For Sale
January 23, 2010
2 x WSoP Bracelets, diamond encrusted 14 karat gold!
It seems that the cookie man TJ Cloutier may well be struggling this year as a Pawn broker is advertising 2 of Cloutiers bracelets on ebay, sparking rumours that the great man is busto. Looks like the original owner has already received his cash and Plano Pawn Brokers are now offloading them.
Starting price was $2999 but after 3 bids one is already at $3,500 and with provenance from TJ Cloutier (a letter saying when, where and how it was won) the bracelet is expected to fetch over the $7k mark although if the new buyer wears it he will automatically be assumed a charlatan, unless PH buys it to make his total 12 
It is not unusual to see these bracelets in Las Vegas pawn shops, but historically it is only when the owners are on a bit of a downswing, quite rare to see them on ebay though.
I am still on the lookout for Isildur’s computer on the auction site, no sign yet.
Ivey’s Xmas
December 30, 2009
So what do you get a man for Christmas who has everything ………. A Divorce?
Seriously though, who gives a fig? But as other sites seem to be reporting on Phil Ivey’s marriage break up, I suppose we can use this news in the gossip section
What is more interesting to me is that Luciaetta and Phil Ivey filed for divorce on the 22nd December and it was finalized yesterday (29th December)!! One week over a Christmas Holiday! My Divorce took 4 months FFS maybe America does lead the way in some fields. Marriage and divorce possible in a week … wow!
So yet again the similarity between the poker legend and the Golf legend Tiger Woods runs on a par, but there is one thing that makes Phil Ivey a proper God, he can travel through time.
Have a look at this Video 18 seconds in and see the time lord singing along with Bob Marley in 1979 to the rather aptly named tune of No Woman No Cry
At least he can get on with the serious business of playing some poker now, and learn how to multi table properly for when Isildur builds his roll back up
20/20 With Bells
December 27, 2009
After the Monte Carlo Event and side events taking up the third weekend in December, the 20/20 event at DTD started today with the second event tomorrow (Bank Holiday Monday). Just to remind you all what the 20/20 weekend is all about; It is a £100 one day event 10,000 chips and a 30 minute clock that is mirrored on the following day.
This months seems to be more popular as people have been deprived of poker for the last 3 days in the East Midlands. The event is capped at 270 and this afternoon saw 14 alternates being lucky enough to get in making the total 284 players. This means the top prize is over 85 x the entry money!!
Tomorrow sees the poker prodigy Squirmy hitting the Nottingham Poker Mecca, and I am predicting that a final table at the very least for one of pokers good guys. To be eligible to play this you need to get down there ASAP as the demand for this game is ridiculous, it kicks off at 2pm, and will probably be full at 1.30. All the best to those that play and I will see you there (if I haven’t been sacked )
Poker Related Gifts
December 27, 2009
Come on then ….. who’s got what?
MP3 players, Chip Guards, Sunglasses (in winter), iPod’s/iphones, Chip Sets, Tables, Apparel ……. what was in your stocking?
Review your gifts in the comment box in the bottom, personally I had nothing (thank you, I have a life now) but I do own an iphone and my son had an ipod touch for one of his pressies off Santa, which leads me to applications.
Not content with just sitting at a live venue receiving cards from a live dealer and playing live players, I can also use my iphone to play virtual poker in between hands. The 2 Poker Applications I use for this are Zynga (facebook) Poker (free to $89!!! lol) and WSOP ($2.99)
Zynga Poker is a good platform to play other players on facebook but the play is dreadful, and there is a glitch in their software, if you have a decent hand always raise just under the lowest chip stack as more often than not, they will move all-in (even if they have 1 point more than you it reopens the betting). This is all about proving to your poker friends that you are better than them, what it is actually about is proving to your poker friends that you are skint and need to play poker so play money will do (he says chirpilly as he is number one in his friends list at the mo).
