blonde poker forum

Hi All

Firstly an introduction.  My name is Adam and I am the online poker manager for Gala, Coral and Eurobet. You will probably notice that I have been lurking here for a while , but this is my first post so please be gentle!  I am happy to answer any questions or queries that you may have, so please feel free to pm me.

Secondly I need your help.

We are currently busy planning next years GBPT and are looking for some feedback on what you liked or didn't like about the 2007 tour.

Even if you didn't play this year we would like to hear what might tempt you to play in 2008.



Thanks for your help.  Also many thanks to Blonde for allowing me to post this.

Hi sofa,

I played the edinburgh prelims after winning a sat on eurobet.. Might I suggest that the Live satellites are advertised better perhaps on the website in view of getting more runners and more seats as I recall only learning about them by word of mouth.

Oh and dont promote the Online sats as much as I enjoy overlay

Thx

SJ

PS first part was serious 2nd part was in jest (kinda)

I agree..Plugging the things would be a big +, I only find out about sats and tourneys that are run by Gala when paying at the Stanley..and even then I forget about it.. I am a member but don't get any emails sent out to me advising me of good tourneys (or even bad ones) that you are holding..surely that's the entire reason you wanted my email address?

Welcome to blonde

2008 buy-in. I think £500 is about right and temptation should be resisted to up it to go head to head with the GUKPT and increase the buy-in

Structure of competition: From what I can see its fast for the money.

Scheduling: Avoid other major European comps. I didn't see the sense (though there were undoubtedly reasons why) in scheduling Bristol alongside the Amsterdam Masterclassics

I know the blonde Live updaters had issues at Bristol too, but I will let them speak for themselves!

Off to think of more!

I didn't play any GBPT events last year because, IMHO, the structure was unnecessarily quick for such a high profile tournament.

The shortcomings of the blind structure aside, I think the tour has great potential, especially if the buy-in remains at a reasonable level and you run plenty of well advertised online and live satellites.

Good luck with it, I hope to be playing in 2008

Thanks for the replies so far.  Please keep them coming!

As an added incentive I will give a free ticket to a GBPT online qualifier final for the best post.

I love the GBPT series, its the greatest live poker experience in the world ... ship the freebies. :)

lol..mug

I wanted to play but the only option I had to register direct was to go to the Gala Leeds in advance, which I realy couldnt be bothered to do. So I would like to see more flexibility to buy-in to these events - like registering online, paying over the phone or buying via the gala online card room (as they do on DTD)

What about putting sats on Blonde ! ! ! !   

That would definitely help!....I think next year it would be useful to attract other sites to run satellites.Also start them ASAP so we can qualify early and plan the year!

The main gripe I had with the online sats was the blinds were too fast for the weekly main qualifer (7 mins I think).  Also (like Blue Sq/GUKPT)...its probably a good idea to guarantee 2 or 3 seats on a weekly satellite....for some reason the more seats guaranteed ...the more runners! ;)

Live dealer dealt rebuy qualifers for a tour package, at about the £50 mark would also get my vote.

The buy-in of £500 was a good level for the tour.....However the Final buy in was too high and should have been around the 1K to 1.5K mark, especially if its going to clash with a big event elsewhere, as then the more social player/semi pro would have been more keen to play.
 The added value to the Final was fantastic, TV coverage great and overall it was a good first year.

Hi Adam,

This is mostly the same info as I sent you in an email earlier but with the free seat up for grabs :-0

I played in the Bournemouth leg and was at the Nottingham leg and Bristol leg in a working capacity.
 
I loved the fact that you had two starting days in B'mouth but there was also a big problem with that. We returned on day two very very close to the money (28 left i think, 14 payed) and my table re-draw meant that I was on a table at a critical time with 8 players whom I had not played or seen them play one hand on day one. Perhaps the tables should not have been re-drawn at the start of day two? Or as they do in events every time a table breaks (once you're in the money) there should be a re-draw - this is to stop the players from the broken table being at a disadvantage.
 
Also perhaps in season two of the tour it'll be possible to have a day 1a + day 1b, day 2 and then final table on day 3, because IIRC the final day in B'mouth was very long!
 
There were a couple of big blind jumps too, for instance going from 500/1000 to 1000/2000 in two levels. As for blind levels, I hope you increase all levels to one hour if possible.
 
Please keep the buy-in at £500 this is the right price, there's already enough £1k events out there and also the £500 events give players the chance to satellite in for £50 or qualify online for a similar amount.

On that note please reduce the buy-in for the grand final, £1500 is probably about right. Whilst I imagine everyone at Gala and Presentable was thrilled with a stacked final table of top pros at the grand final, the buy-in was prohibitive to many players, including pros, and this showed in the attendance.

