Festival overkill?

[TightEnd]

As our resident beagle points out in his article on the homepage today, the Grosvenor Southampton main event attracted a paltry 37 runners

Perhaps the easiest explanation is the clash with the Western, Barcelona and Sheffield....perhaps there are other explanations


Are we finally at the point where the poker economy is creaking under the strain of festival overkill?

Barely a week goes by without a festival and a four figure or comma main event at the end of it

It costs fortunes to play a full festival schedule, and many festival regulars are said to be on their uppers

Can it go on like this or will more poorly attended events lead to a natural easing back in this hectic schedule?


Discuss

[RED-DOG]

I think it's a good thing, we have now reached the point where if cardrooms want to attract the players, they will have to take what the players want into consideration.

[Colchester Kev]

IMHO it is a classic case of survival of the fittest, Player power will decide which festvals thrive or die...

Time has come for casino bosses to look around and see what private clubs are offering poker players...  Comfortable surroundings where you are looked after, Or shoved in a cramped corner of a casino where you literally have to pray for a valet to walk past so you can order a drink or a sarnie. Not a difficult decision for many.

Competition is KING... and long may it continue.

[tikay]

Also, don't forget, the competition from Online Poker gets better by the day. On a Sunday, the choice of Online Comps is massive.

I, like most, prefer "Live" Poker - REAL Poker - but you are right, the Venues need to remember that they have to vie for Punters now.

It's a good thing, competition.Survival of the fittest, as Couch rightly says.

[b4matt]

IMHO it is a classic case of survival of the fittest, Player power will decide which festvals thrive or die...

Time has come for casino bosses to look around and see what private clubs are offering poker players...  Comfortable surroundings where you are looked after, Or shoved in a cramped corner of a casino where you literally have to pray for a valet to walk past so you can order a drink or a sarnie. Not a difficult decision for many.

Competition is KING... and long may it continue.

I completly agree kev, and if the Western continues to put events on of the standard of this weekends biggie, they'll be in clover, what a fantastic structure.

[Colchester Kev]

With the opening of Dusk til Dawn fast approaching as well, alarm bells must be ringing in the bosses of the big casino chains ears.

Clubs like the Western and DtD will have an almighty advantage when it comes to getting people through the doors, and provided that they provide comps and structures that players like, they will go from strength to strength.

The Western got it right because they LISTENED to the players. 

maybe the big boys should take notice ??

[TightEnd]

alarm bells must be ringing in the bosses of the big casino chains ears.

 

maybe the big boys should take notice ??

I think the corporate culture of the big boys is such that they wouldn't notice until far too late


Some of the decisions I see and the complacency I watch astonishes me

We all have a lot to be grateful for to one big chain in particular...without it the UK festival scene would not be as big as it is, but it is danger of losing the market position it has developed for the sake of inactivity and arrogance.

All IMO!

[M3boy]

I can see Casino's scrapping the Poker Rooms altogether!

It must be a very small part of their Income.

[TightEnd]

I can see Casino's scrapping the Poker Rooms altogether!

It must be a very small part of their Income.

the theory goes that at every break half the players rush to the toilets, the other half to the magic roundabout

Casino's can't measure the profitability of their poker rooms on toruney regs and table charges only therefore.

[londonpokergirl]

Funny enough I was discussing the same point on saturday

Whats the phrase so many men so little time, rephrased for poker, so many festivals and not enough players to go round

Talking to a few players who wanted to go to Dublin festival and Western festival and opted for uk

It seems that there are lots of options available to players now that 3 years ago there was hardly anything.  Stanleys had shut down all their poker rooms, and only Grosvenor cardrooms really in existance and now you have a multiple of choices.

Its certainly going to be survival of the fittest for a lot of cardrooms

[GlasgowBandit]

Its quite obvious that the Casino managers are not that interested in poker as we don't seem to increase turnover.  Instead we are looked upon as a hinderance. What many of the casinos fail to see is if they weren't prganising tourney's then we wouldn't be going through the doors in the first place, so they should be greatful that they are making any monies from us.

Its important for the game that players talk with their feet and stop going to establishments that fail to provide us with any decent service. 

In Scotland we don't have many festivals, and IMO many of the tournaments are badly organised.  Down south you folks have a variety of choice with games and venues, up here the structure is suited to bad players with deep pockets in many of the events.  The CinCin is a step foward but there are still some things that could be tweaked but at elast they listen to the public.

[tikay]

I can see Casino's scrapping the Poker Rooms altogether!

It must be a very small part of their Income.

the theory goes that at every break half the players rush to the toilets, the other half to the magic roundabout

Casino's can't measure the profitability of their poker rooms on toruney regs and table charges only therefore.

The cost of staging a Fessie is actually pretty expensive. The "Groups" NEED the poker players to play the wheel, they just do. But it's not really possible to measure the "payback". It's a two-sided problem. Not an easy one either.

[tikay]

I can see Casino's scrapping the Poker Rooms altogether!

It must be a very small part of their Income.

the theory goes that at every break half the players rush to the toilets, the other half to the magic roundabout

Casino's can't measure the profitability of their poker rooms on toruney regs and table charges only therefore.

The cost of staging a Fessie is actually pretty expensive. The "Groups" NEED the poker players to play the wheel, they just do. But it's not really possible to measure the "payback". It's a two-sided problem. Not an easy one either.

...but (I forgot to add) if the "Groups" did it better, they could get the players flooding through the doors.

[dik9]

I left the casino industry about 2 weeks ago, purely because some newer venues that are cropping up are able to hold better comps elsewhere other than casino's. I believe that it is inevitable, that poker will go a seperate direction to casino's and poker rooms will crop up a bit like snooker clubs. My local pub is a better venue than some of the casino cardrooms I have worked in, and that grieves me. I went for an interview yesterday with a well known casino chain that contacted me, as i was in the position whereby I didn't really want the job (and just went for curiosity) I decided to interview them, which was quite funny. My first 2 questions to the GM were as follows:
 I asked why they held poker comps, and was told "because its the latest craze" then I asked, what does the casino get from poker players, to have the response thrown back, "They're a pain in the arse, and i wish poker was never invented"??

So I agreed whole heartidly and accepted the job?   NOT!!!!!

This is what you are up against ladies and gents 

[ripple11]

At the Southampton festival at the weekend,(small as it was!)...one of the first players out, tilted on roulette 10 mins later for 1.5k....thats where the money is made.

So the more enticing the poker event...the more will attend(with friend/wifes/girlfriends/lovers)....the higher the gambling turnover....the higher their profit.