Vegas Bound

[Invigilator]

I have been playing in a 10 person league put on by my cousin in which the winner gets travel and entry into a $1500 event at the WSOP.

I locked up first place today, although people are still playing for second. Second place gets travel money to go with the winner. Oceanwaves still has a shot at second.

I am going to be in Vegas for event 56, $1500 NLHE.

Looking forward to it.

[Akverno]

I'm definitely jealous, haven't been to Vegas since either late 07 or early 08 and haven't played in a poker tournament since around that time either. I can't wait till after I buy a house and get settled in. Hopefully by next summer I'll be able to set aside enough money to make a trip down in July and buy into one of the smaller tournaments at the WSOP.

[Spidey44]

Invig...would love to know how the points are awarded for this. I've started a regular game in our neighborhood and we were throwing around the idea for this. Can you give me a breakdown of your normal buy in, number or tournies, points, etc?

Thanks and congrats!

[Invigilator]

Sure thing. I am just heading out in a few minutes, but I will post what we did for this league as well as structure for my own home league.

[Invigilator]

Spidey,

For our WSOP league, we each put up $250. This gave 1st place the buy-in and $500 for travel and accommodations. Second place got $500 to go along as a companion. (there were 10 people)

There were many rules for money and how to resolve disputes and such, but the important things were...

We played 10 tournaments. First place got 10 points, Second place got 9, and so on

If you are absent you can send a sub ONCE.

IF you have no sub, you get 1 point max. (if one person was absent, the first person present to bust out would get 2 points)

Ties int he final standings were broken by number of 1st place finishes, then 2nd place finishes and so on.

Since we were playing for a $1500 buy-in event, we started with the same chips. (4500).

Blinds were...

25/50
50/100
100/200
150/300
300/600
500/1000
700/1400
1000/2000 capped at that level

We played 20 minute levels and raced of the 25 chips after the 4th level.
We also ran a 2 deck system to keep it moving.

----------
The only glitch we ran into was as people became mathematically eliminated, they stopped coming. So as we got down to the wire, the available point spread shrunk. This made things harder for the people who were chasing. We pointed this out and got better attendance at the end, but I suggest also doing $5-$10 each game as a last longer and pay out to first or the top 2.

That seems to be the gist of the important things, let me know if you have more specific questions.

[Spidey44]

Thanks for the info Invig! Good stuff. So during the tournies was there a buy in for each as well or did you guys strictly play for points?

[Invigilator]

We all had to pay the money up front. We talked about doing small buy-in / side bet sort of things, but never did. The theory was that that would keep people playing hard when they were mathematically eliminated.

[Kurn]

Here's the league my boss plays in. Great format, but you need a lot of participants ans good management, plus a big place to play. If it wasn't 75 miles from my house, I'd be in.



Click on *League Format* for the general rules/structure.

[Invigilator]

Kurn,

That is very cool. I couldn't see what the buy-ins were though. I imagine it is expensive.

Very cool format.

[Kurn]

I believe the buy-ins are $100 or $120. Not published for, shall we say, obvious reasons.

I subbed for him once. Had a very tough table draw. I'd say the level of play in that group was tougher than a $100 tourney at Foxwoods.

[Invigilator]

That is one of the things I really enjoyed about our league. For a $250 buy-in, 8 of the 10 players were very solid. (one was absent constantly and one was habitually knocked out first)

[Spidey44]

Thanks for the link Kurn!

[Invigilator]

Heading out to Begas today. My event starts tomorrow. Wish me luck.

[Gordogg]

Good luck! Do you mind sharing your name so I can see how you do?

[Kurn]

Go get 'em!

[Invigilator]

I am back. No bracelet, no money.

I made it until about 9 pm on day one. I had a few good hands, AA ove KK and KK over QQ, but it was hard to stay ahead of the structure.

At my first table, I was playing weel, but the dude to my immediate right played 2 hands with me, and called my hand both times. It was unsettling.

At my remaining tables the play was very aggressive. I was able to take advantage of this at one point by flat calling ashort stack's all-in with AA because there was a super aggressive big stack behind me. Sure enough, he tried to isolate with an all-in hold AK.

I got to play with Vanessa Rousseau a bit, but she was on life support when she came to my table. Over all a better year.

I hope to play in my qualifying league again next year.

For the remaineder of the trip I just wanted to play. I played 1-2 at Harrah's and finished up a tiny bit after 2 days. I also cashed in a day tournament there.

One of the more interesting things I got to do was play a HORSE tournament at the MGM.

I knew my LH skills were weak, but I really got my head handed to me in O8.

Strangely enough I di very well in Razz and Stud8, which kept me in the game for a few hours. In the end, I was definitely out of my league, but that tournament was the most fun I had playing poker for the entire trip.

Last note, my travelling companion decided to sit at my 1-2 table for some reason, and he tried to slow play a flopped straight against me in an unraised pot. I had flopped top 2, and I turned a house. He was pretty dejected when I took all of his money.

[Kurn]

O8 was always torture for me in HORSE tournies. Damn, I miss 'Stars.

[Spidey44]

Glad you had a good time...Hopefully one of these days I'll actually play a WSOP event.