinds schedule for you. There is even a free PTM website where you can post the results of your tournaments and email your players all from within the PTM program.

Installation

Installation couldn't have been easier, simply download, unzip and install.

Timer Screen Configuration

The timer screen is rather bland but does an adequate job. You can adjust the background colors but not much else. You cannot adjust the size or position of the timer digits. There is a preset 'basic' screen that shows nothing but a large timer, blinds, and chips. A color chart is shown on the timer screen. Ten different chip colors are allowed.

The timer screen can be set to alternate with other screens of your choosing. The payout, average stack, total payout, and several other pieces of information can be show on the alternate screens. You can even add a screen displaying tournament-specific rules. You can also add screens with photos, advertising, and messages.

Tournament Setup

Poker Tournament Manager makes it very easy to setup your tournament. The program walks you through the setup process, one screen after another - what type of game, the buyin, the chips, the blinds, the payout, etc.. With some of the other clocks reviewed here, you open the program and think to yourself "Okay, now what?" but with Poker Tournament Manager, you are walked through the process step-by-step. This is an excellent feature that almost all the other clocks lack.

After you have entered all the data for your tournament, you can print out a checklist that includes the total number of chips needed and how many chips to issue to each player. The suggested chip distribution for a 16-player tournament with 1000 chips was the same as one recommended on my site (15/13/6).

You then enter the data for the players and optionally seat them automatically.

Suggested Blinds

The suggested blinds schedules were pretty good. There seems to be a handful of basic schedules that are used depending on the starting chip amount. The suggested blinds did not have weird amounts and progressed nicely.

Payouts

The payout screen is easy to use. It allows fixed and percentage payouts and rounds to the nearest user-selected dollar amount.

Seating & Moving Players

There is an excellent system for moving players. You can move player manually or automatically. Players who have already been moved are highlighted. The program will automatically notify you when the tables need to be balanced. You can also manually reduce tables.

You can easily eliminate or rebuy/add-on players by clicking the player name on the timer screen.

League Stats

There is a very convenient email system. You can broadcast an email to all, or some, of your players about tournament results or upcoming games, etc. You can easily export tournament and individual player (email addresses, etc.) information.

You can post your tournament results on a free PTM web page from within the program. You can then email the link to your players to let them know about the tournament results being posted.

Help & Support

There is an excellent help button available at the bottom of the screen. It is one of the better help systems that I reviewed. There is a very good web page with a good FAQ.

Cost

The cost of The Poker Tournament Manager is $49.95. The deluxe edition is $79.95 and includes the Tournament Assistant and league tracking capabilities. I tested the deluxe edition for this review.

Overall

The Poker Tournament Manager is full-featured but is one of the easiest-to-use programs reviewed here. The data input screens are well thought out and follow a logical progression that makes setting up your tournament a very easy task. You can then easily post your tournament results to a free web page and email the link to all your players. Poker Tournament Manager is a simple-to-use but elegant program.

Poker Tournament Manager

www.pokertournamentmanager.com

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