The LOWEST ranked state finals seat ??

[BigPete33]

If everybody typed sensible posts like that the world would be a happier place!

Nicely said Damatch.

[Garth Kay]

Firstly I would like to voice my support for Kosta. He has been spot on with his opinions.
The two week 'season' was for sure a marketing ploy and NPL is wise to do such things, but it cheapens the integrity of the finals.
I can say this even though I personally actually tried to take advantage of this loop hole. I only play one venue. I was venue leader but missed 3 weeks of the 10 week season, so by week 9 my placing had slipped to 9th. I played the grand junction and DNPed. (I have to resist commenting on the very unorthidox playing that I was subjected to - lets just say I won't be going back) Anyway I managed to scrape in 5th place at my venue by less than 2 points before my darling wife ended my tourny.
Also my wife played the ladies night at brighton, and I was there for support (and to drink) every night for 10 weeks. At no time did we know that the top 5 were going to qualify for the state finals. I am positive that we asked the TD about this and specifically told us it was just the top 2. Luckily, Wendy took out top spot in the most comprehensive manner. I would be very surprised if those ladies who finished 3rd, 4th and 5th even realize that they have made the finals.
Again Kosta is right about the web site prizes. It is false advertising to have a prize package up for most of the season that is not comparable to what is actually being given away. I would think NPL is stressing alot about this huge blunder.
As for reverting to the old state finals prizes, I for one would not go there. Why final table in the SA finals only to win an entry to the Victorian finals. Now that was a joke. Don't get me wrong my wife and I had an excellent weekend in Melbourne. But in the end what did I really get for coming 3rd in the first final and then coming 8th in the second final. ONE ENTRY TO THE VICTORIAN FINAL! Give me some cash at the finals please otherwise there is just no end. It's a satilite into a satilite into a satilite etc.
Good on you Kosta, someone has to speak up. It's fun (absolutely) it's free (sort of) it's fair (really?)
On the whole NPL do a great job. They just have to remember were not all fish. They are definitely are the most professionally run pub poker outfit.
Oh and one more thing while I'm at it. Do the players who play obsessivly really contribute that much more to the prize pool? Do they really get both cards stamped up? I doubt it. If I were that rich I would buy in to some real tournies.
Lastly, add a spell check to this thing.

Nice post Roger,

In regards to the two week season for two venues, the reason's for this I have previously discussed and i must say from a personal viewpoint that I am not happy about it either, I do believe that it is unfair for all of those player's who did qualify through the long, rigorous way. But due to the success of these two events we have decided to implement a second chance "repechage" system, this new system will not be implemented until season 3, again this will make the State Finals still larger, but it is created for those who do spend their hard earned dollars at one or two venues per week to qualify through a satellite system. More on this later but already some player's are aware of this due to the loose lips of several staff.
I would like to state that the more people we have in a State Final does seem to weaken the integrity of the competition, at first glance, but the qualification processes are in place and will remain that way, we have 140+ events this season and may even push 150 or 160 by the end of the season. Still a lot of qualifiers, but if we were to reduce the amount of qualifiers at a venue and state leaderboard level I do believe we would see a huge consumer backlash. I think that most players would feel that playing in a larger field is the thing that draws them to the State Finals and does make it such a drawcard, whilst a minority of players would prefer to see stricter qualification processes and a smaller state finals field, but these are the poker players, not the majority of social poker players that is our market. If we do continually hit a qualifiers field of 600+ then we will scrap the flight system and only hold finals at venues that have the size to sit 800 runners from the get go.
Have gone a bit off track here, moving on. At all times, no matter what, if an event is running then 5 people must qualify from that venue, not 2 or any number greater. If Paul or Nathan miscommunicated this to you then I apologize for this breakdown and promise that this situation will be rectified. I have already notified all qualifiers via SMS and email today.
Now the reason that every venue has five players qualify is quite simple: Let's take for example the Payneham event that started this topic, if we only allowed top 5 and top 50 to qualify and then did not bump anyone up what sort of numbers do you think they would have got after week 6? All of sudden there is no way the top 15 is cracked by a non qualifier let alone the top 5. And then we have a venue saying why has noone from our venue. This one scenario is an absurd anomaly, but I am sure it will happen again. It just shows you the quality of the players at this venue, when the top 12 to 18 have qualified either via top 50 or have finished higher in another venue somewhere else.

