888PL Update - player thoughts and feedback required

[G Force]

Dream Team
Qualifying final is a good idea. Don't mind the best of 3 idea but might be difficult for some to play all 3 though. Doubt there will be much change to DT Scoreboard with Southport finishing as new venue opened just down the road which has picked up the missing games. The $10000 in cash and tickets for the top 10 on the scoreboard is great to play for but the current bias makes it very difficult. If you want to make it more equitable I would reduce the amount of money for the dream team scoreboard and put it elswhere where more people have a chance to share in it. eg put the entire $20000 into the qualifying final and pay cash down more spots. DT scoreboard is still important as it is the main lead in to the qualifier. Or maybe put $2000 on home scoreboard and pay out cash for top 5 or 10. Still leaves $8000 for DT scoreboard or to go to the qualifyer final.

Quarter / Semi's
looks good. Can you play quarters in more than region as long as you play at least 8 games in total and if you played 8 games in VIC does that qualify you for both quaters and semis in SA as well. My prefernce would be for the bulk of prize pools to be cash or at least give them the option of GF ticket or taking the equivalent cash amount. The cash can also be used towards accomodation if required.

Prize Packages
Have only ever seen card protectors for winner. Trophies would be good to, but I suppose they would become tiresome if you manged to you win a few. Don't mind the scratchie idea as it provides for some variety but wouldn't waste money on booby prizes. I would scrap prizes for 2nd & 3rd and consolidate prizes for first down to 10 or so . ie a selection of different types of card protectors and branded clothing such as caps, hoodies, T-shirts, sunglassess etc. Either use scratchie method or have a different first prize each month. If its not cost prohibitive, consider changing designs every couple of years or when items run out. Rather than final table chips maybe consider bonus chip coupon ($1000) which is valid at any venue for 7 days. TC can write in name and date stamp it. Can only use 1 per game and must be redeemed by or on the first break.

Home Games
Saturday home games look great, although I think some of them start to early. Would be able to play more if all started after 7.30pm once kids have gone to bed. For the deep stacks on Tue and Thur can late rego's be extended to first break to allow more time to return from venues? Thursday has failed to run both weeks so far due to lack of numbers. Maybe consider reducing the GTD and dropping buy in to $10 as well to increase numbers.

[The Waggoner]

Hi there, I have a number of points here which I will get to.

Along with SATANICUS I am also from Tassie (Hobart). My circumstances make it hard to play "in-venue" more than once a week due to high pressure job with 11 day fortnights, family life with 2 pre-teen kids etc. I suppose I am a part-time 888PL player but I take it seriously when I play.

I look forward to my Thursday nights at the Waggon & Horses in North Hobart along with my work colleague Jim ("Jimbointas") where the turnup is between 50-75 and is a great venue with great prizes (2nd prize includes a meat tray which everyone is after). We have both been past season venue winners here....against the mostly younger "poker junkies".

I try to play the 888PL online cashies (Gauranteed's, Qualifiers etc) whenever possible when my kids have gone to bed.

Miraculously or by good management, both myself and Jim appear to have scraped into Top100. I think there are only 4 or possibly 5 from Tassie in the Top100 but nothing has been confirmed. Perthaps this may be rewarding mediocrity in a way, but this makes me no less a dedicated 888PL member than someone who plays 150 games online a season.

I pay my money for the opportunity to play at a higher level. 888PL are giving us all that chance. Garth has again approached the players seeking their opinions which is great.

(1) Dream Team Final - love the concept. Mention of 3 game series would be interesting (points accumulation I assume).

(2) N/A as from Tas

(3) Semis - agree with SATANICUS, as many GF tickets as possible

(4) G/F at Crown - SENSATIONAL, thats where we all want to get to.

(5) Prize packs - Trophy for 1st is good or card protector. Forget the nic-nacs. Venue prizes are more important.

(6) Saturday Home Games - there is a bit too much going on there for your average punter. 6pm weekly G/F qualifier is too early for anyone with young families. Switch it to Sunday at say 7pm which doesn't clash with other events on Sat night. Sunday night could also be earmarked for a Dream team playoff series.

