Remembering The Good Old Days

[Karabiner]

I've been thinking how far poker has come in the last fifteen years or so in the UK and have a feeling that some of the young players today might not realise quite how lucky they are to be playing tournament poker under present day conditions.

I thought it might be fun to list a few pet hates from how tournies used to be run, so I'll kick it off with a couple of mine from close to the top of my lengthy list.

Tables breaking and three players are told to go to table "X" whereupon there ensues a musical chairs scenario with each player trying to secure the most favourable seat re. the Big Blind.

Hand-timed levels whereby the blinds go up when a favoured player is now OTB or an ill-favoured one is in the BB.

[TightEnd]

Tournaments that would start an hour late, waiting for certain players to arrive who wanted to be in at the start

Self-deal on small round tables with Argos chips

[redsimon]

Moving the short stack

Smokers

Self dealt tourneys and cash games

Things I loved and missed:

Pot Limit Hold Em Tournies

£20 rebuys where certain people put £100 plus in the pool but rarely cashed

Soft Fields

[DaveShoelace]

Smoking at the tables

12 players to the table

Getting told off for check raising, or going all in with less than ten bigs

Getting told off, or even overruled, for refusing a deal

Letting any old mug off the street deal cash games

Moving the short stack

5,000 chips in £500 comps, and that being 'deep'

Most of this still happens at Naps in Sheffield

[The Camel]

Smoking at the tables

12 players to the table

Getting told off for check raising, or going all in with less than ten bigs

Getting told off, or even overruled, for refusing a deal

Letting any old mug off the street deal cash games

Moving the short stack

5,000 chips in £500 comps, and that being 'deep'

Most of this still happens at Naps in Sheffield

I have heard alot of people say someone told them off for check raising.

But I must say it has never happened to me and I've never been at a table where it happened.

Worst thing about the old days?

You had be dealt in on the first hand of the tournament or you were dq'ed.

[Karabiner]

Being the sole non-smoker on a table of ten+ was really not uncommon especially in enclosed cardrooms like The Rainbow or Naps Sheffield, and the reek of stale smoke on your clothes when you got home had to be experienced to be believed.

[Tal]

I played a comp in Brum. In the 90 minute rebuy period, we were 12 handed.

However many all ins with multiple different sized stacks so it took forever to sort out the sidepots (everyone had a theory on how to sort it out easily). Then there was a board with three fives on it and two people said they passed a five so we had to go through the deck to make sure there weren't five in there.

We had three orbits.

Break time.

[RED-DOG]

Structures that went

50 / 100
100 / 200
200 / 400
etc

[kinboshi]

Structures that went

50 / 100
100 / 200
200 / 400
etc

I miss Tom not having to ask if there was the possibility of a 150-300 level in a tournament

[AndrewT]

Moving the short stack

I'm on my phone so searching is a pain but someone post a link to the 'move the shortstack' thread.

[bobAlike]

Hated that tournies never started on time but preferred it when late entries were not allowed.

Miss smoking at the table.

Miss Free soft drinks and sandwiches served at the table.

Miss pot limit.

Miss £20 rebuys and the phenomenal prize pools generated.

Miss the inevitable cries of 'rebuy Ron' at the Rainbow

Miss the top heavy pay structure.

Feeling pretty nostalgic about the good old days of casino poker.

[Karabiner]

Moving the short stack

I'm on my phone so searching is a pain but someone post a link to the 'move the shortstack' thread.

That was AdamM's finest hour.

Another cracking rule was that if you missed three consecutive hands you paid double the BB on each subsequent hand with it being doubled again for every further hand that you were absent.

Bearing in mind that all of the games were pot-limit and one table might have an extra ten BB's in the middle that might or might not be included in a "pot" raise according to the TD, it is not surprising that some arguments ensued...

[RED-DOG]

Another cracking rule was that if you missed three consecutive hands you paid double the BB on each subsequent hand with it being doubled again for every further hand that you were absent.

Christ!

I'd forgotten that one. Why was it ever there FFS?

[TightEnd]

An absolute blonde classic

Moving the shortstack

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=8016.0

[china mug]

the old luton club used to have a dress code which ment if your jacket wasnt suitable ,you cant come in ,however you can use one of theres for just a small charge......towards cleaning,genius
we will take your shirt of you upstairs and charge you for a jacket while we do it.