We want your input!

[Garth Kay]

1. One open question (what can NPl do to improve? Answer: Dunno
2. What do you think of the passport idea? Answer: Crappo
3. How many times do you play poker?) Answer: Play with my poker all the time?
4. How many chips should you start with? Answer 20 billion
5. Should the blinds time length be increased?) Answer: Dunno
6. On the final table should the blinds be wound back a structure so more action? Yes/No Answer: Maybe

If you offer chips as a reward you will get retarded responses. I imagine you would be going for quality surveys and you'll only get quality surveys from people who care.....not from people who fill in a survey to get a reward.

If you wanted to reward people for thier comments have "Garth Vader" pick a top 5 for the month/quarter etc etc and announce the people names to give ownership to the idea and not the feeling of a great idea stolen. It would of course be nice for 888pl to then act on the feedback so people get the feeling that they are being heard. I don't know how many times I have heard people talk about allocated seating and seeing tables being "reserved" by other players when 3/4 of the table had not even registered. I have been sidelined as a reserve in this situation!! One particular table has been referred to as the Pensioners table at a certain RSL and god help you at the pensioners table, they (the pensioners) all sit around and play nice and tell each other basicly what they have to keep each other in the game. If a "pensioner" player actually went out at this table from either being blinded out or dying of old age, the TD would throw you on there to your demise......if you didn't take 4 minutes looking at your hand for your brain to work and didn't smell like old cardboard and mothballs you were sneered at. I digress but point is allocated tables problem solved.

If you want quality surveys and input from players act on previous surveys and explain to players at the start of the night if there has been a change and the change is because of THEM. I highlight them because it tells players that they are being heard and thier responses are being taken seriously and acted on. The question 888pl should really be asking is;

Why don't people want to take part in our surveys? I'll take a pot shot at the answer:

Answer: Because nothing is acted on (or at least the little things like allocated seating)

I could crap on and on but I think my last paragraph sums up my point, give players ownership of the decisions in the league and name them (if appropriate). If people want to remain anonymous why not leave it as with any survey NAME: BLANK. simple

Hi Acehole,

A lot will be done over the coming months in regards to market analysis and surveys. I appreciate your feedback and welcome to the forum.

If you have any individual feedback or would like to see some changes at the tournaments that you play at then please do not hesitate to send me an email or contact me via head office. We do listen to players feedbacks and many changes do take place as a result of feedback, primarily this feedback is received via this forum. In truth this is the first time I have heard of any "pensioner table" at Chelsea or comments along the lines of certain players acting unethically.

I did notice that you have played only a few times at this certain RSL and it has been quite a few months since you attended this venue and you might find the atmosphere at this venue changed completely.

Obviously we do not know each other well, I am unsure whether we have actually met, but obviously by referring to me as Garth Vader you either feel some sense of familiarity or are been slightly disparaging. I do not take great offence at this title, but if we were to make fun of each others given names you are in slight trouble with the surname you have been graced with.

In the end I have been in the position I am in now for three months, there will be many changes and improvements made to the competition and one of these will definitely be more intense communication with players and the ability for players to vote on polls anonymously located here and on the website. There will also be the intorduction of new tournament formats which will hopefully appeal to a greater variety of players.

Welcome to the forum and please keep the feedback coming, and if you have any problems please do not hesitate to post here, pm me or approach me personally.

In future

[Paul]

To the certain "RSL" i think i have said a few times and even forwarded emails about how the table reserving is an issue , This certain Rsl should be Allocated tables but in the same time i think 7/8 of the events should be infact i think the one time i played there i watched the final hand before the first break that it was everyone had to pay 100 and it was a completly open hand , If any venue needs this table allocation its chelsea ......

Table reservation was also a huge issue at Dingley and it got to the point where i would set up 8-10 tables and by 6:45 pm i had 3 tables completly reserved ... I then made (with npl managements permission) Dingley allocated seating and then it stopped all sort of reserving and makes better game play , cheating stopped and the place became a more friendly venue , people learn to sociallise with other people and makes for a more professional Tournament

And Acehole nice to see you Finally on here mate and look forward to seeing you out on the Felt !!!!

