blonde poker forum

http://www.worldheadsuppoker.com/detail.php

Looks like a really good festival and great to see the WHUPC in the UK, but I'm sure Tikay will spit out his morning cuppa at this one.

£3000*+£250+£50*

*3% of the prize pool withheld for
TV production and broadcast
+£50 food and beverage to be used
during the tournament

Prob better to just call it a £3000+£390 imo. £50 for food budget is actually not bad considering its a week long, but not sure peeps are gonna like paying a reg fee AND 3% of the prize pool being taken away. Dont really have a problem with the breakdown of costs, just seems really odd way to present them.

PS. Prediction: MC staking thread within 24 hours of this one

Ahahahaha - that is just scandalous.

And Barry, it's actually £2910+£390 - 13.4% juice on something this expensive is an absolute joke.

Oh yeah, maths n that, whoops

Urgh

Oh dear.

So the guys are now paying to be on, & inconvenienced, by the TV cameras?

One thinks that perhaps it might be best if one did not comment further. ;)

Inconvenienced by TV cameras?
Are you for real Tikay?

A Post has been Deleted from this Thread, but this was not removed by the Moderators.

Ha this has to a be a windup!

Obv it will get runners though as all the sponsored pro's will get put in for the TV time.

Why not just charge people to wear logo's, keep us independents free!

If you were not involved with this, you would be outraged.

The facts speak for themselves, & I would prefer not to get further involved in the Debate, as it does not affect me.

Pete, I wish you, & the Event, well, I really do. I do mean that.

I know this is a perfect event for sponsored pros who will be loving the TV cameras, but there are also tons of non sponsored players who might not want the cameras there, or at least, not want to pay for them. Heads up is now one of the games of choice for online pros who may want to retain some anonymity and having been smacked full on in the face by a camera at a tournament once before, I can tell you they are sometimes an inconvenience.

 Aspades


Okay just to keep things balanced.

We have withheld 3% ( Of which we have to pay 50% tax ugh!) to help cover some of the TV and "live" webcast costs. Our sponsors Littlewoods have also added to these but we are still putting some of our own money in to stage and produce the event. We have worked very hard to bring this event to the UK (from Barcelona) and thanks to the help from Grosvenor and the senior staff at the Vic (who have also worked very hard to make this happen) we have finally succeeded. Admittedly we would love to charge little or no entry fees, but this is never going to happen. What we have succeeded in doing is creating a good tournament with a decent first prize ( £200,000 subject to 128 players) Live webcast and TV production, which I personally feel is of benefit to the players (not an inconvenience). Of course I would have liked to get some good publicity to help launch the event but hey as they say " Any publicity is better than no publicity"

 Thanks,

Pete Singleton

So not a guaranteed prizepool then.

Given half the people are going to knocked out on the first day, most after playing for no more than 2 hours, are they going to get £50 worth of food and drink?

Could you swerve the £50 and pay as you go for the grub ?

 Aspades

Yep.

How?

£49.99 for a cuppa ??

(http://socialrift.co.uk/uploaded_images/marios-ten-egg-breakfast-full-english-740814.jpg)

Only Kev could do this in one go surely?
For the rest i would suggest, less food MORE DRINK!

That would probably cause more problems, everyone expects a decent buffet. Most poker players are fatty bum bums too, and could each easily wade through £50 of sausage rolls and satay chicken skewers during the first break.

Is it only joke answers on the thread then?

To be fair, its only those of us who value a £ who will notice, as has already been said, 90% of the field will be sponsored players, the other 10% have big ego's and will pretend they dont notice it.

Lol, I'm still bummed that it's not in Barcelona!

Not sure I would be able to get £3k's worth of backing, plus field will probably be stronger if it is in London...

Bring a packed lunch and thats £50 of your stake sorted already  :D

lol :)

doesn't the EPT rake twice aswell?

Yes - EPT London is in effect £4850+£400, which is 8.2% juice.

The £50 will be in the form of a voucher given to each player

Why give a £50 voucher to each player instead of just telling them that they have to pay for their food and drink?

'You have to give us £50 so we can give you a voucher worth £50 for you to spend'.

