blonde poker forum

On August 10-12, Nottingham Live will be returning to Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club for another weekend of poker fun and frolics with deep stacks, a fun atmosphere, and a guaranteed prize pool of $75,000.

The Main Event is a $200+20 buy-in freezeout. Registration is available exclusively via the Black Belt Poker online cardroom in Scheduled > Black Belt Tournaments > Day 1A/B Nottingham Live 2012.

And unlike the WSOP, they'll be offering free money and added value in the form of our Belt Bonuses.

Anyone who is Orange Belt by August 1st will receive $100 for eliminating one of our many bounties, as well as an incredible 10% added to any cash winnings.

In keeping with WSOP fever, two former bracelet winners have now been confirmed for Nottingham Live II and will be playing the event with a giant target etched onto their foreheads as bounties.

With a near four million in live tournament winnings, Marty Smyth is Ireland's second biggest winner of all time, and is considered to be one of Europe's best Omaha players.

The second bracelet winner to take his seat in Nottingham will be Black Belt Poker sponsored pro Richard Ashby.

Now his eyes are firmly fixed on Nottingham Live, and improving on his finish at the inaugural East End Live where he placed fifth for $3,400, plus $680 for being a Black Belt.

Marty and Richard bring the list of announced bounties up to five after we announced that all three Black Belt Live winners - Sonny Pomroy, Peter Wigglesworth, and defending Champion Stuart Hyson - would be vying to become the first two-time winner.

Full schedule and side events will follow shortly.

Cheers Nicola

In for frolics.

Hi guys. For those with deep pockets, there's also a two-day High Roller on Saturday for £1,000+90, with a live satellite earlier in the day. Registration is via the DTD cashier. Last year, Ben Vinson topped a field of 28 for £12,600.

But not the 'fun'?
You should really opt for the combo.

Enjoyed this last year, unable to make this one.

I heard the last Blackbelt live was buy in via their website only and payouts were also only paid into players accounts, no cash.

Does this apply to the Nottingham leg as well?

Just re read the op and see that buy in is the same so presume payouts are too.

Yep.

For those who haven't secured your seat, we've got a great opportunity for you. On Wednesday we're hosting an online Mega Satellite with 10 seats guaranteed. The buy-in is $40+4, and there's a very good chance of an overlay. And if $44 isn't within your bankroll, then there are a bunch of $5+0.50 feeders every night until kick-off.

Remember, you can still play the satellites even if you've already bought in, so register soon as the event tends to sell out suddenly and we then receive emails from people asking us to somehow get them a seat.

Outside chance of playing this, as I really enjoyed the London leg at Aspers.

One thing is that I think you should make people aware of the quite frankly absurd payout structure.  Obviously realise the business reasons behind it.

 Planning to pay 18% of the field Scotty. Think absurd might be a bit strong. I would say 15% is generally standard and we would obviously like to see lots of our small players, many of whom are in for $5 getting paid.

 Might "cost" the winner $400. Doubt they'll be too depressed.

Yeah absurd was too strong! But fairly sure that SPTs use 10pc, and DTD up until recently was 10pc too but I think it has now gone to 12pc.....

It is a strange percentage to use but fully understand why you want as much money as possible paid out to BlackBelt player accounts :)

Is the buyin only via BBP ipoker skin or all skins??

Just BBP. Will give the mega a crack as last year was fun and this year I can concentrate fully!

Yep just Blackbelt :)

Hi Guys

I have a full schedule for you :)

$200 Main Event Day 1A Friday 2pm, Day 1B Saturday 2pm!
£1,000 High Roller Event Day 1 Saturday 7pm (£100 Live satellite running Saturday at 2.30pm)
Super 50's Friday, Saturday & Sunday

BBP Main event is online buy in via the BBP lobby
Side events are cash buy in

View the full week here - http://www.dusktilldawncasinonottingham.com/news/whats-on-live-at-dusk-till-dawn-this-week/2255

Cheers Nicola
 

With the Olympics, summer holidays, etc, an overlay is looking like this weekend, especially as there's no late registration, and you can't sign up. With that in mind, if you intend to play, or want to take advantage of a potential overlay, then make sure you secure your seat before registration closes.

