Announcing TCOP - Team Championship of Poker

Fatboydim

TCOP 2009

TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP OF POKER - TEAMCOP

Citywest, Dublin, Ireland August 20th-23rd


PokerEvents.ie are proud to announce The Team Championship of Poker which will take place in CityWest, Dublin from August 20th to 23rd 2009. The event will have €30,000 added prize money.

This will be the world’s largest team poker event with teams entering from all across Europe and further afield. A full complement of one hundred and fifty sponsored teams with six players each is expected. Don’t miss your opportunity to play in this unique and fantastic event!

The entry fee to the TCOP is €2,400 which includes a €240 registration fee. A sponsor is required for each team at a cost of €500. The total prize money for the event is expected to be in the region of €350,000 with €200,000 awarded to team prizes and €150,000 to individual prizes.

The full event schedule is:

Thursday 20th Aug

Free Player Party 6:00 pm
€200 Charity Event 9:00 pm

Friday 21st Aug

€2,400 Team Championship of Poker [*€30K ADDED] 6:00 pm

Saturday 22nd August

Team Championship of Poker - Day 2 2:00 pm
€400 (incl €40 reg) Support Event 4:00 pm

Sunday 23rd August
Team Championship of Poker - Final 2:00 pm
€400 Support Event - Day 2 2:00 pm
€200 (incl €20 reg) Support Event 3:00 pm




The event will be covered on all media including national and local press, radio and TV. Teams who wish to provide their own sponsor are welcome to do so. Alternatively, sponsorship can be provided by the event organisers on a first registered – first served basis for teams who have paid their entry fee. The event will be run with the co-operation and assistance of JP Poker with Donal MacAonghusa officiating over proceedings as Tournament Director.



For further information, please contact info@teamcop.com.

Full details of the event including schedule, rules & regulations and sponsorship packages will be available at www.teamcop.com.

Fatboydim

Hi all

I'm helping with the promotion of this event and I'm available for any questions you might have. The website is now live and you can get a lot of answers there but I know you're still going to want to know more especially about the sponsorship.

I am now working on the standard tournament post mods. And will post that up momentarily.

Fatboydim

1. Who is running the event - Pokerevents.ie / JP Poker
2. The purpose of the event - Commercial & Charity event
3. Date and Location of event - Citywest, Dublin, Ireland August 20th-23rd
4. Registration and Start time of event - as posted above
5. Any prerequisites - no
6. How can tickets be purchased & is there a maximum number - online at www.teamcop.com - Maximum 150 teams.
7. Type of Tournament - Texas Hold 'em - Team event + Side events.
8. Cost of entry and any subsequent rebuys/top-ups etc. - €2400 per team + €500 sponsorship - Sponsorship can be provided on first come first serve basis.
9. Cost of registration - €240 per team
10. % of entry fee/rebuys/top-up going into Prize fund - 100% + €30k added
10a. Is any money from the prize fund held back for future tournaments, if so, how much - none
11. Any guaranteed prize pool. - *******€30k added
12. If applicable, Number of re-buys allowed and over what time frame/blind levels. - N/A
13. Starting Chips - 10k
14. Rebuy and Top-up chip amounts. - N/A
15. Blind levels - Will post below
16. Blind timeframes - 40 minutes
17. Places being paid and if any prizes are other than cash - All cash prizes - expect 10% of the field but money will be awarded for individual players as well. Predictions as above.
18. Are there going to be dealers - Fully dealer dealt. Professional Dealers
19. Will there be a documented list of rules - Yes
20. Is there a tournament director - Donal MacAonghusa & JP
21. How are disputes handled - The TD - Donal MacAonghusa
22. Are there any cash games offered, if so, please outline the rake for each limit offered - There will be - details to follow but expect a reasonable rake.

Rebel Card Club

hi len
just a question , can you flesh out the 500 sponsorship concept, why ? does the money go to the 30 k gty , you say sponsorship is available , from whom ?

thanks

el side:p

bohsman

Basically they want you to get a sponsor but instead of the sponsor putting you into the tournament they just put 500 into the prizepool and call it added money.

Thats how it was explained at the Irish Open at least.

Fatboydim

Hi Bob

The concept is that each team will be fully sponsored by outside sources. In other words online sites, bricks and mortar card rooms, casinos etc. As well as other brands and markets. So for example you may well get :

3 red Bull teams
5 PPP teams
5 Boyles teams
2 Rebel Card Club teams
1 Crazy Horse Lapdancing club team
etc etc

So for each €500 sponsorship money goes into the prizepool and into the website, brochure, advertising campaigns etc.

