August Mini Festival - €18000 Guaranteed - Blinkers Casino, Friday 22nd - Sunday 24th

JP Poker

I only realised tonight that there is two other quality events on this weekend, but i have been giving away tickets for this in my both my pub games and in Blinkers Casino so can't change the date now.

I've spoke to Neill and will give Ian a bell tomorrow to try make sure that this doesn't happen again in the future.

So here is goes anyway....

Our last Mini Festival was a great success, with a total prize pool of €34,200 over the 3 events.

Paul Coyle took down the main event for €7500

Friday 22nd August - €4000 GUARANTEED
Buy in €60 (€10 Reg Included)
1 Rebuy or Top-Up at €50
Starting Chips 3,000
Early Bird 500
Rebuy/Top-Up 5,000
Reg 8pm, Game 8.30pm


Saturday 23rd August - 2 Day Event €10,000 GUARANTEED
Buy in €250 (€25 Reg Included)
Starting Chips 20,000
Reg 1pm, Game 2pm
1 Table Sats, All in or Fold and Blind Omaha from 1pm


Sunday 24th August - €4,000 GUARANTEED
Buy in €120 (€15 Reg Included)
Starting Chips 15,000
Reg 3.30pm, Game 4pm


Blind Structures

Friday - €4,000 GUARANTEED
25 Min Blinds for 3 Levels, Followed by 20 Min Blinds
25-50
50-100
75-150
100-200
150-300

Break 20 Mins, Chip Race 25's, Finger Food

200-400
300-600
400-800
500-1000
600-1200
800-1600

Break 10 Mins, Chip Race 100's

1000-2000
1500-3000
2000-4000
3000-6000
4000-8000
5000-10000

Break 10 Mins, Chip Race 500's

6000-12000
8000-16000
10000-20000 Frozen Until Finished


Saturday - WSOP'08 Main Event Structure - €10,000 GUARANTEED
30 Min Blinds for 10 Levels, Followed By 45 Mins
50-100
100-200
150-300
150-300 (25 Ante)

Break 10 Mins

200-400 (50 Ante)
250-500 (50 Ante)
300-600 (75 Ante)
400-800 (100 Ante)

Break 30 Mins, Chip Race 25's, Pizza's

500-1000 (100 Ante)
600-1200 (200 Ante)
800-1600 (200 Ante)
1000-2000 (300 Ante)

Break 10 Mins

1200-2400 (300 Ante)
1500-3000 (400 Ante)
2000-4000 (500 Ante)

Break 10 Mins

2500-5000 (500 Ante)
3000-6000 (1000 Ante)
4000-8000 (1000 Ante)

Breal 10 Mins, Chip Race 500's

5000-10000 (1000 Ante)
6000-12000 (2000 Ante)
8000-16000 (2000 Ante)

Break 10 Mins

10000-20000 (3000 Ante)
12000-24000 (3000 Ante)
15000-30000 (4000 Ante)

Break 10 Mins, Chip Race 1000's

20000-40000 (5000 Ante)
25000-50000 (5000 Ante) Frozen Until Finished


Sunday - Deepstack - €4,000 GUARANTEED
25 Min Blinds all the way
25-50
50-100
75-150
100-200
150-300

Break 15 Mins, Chip Race 25's

200-400
300-600
400-800
500-1000
500-1000 (100 Ante)

Break 30 Mins, Pizza's

600-1200 (100 Ante)
800-1600 (200 Ante)
1000-2000 (200 Ante)
1500-3000 (300 Ante)
2000-4000 (500 Ante)

Break 10 Mins, Chip Race 100's

3000-6000 (500 Ante)
4000-8000 (500 Ante)
5000-10000 (1000 Ante)
6000-12000 (1000 Ante)
8000-16000 (1000 Ante)

Break 10 Mins

10000-20000 (2000 Ante)
12000-24000 (2000 Ante)
15000-30000 (3000 Ante)
20000-40000 (4000 Ante)
25000-50000 (5000 Ante)

TD's for the weekend will be JP Mc Cann & Toby Stone


Anyone wanting to stay in the Hotel over the weekend please PM or ring me on 087 6448132 as i can get a room rate of €65 per night provided i have a block booking of more than 10 rooms per night.