Last chance to qualify tonight.

We're guaranteeing 10 seats into the Nottingham Live Main Event.

$40+4 buy-in.

20:00 start.

Three $5+0.50 feeders at 18:00, 18:30, and 19:00.

Expecting an overlay on this one.

 The sat has just 26 in it at the mo and there are TEN seats guaranteed so it could be good for the punters.

 Saturday is starting to sell out now so if you are thinking of playing that I would buy-in tonight before it does.

Neil (AKA Bad Beat / AKA defo one of the good guys)

Sorry, I can't help grinning a little that you rather than me are having to sweat 10 seat  GTE's on satelittes and the $75,000 main event  at the club, reason being last time you were up at the £500k Deepstack you asked me why cause myself all this stress putting big GTE's up!

You're gonna be fine mate, these boys like to pay their entries at www.enteratthelastminute.com! I'll give you a bell tomorrow and catch up

Cheers Rob

Ill be dealing this event, doing some hours for DTD. Please say hello if you recognise me/tell me who you are. Always love to meet Blondites!

This event was cracking last year gutted not to be able to make it and JK dealing too im even more tilted now.

 We seem to have sold quite a lot of tickets overnight and it now looks like Saturday's day 1b will SELL OUT today. Please buy-in today if you want to play Saturday and please do not expect to buy-in on the day as it will be sold out. I had to tell Rob how many dealers we needed a while ago and that is why I was keen to get people to buy-in early. When we get to 200 each day that is it.

 Friday will disappear from our lobby at 1pm and at that point the names will be sent to iPoker. after that no new entries can be taken for Friday and there will be no refunds. The same thing will happen for Day 1b at 1am Saturday. iPoker want a list of all players by that time and we can't pay money to any account who wasn't on that list.

 Hopefully you'll all buy-in today and nobody will bend my ear on Friday or Saturday.

 Shows what I know. Day 1b didn't sell out today and we stop selling tickets for Friday day 1a tomorrow. Our little company will be orking out about thirty or forty grand in overlay.

 Is anyone coming or are you worried about the pay-out structure? (we haven't decided on it or published it yet - we have decided to guarantee $75,000 which will be paid out).

 Should have said day 1a tickets cease being sold at 1am (in one hour).

I am gonna look a complete tw@t here because I am, but did I not read that Dtd had some seats to sell for this?

 You have to buy-in on Black Belt Poker. Rob is quite keen to let people buy-in at the club. I think the second you give some people a chance to come on the day and buy-in at the club is the last time you can run the event. Next time everyone will just wait and buy-in at the club because signing-up online is far too difficult for lazy poker players. If that happens you may as well never repeat the tournament as the whole point of it from our point of view is lost.

 iPoker are very strict on letting their skins run live events. They are certainly not going to allow us to pay a random person a large amount of money on Monday, when as far as they know that person never even played the event. Rightly so. They need a list of all the names of players in the event in advance.

 If you come to DTD today and you wish to play we can help you open and account and sign-in to play today.

 The overlay is currently $40,000 which I can assure you is a very big hit for us to take as one of the smallest skins on the network.

Thanks for that.  I obv have an account. Did I ever tell you about my time in Marrakesh that I managed to get into through a lovely satellite competition on your skin :)

 I know you do, it was aimed more generally.

 We curreently are experiencing an extremely frustrating technical issue which means nobody at all can buy-in to the event. We are attempting to get it sorted and it involves lots of emails back and forward.

 A new "event" will hopefully appear in our lobby soon called Black Belt Notts Live and players will be able to buy into that for either day.

Hi.

We've extended registration for this event so that players can buy in on the day of event.

Registration for both days in now available in the lobby with a new 'event' page in Scheduled > Black Belt Tournaments that covers both days.

Should still be a massive overlay on this one as just 33 are signed up for Day 1A, so don't miss out. The $75,000 guarantee stands.

Incredible unheard of value at Dusk Till Dawn this weekend.

Black Belt last year at a buy in of $125 was a sell out, this year they have put the buy in up to $200 and guaranteed 375 players ie $75,000.

There are 2 day 1's, today 2pm start that has just 36 entries and tomorrows has 160 so currently a $35,000 overlay.

