Happy Mondays

[tikay]

I think George has most things I was going to say covered.

No way would I throw a sicky on the basis of a final day of a comp. I'd be to bothered thinking how I would cover it at work to play my best anyway. Given most people at work knew I played poker, keeping a big score quiet would be quite hard (I would imagine)

Win the £200,000, & bring one of these into work on the Tuesday, you'll be fine.

[TightEnd]

model 1

day 1 thurs
day 1 fri
day 2 sat
day 2 and final sun

model 2

day 1 fri
day 1 sat
day 2 sun
day 3 and final mon

model 2 is going to produce more runners than model 1 isn't it? thursday day ones are always less populated than fri and saturday?

[tikay]

model 1

day 1 thurs
day 1 fri
day 2 sat
day 2 and final sun

model 2

day 1 fri
day 1 sat
day 2 sun
day 3 and final mon

model 2 is going to produce more runners than model 1 isn't it? thursday day ones are always less populated than fri and saturday?

Yes, & I'd bet good money on that.

[Doobs]

model 1

day 1 thurs
day 1 fri
day 2 sat
day 2 and final sun

model 2

day 1 fri
day 1 sat
day 2 sun
day 3 and final mon

model 2 is going to produce more runners than model 1 isn't it? thursday day ones are always less populated than fri and saturday?

Yes, & I'd bet good money on that.

So why play the sky poker main event over 4 days?

And why not day 1 online. Day 2 Saturday, day 3 Sunday?  Better than all 3?

[HutchGF]

model 1

day 1 thurs
day 1 fri
day 2 sat
day 2 and final sun

model 2

day 1 fri
day 1 sat
day 2 sun
day 3 and final mon

model 2 is going to produce more runners than model 1 isn't it? thursday day ones are always less populated than fri and saturday?

I wouldn't be able to play either model, hence why I don't get involved in any of these style comps.

Think the 25/25 series has it nailed for the working man to be honest. If you want to attract more recs ( as everyone seems to want to) is there any mileage in their model?

[tikay]

model 1

day 1 thurs
day 1 fri
day 2 sat
day 2 and final sun

model 2

day 1 fri
day 1 sat
day 2 sun
day 3 and final mon

model 2 is going to produce more runners than model 1 isn't it? thursday day ones are always less populated than fri and saturday?

Yes, & I'd bet good money on that.

So why play the sky poker main event over 4 days?

And why not day 1 online. Day 2 Saturday, day 3 Sunday?  Better than all 3?

That would not work for a mixed event (two different businesses, hosted at DTD) such as UKIPT. Both businesses would want to hold the Online Day one. Don't think mix & match would work. 

For many Online Poker operators, a Festival is seen as something of a get together, part social occasion, part poker Tourney. I get your drift, yes, but it would not work in many cases. 

[ripple11]

model 1

day 1 thurs
day 1 fri
day 2 sat
day 2 and final sun

model 2

day 1 fri
day 1 sat
day 2 sun
day 3 and final mon

model 2 is going to produce more runners than model 1 isn't it? thursday day ones are always less populated than fri and saturday?

Yes, & I'd bet good money on that.

So why play the sky poker main event over 4 days?

And why not day 1 online. Day 2 Saturday, day 3 Sunday?  Better than all 3?

A day one online and a Sunday finish for me is ideal.

I run my own business and taking a Monday off last minute is extremely problematic. Easier to plan a Friday off in advance if I want to play. Hence I'm not playing any WPT at DTD.

[tikay]

model 1

day 1 thurs
day 1 fri
day 2 sat
day 2 and final sun

model 2

day 1 fri
day 1 sat
day 2 sun
day 3 and final mon

model 2 is going to produce more runners than model 1 isn't it? thursday day ones are always less populated than fri and saturday?

I wouldn't be able to play either model, hence why I don't get involved in any of these style comps.

Think the 25/25 series has it nailed for the working man to be honest. If you want to attract more recs ( as everyone seems to want to) is there any mileage in their model?

I think that 25/25 thing is very good, but these things are rarely "one size fits all", are they?

[HutchGF]

model 1

day 1 thurs
day 1 fri
day 2 sat
day 2 and final sun

model 2

day 1 fri
day 1 sat
day 2 sun
day 3 and final mon

model 2 is going to produce more runners than model 1 isn't it? thursday day ones are always less populated than fri and saturday?

I wouldn't be able to play either model, hence why I don't get involved in any of these style comps.

Think the 25/25 series has it nailed for the working man to be honest. If you want to attract more recs ( as everyone seems to want to) is there any mileage in their model?

I think that 25/25 thing is very good, but these things are rarely "one size fits all", are they?

Of course not, but they do get a lot of recs through the door. Surely that says something? The 4 day model is just simply inaccessible to many people.

[tikay]

model 1

day 1 thurs
day 1 fri
day 2 sat
day 2 and final sun

model 2

day 1 fri
day 1 sat
day 2 sun
day 3 and final mon

model 2 is going to produce more runners than model 1 isn't it? thursday day ones are always less populated than fri and saturday?

I wouldn't be able to play either model, hence why I don't get involved in any of these style comps.

Think the 25/25 series has it nailed for the working man to be honest. If you want to attract more recs ( as everyone seems to want to) is there any mileage in their model?

I think that 25/25 thing is very good, but these things are rarely "one size fits all", are they?