The benefit for companies is to get their brand out there. So we're aiming at people like Oakley [Sunglasses] Creative Labs [MP3 players] etc.

We're guaranteeing the added €30k

Fatboydim

bohsman wrote: »

Basically they want you to get a sponsor but instead of the sponsor putting you into the tournament they just put 500 into the prizepool and call it added money.

Thats how it was explained at the Irish Open at least.

Sort of - But in fairness it's a lot of work at our end and we are offering to find sponsors. We assume however that local card clubs and businesses are going to want to get in on the act too.

Fatboydim

There are sponsorship packs being prepared for any firms companies interested in sponsoring teams BTW.

Ollieboy

this is going to be a interesting thread. To be fair Len I think the 500 is a horrible idea, but I'll wait to see what other peoples reaction is first.

500 to the event and no guarantee that will be spent on your team or spent at all....

Fatboydim

Ollie the players won't be stumping up the *€500 so it's all added money as such. No doubt some players may decide to just put in the extra * €83.33 each and that will be up to them.

€250 of that five hundred goes into the prize pool. Which hopefully will cover the €30k added. If there are less than 120 teams then that starts costing the organisers. The other *€250 goes into the brochure, website and various other forms of advertising. Each team will have it's own dedicated page on the website with their sponsors advertising. We are also trying to attract companies to poker who wouldn't normally entertain the idea. It's a risk, and it would be a lot simpler just to not add the €30k or bother with sponsors, but if it does work it will benefit all of us.

I'm honestly not sure it will work myself, but €500 is nothing to most companies. The idea is that it should generate a great festival buzz for a relatively low buy in. So like you say let's see what happens.

Ollieboy

Fatboydim wrote: »

Ollie the players won't be stumping up the *€500 so it's all added money as such. No doubt some players may decide to just put in the extra * €83.33 each and that will be up to them.

€250 of that five hundred goes into the prize pool. Which hopefully will cover the €30k added. If there are less than 120 teams then that starts costing the organisers. The other *€250 goes into the brochure, website and various other forms of advertising. Each team will have it's own dedicated page on the website with their sponsors advertising. We are also trying to attract companies to poker who wouldn't normally entertain the idea. It's a risk, and it would be a lot simpler just to not add the €30k or bother with sponsors, but if it does work it will benefit all of us.

I'm honestly not sure it will work myself, but €500 is nothing to most companies. The idea is that it should generate a great festival buzz for a relatively low buy in. So like you say let's see what happens.

to be honest its the worse time for a event like this, most companies are pulling totally back from sponsorship and 500 is actually a lot to some companies at the most. Companies have put a total freeze on playing 3rd parties at the moment, so sponsorship is going to be very hard to get. Your not given much back to these companies either.

Also most companies dont want to be involved with gambling. Why dont BBC or ITV show poker on telly? because they don't like to promote gambling.

Anyway thats my 2 cent. best of luck with it.

Fatboydim

actually we're getting good commitment at an early stage from most of the online poker companies. And of course in a recession gambling / poker / lotteries boom. 1200 runners in St Remo???

Also it has to be said that Fintan could sell sand to the Arabs.
I've very high hopes for the success of the project and lets face it - gambling is something we're all very good at.

The Snapper

Looks great, best of luck with this Len.

Fatboydim

Cheers Bren

What do you think of the idea of the European Team Champions re-uniting to take part?:D

thepokerroom

we will put a team in the mafia from dublin. christy, marie, jim, kris smith and willo and eammon connolly.

Fatboydim

That’s great news Jim. And a great team.

I can also announce the participation of another high profile team.

Team: Men The Masters

Veronique Gourdon [Cpt]
Padraig Parkinson
Rory Liffey
Scott Gray
Don Fagan
Men “The Master” Nuygen [Subject to his availability]

Fatboydim

I also believe Team Bundy are planning to participate as well.

The Snapper

Fatboydim wrote: »

Cheers Bren

What do you think of the idea of the European Team Champions re-uniting to take part?:D

I'd be very much on for that

carfax

Mainstream sponsorship is something that will add bags more value to poker tournaments in the long run....Fair play Len, I am sure this will be a huge success. And it will encourage more organisers (including myself) to go out and get the likes of Toyota, Lucozade etc on board (something a few organisers have been trying for years)....

I will have to check dates but almost certainly book a team for PokerIreland.ie please.

Stephen.

big_iain

Len,

I would like to add the side events to be qualifying events for the Irish poker rankings. Unfortunately the main event would not qualify. Will you be able to ship me the results for these side events?

Also, I would like to know more about the sponsorship of a team as we would probably look to have a team sponsorship.