WSOP is simply a game with virtual opponents that allows you to win Virtual Bracelets, although you do have the ability to play a person heads up via bluetooth. You can play one of 25 events and the live video is impressive but still has limited appeal. The advantage of this app is that you can still listen to your tunes (which is what it is meant for anyway lol).
As a TD I have experimented with Poker clocks and orchestrated home games using a number of apps some costing $11.99 and a few free ones, they all do the same job, don’t waste your money on these!!!
There are also Hand History Tools, Poker Notes, Poker Calculators, ICM Deal makers, how seriously can a poker player do without one of these gadgets?
Post Away!
Very Full On Tilt
December 26, 2009
It used to be that to experience safe online poker the only places that was assured was either PokerStars or Full Tilt as both their customer services were second to none.
It seems that now PokerStars are on their own in safe sites (although I am sure something will come to light in the future as it does seem that there are rules for one that differ from others, no matter where you play). The reason I am stating this is because Full Tilt have allowed something that has a very small penalty for their pro’s but an instant ban for us grinders. What am I referring too? ……. Brian Hastings and the $4 million that was hustled from the phenomenon of Isildur1 as he colluded with Cole South over the transfer of hand histories against the mystery man Isildur1. His punishment for this is a one months suspension of Red Pro Status ………… FOR FOUR MILLION BUCKS!!! Seems fair.
Hastings stated that; “Cole S and myself never colluded. Collusion is nearly impossible HU but there was always one person playing and never any ghosting occurring. In fact the only person to break the T&C of FullTilt Poker was myself. I had about 20k hands of play on Isildur and I acquired another 30k hands. This is against the T&C of FullTilt Poker and because of this violation I am going to have my red pro status suspended for one month.”
Joe Blogg’s gets a lifetime ban from the site for sharing information to win a $5 STT but for Mr Hastings who earned $646,908.64 per hour for 5 hours and gets paid by the site in question it is seen as trivial.
YOU CHEATED MR HASTINGS!!
Tie The Internet Down Sport
December 17, 2009
The Australian federal government has voted to implement compulsory internet filtering to block overseas content that they deem might be harmful to the nation’s youth.
The act which will be introduced in the next session of the Australian parliament and is primarily aimed at blocking perverted, obscene and illegal information contained a list of URL’s that surprisingly contained almost every single major poker site.
Although its believed most ISP’s won’t implement the ban on gambling sites the government is offering them grants to do so and along with plans to spend $125.8 million over four years on several measures to strengthen cyber safety, including the filter one wonders what the long term future for Australian poker players looks like.
ABC news story here:
Tonight’s Poker Million Priced Up!
December 4, 2009
The Full Tilt Sponsored 2009 Poker Million is live on SKY tonight from 8pm. If you fancy having an interest in the outcome then BlueSq.Com have priced it up as follows; Starting Chip counts in brackets,
Luke Schwartz (397K) 2/1
James Akenhead (338K) 9/4
Taylor Caby (202K) 5/1
Dag Martin Mikkelsen (160K) 6/1
Juha Helppi (149K) 7/1
Peter Vasiliou (154K) 10/1
Personally I hoping that free roll qualifier Peter Vasiliou, a fellow Black Belt Poker member can continue the storming record of free rollers in this event and take it down
32 Red Freeroll – Tonight
November 29, 2009
Popular online card room 32 Red are setting up there customers for a Merry Christmas by giving away a rather Jolly $3,232 for anyone who can conquer the other Christmas free rollers looking for some super free cash.
The freeroll will take place on the site at 6pm tonight (29th) and is a No limit Texas hold’em tournament with no eligibility requirements. The tournament is password protected though please see below for details;
PASSWORD: 32nov09
32 Red will also we celebrating the GUKPT grand final appearance of sponsored pro Stu Rutter, although he busted out 9th this is another excellent performance from Rutter who also made last years final table.
