Dont want to hj this thread but just wanna say this was the worst run, worst organised, worst advertised tournament i've ever been a part of. Kthxbye
Info on what was done wrong? Am sure they will keep an eye on the forums so might be worth saying for future events?
Yeah perhaps shouldve posted this all at once but I was on my iPad at the time so couldn't really be bothered to write a really long post, was annoyed enough to have to post something though, always intended to elaborate a little bit so here goes:
1) Advertising - I've played a lot of events on the circuit and spend no end of time on blonde etc. So the fact that the first I heard about this event was through a leaflet on my table in Blackpool one week prior to the start is pretty unforgivable imo. I am the absolute stereotype of their target market (young, no commitments, likes playing shorthanded) and it's not like I'm not looking in the places where they cuold be advertising, this in part leads to...
2) Lack of runners - After reserving my flight 1a seat in advance and being told that my seat would only be held until 12.45 I made the 100 mile trip to Luton in good time and was there in time for 12pm so bought in and hung around. At 13.05 (start time 1pm) I still had no idea what was going on (although it didn't seem very busy) until i was told that due to the lack of runners for flight 1a, they would now be merging with flight 1b which started at 6pm. Marvellous. I understand that things sometimes don't go to plan, but due to the online reservation system they must've had some idea that this was going to happen and could have at least contacted players in advance and made this decision or something.
To be fair they did hold a freeroll with a package to another
event for the people who had turned up at 1, but after this experience I'm not sure whether that prize is a good thing or not.
When I did arrive for flight 1b there were only 38 runners, a number which went down when 4 german guys, who had travelled specifically for this tournament, decided that there was no point in playing, unregistered and didnt even bother. I think that's saying something.
3) Running of the actual tournament - Only six levels were played on day 1, finishing at 150/300/25 for the last level of the day. With a 20k starting stack this is always going to result in the majority of players coming back for day 2 and doesn't seem very attractive to players when they will potentially half to book hotels etc when the tournament has basically progressed nowhere. There was plenty of time to play more on day 1.
I was in this tournament for about 6.5 hours in total, including a change of day, and still have no idea who was in charge, bags were given out at the end of the day, but no one was told what to do, or what time the restart was etc.
At the start of day 2, we still hadn't started at 13.15 (1pm start) as one of the tables had only 2 players that had turned up so far and apparently there is a rule where a table can't play with < 3 players , so all the people who had bothered to turn up on time had to just sit and wait until the people who came in late showed up.
4) Staff - I reckon there were probably more staff in total than players. Some were d4 "event"s live streaming staff which I think most people in the room found cringeworthy for an event of such apparent insignificance.
The dealing staff were ok in general, but 3/4 of the dealers were actually being trained on the job I think, with more senior dealers watching, couldn't do some very basic (give change, know the very basic rules of the game) and took absolutely ages to shuffle etc. Which became tedious in a event that by now I'd already lost any enthusiasm for. I know that it's not the dealers fault that they are inexperienced, and that they all have to start somewhere, a tournament where people are putting up £550 of their money is not that place, especially unforgivable as there were loads of more senior dealers just sat around in the vain hope that someone was going to turn up to fill a space at one of the many empty tables.
Also the Casino staff seemed totally apathetic the entire time, not at all helpful or proactive in letting people know what was going on. I don't know if they were just embarrassed at the whole affair to be honest.
Think that's it for now, If I remember anything else I'll add it
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