Feedback on the Freeroll

Final table

Ken -

Some time, after you've recovered from all the stress and strain of today's tournament, could you post the final table and winners? As I was watching a semifinal table, I got a repeated error message and got booted out, and could not get back in to see the finals.

Congrats to all who made it through!

I wonder if we'll have the same kind of difficulties in the LVA GP tourney this week...

CJ

 

tournament results

Hi there,

I'm not Ken, but all tables' results can be seen here:
http://www.us.global-player.com/live/lb.html


Further issues:

- Congrats again, Tom, for winning - you deserved that. (You haven't won a GPC tourney for a long time, have you?)

- Thanks Ken, for your time and money. I guess this one added to speeding up the process of establishing online BJ tournaments - despite all the tech problems. And it sure was worth the effort.

CU next time,
Chris

 

Even with the problems, I actually enjoyed the tournament. I do have a couple suggestions

• Disable last bet button once a chip is placed. I didn't know how to remove chips and bet way too much because of that.
• If the dealer has BJ don't play out the hands. Dealer had a K up, I had an 11 and I doubled. Turns out Dealer had a BJ so I lost.
• Make the highlighting for next player more obvious. Flashing yellow box was hard to notice sometimes.

 

Thanks Ken!

I had a great time in spite of the difficulties. Hopefully we can get some more opportunities to play again and the bugs will get worked out. Chat definitely helped since some people were posting playing instructions. I think someone already suggested sending out instructions next time. I had at least played some in the free guest mode to get a feel for the software, but it still had some quirks when playing in a tournament.

MrBill, I think I was watching you double on that 11 when the dealer blackjacked, and if my memory is right, you lost your initial bet but not your double. I think the software doesn't have a way it to check for insurance without going around and letting everyone play out their hand. If you wanted insurance, you had to select that and then play your hand too. If at the end the dealer did have a blackjack your play was voided and you got your insurance paid.

One other feature which would be nice would be to double for less. I had one situation where I did not have enough money remaining to double my bet, but I wanted to go ahead and put what I had in, but when I tried, it told me that I didn't have enough funds and sent me to the cashier.

One thing I never could figure out was how to bet 50 cents. I saw some people betting their dollars and halves, but I don't think I could go lower than the $10 chip. Did the other chips appear on your selection if you won them along the way?

Thanks again Ken for hosting the game!

 

O'well

I guess it goes without saying the Global tournament had a few problems, but people "IT WAS FREE", these tournaments are more for testing the product then anything else.

If Global would just tell everyone that they need our help to play in the tournaments so they can test the program I am sure we would all help. The biggest complant I heard was the waiting, when the system crashed they should have just post a time for us to come back instead of keeping us waiting for a long time. It is little things that will make the differants in pissing off players. I would rather them just say their sorry and we will re-start at 4 or 5 then keep us waiting around. The offer of $40 was very fair, but if they just tell the players what is going on I don't think they would have to offer anything to appease the players.

I appluad Global for working on these online BJ tournaments for us, it does beat driving hours to a casino to play when and if they are even hosting a tournament. You have to understand this is all new and they are going to have problems at first, but once they have all the bugs ironed out it will be sweet getting to play BJ tournaments at home on a regular basis.

And yes they have other issues besides the crash to correct as mentioned in some of the other posts. Give them time and they will take care of all the problems. Hopefully soon the only thing the players will have to bitch about is losing and not the system...LOL.

I want the thank Ken Smith (passed tournament) and Anthony Curtis (next weeks tournament) who both are sponsoring these Global "FREEROLL" tournaments for us to play in. Without them we wouldn't even know about these events.

 

That may be true, I just remember it let me double and then I lost. I didn't really remember if I lost the initial bet or the double. If it plays the hand and then voids it if the dealer has a BJ that would be good to know ahead of time. I don't believe insurance was offered since it was K up.

 

.50 cents

I think the .50 was only on insurance for betting or your return from a surrender. I might be mistaking, but that is the only time I saw them at my tables.

 

Freeroll Thoughts

I think that part of the problem was that if this software is as buggy as it seems, this needed to be publicized as a Beta site. This August, I was invited to beta-test Bodog's poker software, and they gave some really good financial incentive to do so, such as a freeroll for a $25,000 seat at the WPT championship. That way, when the site has problems, our expectations were set, and we could choose based on that.

I had not had the impression that the Global Player freeroll was a beta test, but rather that the freeroll was an inticement to get new players to download GP software and bring in new customers. Granted, without a deposit requirement, it was pretty generous, but that was my expectation.

Now, once the tournament began, I think that Puma did a pretty good job resolving difficulties with Ken and coming to a reasonable solution.

------------

As for suggestions to the software:

- Make the "your turn to act" indicator more obvious than it is.
- Show the bet size in numbers as well as with stacked chips. I had to start using pencil and paper to calculate bet sizes based on the remaining stacks.
- When the hand is resolved, I think an animation to declare each hand in turn as a winner or loser (perhaps 1 second per player) would be less jarring than the immediate resolution.
- Was there eventually a way to see when an opponent surrendered instead of standing? I did not see one.