Poker Schedule Rumours
November 16, 2009
And I stress rumours as nothing has been confirmed as of yet, but if you goto Dusk Till Dawns website they indicate a 3rd regular monthly weekend special to compliment the Deepstack weekend and the 20twenty weekend. It has been suggested that this weekend (most probably the 2nd weekend of the month) will be set aside for the lower stakes as an introduction to long clocks at a very affordable price. I have heard that it maybe called the Super Fifty weekend, which is in essence the same structure and clock as the 20twenty but at the lower buy in of £50. So 2 £50 comps on Saturday and Sunday respectively both with 10,000 chips on a 30 minute clock (it is also rumoured to have a £10,000 guarantee), but I must stress that at the moment this is speculation.
Another schedule change maybe seen in the UKIPT (pokerstars new tour) as previously it was advertised as 30,000 chips on a 60 minute clock. This would be the same structure as the Main Events at an EPT but this comp usually spans 5 days. As the UKIPT Main Events are scheduled over 3 days they may have re-evaluated the schedule as their website has taken down the original structure to a simple page that states the schedule is now TBC. Which would make sense if each day 1 is capped at 300 runners as the competition would never finish in time, but I would have thought that with PokerStars experience this would have been finalized before the Tour announced.
Isildur rolls on
November 15, 2009
A
fter our recent pieces regarding the unknown phenomenon, Isidlur1 and his ongoing battle with Tom Dwan which hopefully will continue live in London next week, it appears that the mystery man has no intention of slowing down any time soon.
After taking Dwan for over $3 million in the last week alone it seems Dwan gave Isildur1 a swerve last night on the Full Tilt nosebleeds, although the poker pimpernel still had plenty of other well know names willing to take a shot.
In a ‘who’s who’ of online poker, Isildur1 faced up against Brian Townsend, Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius and Phil Galfond at stakes ranging from 200/400 to 500/1000. Townsend was first up, and performed best of all, taking Isildur for over $300k over around 1,300 hands. Following this, the unknown player took Galfond for around 160k had a brief session with Ivey, winning a marginal 22k before really tearing into Antonius over various stakes and Heads Up formats, eventually taking him for almost $700,000.
Meanwhile, as Isildur1 was finishing his evening around $567k up, Dwan’s doomswitch appeared to remain fully on. He spent most of his time playing Heads Up against Djadi and Ziigmund, eventually leaving the tables $380k down.
This story looks set to run and run; we’re just hoping that the unknown Swede takes up Dwan’s challenge recently reported here, and faces the American live, right here in the UK.
Lancing a Boyle
November 15, 2009
Nice thread going on over at The Hendon Mob Forum, Cliff notes are that a high volume Boylespoker.Com player found himself miles clear in a volume race on the site. Having wrapped up first place and the $1,000 cash and seat in a special live sit and go by some margin with a couple of days to spare he is alleged to have asked a friend to set up an account on Boyle’s so he could take another position on the volume table before the promotion closed.
The alleged second account took 3rd place and $600 but when the player attempted to withdraw the money from both accounts, Boyles refused to process the payments until after they had concluded an investigation, as this point the alleged cheat, a forum poster named Overated decided to start this thread on The Hendon Mob Forum, HERE.
It’s a long thread but worth a read, although the poker site Boyle’s and the network I-Poker appear to be acting responsibly and have not gained from the confiscation of funds, they has redistributed to those players who would have made the payout ladder. I believe it does again highlight the unregulated nature of online poker and the lack of structured appeal for players who find themselves in dispute with online rooms, there is a clear need for an independent ombudsman who could arbitrate and make decisions over the myriad of conflicts arsing from the online game.
Bingo,Bango Hall of Famo For Sexton
November 10, 2009
Mike Sexton was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame on Saturday evening with a host of the biggest names in the game lining up to heap praise on a true ambassador of the game. Mike who represents the online site http://www.partypoker.com/ and commentates for their new acquisition, the World Poker Tour is famed for his catch phrase ‘Bingo, Bango, Bongo’ often uttered during big hands said “For PartyGaming and the World Poker Tour to come together is like a dream come true for me,”
After the ceremony Doyle Brunson said,: “Mike Sexton is the greatest ambassador poker has ever had.” And fellow hall of famer TJ Cloutier had more praise to add saying “Mike Sexton was a shoo-in in my eyes and we’re delighted to welcome him into the Hall of Fame.” Which is very nice of him.