Of course not, but they do get a lot of recs through the door. Surely that says something? The 4 day model is just simply inaccessible to many people.

Yup, I totally get that.

[Simon Galloway]

Meh, you tell them you won a seat for a tenner or something.

I haven't much experience of proper work, but still in this spot none of my bosses would have stopped to think, they would have said "sure, take it off and good luck."

Obviously you'll be more familiar with your career than I am, but didn't you part ways with Bl Sq because you made a final table and the gaffer wouldn't give you the day off??

As for other employees, most don't work in the gambling sector.  So the boss won't have taken a 10% slice prior, or even know anything about poker.

Most places I've worked I'd say the boss would normally be OK with b). Obviously as a rec you shouldn't play if you know you have unbreakable commitments on the Monday or it would massively leave people in the lurch.

I've spoken to poker players at 7pm and make solid (deposit required for cancellation) 8pm dinner plans that saw them somehow subsequently enter an (unspectacular) evening poker tournament at 7:30.  I don't think a large portion of poker players realise just how out of whack they are with the rest of the workforce.

As an employee or employer, it's always been my line that a good employee, one who performs his work well, efficiently, & is always ready to go the extra mile for his employer, should have no qualms about asking for a day off once in a lifetime. As an employee, I have always given good value, & if ever I needed a favour, I was never shy in asking to call it in.

I've also sat both sides of this.  The trouble is, the employee that thinks they are a good employee and can always take a Monday off at short notice if they [drink too much Sunday/make a poker FT/don't feel like it/insert any spurious reason] probably already have a track record of calling in that favour far too often.

For genuinely good employees, it is such a rare occurence that an employer knows it must be something massive for them to ever do this and there be no problems.  For a large tranche of employees that think they are good employees, they actually have 12 grandparent funerals to go to each year, (all of which were scheduled overnight for the following day so no prior notice could be given...) 9 washing machine floods, 3 flight cancellations etc.

In the white collar jobs I've had, cancelling a Monday IS a major ballache, that is a lot of meetings rescheduled and/or a lot of other people put out by your actions.  You won't get to do it very often, even if you 'deserve' it.
In the blue collar jobs I've had, cancelling a Monday puts an extra strain on the rota, assuming your tasks won't wait for you Tuesday and therefore your workmates get to bear the extra brunt for you.  If one of those workmates had tried to book that Monday off 3 months ago, but was told that there were too many people off already, then you decide to help yourself to the day off on Sunday evening too, you aren't going to be getting a Christmas card.

[The Camel]

Nope, there was a lot of things wrong with my relationship with Blue Squirrel, but the boss was extremely accommodating with letting me have time off for poker.

Your memory is pretty good though, because I left another job after I had booked a week off to play a poker tournament and just before the start of the main event my boss there asked me to come in on the Friday. I refused and it made my continuing working there untenable.

[NoCardDSC]

I've found this thread extremely interesting but at the same time some of the naivety being shown is quite embarrassing.

I work for one of the biggest professional services firm's in the world with taking days off at late notice not being too frowned upon, but when it comes down to taking days off late notice to gamble/play cards then questions are going to be asked. Of course you can lie and rock up on the Tuesday, £x richer trying with a guilty conscience.

These events obviously need whatever is going to get the most punters through the door and I'm not sure which of the two scenarios gets that.

Personally, I think if the tournament organisers can ensure a 11/12pm finish on a Sunday (going on a ~1 hour travel time) then this would be my preferred structure. This enables me to go into work on the Friday morning, travelling Friday mid-afternoon to make Day 1 (not to much of a problem if the first level or so is missed and only taking half a days holiday for the weekend.

At the end of the day, the event organisers are never going to be able to make the punters happy, playing a decent structured tournament.

[tikay]

I've found this thread extremely interesting but at the same time some of the naivety being shown is quite embarrassing.

I work for one of the biggest professional services firm's in the world with taking days off at late notice not being too frowned upon, but when it comes down to taking days off late notice to gamble/play cards then questions are going to be asked. Of course you can lie and rock up on the Tuesday, £x richer trying with a guilty conscience.

These events obviously need whatever is going to get the most punters through the door and I'm not sure which of the two scenarios gets that.

Personally, I think if the tournament organisers can ensure a 11/12pm finish on a Sunday (going on a ~1 hour travel time) then this would be my preferred structure. This enables me to go into work on the Friday morning, travelling Friday mid-afternoon to make Day 1 (not to much of a problem if the first level or so is missed and only taking half a days holiday for the weekend.

At the end of the day, the event organisers are never going to be able to make the punters happy, playing a decent structured tournament.

You make an interesting (to me) point there, I've probably attended (off -table) more poker Main Events than most, and I'm not sure many, especially the fun players, much appreciate 3am finishes.

Online it's different, we turn off the computer & are in bed monutes later, but in Live poker, once we add in a bit of travel, & you are looking at an all-nighter.   

[AlunB]

This thread is basically full of people (including me) extrapolating from personal experience, which while interesting is fairly useless.

One thing that most of you on both sides seem to be missing is this is literally a one-off thing. How many final tables of a £500+ tournament is the average rec likely to make? It's not like you're asking for every other Monday off.

But I do agree in some jobs it's never possible and in all others you will have to see what kind of Monday it is before you buy in. Some Mondays are just not possible in any job.