WSOP 2012

OK…since I received minimal response from playing for play money in my last post, I went back to the drawing board and started to think about a slightly new direction that our online club could go.  And then it dawned on me…WSOP baby!!!  WSOP!!!

What poker player doesn’t want to go to the World Series of Poker?  58 sweet events that culminate in the grand-daddy of them all…the Main Event.  Thousands of poker players descend on the Rio in Vegas starting in May through mid-July chasing the dream…and in 2012…it could be you!

How is this possible, you may ask???  Well…here is what I was thinking…we play for play money online and collect points based on how we finish and the person who earns the most points at the end of the season gets to go to Vegas and play in a WSOP event.  You may be thinking “winner takes all???  No thanks”…but here is the beauty of it…whatever the GPN-WSOP-Bound player wins, everyone gets a piece of it!  Sweet, right?  Here are more (proposed) detail...

1.  Buy-in: ~$100-$200 depending on how many players we get (goal is to have a minimum prize pool of at least $1600 and at least 8 players).

2.  Game: no limit hold’em play money game on poker stars through the Home Game option.  $2000 chips and 10-minute blinds.

3.  When: Tuesday night starting at 8:pm.

4.  Frequency: every Tuesday night.  For this year, the season will start on August 2^nd, 2011 and run through May 1^st, 2012.  That is a total of 40 weeks.

5.  Points: points will be awarded the same way as before except only the top 20 games will be used to calculate total points.

6.  WSOP: the person who earns the most points will have their choice of a $1000 WSOP tournament (the extra $600 can be used for flight and accommodations). 

7.  WSOP Winnings: any money earned playing the WSOP tourney shall be divided as follows: the player keeps 45%, every player in the GPN Online league (who paid the buy-in per #1 above) gets 45% divided equally, and 10% is returned to the league prize pool for future events.

I can get into more details once I know there is enough interest.  If you are interested, please respond to the comment section of this blog so that everybody can see your response/intention.  Others may decide to join once they see there is enough interest.  The bare minimum number of players we need would be 8 (@$200 each buy-in); the more players we get, the more the buy-in can drop.

Many of the items listed above are negotiable…so if you’d like to see something different or in addition to what is listed, then please leave your comments on the blog.

Let's keep playing online!!!

I had a brain fart the other morning while getting ready for work…I was thinking of a way for us to keep playing online on Thursdays…then it came to me…PLAY MONEY.  Hear me out…I was thinking that at our monthly live game, those who are interested would ante up $20 for the next 3-4 weeks of games (the weeks between the live games)…we play for play money and everyone will earn points the same as before and the total prize pool will be split to the top 3 point-earning-paying-players as 50%, 30% and 20%.  If we were to get more than 9 players to “ante up”, then the top 4 will get paid…more than 18, then top 5, etc (I would follow the same payout structure that PS uses for their SNGs).  We could make the points count per the best 3 games (the best 3 out of 3 when there are only 3 weeks between the live game and the best 3 out of 4 when there are for weeks between the live game), or use the entire time period (something those interested could comment on). 

For people who don’t want to pay but want to play (or are too far away to pay), then they can still play, and they will still earn points towards the quarterly and yearly TLBs…they just can’t earn any money.  For those who are far away and want to play for money, we can work something out (just email me and we can discuss options).  I’ll have a separate “Monthly Prize Pool Leader Board” or something that will be just for the people who paid.  When I get to the monthly live tourney, I’ll pay out the prizes.  What do you think?  It sort of is a way around “the system” …besides, it is almost better, because if you win, you actually will get cash in your hand. 

I checked on PS in the Home Game section and we can set up play money games.  If you are interested, please let me know in the comments section…also let me know a good date and time that would work with you on testing it out as I thought of testing it out by setting up a home game tomorrow (Sunday) for 2pm’ish just to see if it works…if not tomorrow, sometime soon (just let me know preferred time frame…even if I can only test it out against 1 of you…I just want to be sure that we can do this before our live game on Thursday the 16^th).

Some good news for US players

Billy asked me to post the following...

http://www.pocketfives.com/articles/deal-struck-return-pokerstars-full-tilt-poker-player-funds-586402/

To me this just proves that this government shut down was all a play to get Stars and Tilt and AP, AND UB to shut down their U.S. Operations, not to charge them with crimes, guranteed the plea bargain will be we will dismiss all charges if you leave the U.S. and never let a US player depost or play again.  But this is good news for alot of us at least we will see our cash! however be careful because  the fbi is monitoring all the withdrawls, take out too much and you better pay your taxes!

