NPL needs an overhaul

[Garth Kay]

And just so you all know, if everything goes to plan, next season we will be giving away over $65,000 in prizes and cash. It all adds up in the end.

[bennymacca]

That is an interesting point David - DOES state finals keep people coming back? would higher nightly prizes be more of an incentive?

rcon, has there ever been a time where you have got home from work, absolutely stuffed, just wanting to sit on the couch and do nothing, but instead you have gone to poker because u were top 5 at that venue and u didn't wanna give that up?

i can say that that has happened numerous times, and state finals is the driver of this. david is right, state finals are the major reason for people to play - we all have dreams of being the next chris moneymaker or even daniel booth (i hope this is his name, he won 90K in the sky city by qualifying through NPL)

second comes the smaller prizes that venues offer.

[Des]

Edit: ok garth just beat to me it all, i give up! lunch time!

[Garth Kay]

That was the best post of my life!

[rcon]

rcon, has there ever been a time where you have got home from work, absolutely stuffed, just wanting to sit on the couch and do nothing, but instead you have gone to poker because u were top 5 at that venue and u didn't wanna give that up?

Haven't had that luxury - I smashed the hackney in its first season so it didn't really matter. I scraped in the next season but attendance was largely out of my control, and this season? well, I'd love to be able to make top 5 somewhere by putting in just one more good night


It was just a thought - i don't subscribe to it myself. But I thought whilst we are discussing all such issues.......

[Nevah play JJ]

I turned to the darkside lastnight and tried the competition.

Sorry but it isn't even close to the type of poker being offered to NPL players.

For starters it is sloppy, there is absolutely NO indication of when blinds are going up. The TD at this venue just stood up from playing poker and yelled, "blinds up guys". There was absolutely no idea from other players in regards to how long we had played at that time for.

The standard of play was lackadaisical at best. This is the perfect standard of poker for players that want to go after work, loosen the tie, have a beer and play with collegues and buddies. That is it.

There is no insentive to improve your game. It became easy to bully others out of the pot. This makes me question if this is the way they want people to play poker?

But what really got me was the chip up process. We start with $4,000, but if buy beers, or drinks you can chip up to as much as you want. So if you buy a round for mates, this will chip you up another $1,500. The chipping up quantity is limitless.
But it isn't at the beginning of the round, it is at anytime leading up to the 3rd break.

If your about to be knocked out and you have $25 anytime after the second break, you can buy whatever drinks you want and chip up as much as you want.

I had a player down to $200, he walked away for about 5 rounds of play, came back and plonked down another $600 in chips. He then went onto last for much much longer in the game. What game plan do you think he had in progress at this time????

There were only 24 players, the game started at 7.00pm and did not finish until 11.15pm.

Sorry but I felt like alot of this thread has been about comparing NPL to competitors. In my opinion there is no comparing.

I agree there are things that can be done to assist with making NPL a little more player friendly, however I truly believe the most stupid idea that can come out of this forum is the idea of larger chipstacks and chaning the current chip up system by redeeming cards.

Ohh and for the record.. I did win the tournament, but I will let this be mulled over for a little bit. I do have other stuff to put here.

Thanks for reading

[Garth Kay]

The company you talk of Caroline I do not even consider as competition. The only reason they are in this market is that they have a licensing agreement with the Mathieson group.

And with that type of tournament structure and running down south, 20 isn't a huge number is it?

We had two venues that ran in the South last night that attracted 80 players over all.

Does this give you an impression of what the players really want?

[Dug]

Thank Garth. Fair points. True about inexperienced players.

I guess after all this I'd be thrilled with 500 chips more but if not, relaxed blinds in the middle section would be more important, thats where its make or break, thats were most frustration comes when you only play 5 hands at 200/400 and blinds go up.

Cheers

[Garth Kay]

No worries Dug,
Thanks for instigating this great thread.

Dave, remove swear filter for South and North please.

[Nevah play JJ]

The company you talk of Caroline I do not even consider as competition. The only reason they are in this market is that they have a licensing agreement with the Mathieson group.

And with that type of tournament structure and running down sowf, 20 isn't a huge number is it?

We had two venues that ran in the sowf last night that attracted 80 players over all.

Does this give you an impression of what the players really want?

It absolutely does Garth and this is why I bring this point up.

I admit I got something out of it, as I said elsewhere, I learned I had no idea how to manage a larger stack. So yes, I did get some benefits from it and for that reason I will go back one more time before finals to learn proper stack management and spend my voucher (I am sorry to admit that). Or maybe this will cause me to develop bad playing habits.

In a perfect world, NPL would offer once a week in every venue the chance to play a deeper stack tournament, but this not possible for more than one reason.

Let's be honest, WE ALL were beginners at one point. We had no idea how to shuffle, cut, bet or deal. But we kept comming back.
That is only because of the professionalism of NPL.

So why would we want to change a system that granted has very few flaws for a system that has done nothing but breed bad skills?