Cash buy in events to commence in Season 2!

[Matty Norwood]

do we all know what happens when people assume?????

[maccatak11]

Cheers Garth, thanks for the reply. I have always admired the transparent approach that the NPL (and yourself) have shown when answering questions from players.

Seems like a win/win situation. Anything (EQ fee) that makes a venues relationship more stable with the NPL is a good thing. There is nothing more annoyign to players than a cancelled event or venue - so thats good.

I apologise if this has been asnwered before, but how long will the 'trial' period for the initial few events be before CBI events are rolled out in each region? Will they be ready everywhere in season 3? or will the gradual rollout continue for a number of seasons after the current one.

[Garth Kay]

i assume all venues own the tables that they use. And npl has its own supply for overflow, champs, etc.


No all equipment is owned by FHG.

[Garth Kay]

Cheers Garth, thanks for the reply. I have always admired the transparent approach that the NPL (and yourself) have shown when answering questions from players.

Seems like a win/win situation. Anything (EQ fee) that makes a venues relationship more stable with the NPL is a good thing. There is nothing more annoyign to players than a cancelled event or venue - so thats good.

I apologise if this has been asnwered before, but how long will the 'trial' period for the initial few events be before CBI events are rolled out in each region? Will they be ready everywhere in season 3? or will the gradual rollout continue for a number of seasons after the current one.

90% of rollout will be completed by the 28th of June. With at least one CBI event operating in every region.

Season 3 will be the bomb! So much going on it will be information overload for everybody.

[Bob B]

2. Drop the antes completely for the rest of the season.

3. Or, if you really have to have antes because of time constraints, bring them in for the last one or even two or more tables with a designated dealer/s.

Garth suggested this afew pages back;

25/50 15 Minutes
50/100 15 Minutes
100/200 15 Minutes
200/400 15 Minutes
BREAK 10 Minutes
400/800 10 Minutes
600/1200 10 Minutes
1000/2000 10 Minutes
1500/3000 10 Minutes
2500/5000 500 10 Minutes
4000/8000 500 10 Minutes
BREAK 10 Minutes
6000/12000 1000 10 Minutes
10000/20000 1000 10 Minutes
15000/30000 2000 10 Minutes
25000/50000 2000 10 Minutes
40000/80000 5000 CAPPED

How does that look? We still need to be looking at an 11pm finish at the latest.

During CBI's colour out of chips will occur on a table by table basis during play.

Thoughts on this structure?

... which has antes being introduced at level 9 - quite a ways into the tournament.

This would be what you'd like to see, in regards to your 3rd point, Bob?

Sorry Scotty I was actually in the middle of my slow two finger typing and never got to read Garths last alternative for the Antes post. But when I did read it I felt it was a whole lot better but I wasn't aware it was set in concrete.

Unfortunately, it's after 9pm now so I didn't make it to the Wheaty. I had to go to the docs and after getting special drops for my eyes (they make my eyes light sensative) I ended up staying at home. I might shoot over there now just to see how it's going.

Thanks again Scotty for a sensible reply to my post it's so much nicer than most.

[Bob B]

Had they annalised it a little more....

Sounds painful Bob?!

Bob, what you need to understand is that with double start stacks, double re-buys & double add-ons we need to adjust the structure to ensure that the games finish within roughly a 3 1/2 hr time frame. If we were to run it at the standard style free roll blind structure then your venue stamp policy would definately go up.

Beware, very, thin ice Tim, You don't need to be a Rocket scientist Tim to know that if you double the chip stacks and addons etc it will take much longer on the current Freeroll system.

Not that it really matters to me personally but, did anyone consider "not to" double the re-buys and add-ons for the initial changes to CBI's?

Reasoning?: We'd have to charge them more because the game would run longer thus meaning NPL have to pay staff more for working extra hours. As it is, the average tournament runs 1/2 longer than it used to beacause we changed the passports from 500 to 1000 and then from 1000 to 1000/2000. As it stands NPL contractors are still working for the same amount even though they do the extra hours. I'm sure you out of anyone Bob would be the first one to voice your distate at what you believed was a venue trying to cash in on you with higher stamp charges.

Ain't that the truth Tim. Remember Don Chipp who said he was there "to keep the bastards honest"? Well I'm not him but I'll keep asking the questions and keep looking for the honest replies.

Basic cause & effect. You want larger starting stacks with more value for your passports you are going to be paying higher blinds & antes. Extending game lengths mean more $$$ required to pay NPL contractors & more $$$ required to pay venue staff starting earlier and/or finishing later.