Now on to the prize pool for State Finals, due to the cluster that is the website I have received word that no player will be disadvantaged by this advertising, cash will still be offered and every player, who does cash, will at least receive the equivalent of their prize in cash. Understand that the reason there was no cash prizes in the first two season is that giving cash away as prizes was still a grey area, it is no longer and we have trialled cash prizes across several events, and i have to say the general consensus is cash is king.

No Roger, you are not all fish, none of our player's are. We appreciate all feedback and comments, but we cannot satisfy everyone's needs and in a general way the thoughts and opinions presented on here do not really reflect those of the majority in some cases. Thank you for your thoughts on the professionalism of NPL here.

Some people seem to be confused on how this company creates it revenue, just here I will give you an insight. We charge a venue a flat rate with an additional per head cost. We do not make any income form passports or redeemed passports, so therefore yes we do make a certainly larger amount of income from these multi game players and their play does increase the prize pool. And I think Roger that you will upset many of them by your comments of them not spending, I know several of them personally and they love NPL and would prefer to spend their money supporting a venue playing cards with mates than buying into a casino event or even playing a home game.

Thanks for your post Roger and feedback into these events and procedures. I hope I have answered most of what you said coherently and have taken onboard the rest of your comments.

[Damatch]

Thanks guys for appreciating my post. I was a bit wary of a backlash, but if a person has an opinion on something then inevitably someone will disagree with it. All good.

Let me be perfectly clear on one thing. I am all for a huge state final. I love sitting in a room with 600+ poker players all vying for the top spot. Where else can an average joe get this opportunity? It's awesome.
Also I have no conflict with the leaderboard top 50 bumping people up. In fact I am pretty sure that's exactly how I made it into the 2nd final, as I finished 6th. Funny story there as my wife also took me out that time as well! Is it any wonder why I never sit at her table!
Garth, no appology required for the ladies night thing. Wendy (as I've already mention too many times) finished first so it is'nt an issue.
I did not mean to insult the top 50 players. The way you state it Garth, I can see how it benefits the NPL. Maybe not so much the Pubs, if in fact some of them don't stamp up.

Kosta's a good bloke and a great player. It's easy to get fired up about issues, and often things appear alot worse when written than if said in a conversation. Garth has said himself that some posts when read in a negitive light appear that way. It's easy to misconstrue.

[steve b]

wow thats got to be the fastest 14 page topic that has popped up in a while.

Firstly re the payneham and its results paying finals seats down to 18th, this venue is certainly not alone in doing this if you look at venues such as checkmates in the city and the arkaba on saturday night just to give a couple others. I think the current top 50 leaderboard and top 5 system is very fair. Its a very effective way for accounting for the regulars and giving the beginners a chance to qualify for states.

It seems to be the most effective at getting players into the pubs for the whole season and realistically now that people know sometimes down to 20th could still get them a seat in the state final i think this will happen alot more throughout the year and its a good thing as it will make for a stronger competition which means we will all have to keep lifting our game as more people play out the season to its end.

I think its worth remembering that NPL is a beginners league and for this reason every time NPL has to make a decision and the outcome is either make things better for beginners, or make things better for the regulars NPL should be compelled to make things better for the beginner so its for this reason that i think we should allow things like venues starting late in the season and people qualifying from further back on a venue leaderboard once taking the top fifty out.

Kosta i consider you a mate and i enjoy sitting at a poker table or a bar with you at anytime so please understand when i say this i am not taking sides and i can understand why you feel this way about people from so far back making it to states or gaining a seat off of two games, i mean imagine if a team joined the AFL in round 20 and won there way through to the finals.

However this is not a new system to NPL it has been occuring for many seasons now. In other seasons if you won in the right month you got a automatic entry into the state finals, so in theory you could make it off just 1 game. Venues have been able to join at any stage of the season and the removal of the top 50 from venues has been in place for as long as i can remember


NPL is more about a game with mates to me than it is about what you can win and its for this reason i dont even know what the state final prize is or how its been advertised so i am going to talk about subjects i dont know about but i do want to say it might be worth thinking about what a law suit may do to such a delicate industry at the moment please dont put my beloved NPL at risk i dont want to play in the other leagues

i do agree that having a late starting venue to give 5 lucky people per venue a seat at the final is not fair on those who have spent $100s in pubs playing over a 10 week season to qualify and i was annoyed when i heard of the scheme. then i remembered back to last season when the oakden shut down at least 5 weeks early.
A season has not happened as far as i know where a new venue has not started at least part way through the season if not very close to the end.