Late reg is available for the first 6 levels, so with a 40 min clock and 15,000...chips you can still enter by the 150 300 level.

All you have to do is turn up, register via the Black Belt client, they have staff their to help you do it, only takes a couple of minutes, get sat down and take advantage of this chance to get through half the field that was expected for all the prize money.....

If i wasn't on tour i would definitely play this event.

Good luck to those that do.

ACES

Live Updates for this event with Snoopy and Dana at http://www.blackbeltpoker.com/tournaments/past-black-belt-live-events/nottingham-live-2/

Black Belt last year at a buy in of $125 was a sell out, this year they have put the buy in up to $200 and guaranteed 375 players ie $75,000.

Today's 2pm start for 1b follows 1a which had only 57 runners, currently a $35,000 overlay based on 160 in for today.

Late reg is available for the first 6 levels, so with a 40 min clock and 15,000 chips you can still enter by the 150 300 level.

All you have to do is turn up, register via the Black Belt client, they have staff their to help you do it, only takes a couple of minutes, get sat down and take advantage of this chance to get through half the field that was expected for all the prize money.....


9 survived yesterday and they were

Kevin Williams (bounty) -- 251,700
Jalal Rasoul -- 158,100
Luke Bindon -- 128,400
David Craigon -- 94,100
Raghubinder Aujla -- 74,700
Jack Allen -- 44,500
Ross Wood -- 40,900
Nick Hemming -- 35,800
Gary Cornwell -- 27,800


Craigon=Skippy, Allen=Fruitbat on here. gl those guys tomorrow

Can people who got knocked out in day1a, re enter for day1b?

Trying to register via online, failing epicly. Dont know if its anything to do with my Encore account, also iPoker. Sigh. Guess I'm queuing at DTD, Marv!

Kevin facking Williams tho

Lol I mean the point of the event is so u sign up to black belt

I would sign up to Blackbelt George! I'm just in a battle against the software. I'll get there eventually.

Going back for day 2

There were 258 runners and 68 remain

A $20,000+ overlay

End of 1b

Liam Batey -- 136,300
Daniel Bland -- 126,800
Adam O'Connell -- 117,200
Craig Sidders -- 110,400
Jerome Bradpiece -- 106,400
Anonymous -- 103,400
Brett Pinder -- 100,600
Matthew Sheils -- 88,900
Mark Wilson -- 80,200
Byron Brewer -- 79,100
Shane Norman -- 72,500
Hasmukh Khodiyara -- 70,000
Matthew Heap -- 69,500
Jack Sambrook -- 68,100
Mark French -- 68,100
Chris Keyworth -- 67,100
Tyrone MacLean -- 67,000
Fred Wise -- 62,500
Mitchell Johnson -- 61,800
Matthew Holliday -- 61,400
Chris Dodd -- 54,200
Steve Parry -- 53,200
Russ Swift -- 50,200
Stephen Monaghan -- 49,300
Nick Mazur -- 47,600
Daniel Seabury -- 46,400
Richard Hurst -- 45,400
Orlando Anderson -- 45,300
Nick Woodward -- 44,600
Sam Bowtell -- 44,500
Rob Painter -- 44,500
Darius Demetriou -- 43,300
Steven Fitzpatrick -- 43,000
Kerryjane Craigie -- 42,900
Lee Taylor -- 42,500
Richard Garcia -- 37,600
Ramazanali Abbassi -- 37,600
Phil Walker -- 36,700
Phillip Ryding -- 36,600
David Lawrence -- 36,100
Mark Valentine -- 34,800
Ben Glanville -- 32,700
Kevin Birt -- 32,600
Antony Flatman -- 32,300
Sarah Berry -- 31,900
Dean Clay -- 30,500
David Tompkins -- 29,400
Dominic Sakal -- 28,000
James Martin Smyth -- 23,900
Clive Morrison -- 23,800
Paul Monks -- 22,300
Stephen Dickson -- 22,200
Adam Carey - -21,600
James Smith -- 21,200
John Hayes -- 20,500
Gary Bauld -- 17,000
Stuart Preston -- 16,300
Peter Brown -- 12,300
Wipa Manapien -- 7,500



1    $15,000
2    $10,000
3    $7,500
4    $6,000
5    $4,600
6    $3,800
7    $3,100
8    $2,500
9    $2,000

There goes the Christmas party.

when did you start dying your hair brown?

