Free Pub Poker Tourney's

[tazwander]

Hi, down here in Australia we have a few organisations that have set up free pub poker. Its a leaderboard system, so the more games you play and the better you play, then you have opportunities to play in regional finals and then even state championships. In the smaller venues we have about 60 players, but in some of the bigger cities there can be anything up to 200 players. You can play for free, but if you spend a small amount of money at the bar you get a chip voucher, which allows you more starting chips. After an hour, we have a break, and again if you spend a little more money you get a chip-up voucher.
Now this might not sound much fun (sounds a bit like freerolls...lol) playing for trophies and leaderboard points, but it does do 3 major things for you.
(1) you are not getting square eyed and blurry vision, and get to meet hundreds of new friends.
(2) you get the chance to get out of your pyjamas, get dressed and venture out into the big wide world (for all you freeroll junkies)
(3) you practice playing with real players so can build up your skills at reading tells either verbally, or visual (or a combination of both).
The main thing is you have a "live poker forum", you drinks with your friends, you dump all your bad beat stories and boast about your biggest bluffs. The pubs make some money out of it too. Even though they havbe to pay the poker ppl to host the night, the extra bar turn over, meals and pokies revenue covers their costs.
Do any other countries run a system like this...?

 

[OzExorcist]

...and occasionally, you get to play games with five kings in the deck

 

[tazwander]

...and occasionally, you get to play games with five kings in the deck

I have seen 5 queen's....lol at a 50 ppl cash tourney at a friends home.
A lady was quite thrilled to flop a set of queens and went all-in. After the river card was laid down and she was ready to scoop up her winnings someone notice her pkt queens were two Q spades....lol what a surprise.

 

[OzExorcist]

LOLZ

Happened at an APL semi-final last year too, or so the legend goes: by the end of the hand there's three kings on the board and two in people's hands. Lots of shouting and huffing and puffing, and the whole tourney had to be shut down while the organisers checked every deck in the room.

One of the reasons I don't really play these - self-dealt is just soooo dinky. I know it's mostly a legal requirement, and it's how they make the events free, but still...

Anywho, whereabouts in Oz are you from Taz?

 

[tazwander]

taz is tasmania

LOLZ

Happened at an APL semi-final last year too, or so the legend goes: by the end of the hand there's three kings on the board and two in people's hands. Lots of shouting and huffing and puffing, and the whole tourney had to be shut down while the organisers checked every deck in the room.

One of the reasons I don't really play these - self-dealt is just soooo dinky. I know it's mostly a legal requirement, and it's how they make the events free, but still...

Anywho, whereabouts in Oz are you from Taz?

Hobart, Tasmania .... just don't go looking for it on the map. We are a small island south of Melbourne and we always get missed off important maps ...lol...... we must be insignificant.... but its a fantastic island and Hobart is a brilliant place to live. Low on crime, low on nightlife, but high in community spirit.... We have cruise ships coming in here all the time... and they all want to come back.... thankx for asking

 

[tazwander]

LOLZ

Happened at an APL semi-final last year too, or so the legend goes: by the end of the hand there's three kings on the board and two in people's hands. Lots of shouting and huffing and puffing, and the whole tourney had to be shut down while the organisers checked every deck in the room.

One of the reasons I don't really play these - self-dealt is just soooo dinky. I know it's mostly a legal requirement, and it's how they make the events free, but still...

Anywho, whereabouts in Oz are you from Taz?

derrrrr....just read the bit about APL.... ooops I play APL Hobart
where are you exorcist

 

[Grimstone]

Michiana Aces

I have recently started my own amature league (pub poker league). Surprisingly there are quiet a few decent players, as long as there is something decent to win. I send 1 player per location each month to a satellite tourney at Four Winds Casino in Buffalo Michigan. Our quarterly winner received a 450$ satellite entry where they could possibly win a seat to the WPT championships

 

[Zorba]

LOLZ
Anywho, whereabouts in Oz are you from Taz?

I really cant believe you asked that Oz, With a name like Tazwander did you think he was in Darwin.....Only kidding mate.

But as for the APL they couldn't run a chook raffle in an outback dunny, I say that because I was leading my venue with only two weeks left in the season and because the bar wasn't making enough money they just shut down the venue and said stiff shit to the players. How much money do some bars need to make, the players at my venue were all spending over $20.00 each over the bar, and we had avg 60 players per game and all the APL said was OK bad luck players this season is axed if you want there is another venue 50 km down the road if you want you can play there next season.
And as for the NPL their staff at the other venue in my town have got no idea about poker.