Poker Mill Running Slow
November 10, 2009
Well I am confused at the moment as I don’t know whether it is slowing down or the number of bigger comps is increasing. First off we see Broadway nowhere near hitting their guarantee (and the fiasco that took place there), RPO festival was a big flop, and DTD (although making the guarantee) has seen it’s worse figures for the £300 deepstack event. This month there was only 280 players in the £300 at DTD compared with 316 in October, 339 in September and 385 in August. It is still in my opinion the best regular competition in the country, but could be worrying as we are now in the height of the poker season. It could be attributed to other events held at the same time i.e. Broadways ME, GUKPT week, Amsterdam Master Classics, Mini WSOP (Ireland) and the Sky Poker Tour. It was still a great success however with the side events on Saturday, every table in the club was being used, and each table was dealer dealt. The result of the £300 is as follows;
1 Alex Bowler £25,984
2 India Storrar £15,191
3 Craig Young £9,114
4 Craig Betteridge £6,396
5 Wai Kei Liu £4,797
6 Patrick Murray £3,598
7 Steven Brennan £2,798
8 Gary Edgley £1,999
9 Mark Phillips £1,599
10 Guy Johnson £1,119
11 Paul Bowser £1,119
12 Adrian Ko £1,119
13 Sebastian Forrest £1,119
14 Mark Norman £800
15 Tim Blake £800
16 Emil Mitev £800
17 Kaleem Hussain £800
18 Neil Blatchly £800
19 Christos Kyprianou £450
20 Andrew Beardmore £450
21 Rab Bain £450
22 David Cooke £450
23 David Cooney £450
24 Sean Blom £450
25 Douglas Gunn £450
26 Stephen Okeeffe £450
27 Alli Mallu £450
The £150 event on the Sunday was still a success with 207 players doing battle on the baize, result as follows;
1 Pakken Yung £10,091
2 Nigel Allen £5,900
3 Gemal Husnu £3,540
4 Mark Ruffle £2,484
5 Simon Bird £1,863
6 Yew Loo £1,397
7 Xiaoguang Zhou £1,087
8 Constantine Paparestis £776
9 James Hoyes £621
10 Ryan Hunnicutt £435
11 Assaf Hussain £435
12 Paul David £435
13 Callum Wright £435
14 Karl Snow £311
15 Peter Renkel £311
16 Craig Stewart £311
17 Sayyad Shah £311
18 Wayne Smith £311
Strangely the buzz around DTD this weekend was the story at the Broadway casino and the talk of many of them was to boycott the cardroom, every table was talking about it and the smoking area was lit up with same conversation. It just goes to show that not all publicity is good publicity and that once a player gets their teeth into something their disdain spreads like wildfire.
Broadway Drop A Clanger
November 7, 2009
It is that time of month again, in my opinion the best regular comp in the UK is on “The DTD Deepstack Weekend”. Some people were saying that because of the Broadway’s festival being so close and overlapping that the numbers for this maybe low, and it does seem that the online entries are lower than normal. I doubt very much if the £100,000 guaranteed at the Broadway will have effected the numbers however, as the turnout was very low there (Maybe Blackpools GUKPT week will have an effect, we will see at the end of the day).
Anyway, back to Broadway’s clanger! And I must stress that at the moment it is unconfirmed and second hand information from the blonde forum and facebook.