While the first run blind structure was far from what we wanted it did give us valuable information. We will be trialling a revised structure at the Wheatsheaf tonight & I will be there to get the feedback from those players. Glad to hear that Tim at least my post and others have been of some help to make it more relaxed for the novices.
Are you going to be one of those players Bob or are you going to offer your comments on the structure from the comfort of your living room? [challenge thrown down:)]

If you actually read my post right to the end you would see I had an appointment with the Doc. Well unfortunately the drops for my eyes made them light sensative and so I'm not going to be able to support my Venue. So I'm hers wearing frigging sun glasses in the comfort of my leather high back swivel chair M8.

Post of the year from NPL management. Explained better than I ever could. [b]I told you he was good LOL.[/b]

But I would like to add that a competitive advantage must be maintained at all times, and going directly to the marketplace to trial events or receive feedback is detrimental as we lose that first to market competitive edge if our competitors are aware of our full plans.

We launch, we trial, and we adjust. It's the way of product evolution, especially when you are offering a service to a consumer base that is in varying stages of the consumer cycle.

The CBI events will eventually become a mainstay for those seeking the next step and a challenge. Not all CBI events will be ran as the turbo model, but due to business constraints most will.

The majority of CBI event players will be similar to that of RCON, Murrins, and Big Pete's. Hence why we came to the forum to throw up a few queries. But we will never go to the greater market place to discuss our plans and what the consumers think of it on the grand scale.
Dam, no Bob B there must have been a typo

Hence why I suggested a player council. But the train of thought got derailed and now we have put that on the back burner.

I believe you gave up on the Players Council too easy Garth. You got good responses, maybe not what you wanted to hear but in the end I thought it would have been a big plus to initiate such a plan as I said in my post that Tim was replying too or did you miss that?

And venues asking players whether they want or freeroll or CBI is a good concept but venue managers should be well aware of their consumers and what they require as well as what is in the best interest of the venue.

As I said in the same post it would have been nice to have been asked.

Market trends in other states and other countries indicate a 60/40 split of a mature player base in terms of what they want CBI/Freeroll. And I expect that SA will get their quicker than most.

We just need to find a satisfactory middle ground in terms of time spent at the tournament level and a reasonable blind structure. Accelerated blind periods with a more relaxed structure isn't that bad, it's just that it is a self dealt tournament. And yes the mature consumer will have to train themselves to deal and do it efficiently.

And I do like the 30 second time limit. I mean really like it! Bring it on

We appear to reading the same page and adding a little bit of our own interpretations to the meanings. But that's not a bad thing is it ,if we are all after the same result???

[muzzington]

I guess it would be hard for a TD to enforce, but at least announcing "30 second clock" might change some things.

[Bob B]

Ok here's a question. Longer tournaments will indeed require contractors to be paid for the extra hours that they do.

A new charge to players in CBI events is an equipment hire fee of $3? (or was it $4) per game. Couldn't this extra money (which would total $120-$200 at most venues) be used for this?

If not, where will this new fee be going? Are the costs of running a CBI tournament different to a freroll, because players have never had to pay this fee before.

Cynically, it appears this charge is a "well we can legally charge players entry fees now so lets increase our profit margins". By the way, i don't personally agree with those sentiments, but i can understand players who might think that way.
Or does the extra fee go to the venues to improve the money that they make? If this is the case, then venues shouldnt complain about being open an extra half hour or so.

I realise that as the overall standard of play in NPL venues gradually improves, players will ask for a greater opportunity to show their skill (i.e. deeper stacks, relaxed levels) and its difficult to fit this into a timeframe, but if NPL wants to continue to provide the best poker product and the best poker playing experience around, then changing things like start times or the length of a tournament are things worth considering.

The equipment hire fee goes directly to venues. Whilst I don't like discussing business practices I have always liked the transparent approach. The fee is a value add to venues and a way for them of increasing revenue.

It is also an accepted part of tournament buy ins that there is generally an admin fee associated with buy in's. The good thing is that with venues have a substantially lower cost involved in supplying events they may be more willing to eventually guarantee nightly prize pools or supply additional qualifier seats to monthly qualifiers or the Grand Final (slight spoiler on new comp structure).

Venues will be charged slightly more in the form of an addition to a flat rate.

This is to increase our revenue slightly as we will staff the majority of CBI events with two contractors, irrespective of the 60+ mark currently set.

Thank you for being open and honest regarding the additional $3 fee and where it's going, and the fact that NPL are charging a hiigher rate than before. Nice to see the honesty policy being used Garth, you just saved me writing another post!!!!

[JD]

The new structure at the Wheatsheaf ran a lot better than Sunday nights great to see some improvement already.

[todd182]

yeah i was very happy with the wheaty game massive improvement to sunday, everything panned out nicely.