Come all and enjoy!!

ditpoker

looks good. plan to play the friday game, not sure about weekend plans yet.

good luck.

Helper_Monkey

Im confused about something.

Whats the point, as is the fashion, to offer 'deepstack' tournamnets, just to have stupidly fast blind levels?? Am i missing something? Surely this results in lots of hard work, and good play, not rewarded as the game degenerates into a crap shoot as the blinds shoot up.
Isnt it all a little misleading?

JohnnyL

To say 45min are 'stupidly fast blind levels' is a ridiculous statment.

nicnicnic

Helper_Monkey wrote: »

Im confused about something.

Whats the point, as is the fashion, to offer 'deepstack' tournamnets, just to have stupidly fast blind levels?? Am i missing something? Surely this results in lots of hard work, and good play, not rewarded as the game degenerates into a crap shoot as the blinds shoot up.
Isnt it all a little misleading?

no its a great structure

JP Poker

Helper_Monkey wrote: »

Im confused about something.

Whats the point, as is the fashion, to offer 'deepstack' tournamnets, just to have stupidly fast blind levels?? Am i missing something? Surely this results in lots of hard work, and good play, not rewarded as the game degenerates into a crap shoot as the blinds shoot up.
Isnt it all a little misleading?

Both of the above deepstack structures offer great value for money and don't turn into a crapshoot at any stage.

We ran the Monthly €10,000 a few weeks ago and got 104 runners this was a 2 day event with the average stack never getting below 25 BB's at any stage. I'm not sure if you noticed that this game goes to 45 Min levels from the 11th level.

We ran the Sunday game last week for the 1st time and with 45 runners the game ended after 11 hours and that was a 4 way chop! I have in fact removed one level from last week game (250-500) as players said it wasn't needed.

Last year when i ran a very similar game in the Red Cow Hotel, one of the biggest complaints that i got from the more serious poker players was the game was to good of a structure for the buy in amount and that if they won the tournament their hourly rate was lower than if should have been as tournament with such a good structure should have a bigger buy in.

In general tournaments in Ireland offer super value for players which you won't find anywhere else in the World for such a low buyin. For example most Casinos in Vegas would only have between 3-5k Chips with anything from 15-25 Min for a buy in of €120 and normally don't included at least 3 important levels
75-150
150-300
600-1200

Of course this is just my view, i would like to hear the views of the players that played in my €250 game last month, €120 Sunday deepstack from last week and my old €150 Red Cow game.

gigetheman

i played in this last month and the structure was brillant, JP u cant please everyone and ill be back up again this month

tm2204

JP Poker wrote: »

Both of the above deepstack structures offer great value for money and don't turn into a crapshoot at any stage.

We ran the Monthly €10,000 a few weeks ago and got 104 runners this was a 2 day event with the average stack never getting below 25 BB's at any stage. I'm not sure if you noticed that this game goes to 45 Min levels from the 11th level.

We ran the Sunday game last week for the 1st time and with 45 runners the game ended after 11 hours and that was a 4 way chop! I have in fact removed one level from last week game (250-500) as players said it wasn't needed.

Last year when i ran a very similar game in the Red Cow Hotel, one of the biggest complaints that i got from the more serious poker players was the game was to good of a structure for the buy in amount and that if they won the tournament their hourly rate was lower than if should have been as tournament with such a good structure should have a bigger buy in.

In general tournaments in Ireland offer super value for players which you won't find anywhere else in the World for such a low buyin. For example most Casinos in Vegas would only have between 3-5k Chips with anything from 15-25 Min for a buy in of €120 and normally don't included at least 3 important levels
75-150
150-300
600-1200

Of course this is just my view, i would like to hear the views of the players that played in my €250 game last month, €120 Sunday deepstack from last week and my old €150 Red Cow game.

Hi JP,

What you say about the buy-in & chips given for value in Ireland is spot on.

I played your game last Sunday and never felt under pressure from the blinds (I was above average all he way through) until, perhaps, the (long) final table bubble & the final table itself.

