Mulgrave Buy in Feedback

[gmatical]

Just a little feedback to the powers that be at the everchanging Mulgrave Country Club Tuesday Night Buy In

Entry Fee - $10 or $15? Much of a muchness here, but the fact that ALL of it went into the prizepool made it more appealing.

Stack Size - It must remain $5000 start stack. This is what makes it SO much better than other nights i play. You can survive an early bad beat, there seems to be a lot less 'oh well' type of All-in moves because people can get away from hands (because they still might have a few thousand left (which is still a very playable stack). The 'deep stack' element is the main reason i go.

One Passport only - 2 passports is a lot to HAVE to use. I could happily fill 3 cards every week, but i feel for young blokes who you can just tell do not have much cash (uni students and what not). Paying an entry fee PLUS filling TWO cards makes for a $50+ night. Multiple cards might make the venue a small amount more money, but it will COST it more money in the long run. LESS people will come, and LESS people will play multiple venues throughout the week.

$5000 chip up for the passport - I like the fact that it is a big amount of chips, and that it is not worth more after the break. Play does not tighten up pre break and you do not feel that sense of despair having to use a card that would have been worth double if only you have folded your "middle pair with flush draw" 2 hands ago.

Antes - I do not have a problem with antes, nor do i think most people do. People whinge about them, but that is just the same as people sooking that "the blinds always go up when it gets to me!". People actually know what to do with antes and i have not seen anyone not putting them in etc...

Blind Levels - Last weeks levels were ideal. If i remember rightly the weeks prior there was a huge jump from $400/800 to $1000/2000! This (plus antes) made it a bit too 'bingo-ish'. The extra levels make for a better flow.

Prize pay outs - Obviously cash is prefered to gift cards, but either one is fine to me. Paying the top 8 is better than 'winner take all'. But perhaps only pay top 5 - Make the top prize half the pool and scale down from there.

Phew, got that off my chest

[bennymacca]

awesome first post, welcome to the forum

[BigPete33]

Excellent constructive first post, welcome aboard.

[AceLosesKing]

Excellent constructive first post, welcome aboard.

This.

[Michael Ratnik]

Hi Gmatical.

I will try cover off all of your questions, I apologise for taking so long to get back to you.

We kept changing things up at Mulgrave because we were trailing new structures. As you may have noticed the Cash buy-in games were not working. We trailed different structures at all of our events, Mulgrave being the most generous of them all, then suddenly a little over a week ago the governing bodies let us know that you can pay cash prizes if no rake was taken. This is why it was suddenly changed.

The entry fee was $10+$5 for legal reason when we ran the game under the permit system. Now we do not have to take the rake so it was left at $10.

Before we got the go ahead to run cash games for cash prizes Mulgrave County Club was about to cancel due to lack of profitability, and that was including the $5 rake with 1 passport; We do not dictate to venues how many passports to use, within reason, we have venues out there that are happy to use none, but in this case Mulgrave was not profitable with only one and it was their decision to change this.

The $5,000 starting stack was great, I agree, however with 2 passports this will be up to $20,000 in play per person, this is too much. The $3,000 with $3,000/$6,000 will give you plenty of chips to play with, and with the middle blind periods stretched out so there is more opportunity to play some real poker.

Antes will only come into effect in the later stages and will only be about 1/5 of the small blind at the most and only come in play for the last 5 blind periods.

As Chris mentioned to us during the game the payouts could have been a little steeper starting later. So on last week’s numbers the top 5 would have been paid, with 40% going to 1st. Chris will use this new payout structure tomorrow night.

And how great is it we can finally get some good cash prizes happening! At one of our events last night, Hoppers Crossing we had 113 players @ $10 each, made a nice payday for 1st with $500 cash, the top 6 were paid as well.

I sincerely thank you for your feedback; I really do hope that I have answered satisfactorily, if I have not please let me know. I hope you continue to use the forum and get more players on here so we can have some more great discussions like this one!

Michael

[pundies]

I agree with everything gmatical has said.

The 1 passport makes a big difference when you are paying the $15 buy in and it is reason why I (and I know several other people too) go there.

By making it 1 passport the numbers (which have really been building) will go down there. Alot of people travel because of the structure there.

[gmatical]

Michael,

I hear what you are saying, it would be no good for everyone if the night was cancelled.
$3000 is better than regular $1000 start stacks at most venues, and the $3000/$6000 chip up will benefit me... so i am not too fussed about the multiple cards required. I will basically START with $6k and if i have no disasters should be $12k or there abouts after the break.

Does 888pl have to provide venues with a guarantee of X amount of people, or that they spend x amount at the bar ?
Because if it is the numbers you need to produce, the cash brings in the punters!

I think the 888pl are doing a good job, and the Mulgrave Country Club is a good night - but tweaks need a couple of weeks to see if they actually work (it might be some other random reason why numbers increase/decrease - you need to average things out over 3 weeks to gauge their success. I would think that Mulgrave should understand that you guys are trying some new things and cut you some slack.

One last thing.... every week the queue is slow because they are signing up new players - another positive for 888pl coming via the cash event!

Thanks for your response Michael!

[Michael Ratnik]

Hi gmatical

Thanks for the feedback and of course the positive words above!

We do not guarantee the venue any amount of players or revenue, but we do try to help in every way possible.

I think Mulgrave has heard the voices and will consider staying at one passport.

But once again thanks for the feedback and please, keep it coming. If you have a look around the forum we gain great ideas from the participants in these discussions.

Look forward to hearing from you soon.

Cheers

Michael