Chicago Land Players

If you live in the Chicagoland area, there are two charities here that puts on pretty good poker tournaments. They both have cash games, MTT, and Sit n Go's. They are hosted and many banquet halls and restaurants throughout the North, South, and West Suburbs. They are slowly entering into the city of Chicago (north side and near Ohare). Here are the two charities:

www.rockfordcharitablegames.com

www.chicagopokerlive.com

What a wonderful idea. Wish they had this when I lived there. Didn't look at the Rockford one as that's almost 2 hours away. But the other one, I'm surprised the rake for charity is that low (20% for low stakes, 10% for high). I recall a church casino night taking 50% (yeah, we know ).

This one is especially great in my eyes because they are not only in my general area, but one of the recurring events they have is only 3.5 miles from my house.

Wow this great information for us here in the Windy City. Thanks a bunch for the post. Hope to be there soon.

Go to the horseshoe casino in hammond Indiana.
They have nice poker room.

Also, when you attend these tournaments often, you will realized that a good amount are regulars. You will start to get the feeling of a home style type of feel, in which you wont get a casino I can imagine. they also serve food and drinks. They usually run from 12:00pm to 1am or 2am.

Im not against charities. Not saying its not a good thing to donate. Make no mistake, if you play in these you are donating. If you make the final table you are donating a lot! I played in the rockford events a few times. Got 5th in a tourney with 2 qualifing rounds. In other words they had a tourney at noon where 10 percent of the feild qualified for the finals which I lost then played again in the evening sesion (For a second buy in) and won. Then in the finals I got 5th. I made it home with a few dollars more than I started with and a box of 200 plastic chip set.this was 2 buy ins around $100 and the payout for 5th was less than $300. About 60 or 70 ppl in each event. with addons and rebuys I had over $250.00 invested.

They never told me what charity my money went to. I bet they would have, I just didnt ask. the chips are in a pink box. If I had a daughter they would be great. If you are looking for a +EV tourney, this is not the place. If you are feeling charitable, its great for that. Gl all

I'd say this is just a case of not knowing the terms before you got into it, but it is definitely not the way they all run. The Chicago Charitable Games (Chicago Poker Live mentioned above) takes 20% or less from the tourney buy-ins for the charity contribution.
[quote=Chicago Poker Live Website]The hosting charity will keep 20% of the buy in or less. For example the $300+$30 GOLDSTRIKE Tournament has a $300 entry fee with a $30 fee which goes to the hosting charity. The $20 Early Bird Tournament is a normal 20% to the hosting charity, therefore $16 would go to the prize pool and $4 would go to the hosting charity. [/quote[

For cash games they rake the pot @ 10% up to a maximum of $5.00.

So you're definitely right in that people should know what they are getting into before hand, but not know and complaining afterwards is like not voting then complaining about who was elected.

yes they take 20% of the buy in. That is how they advertise. But there is an add on and another optional buy that is like a second add on and the charity or the dealers get 100% of both of these. I cannot speak for the Chicago charity. My experience was with the Rockford charitable games. If you add up what you pay to get in they take about half of that number.

I agree that information prior to playing is paramount. That is why I posted. For others to know. I am not complaining. I would play again if I was feeling Charitable. But if you are on the grind, be aware of the 2 to 1 odds you are laying.