So if you're there all week do you have to make the £50 last all week? How much of the £50 voucher should players spend on the first day?

I'm sure that the places that the £50 voucher can be redeemed at will also accept actual money.

The Vic, The Vic and The Vic?

Would be my guess. It's the only way it isn't pointless.

Also, if you bust in round 1 and leave how are you going to spend whats left on your £50 voucher?

As an aside, whenever I've been to the Vic I rarely eat there unless the game is too juicy to get up from as the food is very average and overpriced.

agreed

having a condition of entry to a tourney that you've got to spend £50 on shit food is proper lol

make it argos vouchers imo and then everyone can get something they need from the shop downstairs

I think Pete probably meant that players get a buffet ticket every day, like in most festivals, rather than a food gift voucher (lol if Im wrong)

£50 isnt bad at all for food, its a seven day event and the previous events where I have been privy to the running costs were about £7 a head a day, so in that respect its pretty standard. Obviously in this instance, the issue is that the field decreases at such a fast rate that very few people actually get the usage out of the fee. There is probably about 2 or 3 grand that wont be claimed for from the day 1 exits right off the bat (When did I start saying 'right off the bat'? - I work with too many yanks), maybe about 4 or 5 grand overall. This is assuming of course a full house and that players dont stay in London for a week to redeem their grub voucher.

Do players in any of the side events get a food allowance/buffet?

This surely isnt that different to other tournaments is it? Look at the WSOPE last week, 300 runners each day 1 and about 50 come back for day 2, Im guessing the bust outs on the day 1s will have technically paid for some of the food in day 2. The only difference here is that the organisers chose to mention it as a separate part of the reg fee, rather than having the fee as an all encompassing charge for all the costs of the festival.

Whats on the menu btw?

knowing how selective pete is in his tournaments, there is no way on god's green earth that he would pay the reg fees for this tourney, but here he comes on defending them.

even  if i could afford to play this i wouldnt
1 i rarely eat buffets i would rather buy my own food seeing as i am very picky over food
2 i would rather not pay for the camera dont really care about being on the tele and wouldnt pay to be on the tele my name aint industrable

I would have loved to play this tournament.

Heads up is my favourite form of poker and I'd like to think I'm pretty good at it.

But the idea that the players have to contribute towards the televsion coverage is beyond a joke.

This is such a dangerous path for poker to go down, I urge everyone to boycott this event.

Proberly not.

I think you may have misunderstood the reasoning here Keith.
We have a very limited sponsorship deal which almost covers our TV costs. We have added some of our own monies to cover staging and promoting the event in an effort to establish it in the UK .We have been honest and told all concerned that we cannot fully cover all these costs and have withheld 3% to help with the webcast etc, which we thought was a good idea for publicity for both the players involved and the event itself. It is not an ideal  answer to our problem but it allows us to go ahead with the event for 2009.
To be perfectly honest  I have put a lot of effort into trying to get this off the ground this year in the UK and hoped that most people would see the logic and sense behind the plan. I have always tried to get the best deal for all players in this event (please feel free to ask those that have played previously) but seeing some of the comments on this forum with regard to this does make me wonder a little. Of course peoples views are just that , however continualy slagging this off is not really very helpful and really won`t further the future of poker in the UK.

Pete Singleton.

I think we all appreciate your sentiment, it's just not right for most players really. With all the TV tournaments etc these days it's unlikely players are truly likely to benefit from paying this extra 3% for publicity etc. I think that's something the tournament will benefit from but I just don't agree with it.

gl though

pete

i aint slagging you or the comp off just saying although the format of HU apeals to me the fact they are making me pay for food i wouldnt eat and TV coverage i really dont care about, i am not a name and my results aint good enough so will never get a sponsorhip deal and not looking for one so really have no concerns with getting the event on the tv
if there was the same event next door without the tv and the food and without those costs i would play the onw next door


paying for tv time is what sponsors should be doing or tv companies
not the people taking part who really dont give a damm either way

Think saying players not giving a damn about TV is a bit naive.

