Why weren't you in Laughlin?

I'll tell you what frosts my a$$ about that turnout this past weekend. We've got nothing here in my area, except for the St. Ignace event once every other month. Southwestern folks have great opportunities within easy travel distance. Yet, when a guy works his butt off to put on a really good weekend, damn few show up. All this squealing and squawking about how folks would like TBJ to even just approach poker's success, too. I'd have spent 8 hours in the car each way to play those if I was anywhere near there. We've got squat up here for BJT and folks are blowing off something like this down there. Shame, shame!!!!

 

sorry

I was going but the mortgage business i am "was" in is in a shambles so i couldnt go... next time

 

Why wasn't I there?

Oh, to be retired....SOON!

 

Conflict

I had a schedule conflict, but I am working on plans to go to Auburn, Washington next month.

 

Laughlin

Hard for us to attend Laughlin and Seattle. Airfare to Laughlin was to much. So Jan and I are going to the Seattle events. Already got tickets, motel, and car.

Sorry I missed everyone at Laughlin. Hope to catch up with you all in Seattle.



tgun

 

TGun

Sorry y'all couldnt make Laughlin I was looking forward to seeing you.

Im wondering, is the cost to fly rent car and stay in Seattle area higher than a trip to Laughlin? Seems the room rates alone would make a trip there, Laughlin, cheaper. Actually I think if "we" travel to Vegas it would cost more than Laughlin because of the rooms alone?!? Obviously there is a convenience problem with Laughlin having to drive 90 miles on a high speed highway.
For those living in Vegas or more likely Henderson the trip is even shorter. The player base in Vegas had an easy trip and didnt show in solid numbers. I think maybe politics is a reason used but not voted for in poll.

 

Let me start by saying that I almost never travel specifically for a tournament unless it is a comped invitational. That said, I choose to play in tournaments only when I think they are +EV. There are many reasons I think this is not the case here:

1. $300 travel expenses to go to Laughlin for a weekend (about $600 if I go with my wife)

2. $40 fee plus 10% corresonds to 20% vig.

3. This means I will be paying $300 (travel) + $40 (one-time fee) + $450 (Buy-in) + $45 (Individual fees ) = $840. My equity for the tournament is $450 - (2 x $50) = $350 in equity for these tournaments. That means that I would need an expectation of my skills at 250% of average to win enough to cover costs. The rest of the equity will be rolled over to an end of the year event that I would have to commit to going to, even though I don't know the date, location or cost.

4. Currently, the TBJPA is not designed to bring in the fish. The thing that makes tournaments hosted by casinos so lucrative are all of the comped entries to bad players. Poker tournaments are worthwhile, since so many people right now want to emulate what they see on TV without knowing what they are doing. This isn't the fault of the TBJPA, but without work from casino marketing, this is going to be hard to pull off.

5. For me, this means that the tournament entry fee needs to be high enough to support economies of scale. This means a $1000 entry fee or so so that I can win back expenses. I know this doesn't mesh with most people.

6. Finally, I've just been enjoying the EBJ format over the standard format. It's more exciting, and it keeps my brain occupied the entire event. Unfortunately, the EBJ format is patented, and I know that there's not much TBJPA can do about that, but it just makes a lot more sense to play 3 tournaments at $50 or $100 at home on an eening, then travel to play in a TBJPA event.

 

How about a poll checking why we were in Laughlin

Just a thought, Ken. Might be interesting to look at the other side of the coin.

 

Laughlin

So sorry everyone, Sue & I had the grandkids in Fl and the only time they could come before school started.

We are sorry for missing it as we had a great time!

We alreadly have our reservations for Seattle, and WILL be there.

As the old song goes:

SEE YOU IN SEPTEMBER

Lou & Sue

 

Dr Bass

Great question. I was in Laughlin to support TBJPA which is a well run format put on by a great guy Rick Jensen. Along with that I had hopes of seeing most of the wonderful people we saw back in May. Also I had visions of sugar plums in the prize pool with 60-80 players( I never believed we would go above 80). Obviously we were short on some of these. The prize pool was the most disappointing. IMO we need at leats 50 players to chunk money at a good prize structure. I think its apparent many of the players have focused on Seattle so why travel to Laughlin one month then back to Seattle. This "site" competition could be a problem for TBJPA as each event added will soak up demand for other sites.