Well done to Kevin Williams who won this

Well done to Skippy too, 3rd for $7,500

You can check out the updates and pictures at http://www.blackbeltpoker.com/tournaments/past-black-belt-live-events/nottingham-live-2/

WP Skips.

Hey peeps. Just a quick message to say thank you to Babis Lappas and Sam Razavi for sponsoring six players into the Nottingham Live, and then donating their 50 percent of winnings to Cancer Research.

Also, many thanks to Kerryjane Craigie for donating her entire prize, and bounty Marty Smyth who, without provocation, made the same gesture. Finally, congratulations to last clown standing Shane Norman for really bumping the figures up with his final table finish.

In total, Cancer Research will be receiving $2,500. Back-pats all around. We may have done chunks in the overlay, but at least everyone had a good time and a good cause received some dough.

Final Results were as follows:

1st  Kevin Williams -- $15,000
2nd  Jack Sambrook -- $10,000
3rd  David Craigon -- $7,500
4th  Matthew Heap - $6,000 
5th  Chris Keyworth -- $4,600
6th  Shane Norman -- $3,800
7th  Russ Swift -- $3,100
8th  Luke Bindon -- $2,500
9th  Jerome Bradpiece -- $2,000

That's a grand thing, snoops, sorry to hear about the overlay, but well done Babis & Sam, both of whom entertained me regally in Vegas recently.

One reason for the overlay maybe that you pay 20% of the field. I know loads of people who played it last year but not this year because they remember how bad the payout structure was. If you could buy-in live at the club too it'd snap make the guarantee obv, but I see why you don't do that.

Congrats Kevin and Skippy too.

Thanks very much everyone.

I don't think it's got much to do with the payout structure (although it's not ideal). I think the problem is that by the end of this month there will have been a £150, a £200 and the "£141" Black Belt event at DTD alone. That's before you start with Goliath and there are probably other similar events for which the spam hasn't made it to my inbox. As Rob says in his blog on the DTD website, live poker players are spoilt for choice at the moment. You can't play them all.

Beast! Congratz man! Told you something would come in Jan- about time too!

 Im really quite cross now. Why would people come on here and try and underrmine what we are doing in this way?

 Firstly Notts Live last year paid 18% of the field. I don't know whether you think it supports your argument better to say 20% but I think it's quite important to get your facts straight if you are going to make a point like this. The payout structure was displayed a long time in advance as it seemed obvious we were going to sell out.

 This year we made the buy-in $200+20 for a number of reasons. Players had said they would rather it was slightly bigger to make it worth tracelling, we had gone with that price at Aspers in Stratford and beaten the guarantee and we wanted to be consistent.

 When it seemed that we wouldn't sell out and that Saturday would have five times the players that Friday had we were reluctant to put up the structure. If you pay out 15%+ you run into the problem of reaching the money on day 1a.

 We ended up paying out 45 players from 258 entries which is just under 18%.

 For comparison the GUKPT pays 10% as do the Genting series and the WPT. The WSOP pays 12%, the UKIPT 13% and the EPT 16%.

 Who is to say who is right?

 You say you think lots of people didn't play because of it. I would say that I spoke to a few players who really like the fact we paid 18%. Many players in the event have got in via a freeroll or are in for $5. For them a win of $400 is a decent prize. They may not play optimally around the bubble going for a cash, but that is one of the reasons that our events are great value.

 I also am aware that some plyers do not like having to buy-in online. Obviously the reason we run events and put up guarantees is to get players to open an account with Black Belt. If we were to let the lazy players who can't be bothered come on the day and pay in cash it will be hard in the future to get people to buy-in online in advance.

 In the end we tried to make it the best of both worlds for players and our staff were on hand at the club taking five minutes a player opening accounts and then transferring in money for those who hadn't thought to bring a card with them to deposit.

 I do find that most of the people who tell me they would have bought in for cash still seem to manage to operate Facebook where they post daily bad beat stories from the tournaments they play on PokerStars. Why they would turn their nose up at a $23,000+ overlay is totally beyond me.

