Westwood Last Night

Jaden

*Warning, may contain traces of facts*


Popped Down last night to the Westwood hotel in Galway, for VC's €10K guaranteed.

Registration was at 7. Cards at 8.
€75 in (no registration).
€50 Topup or rebuy. One only.
Cash games €50/€100 avalable on the side.

Bloody prefessional setup. Dealers at every table, including the cash games. Tournamnent Director (Donal - Sound Bloke) and two other floor staff. Also one admin type handling the cash for Buy-ins.

The Payouts, Blind Levels, players left, rebuys and topups were shown on one of 3 overhead projectors.

1st Prize €5K.
2nd Prize €2.4K
Top 7 get paid.

€100 for highest hand of the evening.
€200 Bounty on previous winner. If you knock him out, you get it. If he makes the last table, he gets it.

110 Players.
42 Rebuys.
7 Topups. (This was incorrect, when I asked, the tournament director indicated the true number was probably 13/14, someone didn't update).

13 Tables to start, seats allocated randomly by draw. Bar available

Blinds were 20 minutes long. Levels as follows.

50/25
100/50
150/75
200/100
300/150
400/200

20 Minute Break. (86 Players Left), Finger food plus tea and coffee available gratis.

600/300
800/400
1000/500
1500/800
2000/1000
3000/1500

5 Minute Break (18 Players Left).

4000/2000
6000/3000
8000/4000

I left at 1:30am with 14 players left. I'm unsure how it finished.

Very well run, no hassles at all. The standard is decent enough, with no silly plays spotted.

Costs:

Buy-in (x75)- €8250
Rebuys (x42) - €2100
Topups (x13) - €650

€11,000 in Total
€10,000 in Prizes. (Top 7, Player Bounty, Highest Hand).

€1,000 for the Place (Probably free), food, and 15 or 16 Staff.

Hardly done for the money.....

Verdict: Well run, and worth going to. Almost complete transparancy on goings on.

The prize may be capped on other weeks, but you don't have to play those if you don't want to.

Two thumbs up from me. Better than any alternative I've found out West.

NickyOD

Jaden wrote:

Cash games €50/€100 avalable on the side.

I think they must have been SnGs. Fintan said they weren't aloud to run Cash games by law.

DapperGent

I think you're allowed to run them but not allowed to take rake. Could be wrong.

lordofthetilt

so cahs games are legal but rakes are illegal.

where is this mythical 'Galway' you speak of? It's sounds great.

Jaden

Opps, my bad. They were 50/100 STTs. 10% for overhead, AFAIK.

As for finding Galway, head west young man, head west. So simple, even a culchie could find it.

Pokerevents

Strict no cash game policy, which we enforce every night.
we do have stt for players who get knocked out of the main, these are a hugh success with up to eight being played on the night. These are €50 and €100. Two or three players actually arrive for sit and go's only(which I cant understand, with the value of the prizepool)
Glad you enjoyed jaden, it was a good night with top players reaching final table.
Enda "the hulk", Derek "the dangerous" and Aidan the Power were super-satellite winners in Galway, all three at final table.(who said this was a game of chance). Also other familiar faces at final table were Christy Morkan(cash game plaYer) and vinny o'toole(always finishes high in the places)
Final three were Derek, Vinny , KGB , I heard vinny and derek trying to cut a deal with KGB for 2800each with the change for the dealers. Top three were on €8600. KGB unwisely turned down the offer as three were almost even in stacks. Kgb gets busted for third place €1200. He was ripping(Iknow the feeling, happened me at city west in the €100 on friday, rejected €9000 offer when it was down to three of us, ended up with €5000 10 minutes later)
Immediately derek and vinny do the deal 3700 each with vinny getting the winners players points.
I was delighted to see better players coming through, it 's proving structure is a good one. Players can qualify for the connacht team and progress to the official Irish poker team by earning player points at these tournaments.
Just a note to clear things up regarding the event. This is a 100% independent, with no sponsership what-so-ever. Nicky you can direct your complaints to myself not V.C on this one.