 

Hi Mrbill,
I also enjoyed the tournament and was very happy to make it to the semi finals. I wanted to respond to a few of your points on the interface:

- The last bet button is very useful and time saving. If you want to add to the bet after clicking it you can add chips by highlighting the chip denomination you want and then clicking on top of your "last bet". To lower or remove the "last bet", you put the cursor over the bet amount and RIGHT click to lower the bet or remove it. Once you get the hang of it, it becomes second nature.

- If they check for blackjack before playing out the hand with either a 10 value or ACE up and end the hand, it would not give people the opportunity to either take insurance or take even money if an A is showing and they also have blackjack. Further, if you were to split or double when and then the dealer ends up getting blackjack, the money you added via doubling or splitting is returned to you. You will see it left on the table and added back to the bankroll. They handle this situation very well, I too thought I was losing out on doubles and splits, until I started noticing they return the funds recently and ONLY TAKE THE ORIGINAL BET LESS ANY INSURANCE PAYOUT.

- I STRONGLY AGREE with your 3rd suggestion about making a player's box easier to see when it is there turn. Of course all of your option lights (double, hit, stand, split, etc.) light up in white when it is your turn, and your box flashes, but it is hard to see on different monitors I have used.

To make it easier to see that it is your turn, 2 months ago I asked them to either:
1. make the line around your box THICKER
2. make the line around your box flash a different color that is easier to see, or perhaps a few different colors like red, yellow, blue, repeating.
3. add light shading (so the bet is not obscured) on the bet box when it is your turn so it is very obvious it is your turn.

In case they don't read this forum, I will e-mail GP these "box" enhancement suggestions and see what they say.

Xanax

 

default bets

Jackaroo, someone ask in chat prior to the tournament how to place bets, the answer was click on the chips then click on deal. thats what i did 10 or 12 times every hand until time expired then i found out before the semis that you click the chips then the box above your name then deal. thanks for your patience and if you think you were frustrated you should have been in my chair trying 10 or 12 times to bet every hand with no results. i see others have posted they experienced the same situation.

 

Freeroll Tournament

DEAR KEN,

THIS WAS MY FIRST ONLINE BJ TOURNAMENT AND I CAME IN 4TH OVERALL, DESPITE ALL THE DIFFICULTIES. JUST WANTED TO THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR HELP IN CHAT AND ALL YOUR TIME DEVOTED TO THIS EVENT. HOPEFULLY, THE NEXT TOURNAMENT GOES SMOOTH.

GINA--g678is21

 

At the time, I didn't know how to remove the bet once it was placed. My suggestion is once a chip is placed, they disable the last bet button. Near as I could tell it was "disabled" after you hit it once. I tried to up my bet to $500 once by clicking Last Bet ($250) twice and it didn't work. It's easy enough to hit the wrong button there.

I didn't realize at the time they returned the double bet if the dealer had BJ. Now that I know that, what they do makes sense. I understand they have to go around the table and ask about insurance, Maybe they need to have a message that all changes to bet are void if the dealer does have BJ.

Both of these are non-issues now that I have used the software a little bit. I wonder what other issues there are out there, I wouldn't want to run into them when I have real money on the line.

 

Maybe

It may have been extremely difficult for them to give us a time back if they didn't know the problem and how long it would take to fix. It may have took 5 minutes or it may have took 8 hours. Just a thought...

 

Ken, THANK YOU for the free shot at cash. I think some of the problems were as follows:

1- Many had never played at this site and didn't understand the software very well.

2- The upgrade made things hectic at the start, since one couldn't use the old software to play in the tourney.

3- Players should have been e-mailed very specific instructions several days before the tourney as to how to bet, change your bet, see when a person surrenders, and many other questiions we ultimately had at the start and during the tourney.

4- Other folks had made many suggestions that I won't repeat.

5- Clearly, if the shutdown was a software problem, that will have to be fixed, and if it was something unpreventable by Global, then you are EXTREMELY unlucky..

Ken, I think it is only a matter of time before we can play BJ Tourneys at many sites.

Thanks again for the opportunity.

Jimmy

PS. Global is having a Christmas tourney on the 19th of December. $3000 total pool, $40 entry (which carries a $600 overlay if filled, even better if not).

 

GP Player Directions?

I watched some of the game before getting knocked of and being unable to re-connect. I was too late to sign up for this one, but I'll be watching for future events. Reading the player comments like mrbill's, it seems like many players need a set of directions for using GP's software in tournaments.

Also, I wasn't able to tell when players were doubling thier hands- this is not displayed?

Sentry

 

Too late

It's easy to see now that a simple solution to the software unfamiliararity would have been for one of us to suggest for all first time players to try the "guest mode" (phony money) prior to the the actual event.

While frustrating, I thought Ken and GP handled the situation as best they could. It might also be noted that I don't recall ever having any problem with the software in normal play. These difficulties have surfaced as they try to provide us with "elimination" multi-table tournaments.

 

All things considered

Inspite of the problems, the difficutly of placing bets, discerning bankrolls, double down recognition,disconnnects, etc, etc.-----it still was a fun tournament. Some of the Chat remarks were hilarious.

Ken, thanks for putting it on for us.

Opus21