 I would also point out that if we had paid 15% of the field instead of 17.5% that would have meant $3600 would be "freed-up". The winner may have got an extra $750. Is that really enough to stop you playing an event with a $23,000 overlay?

I really don't think the % pay out had anything to do with the overlay. I doubt the majority of people even check that sort of stuff before playing a tourney, I know I didn't lol  :)

You shouldn't be saying this Neil.

I wish I'd said this in person at the time, but I'm a big fan of yours- every time I get bored in a casino and pick up one of these free poker magazines your column is always the first bit I look at, whenever you've appeared on the 2+2 pokercast I've always made sure I listened to it (in fact I went through the archives to make sure I listened to all the interviews you've given them) and I love reading your posts on here. I'd kind of given up playing these two day poker events, but the reason I decided to play this on Friday was because I saw there was going to be an overlay/ only 50-odd people turned up and I wanted to show you some support*. Obviously that's worked out great for me, but that was my original reasoning.

But whenever you get anyone saying anything that can be construed as even slightly criticizing or negative, you get really bitter really quickly, and fly off the handle.

All Alex was doing was offering some constructive criticism. You can agree with it, you can disagree with it, you can post and debate it (which is what these forums are for, after all). But to accuse him of coming on here trying to "undermine" you or your business is ridiculous. I'd have said he was trying to suggest ways of avoiding the overlay, because he wants you to be successful. That's supportive, not undermining.

* actually it's obvious why I didn't say this at the time- it makes me look like a loser. But oh well.

Main reason I didn't play was it clashed with the Olympics, sad I know. Live only 15 minutes from DtD and like overlays :)

Well done Skippy btw!

I don't think the shortage of players has anything to do with the payout structure.

I think the fact the tournament was on during the last 3 days of the Olympics was much more likely the reason.

Certainly that's why I didn't play.

Congrats to Kevin.


EDIT: Wasn't DTD's biggest overlay when Chelsea played Man Utd in the CL final? Sports events obv have a massive effect on tournament attendance.

 I think if he posts something that just isn't true as a reason for people not to come I would say undermining is a good word. This thread literally starts with Scotty saying the payout structure is absurd and then Alex chips in to say we are paying out 20% when we are not.

 I think the summer, the weather, the Olympics, the big amount of £100-£200 events that popped-up after we had announced ours were really the reasons people didn't come, but I don't think Alex or Scott did anything to help.

 I appreciate the kind words Skippy. I will continue to fight hard for my business when it is attacked though.

Wow, pretty surprised at this. I wasn't "attacking" your business at all! It was constructive criticism for sure! Or at least certainly intended to be so. I thought following our phone conversation a few weeks ago that this was encouraged?

I'm sorry about getting the 18/20% bit mixed up. Mitch spoke about it after he near-bubbled and told me it was 20% and that was why I said 20 (if it had been 20 he would've cashed ironically), so apologies for not checking out my facts on that front.

18 is still a lot more than standard, and I know it put some people off because they told me so! However it's possible it encouraged people to play also for the reasons you gave. I dont know, I was just saying something that I thought might be helpful.

16% EPT against 18% our tournament. Would you not play an EPT? What constitutes a long way away from standard?

 You said loads of people didn't play it for that reason. I don't actually think that is the case I think it's some of the other reasons people have mentioned, but I don't think it helps us if people are going around putting out misinformation and if the thread to publicise the event practically starts with someone saying don't play that.

I didn't even know it was 16% for EPTs to be honest. I know that all online and live comps I've ever played have been 10-12% so 18 is a long way off, yes.

Surely it's better that I posted after the event than before when you're trying to promote it?

 I'm definitely in favour of constructive criticism and as I lick my $25,000 wound I'm certainly thinking of some of the things that could have gone better but I am finding it a tad frustrating to think that a whole load of locals didn't play because some people told them it was a bad idea to play because we pay out 20% of the field when we pay 18% of the field ad those same people would snap fly to an EPT who pay 16% which has to be pretty comparable.

 It's pretty easy for the word to go round about something. Is this really what happened here?

 I totally accept that in March when we picked the date the Olympics was the last thing on my mind and that was probably a mistake.