It'll be multai's and sponsers playing the event anyway

the last statement is porberaly bad gramma

i mean those playing who dont give a damm either way
obviously those trying to get a deal or with a deal want the exposure and wont mind paying
but those playing out of there own pocket not looking for a deal will be turned off

even if i was good at poker and had a good personailty and carsima i wouldnt play the full curcuit needed for a sponsorship for health reasons
so if i won this event what benifit would i get from paying the 3% apart from exposing my game and my name and making people realise i aint the fish i portray to be and had cost be thousands exposing

Get rid off the webcast not many players would be disappointed about that i would imagine.Don't put food on people may whinge but since they can buy food at the venue or many other places close by i would imagine, they'll not be that fussed.Then you won't have to charge ridic fees.This seems a lot more beneficial to the tourney provider than it does to the player.

It costs £90 a head?

kids got to eat durrrrrrrr.

this is just redic, I used to argue that £50 was the max we should ever goto in reg fee's unless it was a week long comp when i was running these. To claim for £££ to help pay for the tv costs is just stupid, as for trying to swing £50 for food when there is a huge mark up on it is trying to just add insult to injury the £50 will cost the Vic somewhere around £20 total to make and supply.

These comps should be run by the casino without outsiders trying to make a few quid from it as well, luckily for them they are only looking for 128 players which should get scooped by the pro's and multai's.

What sort of buisness person agrees to the tv deal when the client has to pick up a £38k deficet in money for the show to be aired, whats the point.

i think the Vic has been stupid and let the players down by putting its name to this and damaged its rep.

Pete,

I have no axe to grind

The only players who will be benefit from a webcast are sponsored players.

To those who are self funded the extra exposure means nothing. I couldn't give a monkey's arse if a tournament I play is given coverage.

You are making it sound like the only reason you are running this tournament is altruistic.

If your company wasn't going to make any money you wouldn't be running it.

To ask the players to cover the costs for media coverage is laughable.

If a cost effective deal can't be done for the TV, then don't televise it. I am sure it's quite capable of being run successfully without TV involved, certainly without charging players for it

I am also sure there are companies out there who would live stream it onto the web for a lot less than the organisers are being charged here

Priorities pretty much upside down here IMO

Here for 1 night only following a telecom with another Blonde who thought this was ludicrous and I could not resist putting in my 2 p's worth.

Surely the only people benefiting from this is Pete Singleton and his ego? Who is this competition for? The players surely? Why would any player want to pay to give Pete Singleton (or anyone else for that matter) a job. If this programme is not worth being supported by it's sponsors (who clearly are not willing to stump up the tv costs) and a tv company can't be found prepared to record it and sell it on for advertising/distribution etc then why should the players make up the difference?

I'm fairly well versed in tv deals and distribution rights and if no one has come forward willing to take this on then it's already been deemed as not a big draw for viewers and any 'advantages' player may have by being seen on tv must be minimal imo.

The next step will be deductions for Petes tax and NI shown on the buy in slip. Ridic imo.

Does seem wrong to charge the player to appear at 2am on Information TV +4.

In the end it will be supply and demand.

As said already, it will almost certainly fill,....so you pays your money and puts on your make up.

I would guess their thinking is it used to sell out completely every year there was TV coverage and last year there was none it couldn't even muster 64 runners. You can see why their logic would be that it must be televised to attract players, that and they'll make a nice healthy profit if they fill it and pass on the TV costs.

Have none of you seen the 'im so poor i cant afford to feed myself but i can afford to play £500 comps' buffet stampede?

Surely this comp should just be advertised as

£2910+£390 all players will receive FREE buffet

No one would moan at that

If the offer was unlimited beer for a week, I would definitely play ;)

If the £50 includes unlimited alcohol as well as food, what is to stop someone ordering a 16oz steak and 7 bottles of JD ??

Eatings cheating ldo

LOL..if only you were wrong.

can't wait until there is no poker on tv. Will be heaven.

I like what Ironside has said in this thread. The punctuation and grammer could have been better but w/e. I would say that if you want to make any event successful you should appeal to as broad a range of your customers as possible. If you limit the appeal to sponsored pros or youngun hopefuls you're thinning your customer base considerably and will consequently attract fewer people. I agree that these are the only ones who will appreciate the value of paying for their own exposure. Generally poker players are shrewd bastards so like to find value where they can and if those players don't see the value in an event that's a problem, regardless how hard people have worked.

this

wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

It's grammar btw

Forgive me if i should know this already, but who is "we" in the above quote?  Is that pokerineurope.com?