NickyOD

I'm delighted that there was such good value in this tourney. But would the prizpool have increased with the numbers? Had their been 140 players with 80 buy-backs then you are looking at an entirely different situation if the prizepool remained at 10K. In other words you EV plummets as registrants go up but the payouts don't. Also I'd be pretty pissed if I was to make it to the final table in a 110 player double chance and still not get paid. 7 out 110 is too top heavy.

bohsman

11000 taken in with 10000 given out spot on. STTs with a 10% rake, again perfect even the Merrion have backed down on that one. I might give it a go next time Im in Galway. I find the 13/14 Top ups slightly unbelievable but Ill let it slide. Credit where its due and all that...

By the way Fintan, whats the law about cash games, Im just wondering why the Merrion were allowed hold them in city west last week

Pokerevents

Nicky, what do you do for a living?
Do you work and get paid for it. I'm sure you do.
Thats what I expect. Every person that works on the night of tournament needs to get paid.

These events do not make profit. Do the maths. I run them out of interest and believe I will make profit from a sponser or from launching on-line site sometime in the future.

You cant honestly believe I'm making more than a modest wage from any of my events.
Anyway whether you do or not I'm not in a position to waste my time on this argument with some know it all.
Your point about the prize structure is a valid one. The norm now a days is 10% of the field getting paid with first place somewhere between 30 and 40%. Were not normal here in the West of Ireland as we have decided to do things a little different. We have gone crazy altogether and paid out bigger values to the higher places at the expense of the lower ones. We even had the idea of top three getting paid only. I'm very sorry if this upsets you, however I think we will go with what are players want. Please dont assume I not taking your advise because you have called a boycott on these events. It's not, it's simply because our players are happy with this new structure, for the time being anyway.

Pokerevents

Bohsman, gaming is illegal where there is alcohol being served(licensed premises). What tournament poker is classed as is a competition and thus the gardai are satisfied we are operating within the law. However if we decided to run cash games as opposed to our s.t.t's I'm we would be closed down. The Merrion did not have a bar in the event area and did not allow players bring alcohol into the venue, so they were entitled to run their cash games. This got some raised eyebrows from the travelling players especially the English as you could have a drink on side of the doorway legally and 6inches to the other side of the doorway you could be arrested for having a drink.
Anyway from our point of view the stt's are a runaway sucess. Players go mad for them, more so than if there were cash games. Also it is less hassle to deal etc, although less profit. I'm told a table can make anything from€700 to €1000 a night in a desent casino. Don't know how accurate that is.

NickyOD

Pokerevents wrote:

Nicky you can direct your complaints to myself not V.C on this one..

For the record I asked V.C. for their opinion on the capped prizepools at events they sponsor, which I'm perfectly entitled to do. I haven't had a reply yet.

Pokerevents wrote:

Nicky, what do you do for a living?
Do you work and get paid for it. I'm sure you do.
Thats what I expect. Every person that works on the night of tournament needs to get paid...

Come off it Fintan. I have never questioned your right to get paid. I have only ever questioned the subject of false advertising on your website and taking more than just reg fees from tournaments. Every time I bring these subjects up you insult my intelligence by trying to deflect the thread in a different direction.

Pokerevents wrote:

Your point about the prize structure is a valid one. The norm now a days is 10% of the field getting paid with first place somewhere between 30 and 40%. Were not normal here in the West of Ireland as we have decided to do things a little different. .

I've got no problem with that as long as its clear before the tournament starts that your payouts are not going to be the norm.

Pokerevents wrote:

I'm not in a position to waste my time on this argument with some know it all..

I noticed you added a blind level that were missing from the supersat. So despite the fact that you believe I am some know it all you actually made one of the changes I suggested.

Pokerevents wrote:

Please dont assume I not taking your advise because you have called a boycott on these events. It's not, it's simply because our players are happy with this new structure, for the time being anyway.