Exactly the problem I had as I wanted to play in Leeds but couldn't be bothered to drive there to pre register for a 120 mile round trip

Hi Sofa, & welcome to blonde.

I'm busy right now - working, would you believe? - but I'll Post my GBPT thoughts later.

hello surfer ,i was going to the main event untill i  realised how many was feerolling .

could you tell me why so many people got into this tourny for nothing (not even english).

but do you not understand that we are the backbone of this industry.

someone wants the freebie ;)

I think if you're wanting perfection then for me
Having tv screens that link up to the Tournament Clock software would be a big bonus, leeds were struggling

Blind levels with a 75/150 and 150/300 levels throughout and then after 500/1000  600/1200 800/1600 then 1000/2000 gives us players more play for our money before it gets shoved in ;)

I thought the fruit buffet was great idea but normally 3 hours into a tournie you need a few nibbles like sausage rolls sarnies and fruit would be better

The buying in caused a few probs for me.. ended up driving to leeds few days before with my aunty and 3.5 year old son in the car so that my aunty could stay in the car while i zoomed to the cash desk to pay for the tournament,  If only I could have done it over the phone with my visa.....

Other than that great fun :)

I personally thought the fruit buffet was brilliant.  The bemused expressions on the faces of all the bloaters "Where's the chips?" :)

I thought the running ante was a bad idea in such a fast structure.  It was even used in the £100 and £200 which made it even worse.

In hindsight I would have loved to have played this comp - I've heard great things about it.

Why didn't I?  My local Gala (Northampton) couldn't/didn't get a decent number of runners for a satellite so there was no way of qualifying locally. I went once for a satt but it crumbled due to lack of interest.  This was, I think, because there are not enough regular local Gala players capable of/wanting to travel to games elsewhere. But there are lots of local players who don't visit the Gala who were unaware of the satts and would have played.

I was nowhere near any of the tourneys so buying in wasn't an option, it appeared to me to be a regional type comp rather than a national one. In the GUKPT players travelled from all over the place to play in them all. This wasn't as obvious in the Gala tour.

I'm sorry to say that until very recently I didn't even know there was a Gala poker site! I only found out when I was told by a Gala employee. Had I known I may well have tried to qualify on line. The Gala reputation for a fast structure did worry me but if I had qualified for a lot less than the buy in via the web site I wouldn't have been so concerned about it.

I am a lazy poker player, I need to be fed the information otherwise I often don't see it. I would like to see sattelites on other poker sites and more promotion. It wasn't until I saw the tourney on tv I realised there were such good prizes at stake. I love the entry into the 5 Diamonds game, what a great idea.

This was supposed to be a peoples tour/grassroots tour if I remember rightly. But time after time I heard of seats being reserved for the poker playing elite. This didn't sit well with me I'm afraid, not much of a grass roots tour if some take priority.

To summarise: 1. Get the message out there, the tv coverage was great and will pull in more punters next time for sure. 2. Promote the satellites and get them on other sites.
3. Allow buy ins via the web or over the phone.
4. How about satts and super satts locally to get those only capable of lower buy ins involved - therefore getting more value in the local satts. Add seats in other local games as an incentive to the locals to play in the satts for the tour.
5. Promote it from within - I am on the Gala mailing list but don't get anything from them.


Good luck with it, I know how much work you have out into this, it deserves to be even better than the first one. You have my details - PM me with when the satts start pease!

Tracey

Sofasurfer, any chance on getting the dates for the GBPT this year out?

same problem here, but i DID bother   to  drive the 200 mile trip to pre register 3  players  and to play a satellite.

an utterly wasted trip tho.

the satellite was without the worst run and disorganised i have ever played         no dealers   no supervision    no  CLOCK ffs      when  an organiser heard an alarm from his mobile, he stretched up from his paper to utter inaudibly.

worse still   , valets were BARRED from entering the card room, so you either had to go to the bar and buy a drink, or walk downstairs to the gaming floor to grab drink/food  !!!


needless to say, the whole experince disgusted me and my playing partner  and we left leeds  gala without spunking £1650.

an awful lot of improvements required.

I've sent Sofasurfer the thread by email...so he can see the latest comments and answer questions

I think it would be beneficial if something (anything) had changed on the gbpokertour.com website by now (mid January, 2008).  The last News Update says: 12.11.2007     'Great British Poker Tour climax ends in Hendon Mob victory.'

Even if it had to say:  'Great British Poker Tour: Planning 2008 underway' at least that would stop the appearance of virtual tumbleweeds across the screen. 

Websites are pretty much my first and last stops for checking out almost anything from movie schedules to chicken recipes, and if a site looks like it is not regularly updated I stop checking it. 

hum chicken recipes, what you fancy cooking now you have whetted my appetite

Nice one Jen, i totally agree with this one.