For NPL i am sure its not about how many weeks of a season a venue is signed up for but how many venues it can sign up as Garth said NPL get paid a flat rate from the venue per event so more venues and tourneys the more money NPL make and the more they can pay me for winning all future state finals

[David]

Just remember, the state final isn't the be all and end all of an NPL season. Each night is an individual tournament with an individual prize (albeit not cash at most places!) and can easily be treated as such.

[Bob B]

Firstly I would like to voice my support for Kosta. He has been spot on with his opinions.

The two week 'season' was for sure a marketing ploy and NPL is wise to do such things, but it cheapens the integrity of the finals.

I can say this even though I personally actually tried to take advantage of this loop hole. I only play one venue. I was venue leader but missed 3 weeks of the 10 week season, so by week 9 my placing had slipped to 9th.

I played the grand junction and DNPed. (I have to resist commenting on the very unorthidox playing that I was subjected to - lets just say I won't be going back) Anyway I managed to scrape in 5th place at my venue by less than 2 points before my darling wife ended my tourny.

Also my wife played the ladies night at brighton, and I was there for support (and to drink) every night for 10 weeks. At no time did we know that the top 5 were going to qualify for the state finals.

I am positive that we asked the TD about this and specifically told us it was just the top 2. Luckily, Wendy took out top spot in the most comprehensive manner.

I would be very surprised if those ladies who finished 3rd, 4th and 5th even realize that they have made the finals.

Again Kosta is right about the web site prizes. It is false advertising to have a prize package up for most of the season that is not comparable to what is actually being given away. I would think NPL is stressing alot about this huge blunder.

As for reverting to the old state finals prizes, I for one would not go there. Why final table in the SA finals only to win an entry to the Victorian finals. Now that was a joke.

Don't get me wrong my wife and I had an excellent weekend in Melbourne. But in the end what did I really get for coming 3rd in the first final and then coming 8th in the second final.

ONE ENTRY TO THE VICTORIAN FINAL! Give me some cash at the finals please otherwise there is just no end. It's a satilite into a satilite into a satilite etc.

Good on you Kosta, someone has to speak up. It's fun (absolutely) it's free (sort of) it's fair (really?)

On the whole NPL do a great job. They just have to remember were not all fish. They are definitely are the most professionally run pub poker outfit.

Oh and one more thing while I'm at it. Do the players who play obsessivly really contribute that much more to the prize pool? Do they really get both cards stamped up? I doubt it.

If I were that rich I would buy in to some real tournies.
Lastly, add a spell check to this thing.

Nice post Roger,

In regards to the two week season for two venues, the reason's for this I have previously discussed and i must say from a personal viewpoint that I am not happy about it either.

I do believe that it is unfair for all of those player's who did qualify through the long, rigorous way. But due to the success of these two events we have decided to implement a second chance "repechage" system.

This new system will not be implemented until season 3, again this will make the State Finals still larger, but it is created for those who do spend their hard earned dollars at one or two venues per week to qualify through a satellite system.

More on this later but already some player's are aware of this due to the loose lips of several staff.

I would like to state that the more people we have in a State Final does seem to weaken the integrity of the competition, at first glance. But, the qualification processes are in place and will remain that way.

We have 140+ events this season and may even push 150 or 160 by the end of the season. Still a lot of qualifiers. But, if we were to reduce the amount of qualifiers at a venue and state leaderboard level I do believe we would see a huge consumer backlash.

I think that most players would feel that playing in a larger field is the thing that draws them to the State Finals and does make it such a drawcard.

Whilst a minority of players would prefer to see stricter qualification processes and a smaller state finals field, but these are the poker players, not the majority of social poker players that is our market.

If we do continually hit a qualifiers field of 600+ then we will scrap the flight system and only hold finals at venues that have the size to sit 800 runners from the get go.

Have gone a bit off track here, moving on. At all times, no matter what, if an event is running then 5 people must qualify from that venue, not 2 or any number greater.

If Paul or Nathan miscommunicated this to you then I apologize for this breakdown and promise that this situation will be rectified. I have already notified all qualifiers via SMS and email today.

