Free Roll Poker @ the Hoppers Club

[BigPete33]

Giz (and Harps)

With respect, nobody is "forcing" you to play the cash games.

It's a choice you have, same as choosing to stamp up or not at a freeroll.

I think I understand what you mean by social habit (please tell me if this is incorrect and I'll happily retract if it is), but that sounds as though you've enjoyed and gotten used to going to the freerolls and playing with your friends x number of times per week and it's therefore become a habit. Also that you may feel that with cash games being introduced in place of the freerolls you are now unable to do this?

I can sympathise with that, I'd much rather Chenzos was still running here in SA and the other alternatives weren't pubs full of retards who are really only there for the drinking and noticing there happens to be a game of poker on.

Obviously your options are limited, maybe have a home game?

[pottsy1972]

I applied for a personal loan so i could see out season 1 but found a cheaper option, i moved to Tassie where it is illegal to play cash buy in games as is the same in Queensland. Gee, we even get to play on NPL tables (yes, NPL) and theres no need to read players, as the cards are that old they are almost transparent! im sure they are made up decks from marked cards in Melb and shipped to Tassie! Cant wait for state finals this weekend, we might even get April 2001 edition of poker magazine!
GOOD LUCK AND GOOD POKER TO ALL PLAYERS AT TASMANIAN FINALS THIS SUNDAY!

[Adrian]

Pete, you just need to learn how to use those drunkards to your advantage.

Really, you only need to stamp up one card. You can get another stack worth from them if you bide your time. Method may fail when they get lucky.

I'd rather play a CBI than a Freeroll any day of the week. It's a $35-$40 approx spend compared to a $25-$30 approx spend, and you have a chance to make it a free night if you finish 1st or 2nd (or maybe even 3rd or 4th if enough players turn up). That's how I've always viewed it.

Yes, I do appreciate that $10 can be a fair amount of money for some people, but I'm just putting my own view out there.

[JMACK007]

Okay its been Hijacked ,
This thread is a real worry for me so joke away .

I started it for 1 reason My love of our 888pl free roll poker .

Mate, I wasn't joking....

[gmatical]

Harps is sad.

/thread

[Michael Ratnik]

Hi All.

I have just had a few days off and found this monster thread. Even though others representing 888PL have answered and answered well, I think I should also make a quick post.

The Hoppers Club wanted feedback from players because they were thinking about changing to challenge games. I designed the survey to be a simple as possible and to ensure we get a good cross section of players, we ran the survey for two weeks. I have not seen all the results however I have been told that they are positively skewed towards challenge games. I will be collecting the results this week, creating a full tally and I will present the results to Jay on Thursday.

I can understand being in the minority can be frustrating, I know I get that way when I am. Although we dont know for certain that you are in the minority yet, but it looks like it may go this way.

I know others and possibly myself have mentioned that freeroll poker will not be taken over by cash buy in poker. If and when that was said, it is quite possible that we completely underestimated the desire for $10-$20 buy in poker. There is no doubt that the market has changed significantly in the last two years.

In most areas you need 2 passports to play, we have reduced this to 1 in the Hoppers area, with a minimum spend of $10 for passports, it was my theory that the reduction of one passport and the buyin fee of $10 would more than offset each other in favour of the player, with the obvious major advantage of having a large cash prize pool.

I am not trying to restart any conversation, or say anyone was wrong or right, I am just letting you know why we have done what we have done.

As always my email is michaelr@fullhousegroup.com.au if anyone would like to discuss anything with me personally.

Michael Ratnik

[15GIZMO]

Thanks for your input Michael.

Seems like we need to take this to the management of the Hoppers Club.

Just a note on the passport system - When it was one freeroll game in a night we a 2k start stack and 2 passports - this cost approx $15 to stamp them both up (with our membership discount). Since the introduction of the cash game at 9pm, the freeroll is a 5k start stack with one card and the cash game is a 2k start stack with one card - so still 2 cards and the extra cost of the cash game.

the nights that the cash games are together with the freerolls, haven't seen very good numbers for the cash games.

It was suggested that the cash games be played first and the freeroll afterwards, this way I would predict that the number of players for the cash game would increase and the freeroll numbers would probably remain about the same.

Might have to put this to the HX manager myself as it seems that this suggestion has not been passed on. Both Harps and I made personal enquiries of a lot of the players at the venue late last year, and they thought that this would be a positive move. This suggestion was put to the TC's and they thought it would be a good idea, but obviously nothing was done about it at the time.

We will put it to management and see how we go.

[Michael Ratnik]

This is going to be a very quick reply, but you say there nothing passed on about this, we have passed along to management that some feel this way, and this is where the survey came into it. We are giving everyone a choice to show what they want.

I can understand the freeroll second would work much better, and I hope the results reflect this and if the people you were talking to late last year were the ones that voted, this is what will happen. But we will know for sure later in the week.

And I totally agree that the numbers for the second game will never be as good as they are for the first, I am not going to speculate any further than that until I see the results.

I am more than happy to post the full results of the survey on this forum for complete transparency.

Thanks for the constructive discussion.

Michael Ratnik

[666HARPS666]

G'day,

I think it should be said that all games @ the TIGERS CLUB, As of last Thursday are all CASH GAMES "NO MORE FREE ROLLS",
I think this should be on the forum for all those that travel out to play the Thursday night free roll game. Or an SMS sent out to all players that play there . Seeing as players were told it would change in Mid February.

That being said Hoppers Club tonight got 2 new members " Thursday night Tigers Club players" They play the Wednesday night cash game @ Tigers but want a free roll game "so their Thursday is now a Monday @ the Hoppers Club"

This is just the start of the EXODUS.

[Ernie Paterson]

Harps all players were told the thursday game at Tigers would be changing to a $20 buy-in as of the first Thursday of Feb, this has been announced every Wed and Thursday night at Tigers for at least the past 2 weeks.