Iain

spoofingjam

I'm a huge supporter of pokerevents but im just not mad about this whatsoever

kpnuts

spoofingjam wrote: »

I'm a huge supporter of pokerevents but im just not mad about this whatsoever

Agree. Why not a plain and simple €2,160+240 team event ... with no brochure?

carfax

spoofingjam wrote: »

I'm a huge supporter of pokerevents but im just not mad about this whatsoever

I'm not a huge supporter of pokerevents by any means ( ) but this is a good idea imo...

The whole idea of bringing poker up another level has to be that it goes more and more mainstream. If an organiser is running a darts tournament (or any other sporting event) there will normally be a substantial sponsorship paid across by one or more firms to have their name associated with it.

Poker players have been paying double juice on the likes of syndicated TV poker shows. They pay a buy-in, pay their expenses etc and then someone (eg Harrah's) make a mint out of the TV rights. In no other sport do the competitors have to stump up the way poker players do with no return for the entertainment and revenue they provide.

A poker tournament generally needs players to pay an entry fee in order for it to be competitive etc but this concept here can only be good for the game if it is pulled off well. There is €30k added with the players only having to dip into their pockets for the tournament entry fee.

As Len said, players are not paying a double juice here, a company or organisation will pay for advertising (they would pay as much if not more for a newspaper advert that would probably get less publicity and less of a return)...What better place for a company to advertise for new business than with a large group of people who are not afraid to risk a bit of dough (i.e. poker players are a huge target audience for a lot of companies and effective advertising is the key word at the moment).
____________________

Just my two cents John.

Len, I expect my tenner in the post for helping you out here

Stephen.

Fatboydim

Thanks Stephen - Very well put.

Iain we're putting together details of the sponsorship packages for companies and individulas interested in that aspect and I'll PM you with the details ASAP.

GKidd

Fatboydim wrote: »

That’s great news Jim. And a great team.

I can also announce the participation of another high profile team.

Team: Men The Masters

Veronique Gourdon [Cpt]
Padraig Parkinson
Rory Liffey
Scott Gray
Don Fagan
Men “The Master” Nuygen [Subject to his availability]

Will magic Dave be dealing at this event?

HIVeindhoven

I'd say a lot of teams will end up shelling up the "sponsorship" out of their own pocket. Why the hell woul any respectable real world companies want to associate their company with smelly live tourney degens? (I'm being serious btw)

also lol at men the master
Will he be bringing his chip dump team with him?

CHD

I can get sponsorship and really hope to play this.

Fatboydim

HIVeindhoven wrote: »

also lol at men the master
Will he be bringing his chip dump team with him?

Is that goss I don't know about?

Ollieboy

Fatboydim wrote: »

Is that goss I don't know about?

I was laughing to myself when you posted this. I think PP is pulling the piss on Fintan here. Men was caught at a US airport by security years ago with a suit case full of chips from all different casinos.

Theres a tread on 2+2 years ago about it.

mickc

Fatboydim wrote: »

Is that goss I don't know about?

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/men-master-cheating-commerce-148212/

dannydiamond

mickc wrote: »

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/men-master-cheating-commerce-148212/

Wow,he sounds like a right dirtbag.

bops

all you can cheat baby!!

The Snapper

CHD wrote: »

I can get sponsorship and really hope to play this.

from ipoker ?:D

al10pin

kpnuts wrote: »

Agree. Why not a plain and simple €2,160+240 team event ... with no brochure?

Len,

Not a big poster here, and I hate knocking good work that others are trying to achieve to help us enjoy good events, but this just isn't adding up.

In effect from what I can see, there is no added money, no guarantee, no overall tournament sponsor but simply this:

Team costs €2900, with €490 withheld. And a hope of 120 teams, and a hope of 120 sponsors of €500 to refund to the players on each team.

The last bit of this, should have nothing to do with money going to the organisers.

Simply:

A team can get sponsorship if it wants, for whatever amount it can receive, and then thats a private deal between them and their sponsor.

If a team can't get sponsorship, they can approach you and you will obviously have plenty of sponsors waiting with a minimum of €500, and this will be refunded to that team, reducing their cost.

Based on 120 teams this will give the same prizefund, but it clearly shows the cost of the event, and how much is being withheld.

The problem with this is will you get 120 teams if it stated like the above? Maybe, maybe not, but it would be less likely than the way it is being marketed, but amounts to the same!!!

I think events should be made very clear, as to whats happening, not in a way that allows for movement one way or another.

So if one team enters, the tournament will go ahead, with 30k added?

Or sixty teams enter, all sponsorship goes to guarantee?

Doesn't make sense!!!!

Best of luck with the effort.

Mark Magee

Fatboydim

Thanks Mark

But there is **€30k added.