[ImAnAcehole9]

Hi Garth/Paul,

Garth firstly I meant nothing by "Garth Vader", we have not met and I have no ill feeling towards you. I referred to you as Garth Vader purely because I have a simple mind not because I believe you are a fearsome cyborg and Sith Lord who serves at the right hand of Emperor Palpatine, leading the brutal Galactic Empire (Full House Group) as supreme commander, in oppressing the galaxy and hunting down the Rebel Alliance (Australian Poker League). I called you "Garth Vader" purely for the fact that you are in a position of responsibility and are named Garth--->Darth nothing more.

I suppose all I was getting at in my post was feedback from 888pl, constant feedback from 888pl to let people know thier input is valued, acted on and appreciated. The reward is a better poker league for all. This in turn should improve your feedback requests and quality of your feedback requests.

Paul,

To quote you......."Table reservation was also a huge issue at Dingley and it got to the point where i would set up 8-10 tables and by 6:45 pm i had 3 tables completly reserved ... I then made (with npl managements permission) Dingley allocated seating and then it stopped all sort of reserving and makes better game play , cheating stopped and the place became a more friendly venue , people learn to sociallise with other people and makes for a more professional Tournament"

I love the way you tell it how it is. In your post you state the issue of tables being reserved, cheating etc without trying to sugar coat it. You saw what was happening because you are intuative enough to put yourself in a players shoes and see how they (the player) would feel about what you saw. 888pl has the potential as I'm sure all of you know of being the pinnacle of Australian poker with the right people and the right policys in place. More of your innitiative and action of what you saw/experienced would be a welcome to most players I'm sure.

Lastly to quote BennyMacca:

"i dont think they will ever change to allocated seating for the freeroll tournaments, and personally, i dont think they should. part of the attraction of pub poker is the fact that you can sit with your mates and just have fun. results are secondary. sure, in a challenge (cash buy in) game, allocated seating is a good idea, but not in freerolls".

I would hope in the future 888pl does allocate seating for this exact reason. Sure Pub Poker is a freeroll but from here you meet other players, learn different playing styles, understand peoples weaknesses and more importantly learn from your own weaknesses. If for arguments sake a 888pl player won a ticket to a major event, wouldn't that player and 888pl want that particular player to be armed with as much information, experience and confidence to have a great chance of actually winning it. If you play a well run/organized game, the level of poker should lift (from what I have seen this has been the case gradually with NPL/88pl anyway) I'm tipping if a 888pl player takes out a major tourney there would be no end to the amount of publicity/marketing that could be gained from it.

[rcon]

I'm tipping if a 888pl player takes out a major tourney there would be no end to the amount of publicity/marketing that could be gained from it.

Daniel Booth took out 2008 Sky City Championships after qualifying thru freerolls.

Personally I do not like allocated seating for regular freerolls, but for special events, or even just a $10 CBI it is a must. I play super-turbo freerolls for a chance to catch up with mates, not to hone my poker skills.

[ImAnAcehole9]

Daniel Booth took out 2008 Sky City Championships after qualifying thru freerolls.

Personally I do not like allocated seating for regular freerolls, but for special events, or even just a $10 CBI it is a must. I play super-turbo freerolls for a chance to catch up with mates, not to hone my poker skills.

Hi rcon,

You distinguish between the freeroll and the $10 CBI as the freeroll being a get together with mates (maybe almost a joke or not serious poker) but the $10 cash buy in is serious and allocated seating is a must. It's not my intention to misrepresent your comments in any way but this is what it sounds like you are trying to say.

I must say Funny thing is I spend upwards of $30 stamping up my 2 cards for pub poker, so which poker should get the allocated seating? The one that cost you $10 to sit down and play or the one that cost you $30 to play.