It appears that the turnout was very low for this Main Event, 33 runners for day 1a and at the designated kick off time of 7pm for day 1b only 27 people had entered. This meant that potentially the Broadway was looking at an overlay of £40,000! This is not the story though, in an attempt to boost numbers and an attempt to cut its loss, the Broadway foolishly decided to enter more players for free, with those players entered playing for 10% of whatever they win!!!!! The start time was held back for over an hour whilst the Broadway organised this. In this period some players got to hear about the Broadways plans and a near riot ensued. Some players that had stumped up the £1000 entry withdrew in protest even though their was still added value, fair play to them as well (as this could then set a precedent for future guaranteed comps).
I am led to believe that during the furore the Broadway backtracked and called all those registered by the casino back to withdraw from the comp (still to be confirmed). Eventually 43 players were confirmed as playing day 1b making the total overlay of £24k (which in other circumstances would be a great story and great publicity for the club).
Instead of being a positive story about a massive overlay, we now are seeing the negative side. The publicity of this “Would be” great event has been very poor, coupled with sharing dates with DTD’s £80k guarantee and Blackpools GUKPT week, this was set for disaster. If the above is true (which I am 95% certain) then this could be the last Guaranteed festival at the Broadway, it may even have hurt the Broadway that much that poker players will boycott the cardroom. This would be a great shame as Broadways cardroom in my opinion is in the top 5 cardrooms in the country.
Poker Bloggers Aid
November 7, 2009
Do you have an ipod or iphone? Are you constantly trying to remember key hands and nipping off to jot down the details, better still are you wanting to analyse regular opponents plays? This is all easy in online play but quite difficult in a live cardroom. There is a free application in itunes which, I must say will be a bloggers dream. It is not just easy to write down who does what where, but it will upload straight to your blog which means no more trawling and entering data into a hand history converter.
I have used an example from a heat in Late Night Poker where Dave Colcough slow plays his aces against Ram Vaswani and Andrew Fieldman, but have changed the names I have just quickly typed in the data and realise it is all ballsed up but it is just a demo at how it looks
Check this baby out and it’s demo videos to see how easy it is to use. http://www.holdemhandhistory.com/
Better example
I can see this application will have many uses and have an idea for something in the future that will become apparent, just a few minor tweaks and this could be fantastic for ukpokerinfo.
Live Omaha?
November 4, 2009
It amazes me how Omaha is not very popular live, for those that know me I make no bones that hold’em bores the living daylights out of me. In every casino that I have worked at there has always been pressure to add an Omaha competition, and I have added them due to demand, but they never seem to get the numbers? Even the big tours used to sneak an omaha comp in somewhere to break the monotony of hold’em. It seemed the natural successor to hold’em as people progressed in their poker playing ability, especially seeing how popular it was getting on the internet.
Round of each games were designed to get hold’em players to have a taster at Omaha (hopefully leading them to an omaha cash game). Yet again the figures for these type of comps are always on the low side. It is bizarre that every round of each cash game inevitably leads to all players at some stage asking to make it Omaha only.
When DTD announced an Omaha and a round of each comp on their weekly schedule I was hopeful that if any cardroom can break the Omaha boundary then DTD would be the place it would work ……. Alas no, after 5 weeks of poor numbers since its inception DTD are now re jigging their weekly schedule yet again. It now looks as follows;
The Shulman Show
October 27, 2009
What is it with successful poker players? Normal individuals who are usually rational human beings have a taste of success and somehow it goes straight to their head. The mildest mannered man after a smidgen of the limelight somehow turns into Dr Jackal for no apparent reason.
The CEO of Cardplayer Magazine and recent winner of the World Series of Poker Europe apparently gave an unsuspecting female player who had just been knocked out of the $550 MTT at Caesars Palace, the mother of all rubdowns. A two plus two’er apparently defended the woman by saying that she had 3-1 equity for calling but Shulman insisted that she played terribly. Another player also said the play was correct when the new bracelet winner exclaimed “oh ok hahaha, you have no chance to win this tournament, that was a horrible, awful call”. He then turned to the 2+2 forum member and said ” You’re wrong, believe me, you dont need to teach me how to play poker. If you think thats the right play you’re awful and you have no chance to win a tournament.” Whether Shulman was right or wrong, this is not the behavior that is becoming of a ME winner.
