windbreaker

Things to improve the poker tournaments:

- The rake, I don't understand why the rake is proportionally higher when the buy in is bigger.

- The small room on the other side of the casino is not suitable for poker. It gets way too hot when the tables are close to full.

- At the start, I can see why it's 10 handed, but later on they should reduce the number of players/table...9 as fast as possible...then 8 later on. This will let tournaments end faster as there's more hands dealt/hour, less ppl waiting for guys tanking, and more players busting.

- Structures. This point, I don't think will go anywhere, but the structures are poorly designed. There is so many insignificant pots early in the tournaments. I have no idea how we come up with 17k as a starting stack, with 25-50 starting blinds.
A) 17k? Can we come up with an more odd number to start with?
B) Why are we playing 340 bbs deep stacks to start and then ruin the structure later on by skipping levels like 250/500, 600-1200, etc? If you take a big overview of how you want ppl to ideally bust out from a tournament....it should be a slow start, then a plateau until we have a winner. The way the current structures are set up, very few busts for the longest time...then a ton bust all at once, then gradual again (after blinds roll back), then another burst of players busting. Players want to have more play when there's more money involved.
C) I totally disagree with rolling back the blinds. Yes this gives more plays, but it illustrates an issue with the initial structure that you even have to do this. Fix the structure and you won't have this unnecessary need to roll back blinds. I see the problem with multiple starting day 1's, but once you reach a certain level on day 1...freeze the blinds until you reach the quota.

Easy fix is to lower starting stack to 10k, 30-40 minute blinds, and add in a bunch of missing levels.

- Starting times for the $560. Assuming the structures are as they currently are, the Thursday night starting time should actually begin earlier (like 4pm)...and allow late registration longer. Since the starting stack is so high, it's not vital for players to come on time. People that work can come out of work...go to the casino, eat dinner, then play with a decent stack. On the Friday night, probably could start an hour later or so...to let people come off work and still play (by extending the late reg).

Actual play:

- Dealers, for most part they do a good job. Things that I would stress to dealers:

A) They should never discuss any poker hands/players.
B) When a player puts in a bet/raise, they should NOT cut out/announce the bet amount unless it's unclear if the bet was a valid raise, someone asks for a count, or the initial bettor/raiser verbally announces the bet. When dealers cut out/announce bets amount they can unintentionally affect the pending action.
C) Some need to pay more attention to the action
D) When antes come into play, when players aren't proactive; just announce Ante Up while you're cutting your cards/dealing...do it every hand till you don't have to.

Also saw a floor make an incorrect ruling. Probably should brush up on the TDA rules.

- Also have a concern regarding total chips in play. 107 entries for Day 1A of the $560. 107 players * 17000 starting stack/player = 1.819 M total chips. The end of day chip count is listed at 1.8486 M. Means we have an extra 29.6k chips after day 1A. Color ups really can't account for such a large difference.

- Looks like day 1B had a difference of 12.3k.

Would be nice to have an explanation.

livepokeredmontonftw

good tourny analysis, i hope Joanne sees it
btw a representative from playerspokercanada is going to be at casino edmonton today just incase anyone has any questions about his site.

Xiph0id

Jut checked out the website.
It's kinda neat.
How does the table status get updated?

jontm

Good friend owns the site. The casinos are given admin priv obv, but during development the plan was to just rebuild the "brushes" software that almost every card room uses, so that it just streams out as they update their own boards. Not sure if that happened or not.

He is also the former manager of operations for CPT and the brains behind any and all of the GOOD ideas they ever had. He managed 2 of the rooms in Calgary in past, has designed half the well Recieved structures out there (he can hit his players left at what hour marks with very good accuracy) and like windbreaker pointed out, his formats always leave players busting faster near beginning and leaving the final table with plenty of play.

We can easily direct Joanne to this thread, but believe me she hears it. Right now, the venues are looking for a balance and one result of his series is ha he re-entry rule is prob going into the trash. I am sure she hates the reg fees on this but also has bosses of her own to answer too... There seems to be more and more of a spread between players these days, many want BI's bigger but it hurts the amount recreational players that participate, so they need to make it up, IMO. Better value down south? No doubt, but still normal rake for Alberta

76 for the 2k-pretty consistent with all but Fallsview and BCPC. Playground got 70 foreir 3k when Vekked played. The 1500's usually see 115-145ish I think, so for January so close to PCA, not a fail by any means. 50k to first

They could definetly adjust these structures and stacks, to put play at end, will make sure she looks at it when I get results Monday. You wouldnt see any extra play time wise, just more at the money.