So to summarise, the upheaval of moving the event and the poor numbers last year affected the sponsorship revenue for the event?  Therefore in order to televise it and build a foundation for the future success of the event, you are running it at a small loss to the business this year?

The trouble with that is it feels a bit like the players are helping to invest in the future revenues of the event (i.e converting a big loss this year into a small one).  Would it be foolish to ask whether the fees will be reduced/waived in future years if the event is a big success and you can secure a much bigger sponsorship deal next year?  Or perhaps a nice chunk of added value?

I thought the old events in Barcelona were great and would like to see this former favourite on the calendar return to former glories.  There should certainly be plenty of players in London over the next few weeks to give it a good chance, regardless of the negativity surrounding the fees etc.

blonde17 no longer answering?

I have been reliably informed the 3% surcharge has been dropped.

Well done to all the movers and shakers at WHU who have actually listened to the concerns of the players and acted on them.

Hopefully I will be able to play in this now.. maybe a staking forum post is in order....

lol....could be snapped up quicker than a APAT clickfest :D

Was my rant on the radio show about it that did it obv!

I started this thread, therefore I am the unlikely hero in this story, pints of Guinness payable at the IPO next week, cheers

blonde will now be hosting a live feed from this event on the forum

Live update wise the offer is there, and I might do the first day but beyond that am unavailable

Any volunteers (sadly, volunteers its not a paid gig at this stage) in the London area over that weekend, let me know

After listening to various opinions we have decided to remove the 3% fee.

Jon Shoreman

nice one

 Just to keep everyone informed, the draw for the first round matches will take place Tuesday morning 27th Oct ahead of the start of the tournament. Following requests from several players who are travelling back from various tournaments to attend, entries will also be open (unless we have already reached the 128max) until the draw takes place.

anyone know if there is many satellite winners in this?

still waiting to get a slice

littlewoods held two qualifers....99% sure only one qualifer from each.

ok cheers

There is a £350 satellite at the vic monday night for it!

Littlewoods Poker are adding 1 seat for the WHUPC to this super satellite on Monday. Starts at 7pm. Buy In £350 + £35. Max 100 runners.

stacks and clock plz sir? tyty

How many runners do you expect Jon?

Still 50:50 whether I'm going to play this or not.

The Super Sat is 7,000 starting chips and a 25 min clock

Keith, not sure how many runners there will be. My best guess is somewhere in the region of 64, but could be a bit less or could be a bit more.

Players who are already bought in include Sami George, Dario Minieri, Roberto Romanello, Stuart Rutter, Marc Goodwin, Michael Greco, Tony Cascarino, two online qualifiers plus various assorted Europeans with largely unpronouncable names.

Hi John,

Just a coupe of quick ones. What's the plan for the structure of the draw if it's not a 64?
 
When does the draw take place, and when do you see the first match kicking off?

Cheers very muchly, see you on Tuesday

Are any sportsbooks putting a market up for this? Seems a no brainer to me

ill price it up if i can be arsed

I'll do it for you mate.

anyone decent about 8/1
anyone shit about 20/1

id just do the individual match ups. although dubai still not paid up from last years bet.

Nice preparation sir.

The draw will take place just before the start, which is midday on tuesday. There will be 1st round byes if the number of players is not exactly 32, 64 or 128.

Told you when you come London for a night out you get paid, last time you blew me out and was back on the train before i was awake :)

Anyone know were the draw for it can be found?

:)

40 runners.

16 had to play a first round match, 24 got byes.

I didn't get a bye obv, but managed to beat Nick Gold in the prelim round.

Then we played the round of the last 32, I played John Tabatabai, who was tougher than a Tesco steak. After about 3 hours I turned a straight to beat his flopped 2 pair to win.

I play one the blackbelt crew, James Mitchell, next (on Thursday, day off tomorrow).

Stuart Rutter lost to Sorel Mizzi. Don't think any other blondes were playing.

Ooooo I forgot.

Everyone's favourite blonde, The Kellster got allin with a nut straight on the turn against 2 pair.
