I had 76k chips going to the final table of 10 players. Blinds were 3000/6000 with a 500 Ante. With 675,000 total chips in play the final table average was therefore 67,500. My 76,000, with a round costing 14,000, left me with an 'M' of 5.4 or 12.6 BB's which was a little tight to be honest.

Not sure the way around this except to repeat a couple of levels but, as you mentioned, the tourney ran for 11+ hours but it's a pity for the final table to get a little 'crapshooty'.

P.S This is not a moan/complaint as I thoruughly enjoyed the tourney. It was well run & excellent value for money

JP Poker

tm2204 wrote: »

Hi JP,

What you say about the buy-in & chips given for value in Ireland is spot on.

I played your game last Sunday and never felt under pressure from the blinds (I was above average all he way through) until, perhaps, the (long) final table bubble & the final table itself.

I had 76k chips going to the final table of 10 players. Blinds were 3000/6000 with a 500 Ante. With 675,000 total chips in play the final table average was therefore 67,500. My 76,000, with a round costing 14,000, left me with an 'M' of 5.4 or 12.6 BB's which was a little tight to be honest.

Not sure the way around this except to repeat a couple of levels but, as you mentioned, the tourney ran for 11+ hours but it's a pity for the final table to get a little 'crapshooty'.

P.S This is not a moan/complaint as I thoruughly enjoyed the tourney. It was well run & excellent value for money

Thanks for the feedback.

I think the main reason why this happened is for the every reason you mention the long bouble to the final table as no one was knocked out for a long time which result in the above.

I think taking the 250-500 level out this week will help in the later stages of the game. The game may need to be adjusted a bit to find the right balance.

Maybe an increase in blinds lenghts at the final table.

Macau Cork

There's plenty of play

Helper_Monkey

JP Poker wrote: »

Sunday - Deepstack - €4,000 GUARANTEED
25 Min Blinds all the way
25-50
50-100
75-150
100-200
150-300

Break 15 Mins, Chip Race 25's

200-400
300-600
400-800
500-1000
500-1000 (100 Ante)

Break 30 Mins, Pizza's

600-1200 (100 Ante)
800-1600 (200 Ante)
1000-2000 (200 Ante)
1500-3000 (300 Ante)
2000-4000 (500 Ante)

Break 10 Mins, Chip Race 100's

3000-6000 (500 Ante)
4000-8000 (500 Ante)
5000-10000 (1000 Ante)
6000-12000 (1000 Ante)
8000-16000 (1000 Ante)

Break 10 Mins

10000-20000 (2000 Ante)
12000-24000 (2000 Ante)
15000-30000 (3000 Ante)
20000-40000 (4000 Ante)
25000-50000 (5000 Ante)


Come all and enjoy!![/B]

This is a fast. Very fast. But I should appologies cuz I know JP hosts great tournaments and is a great tournament organiser. It caught my attention and got me thinking about blind times in tournaments in Ireland in general. It seems there is a fashion to have large stacks starting off, but the length of blinds is something that doesnt seem to get much precedence, but seems to me to be of equal if not greater importance than initial stack once a tournament gets going.

ocallagh

Helper_Monkey wrote: »

This is a fast. Very fast. But I should appologies cuz I know JP hosts great tournaments and is a great tournament organiser. It caught my attention and got me thinking about blind times in tournaments in Ireland in general. It seems there is a fashion to have large stacks starting off, but the length of blinds is something that doesnt seem to get much precedence, but seems to me to be of equal if not greater importance than initial stack once a tournament gets going.

seems good to me. 25 mins is standard, and the only level missing is the repeat 150/300 with antes. I don't think you could beat this without a 2-day tournament

Norwich Fan Rob

helper monkey, try playing in england or the states and u will see how good this structure really is, u wont get a tourney in either of those countries with as good a structure and less than a 1k buy in.

Helper_Monkey

ocallagh wrote: »

seems good to me. 25 mins is standard, and the only level missing is the repeat 150/300 with antes. I don't think you could beat this without a 2-day tournament

youre kinda highlighting my point here. 25 mins being standard is a bad thing. it does not allow enough room to play. How many hands can you see in 25 mins live? 15?