As far as honing your poker skills go, I can honestly say I have learnt a lot from NPL in a pub poker format and have been able to (like anytime I play poker with my peers) use my experience or lack there of to see where I stand within that poker community. I would like to ask you though what you meant by the part of your statement "not to hone my poker skills" because I again pose the question.....is this because you believe NPL/888pl to be a sideline event/bit of a joke. If so surely improving the 888pl corporate image is what this forum/survey is all about, so why would you be opposed to making changes for the sake of a more professionally structured league? NPL/888pl pub poker is of course an entry level to the game of poker and as such any beginner playing in this league would benefit with a solid foundation to the game, firm rules with firm formats gets engrained into these players so when they do play at Crown for arguments sake they won't look stupid or feel like a fish out of water. Any professional poker institution has allocated seating (even in freerolls) but hey that would mean you couldn't segragate a table from a tournament so you could play with all your mates, buy each other drinks all night, laugh at each other when one of your "mates" calls a big raise with 2 7 off to crack pocket aces, check to the river when there's flush draws/straight draws etc because he/she is your "best mate" but push with "my favorite hand" against your "mate" to tell him what you have (because he's a "mate"). Hey this all sounds like the typical pub poker is rubbish because of this crap that happens at the venues.

[rcon]

I hear what you are saying, and 12 months or so ago, there was a big debate on this forum about making these freeroll events more "skill dependent", ie. more relaxed blinds, bigger starting stacks, all those things which make poker more skill than luck. I was one of those wanting such things, as that way you could have some insurance that one "crazy" hand from someone else wouldn't be the end of your night.

Garth firmly rebutted these arguments in that part of what makes pub poker great is that luck does play a big part in - you're forced to act far sooner than you might otherwise, and this gives rise to people achieving success very early on in their pub poker careers. Which in turn keeps them coming back (good business). Now my point is that pub poker is not just about poker skill, if you wish to play poker for the sake of playing poker, go and play some small buyin tournaments at the casino or similar. If you want to have a night out, have a meal, few drinks and a laugh with your mates, come play some poker.

The fact the season is (previously?) 10 weeks long, means you've got time to mitigate the bad night you might have from ending up at a table full of "soft" play.

If cash prizes are involved, regardless of if total outlay is similar to the freerolls, you're going to get people wanting/demanding a higher standard of etiquette. I certainly do, and I like being able to choose to play such tournaments. Doesn't mean I don't want to sit with my mates other times tho.

Just for the record, I owe my poker grounding to pub poker, and I love it. But super-turbo isn't how most big buyin tournaments are played, so if you wish to practice for those....

edit: I've also play competitors competitions where there was allocated seating, and yet the overall standard of both play, and the event hosting could not hold a candle to NPL (now 888PL)

[BigPete33]

In addition to what rcon has just mentioned, there's the element of cash prizes which other people have DIRECTLY contributed to, so allocated seating is a must to help eliminate collusion.

Perhaps what he didn't mention, is that most of his mates whom he chooses to sit with at the freerolls, can also play a bit too.

[gundog]

there will always be those for and against allocated seating for freerolls, I have always been a advocate of allocated seating, I have softened my position some what, at my local venue I avoid where possible playing a number of players

It's their non thinking way that steers me to tables with the better players on, like Krunchie and Maccatak11. If you play good player and learn from it you must become a better player.

But some venues I have played is yes please.

So my vote on allocated seating is ummm, yeah, maybe, dunno.

[Paul]

I reckon it should be everywhere
Events run better and creates a better atmosphere Everyone knows Everyone and any cheating etc etc get taken away

I am personally one that would love to see this introduced across the board !!!!

[madali]

Hi,

I love the idea of a survey with a tear of part at the bottom that you can redeem for chips after you complete the survey.This would ensure you get an honest response due to the annonimity and lazy people who would not give there opinion for free will be more likely to take part ( You know the type the ones who are continualy complaining to other players but would never get off there butt to do anything that would improve the situation).
As far as the seating goes I love the idea of random seating as this prevent collusion which can occur. Myself I usually try to sit at a variety of tables as I am trying to improve my game. It hasnt helped yet but I live in hope lol.

Anyway thats my 2 cents,