Luton 2012 thread, powered by the same old 3-4 posters

[getagrip!]

Hey,
Just to let you know our New tourney chips are in! Finally! And all tourney's and cash will be 9 handed to give a lil comfort space to you all. also we have moved the room around a bit to give you all some more space between tables.
That's the easy to fix probs sorted.
any more suggestions welcome.

Nice one Daniel-son.
Now, when r u gonna change the stupid 20min clock, so that we don't have multiple Wanker's
Wednesdays every week?


Drain i believe in time for April there will be a New schedule out that hopefully accommodates all players requirements. I believe sat/sun/Mon will remain the same due to there continual success.

[Drain Alien]

Would like to have played that but I inevitably make day 2's. It's Mothers Day on Sunday and I've got some cooking to do

[Drain Alien]

Hey,
Just to let you know our New tourney chips are in! Finally! And all tourney's and cash will be 9 handed to give a lil comfort space to you all. also we have moved the room around a bit to give you all some more space between tables.
That's the easy to fix probs sorted.
any more suggestions welcome.

Nice one Daniel-son.
Now, when r u gonna change the stupid 20min clock, so that we don't have multiple Wanker's
Wednesdays every week?

Drain i believe in time for April there will be a New schedule out that hopefully accommodates all players requirements. I believe sat/sun/Mon will remain the same due to there continual success.

Thanks Dan.
I hope it changes.
I am staying away in the meantime

[Chompy]

I'm gonna break ranks and play the G mega stack tonight - busy Sat/Sun but loose end tonight

Tbf, I've no real problem with a few chips on a Friday night - though 2 x 20k with no guarantee, and a small prizepool, is frankly absurd.

If it was say £50 for a 10k starting stack/a sensible structure, with a 10k £25 add on/or re-buy, it would make a lot more sense     ......     chips/play/prizepool (you probably wouldn't even need the one thing the G seem to dread    ....     a guarantee) - everybody happy.

As it is not, I'll be off to Circus tonight for their 'two dayer' - which hits all 'three buttons'      ....     beautifully!

yup there tmmr...

yup, there tonight

[luther101]

"I believe sat/sun/Mon will remain the same due to there (spelling Daniel!) continual success."

Mmmmmm, now let me see;

Saturday afternoon comp      .....       put on after players asked for it - structure suggested by the players.

Saturday evening comp         .....       changed after players asked for it - structure suggested by the players.

Sunday afternoon comp        .....       A certain Mrs Adams takes all credit for this - structure suggested by the players.

Monday                               .....      A success?    You'll be alright!

Do I note a certain trend in the above?

[Poker_Monkey]

There's a players and staff meeting in a couple of Wednesdays I believe Drainy.

You could turn up, down eight pints of stella, air your grievances in a constructive manner and then turn a poker table over before storming out. 10pt bonus.

Can we have a date for this if it is going to happen as I would like to turn up and see what is in store for the G as I love playing at the G but not in a mega stack turbo comp (don't want to play them anywhere)

[Chompy]

Yup, a week on Wednesday! 28th I'm led to believe. Think we need a thread reg to volunteer and take minutes. Ady?

[Poker_Monkey]

Yup, a week on Wednesday! 28th I'm led to believe. Think we need a thread reg to volunteer and take minutes. Ady?

Yer I'll do if you want to get your red pen out and check it over lol

[celtic]

I'm going to the meeting, let me know if there is anything you want me to ask.

[fontenaar]

Planning a very rare trip to the G on Sunday as never have chance to play anymore. Can someone tell me what comp is on and is it worth playing as reading not great comments about the place at the moment.

[Chompy]

Every Sunday

20,000 chips + 3 x 45/30 min clocks. Starts: 4pm.

£50 NLH - £2,500 Guaranteed!

£50 + £6 reg

[fontenaar]

Cheers mate. Sounds decent.

[Drain Alien]

I'm going to the meeting, let me know if there is anything you want me to ask.

Can you please ask why they allow Scottish people in the card room.
Should be banned imo.

[relaedgc]

I understand the argument for chips/play/prizepool, and I honestly am not disputing that. That said, I do not agree that we 'dread' guaranteed prizepools, either. We've certainly offered far higher ones than you'll find elsewhere in most provincial poker rooms.

