Cash buy in events to commence in Season 2!

[AceLosesKing]

Thoughts on Kingsford's first CBI:

I've been told to speak for a few players tonight, so I'll do just that.

As always, class act from NPL/NPL TD's in regards to professionalism. The night ran as smooth as ever. Registering was quick and easy (random seating ftw), stamps were great as always and Matty ran through everything in a good manner (with Caleb for support, nice work tonight btw mate).

Onto the main issue; blind structure. From first reactions tonight, this needs a huge overhaul. I don't know how many times someone went up to Matty and said "what's with the blinds?/this is crap" etc. Basically, its too aggressive (great choice of words, Matt). Antes jumping every level? What the? I mean, I know this is a turbo tournament, but damn. At an 8 handed table, at 300/600/100 an orbit of the table is 1700. And with the average stack at the time being 8k, you can see that its just push/fold poker. There is no room for postlop play, most of the money goes in preflop anyway. It becomes less of a skill game and more of a luckbox competition - which I failed to win tonight (flush draw vs overpair = AK out at 500/1000).

Antes don't need to be going up every level. Every 2 perhaps? There was talk of introducing a 400/800 level, but that won't help much at all. Its the antes that need to be reduced. How about a different blind structure for different runners? For CBI's that get 100+, obv you are going to need antes or the tournament is going to go all night. How about, for games with under 50 runners or so, no antes? Or a slower structure all together? Just throwing out ideas, anyway.

I know that NPL has restrictions on how long a tournament can be run, but quite frankly, the average customer does not give a crap. At the end of the day, no matter what time the tournament needs to be done by, what is feasible/realistic chip stack wise, nobody is going to pay for a structure they don't like. Another league does a much better structure for the same price (only mentioning this because several customers bought this up tonight, in comparison).

Just read all of that back and I'm rambling too much. This will do for now.

Cliffnotes: The blind structure is horrible.

[Gaz787]

Thoughts on Kingsford's first CBI:

I've been told to speak for a few players tonight, so I'll do just that.

As always, class act from NPL/NPL TD's in regards to professionalism. The night ran as smooth as ever. Registering was quick and easy (random seating ftw), stamps were great as always and Matty ran through everything in a good manner (with Caleb for support, nice work tonight btw mate).

Onto the main issue; blind structure. From first reactions tonight, this needs a huge overhaul. I don't know how many times someone went up to Matty and said "what's with the blinds?/this is crap" etc. Basically, its too aggressive (great choice of words, Matt). Antes jumping every level? What the? I mean, I know this is a turbo tournament, but damn. At an 8 handed table, at 300/600/100 an orbit of the table is 1700. And with the average stack at the time being 8k, you can see that its just push/fold poker. There is no room for postlop play, most of the money goes in preflop anyway. It becomes less of a skill game and more of a luckbox competition - which I failed to win tonight (flush draw vs overpair = AK out at 500/1000).

Antes don't need to be going up every level. Every 2 perhaps? There was talk of introducing a 400/800 level, but that won't help much at all. Its the antes that need to be reduced. How about a different blind structure for different runners? For CBI's that get 100+, obv you are going to need antes or the tournament is going to go all night. How about, for games with under 50 runners or so, no antes? Or a slower structure all together? Just throwing out ideas, anyway.

I know that NPL has restrictions on how long a tournament can be run, but quite frankly, the average customer does not give a crap. At the end of the day, no matter what time the tournament needs to be done by, what is feasible/realistic chip stack wise, nobody is going to pay for a structure they don't like. Another league does a much better structure for the same price (only mentioning this because several customers bought this up tonight, in comparison).

Just read all of that back and I'm rambling too much. This will do for now.

Cliffnotes: The blind structure is horrible.

Just posting my agreement with this sentiment.

[Chelsea4thewin]

nice post aaron, this is the sort of feedback tim is probably after

[BigPete33]

I have to say, based on rcons description (which I also heard in person) I just can't see myself showing up to one in it's current format.

Essentially it's the same as the regular freeroll format but more expensive and with an even more severe blind structure, the only upside is you might win some cash.

[David]

I think what made it worse was that Nathan said in his speech "we have a more relaxed blind structure for you tonight" which in the end, appeared to be no more relaxed.

I had fun, and it was really enjoyable. But the levels appeared a tad violent. Maybe antes not coming in so soon, and not going up as steep? Maybe it was just where we were, I don't know.

[David]

Also, depending on the crowd numbers the break might need to be longer if chip races are going to be used.



Besides that, the night was great - bit of a different feel with everyone paying to enter and it was run incredibly smoothly.

Nathan even took someone's stack (albeit 200 chips when the blinds were 1000/2000) for using the D word

[Matty Norwood]

Ak

Im not going to quote your post, too long for that but i will reply. First off good post exactly what i was asking for with feedback. As mentioned last night these games are running as trials for the next couple of weeks with all kinds of data being recorded.

[JD]

I agree with Aaron NPL staff did an excellent job as usual running the tourney to the highest standards, but that structure just went A wall after the 2nd break like AK said with so much dead money in the middle compared to the average stack it was just a shove fest and only allowed for very little skill in the tourney.

Many players i spoke to throughout the night said they wouldn’t be coming back to a CBI until the structure is changed, in my opinion NPL just return to the old structure with the 2k start 2k rebuy and 4k add on and tweak it from their.

[Tim Harry]

Hi guys,

Firstly, thanks for the feedback so far. The common thread is the blind structure & antes are a killer and do not promote good poker but force a "bingo" mentality.

I will be looking at the blind structure today and especially the antes and we will start to trail other structures until we get one that works for your guys & also ensures that the tournament finishes at a reasonable hour.

Any more feedback you have regarding the first two games is greatly appreciated.

By the way, other than the blinds etc it is great to hear that everyone felt the games were run smoothly. I was at both games and think that Matty Norwood & Caleb and Nathan & Suzie did a great job handling a brand new product and also all the questions that came along with it.

[rcon]

By the way, other than the blinds etc it is great to hear that everyone felt the games were run smoothly. I was at both games and think that Matty Norwood & Caleb and Nathan & Suzie did a great job handling a brand new product and also all the questions that came along with it.

I didn't mention that in my post, however Susie and Nathan did a wonderfully professional job - however it does slip the mind on occasions to complement them on it, as it is hardly unusual for an NPL event to run smoothly. Even the extended 1st break was fine, as you just knew that something would be sorted before the next one is run. Nice work guys.

Was also great to see rules being enforced more strictly, and I'd like to hope this rubs off on players in regular events.

As for the blinds and antes, I'd love to see a regular, weekly, CBI event that started at 6:30, and wasn't scheduled to finish until 11:30 or so. If this meant I had to come up with another 3 or 4 $$ to cover the additional cost of staffing, so be it. I was hoping for something like this last night, but obviously not.