Pub Tournaments

Clareman

There seems to be a few posts going on about pub tournaments recently so I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents.

I play a pub tourney every once in a while, it's more a social outlet to have a few beers with the lads than going to win, the tournament itself turns into a crap shoot very early on, the structure is something like.

Buy in is €20, rebuy is €10, top up is €20. You can rebuy a max of 3 times, but if you rebuy more than twice you can't get the top up. Starting stack is 5k chips, rebuy is 5k chips, top up is 20k chips. Blinds start at 100/200 and change every 20 minutes, after the third blind level the top up is made available. After this the blinds go up every 10 minutes. Chips are exchanged as soon as the value is no longer needed and the values rounded up so say you have 6 100s left you get 2 1k chips.

Pre top up and for about 20 minutes after the top up it's generally a very good game, this changes very quickly as the only 2 options available to you are either all in or fold.

Anyway, back to the topic (and sorry for going on about the other 1), I have noticed that most pub tournaments have good structure early on but "ramp up" the blind levels around 70% through to make sure that the tournament ends early and you get a large amount of donks, the amount of times you hear "But they were suited" is a joke and the amount of amatuer commentators that know the terms but don't use them right "I was getting the right odds to call" or "I had x outs" and getting it totally wrong as well as the guys that watch too much of it on tv and decide that they have to wear caps (either than or they are chavs I guess).

There seems to be a nice sum of money going around of these games, it wouldn't be unusual to have over a grand for 1st place, do you think it would be profitable to go to a few of these from time to time or would they just drag your game down.

5starpool

They would destroy my soul and make the baby Jebus cry, but that is just my opinion. Lots of people play and enjoy them and good luck to them.

Clareman

5starpool wrote:

They would destroy my soul and make the baby Jebus cry, but that is just my opinion. Lots of people play and enjoy them and good luck to them.

I would agree with you to be honest, people think that just cause they play down the pub that they are good players, it can be good fun, and the cash games that go on can be fairly serious as well

byrner1

Clareman wrote:

I would agree with you to be honest, people think that just cause they play down the pub that they are good players, it can be good fun, and the cash games that go on can be fairly serious as well

They are good for people starting to play , to learn rules ect ect but with multi rebuys poeple tend to call with any thing as their tournament life is not at stake if they lose they just rebuy !

RoadSweeper

its bingo for lads.

patmac

I gave up playing this and other pub tournaments after this http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054936292&referrerid=&highlight=
But we have a nice game out in the Golf Club on a Friday night with the place to ourselves, a nice bar and very few messers as people don't tend to be drinking all day and walk in off the street 'to have a go at this', and as I have said in another thread the standard of play has risen quite well so all in all a pleasant game.
One €25 buy-in and 1 top-up rebuy btw.

Clareman

I've had similar expierences in the past, nightmare playing against drunk people that don't have a clue, but it is very enjoyable to have a few pints and play a game of cards for low stakes.

Coillte_Bhoy

FWIW, ive been running pub tourneys for a few years now and at the start they were all multi rebuys with a very low starting stack but as players improved and got to know the game these gradually became limited rebuys but now all our games are freezeouts. The weeknight tournaments have a €50 or €60 buy in with an 8k starting stack, 15 min blinds (weekend earlier start so 20/25 min blinds) and ALL levels included. If i tried to run a Rebuy tourney now, no one would turn up, everyone seems to prefer freezeouts with a good starting stack.

Mellor

Coillte_Bhoy wrote:

everyone seems to prefer freezeouts with a good starting stack.

Dont we all

Mr.Plough

play them the odd time, its just pints with the lads with some poker thrown in.

Clareman

that sounds like a great game to me Bhoy, pity you don't arrange any down my neck of the woods

DeVore

Great craic, just dont confuse it with poker. Nothing as much fun as getting pissed with your mates, calling with 45 and flopping a house!

DeV.

dK1NG

Cant stand em tbh - especially the way certain places skim off the prize pool!!:mad:

So dont bother any more, if we want a friendly game with a few scoops then we organise one ourselves.

Clareman wrote:

Chips are exchanged as soon as the value is no longer needed and the values rounded up so say you have 6 100s left you get 2 1k chips.

so, 600 transforms into 2k?!

Clareman

oops, sorry, you get 2 500 chips, apologies

Coillte_Bhoy

Mellor wrote:

Dont we all

I wasnt just stating the obvious. I meant that even complete beginners, once they have played a reasonably stacked Freezeout prefer it to a Rebuy.

pokeroptimist

I've played with a crowd down in Boyle in roscommon called four of a kind poker. they run weekly €50 freezouts in various places and they have the best pub/value for money game around. 7.5k stack plus an extra 1k if you register before 9.15. 20 min blinds all the way starting at 25/50 and they even freeze them if they think things are getting a little crappy although I've only ever heard of them doing this twice as there's plenty of play in it.

anywhere from 25 - 35 runners every tourney and the prize pool is always spot on. Dealer at final table and atmosphere is super.

I have played in a lot of pub tourneys where the players are a joke, the chips are plastic, cards are paper and the prize pool is robbed. These kind of games give a bad rep to decent organisers.

Coillte_Bhoy

pokeroptimist wrote:

I've played with a crowd down in Boyle in roscommon called four of a kind poker. they run weekly €50 freezouts in various places and they have the best pub/value for money game around. 7.5k stack plus an extra 1k if you register before 9.15. 20 min blinds all the way starting at 25/50 and they even freeze them if they think things are getting a little crappy although I've only ever heard of them doing this twice as there's plenty of play in it.

Agree. Ive only played one of their tourneys (a charity Rebuy) but it was very well run and they know what they are doing. Some of our regular players also play in their events and would back this up. BTW, what time would a Freezeout tournament finiosh with a 7.5k stack and 20 min blinds?? We have 15 min blinds with an 8k stack and rarely finish in less than 5 hours (20 - 25 players)

pokeroptimist

Coillte_Bhoy wrote:

Agree. Ive only played one of their tourneys (a charity Rebuy) but it was very well run and they know what they are doing. Some of our regular players also play in their events and would back this up. BTW, what time would a Freezeout tournament finiosh with a 7.5k stack and 20 min blinds?? We have 15 min blinds with an 8k stack and rarely finish in less than 5 hours (20 - 25 players)

starts @ 9:30 and ends up finishing about 2am - 2.30am. this depends though on the crowd. Hav'nt been there in a while but I still hear players on about their game.
They've been asked to run a regular game big game in MacWilliam Hotel in Claremorris, but I think they did'nt like the idea of over stepping territory barriers with other organisations.

Jaden

Don't dis pub tourneys. They're paying for my Single Malt Scotch collection.....

RoundTower

Coillte_Bhoy wrote:

I wasnt just stating the obvious. I meant that even complete beginners, once they have played a reasonably stacked Freezeout prefer it to a Rebuy.

lol if everyone "preferred" freezeout tourneys why are there so many rebuy tourneys? I for one enjoy a good rebuy.

ZZR1100

We tried 10c /20c PL for the -crack -twice while in the pub and the average pot was 80euro. pints = big balls/ego

Clareman

ZZR1100 wrote:

We tried 10c /20c PL for the -crack -twice while in the pub and the average pot was 80euro. pints = big balls/ego

Drink and cards should never mix imvho, no matter who you are, your going to loose money if your drunk, you might win a few hands but you'll start leeching chips very quickly. I enjoy a pub tournament cause normally your not going to get too drunk, but if I was playing a cash game I'd stay well away from that glorious liquid