River made the other guy a full house.

Well played, he runs like God!

I hope you ate a bullys worth of tuck Mr Hawkins !!

James is also on blonde and a super nice guy, gl to yo both, I hope it's a draw

WTF, no LOL about Kellster?

I did on the other thread but woot woot grease etc etc

this

Live webcast starts tomorrow .

Guest commentators for Thursday include Stu Rutter, Paul Zimbler and probably Sorrel Mizzi and Keith Hawkins.
Fridays guests include Nik Persaud and Dan Carter while Saturdays guest list is headed by Neil Channing.
Details on how to contact the show with any questions or comments  will be on the webcast from Thursday 12 midday.
Thursdays WHU matches...

Third round matches (to be played to completion Thursday, 29th Oct.)

VICTOR V. will play JAN TEILHOF
ROBERT PRICE (ENGLAND) will play THOR DREXEL
RICHARD GRYKO (ENGLAND) will play PAUL ZIMBLER (ENGLAND)
SOREL MIZZI will play BAMBOS XANTHOS (GREECE)
BRYAN PELLEGRINO (ITALY) will play LAURENCE HOUGHTON (ENGLAND)
STEVEN WILMOT (ENGLAND) will play TONY CASCARINO
KEITH HAWKINS (ENGLAND) will play JAMES MITCHELL (ENGLAND)
ALBERT IVERSEN will play DARIO MINIERI (ITALY)
__________________

Go Camel

Only 40 runners - wow! GL in next round. JJ.

gogogogo rivermanl(Laurence)

The live feed of play will be carried on blonde's Live tournament updates board later

All the very best of luck to the wily old Camel today  ;cheerleader; ;cheerleader;

Less of the "old" plzty.

Live feed up on blonde

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=45060.msg1072501;boardseen#new

they have forgotten to show us the hole cards

can't afford the extra cameras now that the players aren't paying for them

Is the commentator Mike Carlson, from NFL channel 5 fame?

Rutter doing a good job in the box imo.

Yes


A great commentator IMO. Not sure what his poker background is!

Don't know him....but recognise the voice from previous TV coverage of the HU championships.

go camel, if u dont win the event ill be disappointed.

sigh ul camel, from wat James Mitchell said on the feed he got coolered, 99 v 66 on 6xx in a raised pot and mitchell flopped a flush v camels flopped top two in a limped pot.

gl to james 2moro v Dario, doesnt get much tougher than the camel and dario

urgh. The first hand was definitely a mistake, I should have raised preflop with my chip advantage if he calls with 10k in chips (when I've got 30k) with T2c gl to him, but I let him get there.

The second hand was indeed a cooler.

GL to James (and Dario cos I've backed him)

Cheers Cos, Fran and the Camel for the gl wishes. Hopefully if I can beat dario I won't be drawn against another hu pro.

gl in the next round James.

When is it?

Starts at 4pm tomorrow

Good luck James! Hope you ship the lot :)

 ;cheerleader; ;goodluck;

If I come down after work hopefully I can buy you a Victory drink, i owe you one.

Hopefully "The Professor" has studied his Italian surname pronunciation primer overnight  ::)

42 runners.
22 got buys, 20 played a first round match.

Cannot show the hole cards on a live transmission when the players are not in a seperate room.
Hole cams were in place, but only recorded, noone could see them. They will be edited in to the TV show that will go out later this year.

then i will def watch the TV show, I like HU poker but watching any poker without hole cards is obv like watching paint dry. be really cool if you could do the LNP thing where you just get to see 1 persons cards for a hand or 2

GL with it

Any updates on this anywhere, apart from the live webcast? Just want to see what happened in each round....

http://www.pokerineurope.com/pokerarticles/index.php?source=news
 ;hattip;

from Eck's link...

   1. BAMBOS XANTHOS (CYPRUS) £65,000
   2. JAMES MITCHELL (ENGLAND) £30,000
   3. VICTOR V. Ilyukhin (RUSSIA) £15,500
   4. LAURENCE HOUGHTON (ENGLAND) £15,500

Well done James, great result, just sick ul that there was a greek cypriot in the field!

Thank you!