Now the reason that every venue has five players qualify is quite simple: Let's take for example the Payneham event that started this topic.

If we only allowed top 5 and top 50 to qualify and then did not bump anyone up what sort of numbers do you think they would have got after week 6?

All of sudden there is no way the top 15 is cracked by a non qualifier let alone the top 5. And then we have a venue saying why has no one from our venue. This one scenario is an absurd anomaly, but I am sure it will happen again.

It just shows you the quality of the players at this venue, when the top 12 to 18 have qualified either via top 50 or have finished higher in another venue somewhere else.

Now on to the prize pool for State Finals.

Due to the cluster that is the website I have received word that no player will be disadvantaged by this advertising. Cash will still be offered and every player, who does cash, will at least receive the equivalent of their prize in cash.

Understand that the reason there was no cash prizes in the first two season is that giving cash away as prizes was still a grey area. It is no longer and we have trialled cash prizes across several events, and i have to say the general consensus is cash is king.

No Roger, you are not all fish, none of our player's are. We appreciate all feedback and comments. but we cannot satisfy everyone's needs and in a general way. The thoughts and opinions presented on here do not really reflect those of the majority in some cases.

Thank you for your thoughts on the professionalism of NPL here.

Some people seem to be confused on how this company creates it revenue, just here I will give you an insight. We charge a venue a flat rate with an additional per head cost.

We do not make any income form passports or redeemed passports, so therefore yes we do make a certainly larger amount of income from these multi game players and their play does increase the prize pool.

And I think Roger that you will upset many of them by your comments of them not spending. I know several of them personally and they love NPL and would prefer to spend their money supporting a venue playing cards with mates than buying into a casino event or even playing a home game.

Thanks for your post Roger and feedback into these events and procedures. I hope I have answered most of what you said coherently and have taken onboard the rest of your comments.

Good post good reply but so bloody hard to read.

Is there any chance of making long, long, long, paragraphs into much shorter and more readable paragraphs????????

I'm definately not an editing guru nor am I an English literature specialist. I just find it so damned hard trying to read posts and or replies that lack commers, full stops and simple short paragraphs.

I was always told that around 26 to 40 words are the given yard stick towards a legible and readable paragraph. Or when the topic was changed so too was there a new paragraph!!!!

I changed the above post and reply as I was reading them as I felt I could read and absord the text much easier. It's not meant to be perfect but I feel it is much easier to read.

Thanks again for a good read.

[Garth Kay]

Sorry Bob,
I will try next time. But some paragraphs can be extremely wrong, what you have done there is basically edit it into a news story, short concise one sentence paragraphs.

[Bob B]

Sorry Bob,
I will try next time. But some paragraphs can be extremely wrong, what you have done there is basically edit it into a news story, short concise one sentence paragraphs.

Yep that's me, short and concise, LOL.

I don't know how to keep it brief. Even my text messages are like novels LOL. However, I do think the short paragraphs etc, make it a little easier to read.

I don't know where you find the time to read and reply to half of our thoughts that are placed on NPLSA.

Most of us use the forum as a means of communication re; a queery, a reply, a suggestion, or just chatting to others who have a similar interest.

It would be a sad, sad, day if the forum was ever shut down due to some people not putting some thought into their posts when trying to be constructive.

And yes, sometimes we don't agree with some comments or decisions made by fellow posters, mediators or NPL decisions.

But we should all know where and when to draw the line and maybe revert to a PM or arrange for a personal contact or even a simple phone call.

Sadly some don't!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! See you Sunday in the A.M.

See, I told you I don't have a short version.

[Damatch]

Sure Bob, no problem. I will be sure to add some "commers" next time.

I like to roll with it when I have a train of though going, so hence the lack of proper paragraphs. I didn't know I was being graded. I see your point of being easier to read.

[Bob B]

Hi there Damatch. Not sure if we have met b4 but I like reading your posts and comments.

I probably over paragraph my writings like Garth had said similar to news head lining. I just find it so much easier to read and correct pre-post.

Texting, has really ruined the English language and unfortunately people have really forgotten how to communicate.

I'm really glad to see so many young guns on here that are able to make sense with their writings.

Definately not grading you M8 as you tell a good story. However, some forum peeps see a shitload of words and don't bother reading what could be a good comment.

Take care and by the way, did you make the finals? If so come and see me, "big ol grey haired bugga", LOL.