We guaranteed a £100 Freezeout at £7,000 and time was called upon it for practical reasons, and the same with the £75 at a £5000 guarantee. It has to be self sustaining. That means that it needs to be able to consistently meet that amount. There's no benefit business wise to hold an event that ends up costing us money to run over a sample size of three months. Once that has happened, I have no way to justify the continuance of it. Honestly, I was hoping to be able to move it up to £10k, and it ended up going the other way because it wasn't supported enough.

So what is the answer? Well. We decided as a collective that perhaps it's because people aren't prepared to pay that sort of money. Let us try a small buy-in, say £50, and see how it goes. The structure and chip stacks are an imitation of what is common around a lot of the London clubs because it appears to work in their favour as they are pulling in 100+ crowds. We weren't expecting it to be quite as high for obvious reasons, but 70 runners wasn't a bad turn out in my opinion.

I appreciate that as a player, it's fantastic value for you. I would be upset if that was no longer available to me, too. Yet the expectation is that poker is self-sustaining. DTD has roulette and blackjack tables because even with a 400 seater room that you can pack out with tournaments and cash games, there's not much money to be made in poker. That's the reality of it, and so it means that in order to offer something fantastic, it has to be supported.

It was quite a dramatic change, but the consensus was that we needed to try and change things up. Over the last three months, there hadn't been much of a shift. Yes, we'd get 50 runners on a Thursday and a cash game but in the long term we need to be attracting new players as well as the established crowd or the competition would just stagnate as time wore on. You have to ensure a stream of fresh players. It's imperative.

Honestly, we do what we do because we're trying to make it busy, vibrant and fun with attractive prize pools. It's not like we sat around a table and said, "LOL, 40k on Friday and a 20min clock will deffo piss Luther off. Let's do that." It was an experiment to see if a dramatic change would attract new clientèle. I don't regret that we did this, either. I think the lesson is and has been invaluable and ultimately while you might say it is better to have never done it at all, I think experience is more telling than anything else.

From April, on a provisional level, we're going to try and split things up a little better. Wednesday suffered because of it being similar to Thursday. So we'll likely be making one a £40/50 competition, and the other one smaller in say the £20 region. Not sure which way round, yet. Feedback welcome.

Friday I am still unsure of. I honestly believe that we've had the glory days of £100+ buy-in competitions on a weekly basis. I don't think it's viable for our club. It was different when there was no competition, but the market is so competitive now that I really think 'Luton' is lacking in that ever important 'location, location, location' when it comes to being able to generate the numbers for a good field. I don't honestly think there's anything wrong with a £50 and I am confident it's at a price bracket to ensure a 70-80 strong field on a regular basis.

I don't know. At this point, I am honestly so unsure about everything. I look at all of the other G Casinos and they're running £10-£30 tournaments maximum and they're enjoying huge fields and cash action. I don't know if I am missing a trick somewhere. I don't know if I have made a huge mistake in March, or if it was an opportunity to allow me to follow the other clubs in my company.

To be honest, my confidence and self-belief is shattered. I honestly can't seem to win regardless of what I do. And no matter what I do, whether it's good competitions and high guarantees, or the more drastic tournaments of the now, I can't make it right.

[nirvana]

That's a very honest post George and I think you've got  a really tough task on your hands.

I think the schedule you hinted at last night has a bit for everybody and looks good to me - I think it would appeal to the kind of cardroom demographic you've had for a couple of years but I honestly don't know how successful it would be in generating new players.

I know I looked at a number of other G websites and I was surprised that nearly every comp was small buy in (£15-£20) with superfast structures - kinda pub poker plus. Maybe that is the way to go if numbers are key.

It probably won't get much support here but I think the price matters more than structure in terms of getting people through the door. Be interesting to see the take up if you put on a couple of £20 freezeouts.

At the moment you are between a rock and a hard place.

The appeal to pub poker afficianados is probably not great as too many comps too high a price - £40-50. The appeal to people who prefer/can afford to play for bigger prize pools isn't really there because the £50 and over comps dont seem able to sustain large player pools.

You can carry on satisfying the existing customer base and expect 30-40 players or keep trying alternatives. Keep on trying mate and dont forget you have to market your comps whatever you do