This is my thinking; every time the blinds (lets say) double, your chips halve in value. By that I mean in relation to the blinds, and thus your M value. This affects your ability to play (or make plays). In 25mins your chips are worth half of what they were at the start, in 50mins a quarter. If the blinds were say 1hr this effect would be less than a quater as devasting to your stack. Now obviously you dont wanna start short stacked in comparison with the initial blinds, but having huge starting stacks with very fast blind levels (and yes i think 25 mins is very fast), the percieved benifit you're getting (in relation to your M) quickly gets washed away.

Helper_Monkey

Norwich Fan Rob wrote: »

helper monkey, try playing in england or the states and u will see how good this structure really is, u wont get a tourney in either of those countries with as good a structure and less than a 1k buy in.

That maybe true, but that jsut means I think those tournaments are crap shoots too. We are playing for real money right?

Helper_Monkey

Im not trying to attack the system (or anyone in particlar for that matter). Im jsut making a point bout how stack size seems to be the big thing in the publics eye, when really the blind time has a much greater effect on the tournaments playability.

peace

CHD

Unhelpful Monkey IMO

connie147

ocallagh wrote: »

seems good to me. 25 mins is standard, and the only level missing is the repeat 150/300 with antes. I don't think you could beat this without a 2-day tournament

Hi Niall,
Looks like an excellent structure to me. To have the blind levels any longer, the buy in would have to be increased as an operator would have to charge a bigger reg to cover the costs of dealers etc etc, and any reg over 10% is frowned on.

And that level of the 150/300 repeat with an ante is not really missing. I see JP has not brought in the antes until the 500/1000 level which he is repeating, so in fact thats a big help to the structure as well.(thats the ante system we use down here and I think it works)

Connie

doke

All tournaments become crapshoots at some point no matter how long the levels are and what the starting stack is. Even the European Deepstack with its 50K starting stack was about to become a crapshoot at the point it was chopped. The only question is how much play there is before you get to that point.

Having played JP's first monthly tournament last month, I can say the structure was brilliant. Better than the Irish Open, a tournament with 20 times the buyin. I think we played for something like 17 hours and only at that point when we were down to 4 or 5 did the crapshoot factor start to creep in.

As Rob said, we're actually spoiled in this country by the likes of JP, Neill, Connie and others who organise tournaments with better structures than you find in tournaments abroad for 10% of the buyins you'd pay there.

I agree somewhat that some tournaments advertised as deepstacks are really no such thing. A lot of pub tournaments give you an 8K or 10K starting stack, but the blinds then double or worse every 20 minutes which effectively render the early levels meaningless unless you manage to double up. They play more like turbo sit n gos where you try to either double up or at least preserve your chips to be in the best possible shape for the pushbot crapshoot.

bops

at last months 10k game at JP's we were on the bubble for 90mins+ and i was one of the shortest stacks with 20+ BB's - i thinks that says its all

great games and strucures JP - keep up the good work!

JP Poker

Hey Guys,

Just to let you know. I've decided to change my dates on this one as there is just too much on that weekend with alot of my players wanting to play the IPC sat in Waterford and the DPT festival in Bray.


So the new schedule is

Friday 22th Aug - €4000 Guaranteed - 8.30pm Buy in €60, 1 rebuy or top -up
Staurday 23th Aug - €10000 Guaranteed - 2pm Buy in €250
Sunday 24th Aug - €4000 Guaranteed - 4pm - Buy In €120

doke

Good thinking JP, although the weekend you're moving forward to means a clash (I think) with both the Fitz IPC sat and the SE monthly game.

Nothing major on the weekend of August 23rd as far as I know.

one ill cat

JP Poker wrote: »

Hey Guys,

Just to let you know. I've decided to change my dates on this one as there is just too much on that weekend with alot of my players wanting to play the IPC sat in Waterford and the DPT festival in Bray.