Hi Adam,

I only played the Bournemouth GBPT, coz that Gala is my local. I played in the £100, the £200 and the £500 main event.

I made the last 3 tables in each comp, but in all 3, unfortunately, it became a crapshoot at that stage and I lost my races. It was the only festival where I played more than one event where I failed to cash last year and the poor blind structure had a big effect, resulting in there being no room to play any real poker past the halfway stage.

The structure needs to be drastically altered to compete with the GUKPT in terms of blind levels to create more play in the game in the latter stages, but the buy-in at £500 for the main event is fine.

Ian.

If you want to keep up with Grosnevor :
- increase the buyin to the main events to 750
- Have  3 day main events with a 1a and a 1b. 
- Dont let the runners get out of hand, 200ish is fine. 
- Get creative with the side events, people get bored of the same old crap shoot 100 freezeouts.
- Take a chance, have a round of each Holdem Omaha tournament.  People are starting to play other games.
- Do not clash with any other major festivals in Europe.
- Advertise, keep reminding the players when qualifiers are and when the festivals are coming up.

If you take some of those points in mind im sure itl be a successful tournament year.

Uber thin brag post. :)

Jen makes a good point. Update your website..this is vital.

I also can't believe that this year, once again, there is no decent promotion and advertising of the GBPT. It is quite simply asthonishing to me that I have to get my information about an event from someone who attends the casino where it is being held and can't find any info anywhere else. GBPT Edinburgh is next month, tell the marketing guys at Gala to pull their finger out and promote this thing as Grosvenor is killing you with the GUKPT.

Hi Folks,

Thanks for all your comments.  Really great to get your feedback both good and bad.

We have made some changes to the 2008 tour, I'm sure some of you will be pleased, although obviously we won't be able to please all of the people all of the time!

We will be making a full announcement about the 2008 tour imminently, if you want to put the first date in the diary, we will be heading back to Edinburgh for the first leg on the 27th Feb.

I also haven't forgotten that I owe one of you a ticket to an online qualifier final, I'm going to reread all your posts and make my decision, and promise to have the ticket in your account in time for the first final next week.

All the best.

Adam

Hi Adam,

1. Antes could be slowed down, add more levels and introduce running antes later.
2. Although I busted out just before the cash ( DOH !!! ) I feel the tourney should be played down to the TV final with the players coming back the next day. It was 2 very long days.
3. Dealers, while I appreciate it is difficult for the casino to get the time to train dealers if the floor is busy. Only fully competent dealers should be used for the main event.
 
On a positive I thought the Edinburgh Tournament was fantastically well run, and I am really looking forward to this years, and Michele was a nice bit of eye candy.

Hi,

I'd love to see you increase the main event buyin to £1,000, maybe a 7 card stud side event and a round of each hold'em/omaha would be great! I am more than willing to travel for festivals but wjhen the main is only £500 and a smallish field, it is a struggle to make it worth my time.

ditto.

There are loads of 1k events in the UK Calendar so £500 is fine and that is the consensus amongst the majority on here.

Marketing is crucial, we need to know dates, structures, buy in's, satelite details.  These should be on frequently and well in advance of the main event. 

I get a regular mail shot from Gala Maybury but often find I get it a day before or 2 days after any events.  That is no good for me I need to arrange travel and possible days off work.

The structure could definitely bee doing with slowing down.  Give good structures and you will get more players.  We have so many options when it comes to playing poker.  If you dont give the players the structures we want then we simply wont play.  As it stands just now I dont go near Gala because of the structure on offer.

Looking at the tournament schedule for this year, albeit much to be added, I just don't see that many events £1k+. It's fair that there are a number of blondes who would like a £500 main event, but looking at the GUKPT, there is a clear demand in the wider poker community for main events of the bigger festival circuits to be £1k plus.

the gukpt is sh#t and i hate blue square!!!!







do i win the seat????????  ;D

 rotflmfao rotflmfao rotflmfao



ps just in case he does win a seat. I agree!!!

10% coming your way vinni lol


seriously though rather than give the seat to one individual blonde why not give to blonde as a whole and lets have a passworded freeroll for it (enter booder)
have us all sign up to the gala online site to play for it or play it on blonde.

just a thought

good man and good idea! :)

Funny you should say that.

Cough, Adam.

(various suggestions are with Gala!)

I can confirm that there will be a freeroll on Gala Poker for blonde members for a GBPT seat as a thank you for the feedback on this thread (rather than an individual winner of "best post")

Watch this space and we'll pop up details of the sign up link, password for the comp (ie members have to be registered to blonde already), date and time etc

Thanks to Gala for this.

wooo hooooo, thank you Gala ;applause;

I've always loved Gala!!