Take note.......Every dog can have his day.............Jamie Gold (my god!), Jerry Yang, Chris Monweymaker, Joe Hachem (who is a great player now). You just gotta play the cards that fall your way. If you are in it, you can win it !!!

Good luck on the felt, virtual or real.

[James Penny]

Waggoner! (DOB)

GRRR to the Meat Tray being second place and everyone wanting that instead of first place! I am going to get Ken to just get a slab of Sausages for the next meat tray!

This might stop people reluctantly winning first place!

[John Miller]

Waggoner! (DOB)

GRRR to the Meat Tray being second place and everyone wanting that instead of first place! I am going to get Ken to just get a slab of Sausages for the next meat tray!

This might stop people reluctantly winning first place!

lol I have a venue that is the same, everyone battles to get 2nd place.

[.roadRuNNer.]

Home Games
Saturday home games look great, although I think some of them start to early. Would be able to play more if all started after 7.30pm once kids have gone to bed. For the deep stacks on Tue and Thur can late rego's be extended to first break to allow more time to return from venues? Thursday has failed to run both weeks so far due to lack of numbers. Maybe consider reducing the GTD and dropping buy in to $10 as well to increase numbers.

Very good point regarding the Deep stack tourneys - Drop to $10 and extend the late rego time.

[.roadRuNNer.]

3.) Really the Quarter and Semi Finals should be shifting as many people as possible through to the Grand Final right? For our finals should we focus on driving the Grand Final or focus on cash prizes?

4.) In saying the above we are really trying to get the GF hosted at Crown Casino every time, so we could organise travel and accom packages at Crown and build that into our Final prizes as well?

Most people I've spoken to regard the state semi final as their grand final, because they can't afford to spend money on travel and accommodation to attend Vic for the final (or because they can't get the time off work). So Grand Final travel & accommodation packages would be very well received and beneficial for the league. It encourages interstate participation. A balance of GF packages and cash prizes for State QF and SF's are best imo.

6.) Saturday Home Games have some massive GTD prize pools, who has played the new structure and is enjoying it? There is some massive overlay up for grabs right now!

Excellent. Really good job of revamping things here. A good balance of tourneys for all bankrolls and skill levels. Love the introduction of 6 max tables.

Would prefer following changes though:

Deepstack events (Tue/Thur) - Reduced buy in to $10 to encourage player participation. These haven't been getting off the ground very well and most likely because of the buy in.

Weekly feature event - 10k starting stacks and increased blind levels to 15 minutes. For $20 and the prize money on offer, it'd be good to increase the skill level of this tourney with deeper stacks and longer blind levels.

888PL cubed event re buy / add on, 6 max - shame this isn't getting off the ground - perhaps drop the buy in to $5 and lower the GTD prize pool accordingly? I can see this tourney attracting a lot more interest if the buy in was halved - re buys are popular and fun (i.e. Murrin.....)

[PLO888PLO]

Hi,

5) Random prize sounds good, booby prize does not sound so good.

7) Would be good to have a midweek (say Wednesday or Thursday) PLO tournament with say a $5 to $10 buy-in
I know the PLO is not as popular as NLHE but for those of us who enjoy it or those who would like a change of games every now and again, it would be great to have a weekly higher buy-in event.
Since the nightly PLO event got changed to $2.20-, making it a great place for new players to the game to play to learn the game, numbers of players appears to have increased. However there are no other PLO events currently on offer, at higher buy-ins or indeed at all.
Not wanting to be greedy but there are many NLHE home events daily as well as the fact that all away games and finals are NLHE, so it would be great to have a few more PLO options available.

Cheers

[bennymacca]

1.) Dream Team Final now consists of 200 qualifiers (all derived from scoreboards) and only 3 will walk away with the right to represent 888PL as the Dream Team and in Australasian events.

i think this is a great idea - imo these people should be awarded tickets to higher tourneys and nothing else.

