CHEERS and JEERS - Meskwaki, October 2010

CHEERS - to the entire tournament staff for again hosting one of the best-run BJT's in the country! Sure, there were a few glitches here and there but that is going to happen with any competitive event of this size and they sure try their hardest to make this a Must-Play for the serious BJT enthusiast. I saw a few dealer mistakes but they always did the right thing - stop immediately, call a TD, and get the situation resolved. In all but one case the resolution was quick and correct. And a second CHEER to the TD's (Sara, Bob, Kenny, and others) for not only being approachable but actually seeking out feedback from known BJT players, asking for feedback whether positive or otherwise. How many BJT's have you ever been to where they actually want to know what you think of it? WOW!

JEERS - To the same TD's, or whoever it was, for really screwing up the table assignments in the first round. In that two-advance round, some tables had 7, some 6, some 5, and one had only three. Everyone was pissed about it. I'd bet they'll never let that happen again because they really got an earful, not only from us travelers but some locals as well.
Note to Staff - it's an easy fix, just eliminate that three-hand grace period for tardy players then ask for volunteers to change tables before the cards fly.

CHEERS - to seeing so many BJT.com friends there. I was going to list 'em here but stopped when I already had over a dozen names on it. What a treat to see everyone! This BJT has turned into a reunion and is one of the big reasons we tolerate our long, long drive.

JEERS - to Meskwaki's Slot department. Some of the most pathetically gruesome video poker in any large casino in America. I did a rather thorough check of the entire place, and the only VP even close to worthwhile is two quarter 9/6 JoB's at the bar - but those geniuses in Slots apparently decided that even this low-grade play was too good so they shorted the Royal from 4,000 coins to 2,500. I'm not sure the BJT staff understands how much this costs them in entries, not to mention how much it costs the casino because of BJT players who watch TV in their rooms or sit & sip a beer - instead of gambling - because the selection is so atrocious. I wouldn't be surprised if Slots is already bitching at the BJT staff because of a lack of side action on machines when it's their own fault.

CHEERS - to the local lady who won it all. This is a very good thing for the tournament's future, as both the higher casino management and the local players would eventually get angry if the out-of-town BJT assassins kept winning.

JEERS - and a BIG one - to the hotel operation there. AGAIN. They sold off some of the rooms that were being held for possible BJT players and didn't tell the BJT staff, helping to cause the first unfilled BJT in some time. And that's not all, folks.... they gave Deb and I a handicap room which would be very nice for any unfortunate soul living in a wheelchair but was, quite frankly, a huge PITA for us. Think of a shower head mounted at a height favorable for someone sitting down. We tried to trade it back to them but there was no other room available. Plus, get a load of this conversation overheard at the front desk on the morning of the BJT's final day (reproduced as closely as I can remember). Husband, wife, and child are at the desk:
"Could we possibly get a late check-out?"
"I'm sorry, all of our late check-outs have been given today."
"But I'm still in the tournament and we'd like to leave our stuff in there until it's over."
"I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do. Would you like the room for an additional day?"

Say WHAT? :flame: No suggestion to leave bags at the bell desk, no help at all other than asking for more money? WTF? I'm thinking that the odds of that family coming back in April just went down by about 95% +/-.

CHEERS - Free Internet access in the rooms! One tower has WiFi, and even though we were in the other tower they loaned us a cable to hook in. We tried to get online with the cable, couldn't figure it out, tried the WiFi just for kicks and it worked! Weak signal but it worked. Thanks!

JEERS - to the one really bad decision by the TD's on a dealer mistake. I didn't see it but sure heard about it later. Somehow the button position got off by one spot, it was noticed very late in the semi-final one-advance round. As we know, position is crucial in a one-advance game but the TD decided to leave it where it was even though everyone agreed it wasn't where it should have been. Somebody got screwed hard because of this. BOOOOOOOOOO.

JEERS - to only having one CowPie - excuse me, I mean PaiGow - table on the floor. I know there are licensing issues but it was quickly obvious that this one table is not only popular with the BJT players (because the VP sucks) but it is also a hit with the locals. Consider getting a second one out there.

CHEERS - to the vastly improved buffet. Formerly stocked with some of the cuisine featured on that buffet in the "Vegas Vacation" movie, it's downright good stuff now. Excellent prime rib, salad station with many great choices, and the best fried chicken I've ever had in my life (sorry, Mom). Drink service top-notch. Serving dishes which were running low were replaced promptly. The crab legs were pretty nasty but everything else was wonderful. Whoever did the makeover on that buffet deserves a huge raise! :cheers:

JEERS - Don't know whose fault this is but we have the same damn problem every time we're there. The first time we try to charge a meal to our room, it turns into a 15 - 20 minute Battle Royale between the buffet cashiers and the hotel. This trip, at check-in I even asked the hotel desk clerk to arrange our account so that we wouldn't have a problem again. Of course, it turned out they hadn't done that, and we had to stand there while the battle raged and the people in line behind us grumbled. I wasn't backing down this time, they were going to handle this simple request since I'd tried to arrange it in advance. The same problem happens on every trip which means somebody needs some sense knocked into 'em.