To top his behavior issues off, later on in the same tournament Shulman ripped into a female dealer by saying that she had already cut the cards to which the dealer (backed up by the rest of the table) insisted that she didn’t. Angered by the dealers comments Shulman exploded, “Yeah I know exactly what you did, you’re just a fuckin lazy ass, This is what they take extra money out of our prizepool for to pay fuckin shitty lazy ass dealers”.
Bravo old man Shulman, hope your son is a better ambassador!!
Hi Lo Sweet Chariot
October 23, 2009
The internet poker giant, PokerStars has now broke through the UK sports barrier at a great rate of knots, by becoming one of a number of sponsors for the England Rugby Team joining the likes of O2, Emirate Airlines, EDF, Nike, Greenflag and Land Rover. Their advertisements will be seen a lot more in the sporting arenas around the globe as not only will they be sponsors of Basketball, Hockey, and Football teams, but they will be one of the major rugby stadiums biggest revenue earners.
So now your match day tickets can be won online, along with signed merchandise and VIP Packages etc. If you would like to train with England squad at Pennyhill Park etc, packages will be available, it is a bit late for the first competition that gives you this prize, but their are many more on offer and the competitions are exclusive to United Kingdom and Ireland players. Most are low buy-ins and there are a few freerolls to get everyone into the spirit of it. I must say from personal preference, it is better than the Man U package that CircusPoker are offering
England Rugby Challenge Freeroll Qualifier Free Daily, October 7 – November 13 19:30 UK Time (14:30 ET) 9 seats to the next England Rugby Challenge $22 Final
England Rugby Challenge $2.20 Qualifier $2.20 Daily, October 7 – November 13 20:00 UK Time (15:00 ET) One seat to the next $22 Final for every $22 in the prize pool
England Rugby Challenge $22 Final (Team Training) $22 October 17 20:00 UK Time (15:00 ET) 1 pair of tickets to watch England team train on October 27
England Rugby Challenge $22 Final (England v Australia) $22 October 31 20:00 UK Time (15:00 ET) 10 pairs of tickets to England v Australia
England Rugby Challenge $22 Final (England v Argentina) $22 November 7 20:00 UK Time (15:00 ET) 10 pairs of tickets to England v Argentina
England Rugby Challenge VIP Final (England v New Zealand) $22, SilverStar VIP and above November 11 20:00 UK Time (15:00 ET) 4 pairs of hospitality tickets to England v New Zealand
England Rugby Challenge $22 Final (England v New Zealand) $22 November 14 20:00 UK Time (15:00 ET) 10 pairs of tickets to England v New Zealand
It seems poker is trying to make more of a surge into the sporting markets now, previously it was mainly the sites with affiliated Bookmakers that I presumed were trying to attract sports bettors more than anything. Is poker now taking over the world
Will we see the Premiership being swamped with online poker sites, I know a few have already broke into Football sponsorship in the UK, but with season tickets being so expensive now, do you think it will be less expensive to win them now;)
Poker Rules Once Again
October 20, 2009
It has come to my attention that every poker forum you go now has ruling questions, these are usually followed by more ruling questions once members get in to the swing of things. These can be basic rule questions or highly detailed in depth grey area rulings. 20 years ago there was no such thing as poker forums or even internet poker, therefore when a ruling was questioned it was the TD who hopefully made the right decisions to the best of his ability, localised rules were however inevitable.
These localised rules are now what is making the poker rooms look amateurish. For the last ten years, with the invention of internet poker and forums etc., it is clear how far some localised rules differ from the “norm”, and it is about time after the world has come together on the net, that we get our act together. With two main sets of rules that are always mentioned on ruling threads (they are basically the same with minor tweaks), I still can’t get my head around why some cardrooms insist on their own rules. Poker is Global now, not just in the 20 mile radius of your postcode, in fact it has been global for quite a while. I was hoping that associations such as APAT could bring together all the cardrooms, but it is still clear after a few years that they are more interested in the tour than the association. There are 3 main tours in the UK, GUKPT, CBMPT and APAT each have their own set of rules, WHAT IS GOING ON HERE??
