I run a weekly homegame tourney and it really isn't that tough. There are a few things to consider to be successful (in my experience):

1 - I live in a small town, even here poker is growing but it is not yet huge. If people want to play poker, they come to my place on Saturday. No invite required. That said we average between 12 and 15 players normally for our tournaments. However that number is growing along with the interest.

2 - With that many players, our tournaments are running about 5-6 hours. This works perfect for us, it means people still have enough energy to get some side cash games going after they get knocked out.

3 - We run a $20+5 buy-in tourney with the +5 going to a high hand jackpot. Unlimited $20 rebuys (conditional) for the first 3 rounds with a $20 add-on after round 3. That said buy-ins for people range from $40 to as high as $200. We have seen some maniacs hit $360.

4 - We play No-Limit Hold'em. Initial stack of T1000, rebuys are T1000 and add-on is T2000. If a rebuy tournament is not your thing, I would recommend starting with atleast T5000. People like having stacks of chips infront of them.

5 - Format is a basic Tex's Tears Format. 30 minute rounds.

6 - We pay the top 3. Payout is 50%, 30%, 20%. We will consider paying more once we start getting 15+.

7 - Supplies: Chips - 300 white (25), 300 Red (100), 100 blue (500), 50 Black (1000) 25 Green (2000). 1 table per 8-10 people (depending on table size). 2 decks of cards per table (I recommend KEMS). A laptop running tournament management software (I use Poker Tournament Manager from Hammond Software and love it). A proper place to hold the cash. Munchies, drinks and a smoking room.

Lessons learned:

- Have your buyins and rebuys all stacked out and waiting for quick and easy access. Only one person should handle money and chips. We normally have a non-poker playing (GASP) friend do that for us. She does great and has everything taken care of and recorded by the end of the first break.

- We do not use dealers at the start of the tourney, but normally have someone dealing the "final table". This person is normally one of the participants who takes the job. First and second place will normally throw this person some of their prize money.

- Find a good set of rules and have them in place before the tournament. These will come in handy in the case of disagreements. If you want a baseline send me a message and I can e-mail my rules, shamelessly stolen from Casino Regina's tourney rules.

- Make sure it stays friendly and fun. Remind your season pros that nurturing the fish keeps them coming back.

- I can have a tournament up and running on about 10 minutes notice. It really isn't hard to do once one has a system in place.

- And as a side note, last Saturday, with 14 players, first place took home $940.00. Not too shabby a prize pool.

Good luck.

Mike