 

[tazwander]

I really cant believe you asked that Oz, With a name like Tazwander did you think he was in Darwin.....Only kidding mate.

But as for the APL they couldn't run a chook raffle in an outback dunny, I say that because I was leading my venue with only two weeks left in the season and because the bar wasn't making enough money they just shut down the venue and said stiff shit to the players. How much money do some bars need to make, the players at my venue were all spending over $20.00 each over the bar, and we had avg 60 players per game and all the APL said was OK bad luck players this season is axed if you want there is another venue 50 km down the road if you want you can play there next season.
And as for the NPL their staff at the other venue in my town have got no idea about poker.

Both NPL and APL charge the pub about $9 per person to host the game. 60 players = $540. I think there is a cap at 66 players which is about $600 max charge. The trouble is the pub has to make $600 profit just to cover this cost. If the bar manager has to put extra staff on, well there goes any extra profit. Therefore the venue has to have near to 80 or 100 players before they start getting any value out of it.
We have same problem here in Hobart. We get new venues, but then after half a season the bar managers sometimes pull out because they simply are not making anything out of it.
Go the cash tourney's at home....lol

 

[OzExorcist]

I really cant believe you asked that Oz, With a name like Tazwander did you think he was in Darwin.....Only kidding mate.

Y'know, I thought about that after I posted it...

I'm in Melbourne BTW, Taz

The amount they make is always an interesting one though - sure, it might cost them $9 a player but they should be weighing it up against the fact that they're usually having the poker game mid-week when the place would be dead otherwise. I know that's the case for a couple of venues we run events at.

I've just heard far, far too many dinky stories about them to be bothered. That, and watching amateurs trying to shuffle drives me bugshit

Do they have any decent sort of prize for winning a night? The only pub poker events I play have a $100 Woolworths / Dan Murphy's voucher as first prize for the night, so at least you've got a crack at something worth winning.

 

[KingCurtis]

sounds exactly how it works here in the states if you eat or drink a little before play you get an extra 500 in chips........it is free to enter and only first gets paid (sometimes 1st and 2nd split if even).......ive gone before.shhhh underage but they are fun but only first that sucks lol

oh yeah a lot of bars/pubs have been stopping due to no one drinking and only playing lol........

 

[Zorba]

Y'know, I thought about that after I posted it...

I'm in Melbourne BTW, Taz

The amount they make is always an interesting one though - sure, it might cost them $9 a player but they should be weighing it up against the fact that they're usually having the poker game mid-week when the place would be dead otherwise. I know that's the case for a couple of venues we run events at.

Yeah I forgot to mention that our venue (a golf club/country club) held it on a tuesday night when it would have been empty,

Do they have any decent sort of prize for winning a night? The only pub poker events I play have a $100 Woolworths / Dan Murphy's voucher as first prize for the night, so at least you've got a crack at something worth winning.

Our venue and I think most of them paid out with a venue voucher, as I mention earlier we had two venues one wouldn't let you cash the voucher but the Golf club where I mainly played let us cash the voucher in the gaming room.
The APL at the golf club 1st paid $100, 2nd paid $50 3rd paid $25
The NPL at the pub paid $50, $25, $10. but not let you cash it.

 

[tazwander]

Y'know, I thought about that after I posted it...

I'm in Melbourne BTW, Taz

The amount they make is always an interesting one though - sure, it might cost them $9 a player but they should be weighing it up against the fact that they're usually having the poker game mid-week when the place would be dead otherwise. I know that's the case for a couple of venues we run events at.

I've just heard far, far too many dinky stories about them to be bothered. That, and watching amateurs trying to shuffle drives me bugshit

Do they have any decent sort of prize for winning a night? The only pub poker events I play have a $100 Woolworths / Dan Murphy's voucher as first prize for the night, so at least you've got a crack at something worth winning.

Down here in Hobart, Tasmania, Aus we play for a prize pool of $125 per night. $75, $50 and $25. But as you get leaderboard points you get to play in regional finals (3 per quarter....3 months) and if you win the State final you get $10,000 cash, along with bottles of bourbon and chipsets for final table. We also have an occasional bonus game, no leaderboard points but a cash pool of $1000 ..... besides which you get to meet some nice ppl ....oh yeah and some real idiots too