 

Laughlin

We totally support Rick and his desire to promote BJT and TBJPA. Unfortunately, timing was a problem for us as we had just been to Vegas for the MM tournament and couldn't extend our stay as much as we had wanted to do so. With a husband still working (yes, at his age :laugh: ) and a 102 year old mother living with us, our traveling outside Texas for tournaments is certainly limited. At this point we can only make it to OK, MS, and LA.

Certainly, a chance at winning big money is what attracts us to the game, but to us, being with those of you we've met these past few years is always a special time. We think of blackjack, unlike poker, as a gentleman's game....it saddens us to think there are politics involved in the success of TBJPA events.

Hopefully Seattle will bring about more support for the TBJPA.

le/feiii

 

By the way, since we talked about it so much on here...how was the 10-chip rule recieved at Laughlin?

 

I think the 10 chip stack is a keeper. I showed up Saturday and gotta admit I was too worried about my stacks for first few games and I mean few as I was always in rebuy line. By Sunday I was use to the stacks and it made its easy to track totals. But, one thing I hard a very hard time counting was the black chips. If competitors put them in tight stacks I had a very very hard time counting the stacks and in act was off on counts more than once.

 

The 10 chip rule makes it 100% easier to accurately count chips. The rule should definitely become a standard.

I also agree that the black chips are still a real counting problem. Seldom do they reach a 10 chip stack, so that accurately counting a 5 or 6 chip stack remains a problem. I happened to notice while watching a WSOP session on TV the other day, that their tournament chips have side markings, similar to regular casino chips. Why not invest in side marked chips, at least the $100.00 denomination. Then us 1/2 blind old farts like me would have nothing else to gripe about.

 

1. If you can't make any $ off the tour buying more chips is out of the question.

2. I'm glad you liked the 10-chip stack rule

3. Nothing else to gripe about? I'll just post somthing about the Hilton and THAT will get you going right? :joker: (PS #3 was a joke)

 

We'll get there...

Hell guys and gals, I fully understand that you can't always make it out to all the events. I'm not upset when players can't make it to every event.

I understand that cost is a major factor for several players and that is why I designed the TBJPA/TBT events to be affordable for the masses and even offer satellites to even offset the entries even more. I also try to find the best possible discounts for rooms, air, and even rental cars.

As we get more members signed up with the TBJPA, the events will grow.

I am just thrilled that those players who have been able to make these events have enjoyed them and given us such good reviews. I am only sorry we having had bigger prize pools for the players.

Hopefully the Seattle events in September will be our largest events to date. I have had several players contact me for Air and Hotel discounts for the Seattle events.

I've been told we should have around 100 plus players for Seattle. The managers for both Iron Horse Casinos in Washington came to the Laughlin tournaments and told me (and others) we could get over 144 players next month.

I don't want to promise an amount of players, but I am thinking around at least 90 players.

 

player pool

Rick - don't defend that you didn't have 100 players at Laughlin this month - you never promised 100 players - despite what some have posted - what you said is that the River Palms promised/projected they would bring in 40-50 players - and adding that into the 50 or so who showed up for the first tourney - is where that number came from - unfortunately - while the River Palms gave the impression they would comp their high rollers into the tourneys - they did not - just mailed out some flyers to some players - so - no River Palms contingent - a drop off in regular player attendence - probably because of travel costs - and that was it -

can you talk some of the casinos into offering satellites before the TBT tourneys - maybe SNGs - in the month or two before the tourneys - to get their regular customers used to playing TBJ and to generate entries? - an affordable way for new players to get in?

 

Prize Pool

While the total number of actual players was very low and the prize pool was some what low, it was easier to advance. On the average in Saturday's tournament for the first 3 rounds the advancers were 2/5, 2/5, 3/5 and a 6 player final. That corresponds to an entry pool of 5/2 x 5/2 x 5/3 x 6 = 62. Since I had 3 rentries on Saturday the average entry was $195, multiply that by 62 we get what I think was a little over the prize fund, not bad.

However I got carried away with all the rentries and went through a big chunk of change. Nice was the hotel room was free and I got a coupon that is good for a 2 night stay for a year. For 40 years I have played in chess tournaments and I have never gotten a free room and the prize funds were about half of the entry fees. Hotel always charged the tournament organizers for the tournament room.

The black chips were hard to count and if you were to perfectly stack the green chips, they were hard to count too. One player said that chips are made that have thin stripes around them but cost more. Thin stripe chips would be even better than chips with ornate designs on the edges.


.............................BlueLight