 I do find it odd that over 100 players came to each of the £50 events at DTD that ran during our event but few of those played our's 1st.

 Is buying-in online really such a bad thing?

 I am probably in a bad mood. I have done nothing other than promote this event for a month now and it's cost me a load of money. I thought at least now I'd be able to have a break and think about the next thing.

some players just don't do it!...and its a hard habit to break.

you can do great last longer prizes for buying in online and discounts etc........and still many turn up and buy in with cash.

I don't think anyone is meaning to criticise as such Neil, and if I may say so I think you are being a bit sensitive, understandably

FWIW I don't think the payout was an issue at all. Two comments on here, only one before the event....really no adverse noise at all.

Olympics would be a big issue last weekend

Poker player laziness would be another, no matter how easy you make it to buy in online. A lot of the £15-50 regs at DTD will a) not be online regs b) bankroll limited and won't play £140-150 buy ins c) not interested in opening a BBP account even if its presented to them on a plate 

So to answer your issue any barrier put that makes buy in a bit more difficult than handing in cash at the counter is an obstacle

Final issue would be the sheer overcrowding of the market at the buy in level you chose. Lots of competition, and definitely much "worse" than when this event would have been planned

Good post. Any obstacle is an obstacle no matter how easy it is to overcome.

Take "Thank you letters" for example. My parents always made me write to thank each relative for their present every Christmas and Birthday. I'd write them and they'd send them off. Now I live away from them I have to do it all myself. Write the letter, print it out, find their address somehow, take it to the post office buy an envelope, a stamp and send it. The relatives that use email get theirs A LOT quicker than those who don't!

When I do get them sent off I always walk away thinking, that was actually really easy why has it taken me 3 weeks to do that?

Same with online buyin, you register (2mins), you deposit (2mins) and click buyin (10 seconds). I'm sure it's just that simple. People still won't do it though.

Hi Neil, understandably you're a bit sensitive at the moment.. Understood. However genuinely think people here are just offering genuine feedback which of course should be encouraged. FWIW having to open a BBP account and buy in online was a huge turn off and one reason I didn't play, but there were other reasons too. Totally get the reasons behind going this route but like someone else said you could incentivise online buy in without insisting on it and also allow a direct buy in route for cash on the day and for sure there would have been no overlay. A few accidental misdirections between friends and locals on the details of the payout structure would have negligible affect if any.

I wish you luck and hopefully next BBL will be better supported. Just don't pick FA Cup final day, or any other significant sporting event and allow direct cash buy in on the day.

Thanks
Greg

Basically it's LOLpokerplayers.

They'd rather play a tournament with no overlay than one with a 20k overlay.

And we wonder if there's still an edge in poker?

Don't check the lobby much on stars then?

nah lol am i wrong there too!? I never make the $ on stars.com anyway lol.

Keith is right

I run some events/Tour and currently have to fill an event for mid September , and grapple with the same sort of stuff the BBL event has had

No matter what, an allocation of seats has to be left for the venue, I find, to build chatter amongst local players as those seats go...live satellites or just over the counter sale to get a buzz going

Direct buy in on the day is a must too. Of course any Tour/Event is going to want to drive sign ups onto online, but if that's at the expense of missing a guarantee then its cart before horse

All being well you get close to selling before the day and have the different problem of people wanting scarce seats

So many poker players only start to think about an event in the 48 hours before it,  and that can really penalise "Online buy in only" events as so many guys just won't get their arse into gear. Offer to put on staff on the day to open accounts - all well and good but people won't necessarily see or read that you've done this, word has already got round that you can't buy in diurect and that's a very powerful message putting people off

 I really don't understand. I totally get it that some people are a bit hand to mouth. They often have over 50% of their "bankroll" invested in the next tournament, they don't own a credit card, they use uKash vouchers and they don't have a bank account.

 I reckon you are a guy with a laptop and a desktop who plays online, has a bank account,once opened an account with Stars and could would have the skillset to do it again if necessary Greg? How is such a hurdle for you to buy-in online?

 In a world where people fly to South America to pay 20% tax on their winnings is an event down the road with a massive overlay really that bad?

