Seeking feedback on SA's first 888PL Semi Final Weekend

[Garth Kay]

Hi Guys,

I am after as much feedback as possible on the weekend.

Tournament structures, prizes, staffing, merchandise, food and drinks, anything that springs to mind.

Also, and this will be difficult for some, I would like the positives as well, some of the things that you really loved and wouldn't have changed.

[muzzington]

Dear Garth,

There are too many states nowadays. Please eliminate 3.

I am not a crackpot.

[rcon]

I loved opportunity to buy into a tournament where the structure was conductive to, er, less turbo style play. Not too slow, not too fast and we were playing for stakes that made things a little interesting

Despite being a fan of winner takes all, I thought the payout structure was slightly too top heavy at 1800/850/450/200, but not by very much.

Would have liked to have seen some cooperation from the port club in relation to getting dinner served during the breaks. Not really sure how this could work, but possibly along the lines of drinks people, or you could have a spot up upstairs where you could order meals during play to be served downstairs during the break.

High rollers was fantastically organised and very professionally run. Best yet. Well done guys

As I only played in one event, I can't comment on anything else, but I really enjoyed my small part int the weekend.

[Nevah play JJ]

Garth,
I think you already know what my opinions of everyone at the Finals go.. because I still think they run one of the BEST, most professional, smoothest and most organised events I have ever participated in!
(Not talking about Poker tournaments, I also mean anything else I have ever participated in).

I can only comment on the Sunday event, but was the structure different?
It seemed so much quicker than in the past.
I hear complaints about Antes, but I personally love them. Most complaints about antes come from those that are ignorant.

Personally, my only issue is not a poker related one, but a venue one. I shall leave that to later however as I believe this should be just about the poker.

But again Garth, you should be proud of these events, I know I always look forward to them!

[Bacon]

Too many stairs.

[Nevah play JJ]

Too many stairs.

Due to back issues, I used the lift, this cut down the amount of stairs considerably!!

[Bacon]

I was a fan of the flat 25 min blind levels, gave at almost 2 orbits of the 8-seater at that level.

Thought the antes came in 2 levels too early, but I think we missed the 150/300 level I've grown to love

I saw absolutely no issues from players in regards to incorrect rulings etc, and was good to have a number of people on tables that enforced rulings.

I would like to have seen the cash start at 15th on the Saturday

I was a little critical of the Teams Event, in that I felt it didn't reward the teams that had numerous Round 2'ers... but in the aftermath, I think those teams that did have multiple people in did get the prizes.

The start time for Teams was perfect I think. The rebuy on Sat was maybe a little early, but I know they needed some time for the HR game too.

[Bacon]

Too many stairs.

Due to back issues, I used the lift, this cut down the amount of stairs considerably!!

I used it once, but I just liked complaining about them every time we went up!

[Nevah play JJ]

Ohhh and the new chips are awesome!!
Great feel, they looked great!!

Ohhh and thankyou so much for bringing back the lanyards (is that what they are called?
They are awesome momento's


Ohh and:
LMAO Bacon... That is definately a good enough reason to climb any stairs, just for the bitching lone... ahahhahaa

[bennymacca]

personally i think the whole weekend was awesome.

both side events were run brilliantly, and i though they were great.

i really enjoyed the teams event, not only because i won the individual part of it , but because i thought it was great to have everyone standing around and cheering. it felt like i was playing for everyone else, not just myself, and i think that was great.

the only complaint i had with the teams was the structure was little too severe at the end. it was great until the 1k/2k/200 level, but then the next level was 2k/4k/500!!! this meant that when it was heads up between jd and i, there was about 14 bb total on the table, and when heads up finished at the 3k/6k/500 level, there was 9bb total between us!!!

so maybe you could have capped the blinds at the 1k/2k/100 level, as there was only 28 people for the second round, which was 56K in chips. but other than that, i thought it was great.


saturday was the first time i had played one of the $10 rebuy games, and personally i thought it was great. some player's bubble strategy left a little to be desired, so maybe a short educational article on satellite play would be awesome. but other than that, i thought the structure was pretty decent.


i thought the saturday challenge semi was excellent in its structure, it allowed plenty of opportunity to play. i hope it stays similar to this in coming seasons.


with regards to the foundation semi final, i think the structure was a little too fast in the early parts of the tournament. if my memory serves me correctly, last season there was a 150/300 level and a 250/500 level, with antes coming in at the 300/600 level. this season however, both of the above levels were removed and the antes came in at the 200/400 level. personally, i think if you are going to remove those levels, the antes could come in a little later.

having said that, last year the tourney only finished at around 1145, and this year the expected finish time was set at 10pm. the tourney finished at 10.05, so it was bang on the finishing time, so if your goal was to make the tourney finish a little earlier, then you achieved this by removing those levels. maybe bringing back the 150/300 level before antes kicked in would be a good idea.


other than that, i thought it was once again fantastically run, the side events are great, perfect for players like myself who didn't last that long in the semi finals to still stay around and play some poker. the teams event was great fun.