It is definitely true that they are in competition and each have a bigoted attitude, I personally had been instructed by a casino director to make my own rules, as at the time the casino I worked for had the attitude of, I quote ” We are the new kid on the block. We will be better than any other cardroom. We have the equipment, the staff and the facilities and we will support poker unlike other chains. We will make the rules and the others can follow us. Why should we follow anyone elses rules? this is our opportunity to get it right and make ourselves heard!”. At the time this made sense as the internet boom had not taken off, but it is now time for casino’s to reel their heads in and conform to some tried and tested generic rules.
The gaming act makes casinos conform to everything else, managers had to study the act, and pre 2005 all managers had to pass a test in front of a board. Personally I thought this was fantastic and was dismayed when it turned to in house. In my opinion, there should be one set of rules (favourably the TDA but any set would be good as long as it was generic) and TD’s and cardroom managers should have to pass a test in front of a board to be allowed to run a cardroom. This would stop the shite that goes on countrywide, and bring into line an industry that should be so easy to run. It would also stop rookie TD’s making the wrong interpretation of a rule and get them to understand why a particular rule would be made.
This has gone on long enough!!!
20Twenty
October 19, 2009
The weekend coming sees the start of Dusk Till Dawn’s new monthly deepstack addition. 2 identical tournaments will take place every 3rd weekend of the month starting on 24th October, a £100 (£20k guarantee) one day NLHE on Saturday and a £100 (£20k guarantee) on the Sunday. It is my personal opinion that one of these days will be a regular great success, and the other comp will flop, but as each event is guaranteed I believe the successful day will alternate as players follow the value, I may however have completely missed the mark on my judgement on this but just feel that 2 long days over a weekend maybe too much for a £100 freezeout, people will travel for one day or the other. I hope both do well by the way!
When DTD announced their new schedule I was surprised but pleased at the low level of buy-ins, but when I looked at the schedule more closely, I must admit a slight disappointment. I personally feel that going back to re-buys is a regression after it took so long to get casino’s to look at freezeouts seriously. Level playing fields makes the game a lot more about skill, rather than a select “rich” few that try and boost a pot and get lucky, however you would think that limited re-buys would soften that for the less deep pockets. Not so, I witnessed mainly cash game players in the £20 PLO, raising blind and getting reraised blind up to the all-in point making the game unplayable for those learning the game, either they couldn’t play a hand as it was too weak, or they gambled and got sucked out on or got lucky … it wasn’t poker though, mainly players that are experienced at playing much higher buy ins having a laugh. I saw many players walk off after having one or no buy-ins because the game was being spoilt and it would have simply be buying a chance to flip.
The other thing I have to say about the limited and unlimited rebuys are the amount of chips given per rebuy, (as a player, the more chips the better for me but…..) 3000 or 4000 chips per rebuy extends the game way too late for a workday now, competitions worked great at DTD before as the finishing time didn’t really extend much past 3 O’clock, compared to a casino’s chip count at 5.30 etc. Now however, with these rebuys the chip totals are in excess of 1million with a decent pool, meaning some finals do not start now until 2am and eventually it will have to finish via a chip count. It is a misconception that the more chips = a better game, as the truth is the structure is far more important, fortunately DTD have got the structure bang on in my view, but for time constraints personally I wouldn’t give more than 2000 chips per rebuy for any 7 hour comp during the week.
I thought that with the new schedule, it would cost less to play regularly but if you include the rebuys it now actually costs more, my biggest disappointment is the recent change to the Sundays round of each as now it is effectively an £80 comp rather than a £40 and that takes it out of my price range if I wish to play more events during the week.