CHEERS - because the Meskwaki staff is so sold on the idea of BJT's that they want to turn one of them into an absolute monster, maybe with a million-dollar prize fund. Their problem is that they haven't figured out how to attract enough players to Cornfield, Iowa at an entry fee high enough to make that possible with the number of rooms they've got available (plus somebody really needs to open a can of whoop-a$$ on the hotel operation first). Maybe they should consider asking us here on BJT.com? I know they watch this site, they've admitted as much. There would certainly be enough free advice from experienced players!
Note to Meskwaki staff - You are never, ever, EVER going to have your big BJT if you don't trash those two dumb rules - doubled bet limits for last 5 hands and that silly insurance bet.

JEERS - To the idiot who expressed his glee at a friend's late 2:1 BJ by cheering loudly.... right into the earpiece of the nice gentleman standing right in front of him. That obviously hurt. A lot. (Note: The idiot was me and I apologized to the fellow repeatedly. Cannot believe I did that. Geez..... )

And finally........
CHEERS - As we walked out of the building for the last time, we were bludgeoned by the distinctive smell of a farmer fertilizing his fields. A not-so-subtle reminder that This Ain't Vegas, Baby, and that's not such a bad thing at all.

 

Lefty

Nice job on the Cheers and Jeers!!:laugh:

Maybe Meskwaki can hire you as a paid consultant

CP

 

Yes, I think Lefty's missed his calling. It's another fine assessment by him (and Angel Run?)

Billy C

 

Thanks, guys! I wasn't going to do one of these for this BJT but a surprising number of folks came up to me at Meskwaki and asked for it. It was somewhat of a collaborative effort. AngelRun did help a lot, she had a pad of paper on her lap for making notes while we drove the 9 hours home. A couple of the items were from her memory and she filled in some details on others. Also, a big thanks to Monkeysystem for proofreading it beforehand.

 

hey lefty:

great job on the reporting. aside from the tournament being one of the best open tournaments in the land, it is great to know that bob, kenny, destry (hope i got the spelling correct) and sara are so approachable, and just plain nice people. loved to haved bottled up their sincerity and caring, and brought it back to seattle. god knows this area could use it.

yes there we are couple of bumps in the tournament as you reported. yet, i stood back and realized where it was located, and it ain't vegas, etc., and that really is not a bad thing at all.

thanks meskwaki. already making plans on returning.

 

thanks lefty for the report post, one cheer i would add is the draw for "puck "
(starting hand) placement. keep up the good work!!

 

william;

you were there? wish we had not missed you.
and yes, drawing for the puck was a good change.

 

Thanks for the kudos everyone - and William definitely has a good point, one that I missed when writing. The TD's decided to draw for first-hand puck position each round instead of merely starting on the far left (#1) spot as they had before. This eliminates any possible notions of anyone fooling around with the pre-assigned seats in an attempt to stick somebody with bad position late in the round. Yet another example of how they actually try to listen to their players.

 

Puck placement

Really the puck placement isn't that big of a deal as long as you draw for your seats, it's still a random draw. However when allowing players to pick their seats or allowing the "So call" blind draw where players call see the table and seat on the sheets while drawing needs to have the puck placement done at the tables.
In my events since only 6 players played maximun, I simple rolled a die to see where the puck would start. No use dealing out any cards and waisting time. This could be done for all table at once and simply annouced to all where the puck starts. That way it is the same on all tables and no confussion.

 

tx;

they drew one card in the pit, and all tables started at that position.

 

That works, I assume ace through 6?

 

ace through seven or ace through four, depending on the round.

 

Great report Leftnut, however I'd have to disagree with you on the above issue. As long as each table has the same number of players (SCHEDULED) to play with no more/less then one player, I have no problem with allowing them to start on time with the three hand grace period (as long as all cards are dealt out and the hand is dead if the player(s) are not at their seat by the time their turn comes. After all those players PAID to play and three hands aren’t that long (most I played in allow five hands grace period).

It is just luck of the draw, after all each seat represents an entry fee (or at least suppose too). If those players miss their playing time they are the ones penalized, it shouldn't be the other players at those tables with less players.

Is it fair? Yes, why wouldn't it be, it might have been anyone sitting at those tables that got the break by playing with less then the schedule amount of players.