So the new schedule is

Friday 5th Sept - €4000 Guaranteed - 8.30pm Buy in €60, 1 rebuy or top -up
Staurday 6th Sept - €10000 Guaranteed - 2pm Buy in €250
Sunday 7th Sept - €4000 Guaranteed - 4pm - Buy In €120

I really enjoyed last month's tournament, structure was fantastic and the dealing was second to none. I really wish this was the weekend before (as in 22nd-24th Aug) as it's a bank holiday weekend in the north and it means I would be able to play any/all of it.

JP Poker

doke wrote: »

Good thinking JP, although the weekend you're moving forward to means a clash (I think) with both the Fitz IPC sat and the SE monthly game.

Nothing major on the weekend of August 23rd as far as I know.

Wasn't aware that the Fitz had their IPC sat that weekend.

I'll have to check and see what's on around town.

kakak1

bops wrote: »

i was one of the shortest stacks with 20+ BB's - i thinks that says its all

sure does

JP Poker

JP Poker wrote: »

Wasn't aware that the Fitz had their IPC sat that weekend.

I'll have to check and see what's on around town.

Sorry about all this messing around guys, trying my best to accomadate.

I'd decided to move this a week forward so as to not clash with the IPC sat in the Fitz on Sat 5th Sept.

So new dates are now weekend of Friday 22nd - Sunday 24th August.

doke

JP Poker wrote: »

Sorry about all this messing around guys, trying my best to accomadate.

I'd decided to move this a week forward so as to not clash with the IPC sat in the Fitz on Sat 5th Sept.

So new dates are now weekend of Friday 22nd - Sunday 24th August.

Perfect, thanks JP: definitely in my schedule now.

DeadParrot

maybe PM a mod if you cannot change the title and OP JP?

Should make it up there for the deepstack

JP Poker

DeadParrot wrote: »

maybe PM a mod if you cannot change the title and OP JP?

Should make it up there for the deepstack

Done already. Thanks James

one ill cat

JP Poker wrote: »

Sorry about all this messing around guys, trying my best to accomadate.

I'd decided to move this a week forward so as to not clash with the IPC sat in the Fitz on Sat 5th Sept.

So new dates are now weekend of Friday 22nd - Sunday 24th August.

Awesome . . . bank holiday weekend for me . . . couldn't have worked out better! Nice one JP!

JP Poker

one ill cat wrote: »

Awesome . . . bank holiday weekend for me . . . couldn't have worked out better! Nice one JP!

If you could pass the word around that would be great.

Duff Man Jr.

Gonna Try to get up for the 250, where excactly it it? Do we've to go through the hotel?

one ill cat

Duff Man Jr. wrote: »

Gonna Try to get up for the 250, where excactly it it? Do we've to go through the hotel?

If you're driving there, after coming through the main gates park in the first car park you come to on the right. The casino is in the building nearest that car park which is just to the right of the main hotel. Go up the stairs to the first floor and voila!

gigetheman

jp the last 250 monthly was a great tournament so i will be up to the next 1 with a few waterford lads, george

JP Poker

gigetheman wrote: »

jp the last 250 monthly was a great tournament so i will be up to the next 1 with a few waterford lads, george

Thanks George,

See you next weekend

JP Poker

bump

Mont

Thinking of heading to this - can you bring in your drinks and play?

gigetheman

There was a great turnout (104) for this tournament last month and it turned into a 2 day event,JP are u expecting big numbers for your monthly game this weekend??

JP Poker

gigetheman wrote: »

There was a great turnout (104) for this tournament last month and it turned into a 2 day event,JP are u expecting big numbers for your monthly game this weekend??

Not expecting as many as last month. My guess is 60-70 players.

Should end on Saturday but than again i only thought we would have 120-130 last night and we stopped at 238 with 50 or so very disappointed players not getting into the game.

originalbadass

Helper_Monkey wrote: »

This is a fast. Very fast. But I should appologies cuz I know JP hosts great tournaments and is a great tournament organiser. It caught my attention and got me thinking about blind times in tournaments in Ireland in general. It seems there is a fashion to have large stacks starting off, but the length of blinds is something that doesnt seem to get much precedence, but seems to me to be of equal if not greater importance than initial stack once a tournament gets going.

Dude... Its a 120 freezeout.... Seriously.