GBPT - Give us your thoughts

[AlexMartin]

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.

someone wants the freebie

[londonpokergirl]

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

[AceofWands]

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.

[Dingdell]

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

[boldie]

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

[portfolio]

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)

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

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.

[TightEnd]

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

[Djinn]

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

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. 

[Ironside]

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

[lucky_scrote]

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

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. 

Nice one Jen, i totally agree with this one.

[crapper]

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.

[Meatman00]

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.

[AlexMartin]

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.

Uber thin brag post.

[boldie]

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.

[sofasurfer]

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