TCOOP is the equivalent of the Confederations Cup in football.

Genting have moved their tournament back a week. Not sure who's idea that was

Seems like a sensible idea! Good news imo

I'm sure it is on here somewhere but I can't see it. What is the actual schedule for the xmas 500 deepstack.
Is it:
26 Dec 1a
27 1b
28 day two
29 final

Or is there an online day one too, or something different? Cheers.

Would it be a nightmare to get around to the different casinos without a car? Are there hotels next door/nearby?

Thanks for the info!

Just finishing a 2 week trip to Florida. Firstly the games are good, really good, my mind was blown on many an occasion!

The Miami metropolitan area has at least 10 rooms, mostly dog tracks with poker. The nicest probably being the isle casino pompano beach but that is the most reggy rooms, still soft.

The best action and highest action is probably at hard rock Hollywood, this is proper casino and attracts the most tourist rec poker money.

Almost all the action is nlhe with an even split between 1/2 and 2/5 though 5/10 and higher does run. Lots of donkaments going on as well getting decent fields.

Outside of Miami there is decent poker rooms in Jacksonville (bestbet) and tampa (hard rock). Think this is an attractive little trip for live pros looking for an alternative to Vegas especially at this time of year.

My actual advice would be to forget EPT sats and play sats for other stuff, or just play regular tournaments and use the money you win to play an EPT.

If you really want to play EPT sats then the ones midweek tend to be less reggish (except Tuesdays?) and of course the rebuys mean you pay less rake. However the turbo 3x rebuy ones are a total crapshoot and I don't understand why Stars persist widely with this format. Others may have an opinion on this. Also beware that if you play for a package you will also be playing for a very overpriced hotel room.

Summary: I think EPT sats are toughish and the packages are poor value.

As a counter to this, I've played two GUKPTs and some of the recreational players love the ability to re-enter. This also makes them much more happy to gamble it up and have a good time. It is really hard to find the balance, and I'd be curious to see a comparison between the ability of the re-entrants. In Blackpool I imagine we could well have seen more recs re-enter, which is better for everyone. They are having a good time, more money comes in and is passed about. Conversely, I think the DTD 300s do suffer a little bit from having people like Alex, Mitch and Stato taking 6x shots including online play. I also don't have any suggestions regarding this though. Finding the right balance is tough. I would probably attach more prestige to a UKIPT title over a GUKPT title though I guess.

Good points.

I suppose some tournies are re-entry and some aren't, so you can take your pick at which ones you play to what suits you. There is a place for both, but let's hope re-entry doesn't become standard, especially online.

Where else would you play EPT sats? Winamax is the only other site that I know runs them. Once a week on Sundays. The Stars ones are pretty solid and reggish in my experience. You can game select and pick ones that have less regs. EPT is just another tournament though, despite what Poker Stars want to have you think. Plenty of good tournaments with nice sats every week. GL in whatever you play.

Have come to the conclusion that the big tournament (with the most satellites) of each tournament series should not be a re-entry. For the side events or whatever then anything goes. But I find it really unfair for satellite winners if they have to play against high rollers who are going to fire multiple bullets. One of the things I love about poker is its democratic nature and level playing field.

Example. I played Masters Classics in Amsterdam recently. On day one I played with Jonathan Karamalikis who busted, as did Steve O'Dwyer on the next table. On day two they both ended up at my table having re-entered (thin made day two brag). I found this quite annoying.

Hope Stars don't ever switch to re-entry for their flagship events, it's one thing they are getting right now. Also welcome the new Sky tournament.

Hamburg, Germany

Casino Esplanade. The high roller type place. Runs some pretty big games sometimes. I believe the lowest they spread is 2/5. Lots of business types play in here. Dress code, jacket and shoes. Jacket can be removed if you are wearing a button shirt underneath!

Reeperbahn. A great 2/4nlh game in here pretty much every night. You can put your name on the list by going in during the day or call them to get on the list. Game starts bang on time in the evening, if you aren't there exactly on time then you lose your spot. Two tables often run. Amazing games featuring clueless Chinese tourists, local pimps, stag parties etc

Berlin, Germany.

Three casinos but sadly now a monopoly for Spielbank Berlin so the rake is pretty high.

Potsdamer Platz. Former home of the EPT and by far the most action. the €2 entry fee to the casino always rankles with me though

Cash games 2/2 and 5/5 every evening and afternoons too at weekends. Several tables and you usually don't need to wait long for a seat. Daily tournies with a weekly €100 and a €300 most months. Action is great, players are awful. Floor and dealers are very good and all speak English.

Alexanderplatz (beneath tv tower) Limited action but a 1/1 game most days. Daily tournies too but will only get 20-30 runners.

Hasenheide - The Ghetto casino - coincidentally down the road from my apartment. 1/1 game most evenings and daily tournies with fields of 20-40. Patrons mostly Turkish Germans with a statistically impossible high % of taxi drivers. Play is mindbogglingly bad but the atmosphere is absolutely awful and you will want to slit your wrist after an hour.

Recommendation: Play at Potsdamer Platz!

More info in German here:
http://www.spielbank-berlin.de/poker-floor

One is £400 up northish,

Midlands

But I take your point. Still think there is an overlap of 50-100 people that might play them both.

also wasn't necesarily saying loads of people will play all 4, more saying, there are prob 51 viable weekends to run a poker tourney in the UK. There are three tours with 8-12 legs each, plus a few bigger one offs, DTD, ISPT etc. Don't see why someone from each tour can't have a phone call each November and co-ordinate the dates. Certain weekends, eg bank holiday are clearly better but most weekends are basically the same. There are plenty of weekends for everyone in the calendar year and it makes no sense for two tournaments to be on in the same geographical area on the same day.

If one of them moves a week later then there are four weeks in a row with 4 good comps. UKIPT Edinburgh, GPS, GUKPT and the Sky 1k at DTD.

If there were 4 good comps in a row, how many players would travel to play all four? Players buying in with their own money.

Not sure what that means?

But there are tonnes of sats for UKIPT, Sky and Genting. Not so much GUKPT. It is quite feasible to sat into several of these. I understand sometimes two comps are on the same weekend, but Birmingham and London are really close to each other

Sure. Longer running. The buy in is bigger too. But you don't pay your bills with prestige. Both of them are great comps.

Birmingham--> London is a large shared pool of players. I'm sure many people would want to play them both.

I believe GUKPT moved the grand final to a week earlier this year to avoid clashing with UKIPT. It's not an ego thing to move your tourney, just a sensible decision that is better for everyone. Other times when there are clashes there is a stagger so if you bust one you can play 1b the next day at the other tourney, but 1a and 1b are both set to be on the same day too.

Spose if enough people say they would play them both, then common sense prevails. Both companies want to make money and have a prestigious tour with big numbers I'm sure.