And it's a condition of entering that teams are sponsored. The players do not have to pay the *€500. The *€500 is for advertising in all media - so it has nothing to do with the players as such, other than they may have to wear patches or shirts.

People like myself will be working very hard promoting the event.

The player benefits in a variety of ways. the added money. Exposure on TV, radio and in printed media.

Players who are good enough to find sponsors themselves will of course still do what you say anyway.

And if only one team turns up it wouldn't be a tournament would it - they'd have no one to play against :rolleyes:

Mel1e

Sounds a great event and I will be arranging a team to travel to Citywest.

I had a look at the web sites but it is disappointing to say the least.

I have tried to register a team but must now wait for someone to email me back.

As for the €500, well I think on the balance of things, it is an unnecessary expense for the team and is likely to deter teams entering the event.

In any event, our team will be there hopefully and I will be arranging events from Roscommon to Maynooth to pick my team.

One question comes to mind though and that is does the team require a captain and can the captain play in the team events.

Thanks

Mel1e

Fatboydim

Captains are required only for the purpose of having one person to communicate with if you will. I would imagine most teams will have captains playing. However if a team has a non playing Captain that would be fine as long as we know who to liase with.

As for the website it is under development and functionality is being added. Unfortunately our web master is currently down with an illness. Hopefully not swine flu.

JP Poker

GKidd wrote: »

Will magic Dave be dealing at this event?

Chip security will be my responsibility at this event.

At the Green Joker Poker Eurepean Deepstack Toby Stone and myself introduced some security measures which worked well. With 7.7 million chips in play, at the end of day 1 we were under by 100, over by 1k at the end of day 2 and exactly 7.7m on the final. The differences were due to chip races.

I've discussed these with Donal MacAonghusa who will be TD at this event and we have come up with some additional sercurity measures.

In additional to having new chips for this we will also have a secure room, which only a select few members of staff will have access to.

Fatboydim

The APAT European Team Champions will also be taking part.

This will reuntite the succesful Irish team of Colin O'Prey, Pat O'Callaghan, John Murray, Brendan Byrne and of course yours truly. One more TBC.

Looking forward to it lads.

Four of a kind

hey len,

Will def try and get a team from Roscommon up to this.

Regards,
Carlo

Four of a kind

Len, have you any flyers made up for this event yet? If so would you be able to send me on some. I may be able to get a few teams from Roscommon going to this. They just need to see some paper to wet their tongues abit

regards,
Carlo

Fatboydim

No problem Carlo I will sort that out this week for you as I think new flyers are being printed up.

Four of a kind

Fatboydim wrote: »

No problem Carlo I will sort that out this week for you as I think new flyers are being printed up.

lovely. I pm'd you with my address.

Carlo

Fatboydim

Carlo leaflets posted out to you today. Anyone else who might like some leaflets / flyers - Please ask.

Things are progressing well and it looks like this truly will be a World event with interest from as far afield as India and Malaysia.

cardrooms

I think Mark Magee makes a few very good points. €490 registration taken out of €2900 is just less than 17% which is huge. Why not try and get one sponsor to add €10,000 to the event and they can have complete sponsorship of it.
Outside of the sponsorhip part, I think it is a great idea and I wish yous every success with it and I will hopefully be putting a team in but we will probably sponsor ourselves.

cardrooms

I have uploaded the tournament information onto my website so could you check it to make sure everything is correct, thanks. cardrooms.ie

toHex

cardrooms wrote: »

I have uploaded the tournament information onto my website so could you check it to make sure everything is correct, thanks. cardrooms.ie

yep, looks great. good to see another DotNetNuke convert on the poker scene as well

cardrooms

thanks, its probably the best solution for it as its database driven.

Fatboydim

Second that Cardrooms - Nice site.

Still a misunderstanding on the sponsorship thing though. As this is for services we are supplying to the sponsor. It should not come out of the poker players pocket at all. In fact we're adding the €30k. And I know it would be simpler without it, but it's the way it is for this one. Encouraging news is that online sites are signing up to it.

cardrooms

Right, I get it now. The sponsor is obviously getting their moneys worth with exposure and half of the money paid for the exposure is going to the prizepool as added money and the rest is being used to promote the event.

Just with a new concept like this, its takes a lot of questions etc to understand it but I get it. I am already making calls put in a team but nothing is guaranteed as I will have to run a few qualifiers to raise the money. i know loads of good and great poker players but they are not all flush. I will run 4 satellites in my club to create our team. It is 4 players and not 6?

Fatboydim

Believe me I know what you're saying. Times are tight.

Best of luck and anything I can do to help let me know.