Now on the other hand, "IF" the table assignments or table drawing's were not filled properly, I agree that players should have been re a signed to fill up the tables as equally as possible.

Easy fix, simply offer a seat at each table for each player that comes up rotating the tables (in order) as each player comes up to draw. This way no table will ever have more then one player more/less then the others (unless of a no show) in which case it is just the luck of the draw.

Most tournaments issues you mentioned are not that hard to correct, it is just if they fit them. Several tournaments have asked for suggestions in the past, the problem has always been just that, they ask but never corrected the problems. Reason maybe to help out a local or because a host wants to accommodate one of their VIP players. Bottom-line is due to some reason, host, or higher management there is always going to be some issue that upsets one or more of the players. Old saying, "You can't please all of the people", and boy is that statement true in blackjack tournaments...lol!

 

Agree with all in Tx's post above - almost.

As far as this BJT, all of the severely shorted tables were on the same shift. A very odd coincidence if they were all no-show paid players. Without any definitive information otherwise, I have to believe that they were accidentally scheduled that way. Having said that, I'll reiterate that the folks at Meskwaki are still learning and they've proven to be willing to listen, and they sure try to run a great BJT. I'd bet this doesn't happen again.

As to the tardy players (and this is where I disagree), I'm heavily in favor of a player getting booted if he's late. Period. I get there well ahead of time and patiently wait for the round to begin. So do most of the other players. Allowing someone to blow in the door late and still be able to play is rude and unfair to those who made it on time. It won't take many DQ's for someone with a tendency to attempt a grand entrance to learn the hard lesson.

 

I agree with Textourplayer on his assessment of this problem. The fact is that there is no solution that will satisfy everyone. Also, consider this scenario:

Player A, Player B, and Player C do not show up at the designated starting time. So the TD starts to reassign seats as LeftNut suggested. That takes several minutes. During the reassignment of seats, Player A shows up and insists on being seated in his original spot since the tournament did not officially start - more delays. Now another few minutes pass and Players B and C show up and also insist on being seated because the tournament did not officially start. Talk about chaos.​

Best bet, leave the seat assignments unchanged. No way can all parties be satisfied with any rule on this matter. Personally, I've both been aided and disadvantaged by someone not showing up. In the long run it evens out.

As for the staff "still learning" sometime doing the norm is learning. Off hand, I don't remember any tournament that rearranges seats because of a no show, so not doing the rearrangement seems to be the norm.

 

This is where you are fighting a losing battle! I'd say most tardy and even no show players are the one's who stayed up all night playing or actually still playing and don't realize there playing time has started. Even worst most of these players are VIP's and the casino is not going to PISS OFF these players. Is it fair, actually yes because at least ALL the players have this chance to be late and still not be locked out as long as we get there before the start of the forth hand. Now if it was only offered to their VIP players I'd agree you would have just cause to be up set.

Am I saying your wrong, not at all? That is just your opinion and I have no problem with it, but you'll learn trying to change rules and formats in tournaments for the most part isn't going to happen. The casino's are set in there way's and you'll get the play or don't play they don't care attitude. I understand the TD's or floor personnel may tell you their sorry and that they will work on the problem, but bottom line is they are going to do it the way their bosses tell them to. So unless you get through to the decision maker chances are nothing will be changed and even then you better show how and why it is better for the casino, pissing off a VIP isn’t. You just need to know which battle's to fight and which are best left alone.

 

NO grace periods

There is NO NEED for grace periods. You have to be 21 or older to enter the events and if you can't be responsible for yourself---------------too bad!!!!!
When the scheduled starting time arrives, it would only take a good tournament director a minute or two to balance up the tables and proceed.

Billy C

 

I have to agree with Billy. Although I can see the casino's view in wanting to placate their high rollers, a line must be drawn in order to avoid the type of situation we saw at Meskwaki (a 7-player table next to a 3-player table). No grace period! The cards should not be dealt until there are a balanced number of live bodies (max difference of one) at the table with chips in front of them.

 

At Meskwaki, the 3 player table only had 5 assigned, then 2 were no shows. They should have at least moved players so that each table had 6-7 assigned. I think it was a new experience for them since I believe it was the first time the tournament did not sell out, therefore all the tables were not filled. They did listen, and I'll bet it doesn't happen again.

I am of the no grace period school of thought probably because I am never late for anything. One casino up here (now closed) had no grace period--someone could be absent the enntire 14 hands, although they could not advance. With just a minimum bet placed, if the dealer was hot, staying out 10-11 hands was a huge advantage. An option I prefer is a large penalty--take 100-200 per hand for 3 hand grace period. That ought to get them out of bed.