I haven't called a boycott on your events. You know I played in your Galway Supersat and intend playing in the Cork and Dublin one's too. I just don't want to play a tournament where I have no idea what kind of value for money I am getting.

I have asked some Irish emigrant friends of mine who play poker in the U.K and U.S and they have never ever heard of such a thing as a capped prizepool. They've read the threads on this forum and some of their comments I've heard are much more cutting than mine. The only reason there aren't more players speaking out is because of a lack of experience. You may feel you can do things a little differently just because you are in the west of Ireland, and of course that is your business if you want to, just don't expect me to comform with the rest of the flock of sheep and blindly hand over my euro's not knowing how much what I'm playing for is really worth.

I don't beleive for one second that you are not clever enough to see that a 10K prizepool with 110 players and 70 buy backs, in terms of value for money is completely different from the same prizepool with 130 player and 85 buy backs.

You wouldn't get away capped prizepools outside of Ireland. The players are too knowledgable to stand for it. Eventually Fintan you will stop capping prizepools, I guarantee it, and when you do you can be certain I will be the first to remind you of the insults you've thrown in my direction for campainging for those changes.

Pokerevents

Funny thing is nicky I'm actually doing more for your campaign than you are yourself.
I'm bringing proper tournaments to the general public at a afforable buy-in with bigger payout than any other I've seen or experienced outside a casino.
To do this with a buy-in of less than €250 and make it pay for itself is not possible without sponsership. However sponsers are more interested in the bigger tournaments, so here-in lies the problem.
I've negoiated as much as I possibly can from my sponsers to run these tournaments properly and pay punters as much as possible.
While my sponsers are generous and contribute towards my costs we are still only half way there. I am confident that in the near future that these smaller buy-ins will have 100% pay out as partners will increase their budgets to produce them. However in the meantime it does n't help when people unwittingly try to discredit me in the eyes of my sponsers. Thus I'm the one out there achieving what you are boasting about doing, when in actual fact you are hindering the progress.
Finally any comments you took as insults I'm sorry for, I dont recall insulting you at any stage.

NickyOD

Pokerevents wrote:

I'm bringing proper tournaments to the general public at a afforable buy-in with bigger payout than any other I've seen or experienced outside a casino.
To do this with a buy-in of less than €250 and make it pay for itself is not possible without sponsership. However sponsers are more interested in the bigger tournaments, so here-in lies the problem. I've negoiated as much as I possibly can from my sponsers to run these tournaments properly and pay punters as much as possible. .....

I know all this Fintan. Believe me I don't envy your daunting task of organising these events, and I'm delighted that someone is out there with the balls to go and do it.

Pokerevents wrote:

While my sponsers are generous and contribute towards my costs we are still only half way there. I am confident that in the near future that these smaller buy-ins will have 100% pay out as partners will increase their budgets to produce them.

So you are working towards a 100% payout structure. This is something you never said before, and fair play if you do. I still believe though that you should have been charging a higher reg fee with uncapped prizepools. That way players knows exactly what value they are getting for their buy-in. You can then, as you said, with sponsors contributing to your costs you can work on reducing the reg fees. I would be very happy to play in any €50 tournament of yours even if the reg fee was €20 as long as the rest including all the buy-backs go into the prizepool. Now I know that your 10K tourney this week was better value than this because of the numbers that turned up but had another 20 players come along it would have been a completely different situation. (i.e. roughly 2,250 more would have been paid by players but the prizepool would not have increase, thus you would have had to beat a 17% larger field for the same money)

Pokerevents wrote:

Finally any comments you took as insults I'm sorry for, I dont recall insulting you at any stage.

Here's reminder. Apology accepted. I sincerely wish you good luck with your events.

I've read your comments more than once, and I suggest you take off them sunglasses your hiding behind, and look at the overall picture. You are completely full of your own woofully negative, dubiously motivated opinions.
You should stay away from the sats like you've said ,and the super-sats and all other live events, you are a true bluffer, to the point of being fake.