 I understand that having a facility to buy-in on the day would eliminate the guarantee but it would also eliminate a lot of the reason we run the tournament. The first category of guy is not going to do much to cover our bills and we aren't getting the benefits of filling DTD that Rob is.

OK I'll bite. I won a package that included flights, hotels and main event buyin. I'm not going to stay at home am I? It's in a country I've dreamed of travelling in for years. I wanted a break from the UK for a while and I haven't been travelling for a while and miss it. I'd jump at the chance to do it again.

edit: it's also a massive prizepool with first prize of over $150k, 10x that of BBL if you want to compare the two. I'd also argue that the field was softer but you might not believe me there...

 Bit disappointed at the length of time it took you to bite. Was just reading your trip exploits on page 630ish (bit behind). Is a standard open from 18bbs with Qh8h against a load of calling stations fashionable these days?

It only took me so long because I was having a stroll on the balcony of my suite and decided to pop down to the gorgeous lake beneath it and paddle in the warm water for a few moments.

I wouldn't call it fashionable to open Q8hh from 18bbs against calling stations, but I was the cutoff, two tight players to my left, one station, and I was pretty confident I was going to flop a huge draw...

Maybe the answer to encourage people to buyin online by giving them a golden chip or whatever?

But let people buyin in cash on the day if they want.

14.9% on the 3 tournies i could arsed to do, field size varying from 1.5k to 9k

seems like a good solution

This is like one of those fishermen's tales when the fish gets bigger and bigger as the story gets retold. Tell us about this any more time and you'll be raising it from the small blind when the big blind was off powdering their nose.

Standard Goulderments. He told me and Keith about a HH from 1k wsop event which kept changing

FFS! When did this story change? I'm my blog I reported it as "late position, hijack or cutoff". And now I've just said cutoff. Go on then shoot me. Oh and I didn't mention about the tight blinds. I didn't say they were ridic aggro though did I?

The story hasn't changed I've just included more details this time round. Jeez. Internet Police were so much cooler in 2011.

Dude check the view again.

It's pitch black...

Didn't say it was a massive hurdle just merely giving the view that this would be one of the reasons people didn't play.  It wouldn't stop me. Had I been available for the weekend I would have gone through the process but many wouldn't because they do not want to be forced down that route. I would rather not have to both though.... There are a lot of the old timer locals that don't want lots of online accounts and don't play online that would have flicked it in but maybe you don't need those guys anyway in the long run so whatever. Just trying to give you a different slant on some of the local live players psychology

Sorry Neil, it's DTD, we are just jinxed with Overlays. See you in London for a cash game soon :(

I feel I should come in here and defend Neil a little as people are being critical without seeing the bigger picture.

You're completely missing the point of these tournaments when you say allow cash buy-ins. It can only devalue the business in the long run even if it saves a potential overlay on the day. As Neil says, the moment you allow some people to do this, almost everyone is going to do it. BBP is an online poker site, not a tour, so they need people to register online.

Let's go into more detail. Neil states their last event broke the guarantee (wp). Sure there were probably costs involved with the event, but hopefully the profit generated from the new and reactivated players made it worth while.

Now let's have a few fictional BBP events.

Event 1 is heading for a small overlay, but the long term profit made by the new and reactivated players online makes up for that.

Event 2 is heading for a larger overlay. They open up cash buy-ins and break even on the guarantee. Less profit is made on new/reactivated players.

Event 3 advertises cash only buy-ins from the start. BBP get 80% less online registrations. They make the guarantee, but now have a much smaller long term profit generated from the few players who registered online.

So to summarise, overlays (obviously not as big as last weekends) aren't always going to be a bad thing for BBP, especially compared to the impact a huge reduction in online registrations have.

Alex v Channing heads up for rollz......

 ;starwars; ;boldie;

ill take 5/2 if your offering

  I do find it odd that over 100 players came to each of the £50 events at DTD that ran during our event but few of those played our's 1st.

Maybe because you can play 4 tourneys at 50£ with regular players you know ,rather than 1 event featuring a lot of pros / semi pros / better players who will put you under pressure making it less enjoyable ?

I take that 5/2 :)

The whole world would be against Channing here, some realism needed. And that is not a besmirch on Mr Badbeat, its all about the price.