Yay, they are the best!..Now if only they could stop their rebuy being chipchucking fests with 500 starting chips

paging booder...

  .....a seat, or a qualifer to a seat? (as was originally on offer?)

sorry, a final qualifier ticket

My apologies, and well spotted

:goodpost: ;iagree;

ok some more progress

We are finalising a date for about 10 days time

but we now have the following

"We will give you a final ticket for every 10 runners in the freeroll.  If you get 50 runners we will give you a package for Edinburgh instead.

So 40 runners = 4 online final tickets

50 runners = 1 package

60 runners = 1 package + 1 final ticket

70 runners = 1 package + 2 final tickets.

Up to a max of 1 package + 5 final tickets"


so everyone, sign up using this link

http://www.galapoker.co.uk/club/pn41.go?page=splash&p_ref=BLONDEPOKER


and await the date, to be announced early next week

 

watching with interest.

Please post on the linked thread to receive further details including Password next week

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=30555.0

dates announced
Edinburgh feb 27th - 3rd march
Nottingham April 16th - 20th
Bristol May 21st - 25th
Bournemouth June 18th - 22nd
Leeds July 30th - Aug 3rd
Liverpool Sep 17th - 21st
Teeside Oct 22nd - 26th
Grand final Bristol Dec 1st - 7th

Sod's law the nearest one to me is when I am in Vegas.  ::)

the show or the town?

 rotflmfao ;)

like to play if i can have password please

Wrong thread, see the thread in post higher up from Tightend.

Thanks for this.  however we are still working through a few last minute wranglings, therefore as of this moment these dates are not confirmed.  Once everything is sorted and set in stone we will be making an official announcement.

The online qualifiers are starting today, with first chance to win a seat for Edinburgh tomorrow.  Publicity of these has been limited so far, so you may want to get in quick before the news gets out!

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=30555.msg628405#msg628405


Date and time of freeroll confirmed

Shouldn't they have been confirmed before being published in Poker Player magazine in a one page advert? :dontask:

congrats to boba fett for taking down the first $1600 package for edinburgh very well played mate ;applause; ;applause; ;applause;

well done indeed!

great one ;applause;

 ;applause; ;applause; ;applause; ;applause;

Great effort well done

reminder freeroll tonight 8.30pm

What site is this on?

too late, but Gala Poker

So no Bournemouth or Leeds, and Bristol date has changed!!..........according to the NOW updated website.

maybe get a response by next month......oops

Especially for portfolio

Sofasurfer did come back on  ;)

gr8  all   must be rosy in the garden   then. ty

Hello everyone, my name’s Ollie and this is my first post, but hopefully one of many to come!  I’m here as a poker enthusiast and also as a representative of the Gala Casinos British Poker Tour and I’ll be able to field any questions or queries you might have about the upcoming GCBPT (that's the reason I'm replying to this thread!). 
 
I’ve been a big poker fan (and poker student) for two years now, so I hope to get chatting about some interesting hands and any poker tales I pick up from the upcoming Gala Casinos Tour (which I’ll be following closely).

I can now confirm the official dates and locations of the main events:

Date
 Location
 
27 Feb - 2 March
 Gala Maybury Casino, Edinburgh
 
16 - 20 April
 Gala Casino Maid Marian Way, Nottingham
 
18 - 22 June
 Gala Harbourside Casino, Bristol
 
17-21 Sept
 Gala Casino, Liverpool
 
22 - 26 Oct
 Gala Casino Stockton-on-Tees
 
1 - 7 Dec
 Grand Final, Gala Harbourside Casino, Bristol
 
 
I’ll actually be turning up to the festival events and, hopefully, having a go myself (seeing as I’m not a Gala Casino’s employee), so I hope to see some of you there.  In fact, I’ll be posting interesting stuff I – and my video camera – find from the tour so if you have any ideas about the type of content you’d like to see beyond bad beats, tricky hands and colourful characters, please let me know.
 
Cheers,
 
Ollie

Why has Leeds been dumped? Seemingly in order to have two festivals in Bristol.  This leaves a large area of country with no local festival and a lot of people disappointed. :(

Sorry it took me a while to get back to you one this, it’s a busy time at the mo as you can imagine (Edinburgh is only a few weeks away!) We decided to pull Leeds from the tour this year because seeing as we’re able to hold main events in Liverpool and Teeside, we felt we were able to represent the north sufficiently.  Obviously it’s hard to take a major city like Leeds out, but logistically and operationally it just wasn’t the best location for us.

Cheers,

Ollie

PS - A quick heads up - there are 2 last chance online qualifiers running on Wednesday and Thursday this week for the Edinburgh main event  – each with 2 guaranteed packages.  That is if you haven't already got a seat ;)