2.) Quarter finals have been introduced and we will have three bands of GTD prize pools; $1,000, $2,000 and $3,000 GTD respectivelly.

these will be good, especially for the regional players who may not travel down to play state finals

3.) Semi Finals will be $15K Gtd but I think this will blow out to at least a $20K prize pool each season (at least). I would like to see the top 10% receive prizes and at least 2% of the prize pool will be Grand Final seats. Really the Quarter and Semi Finals should be shifting as many people as possible through to the Grand Final right? For our finals should we focus on driving the Grand Final or focus on cash prizes?

i think the focus should be on packages to the grand final.

4.) In saying the above we are really trying to get the GF hosted at Crown Casino every time, so we could organise travel and accom packages at Crown and build that into our Final prizes as well?

i liked the $750 packages because it gives you a bit of spending money, especially for SA folks if the GF is going to be in melb every time (which i dont mind at all)

i dont think you really need to have full flights and accomodation packages, as everyone is different, but just a bit of extra cash would be good.

5.) Prize Packs have proven to be a disappointment again and again and I really want to change this up. Are trophies really sought after highly; can we change to a card protector instead of trophies?

we have had card protectors for quite a while now.

I am also thinking about scrapping second and third prizes and just issuing final table chips, winner trophy and a scratchie to the winner. This scratchie will then entitle players to win one of 30 offered prizes. Some of my ideas for prizes are: Poker tables, chips sets, limited edition card protectors, rubber chickens, bonus chips coupons, finals tickets, shot glasses, stress balls, sunglasses, t shirts, etc.... So you can win a booby prize or something fairly decent, I think it will be limited to a max of 2 poker tables per region per season!

final table chips are irrelevant for most people nowadays, especially for regs. maybe you could have a little prize such as a chip that says "first final table" or something on it, for those newer players?


similarly for the second and third prizes, i dont think anyone cares about them anymore.

in terms of the scratchie for first, i love the idea - but not with booby prizes. maybe start off that the lowest thing you can win is a card protector (like 80% of the time or whatever) and it works up from there.

6.) Saturday Home Games have some massive GTD prize pools, who has played the new structure and is enjoying it? There is some massive overlay up for grabs right now!

havent played in any yet, but they look good. i also like the fact that there is 1 big night a week, given that the other buyins have been reduced (which needed to happen)

concentrating the big events on a single night is good for venues (except gundogs venue) because it minimises the effect of the online games on venues. and if a venue was going to run on a saturday night, then they will be aware.

if possible though, it would be great if the start times could be pushed back a bit - on a sat night, you could easily start the big events at 8-830 instead of 630. means i wouldn't have to rush home from cricket to play them.

7.) Please add any other points/feedback/grumbles/compliments you wish to here.

as much as possible, i think you should be driving people to the grand final first and foremost, and as many higher tourneys as possible. i had an absolute blast in melbourne, and even though i didnt' do great, it has made me hungry to play more bigger tournaments.

i could just about see 888pl becoming a feeder league for these bigger tourneys, maybe even including a WSOP package for the winner of the GF as well.

[666HARPS666]

G'day Garth ,

Probably just me but is there any chance of getting a late game . i,e. 12:30/1am . like insomniac used to be . For us that have nothing better to do @ this time of night . & just need that one more fix of poker before bed .
It would be good for afternoon shift workers , That do not get time to play most other games .
Low stakes 55 cent buy-in / $1 .

wow a creative thought by me , who'd of guessed ?

cheers [_])

[Garth Kay]

G'day Garth ,

Probably just me but is there any chance of getting a late game . i,e. 12:30/1am . like insomniac used to be . For us that have nothing better to do @ this time of night . & just need that one more fix of poker before bed .
It would be good for afternoon shift workers , That do not get time to play most other games .
Low stakes 55 cent buy-in / $1 .

wow a creative thought by me , who'd of guessed ?

cheers [_])

On leave in an hour and a bit, this will have to wait until I return. Please bump in 14 days.