I have been doing alot of reading about how legalizing online poker is going to be done by the government but not left to sites like Stars and Tilt, ect.....they are going to govern it by state and the states lottery comission will open the online poker site, make sure the money is taxed, and then eventually to increase play and field sizes they will intertwine it state to state just like the megamillions has like 5 states or whatever involved, so in essence we will only be able to play poker against, Mich, Ohio, Indiana ect ect. 

Jenifer please post this in GPN Blog, Steve, and Roger please forward to anyone else I dont have email for.

Billy

Poker Stars Play Suspended for US Players

Hello All,

Below is something that Billy has put together.  I am posting here for your info (and per his request).  For now, our online league will be put on hold until we can figure out what to do.  Feel free to leave questions and comments on the blog.

Well I thought since i have been online for 2 days reading and reading and reading and researching I would let you guys know of my findings.  Im sure by now most of you know Stars, Tilt, and UB have been shut down by the feds.  I have done a ton of research and reading on weather or not our bankrolls will be safe or not, their is mixed reviews about 60-70 percent of the whose who of online poker say the money is safe and cannot be touched by the government.  Of course their are alot of people that say no that it could be seized and not given back.

For those of you needing to feed an addiction I have done alot of reading about what poker sites are still operating and most people are switching to Bodog, and Carbon Poker, along with a few people switching to Cake Poker.  After much research I think I would probably go with Bodog If i were going to jump ship due to the fact that bodog is a sportsbetting site with poker and they usually dont have issues with depositing or withdrawing money and news from online players currently is that their are no issues at the moment doing that.  (however bodog does not offer person to person money transfers )

of course you can also still go on STARS and play for PLAY MONEY lol

As of right now neither stars or tilt is allowing cash outs, or transfers due to high volume of traffic and requests (they say).

alot of people are reporting checks they get from stars getting deposited and the funds becoming availible and then the funds getting ripped back out of their accounts.

All in All if you love online poker their are some things you can do, the easiest being supporting the PPA (poker players alliance) I have been a member and donated a little money here and their to them for years.  They are the authority really for the government to deal with when it comes to all aspects of poker.  Kind of like the NRA of poker.

If anybody has any questions go ahead and shoot me an e mail.

if you would like to do any reading or research yourself I would suggest becoming a member of www.pocketfives.com<http://www.pocketfives.com> and reading their forums, as well as <http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/> http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com these 2 sites are the authorities on the poker world.

Jenifer Please post this e mail on the GPN ONLINE BLOG SPOT.  Thanks!

Take care and see everyone on the LIVE felt on Thursday.

Billy

Congratulations to badbilly429 for winning Y1.11 Q2.2

Badbilly429 won AGAIN tonight!  he is on a roll!  Tonight we had 8 people show up with 2 of them being new players...

absea98 = Gary L. and is Mike N's friend (from Mike's Tuesday night online league)

The Punk75 = Jason T. and is also Mike N's friend (also from the Tuesday night league)

The results are in the table below and the quarterly and yearly TLB are updated on side of blog.

Don't forget to let me know if you are interested in the optional quarterly fee.  So far I have heard that 3 people (including myself) are interested...you have a couple of weeks to decide.

Also...next week there is NO online game as we play GPN Live!  (good news, I will be able to make it next week, so you can pay me the optional quarterly fee then if you want).

Proposed OPTIONAL Quarterly Fee

The proposed optional quarterly fee is $20.  People who are interested send me the cash via poker stars...and depending on how many people participate, the top TLB person (or people) at the end of the quarter get a cash reward.  It would depend on the number of people that opt in as follows:

4 people or less = first place takes all

7-5 people = 70% for 1st and 30% for 2nd

12-8 people = 50% for 1st, 30% for 2nd and 20% for 3rd

18-13 people = 40% for 1st, 30% for 2nd, 20% for 3rd and 10% for 4th

Opting in would have to be done before the start of the May 5th tourney; however any new player who joins the league after May 5th is free to opt in any time during the quarter as long as they do so prior to their 2nd game in the league.  If you are interested, I will need to know your intentions and received the $20 before the start of the May 5th tourney.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the comment section of this blog (or email me).

Congratulations to badbilly429 for winning Q2.1

That is 2 wins in a row for badbilly429!  good job!  Tonight we had a small group again...WHERE IS EVERYBODY?!?!?!?!...it isn't even that warm out yet!  c'mon people!  If you think you are going to be 30+ minutes late you can pre-register (like on Wednesday) and then just sit out...even 40 minutes in, the blinds are only 30/60 and we start with 2000 chips.  Something to think about if the 8pm start time is a little too early for you.  Anyhow, the results from tonight's game is in the table below and the NEW quarterly TLB table is on the side of the blog...as well as, the yearly TLB.

Finally, in talking with badbilly and crabbyjoe, it sounds like there is some interest in the proposed optional quarterly fee/buy-in (click here for more info).  We are going with $20 as the optional fee/buy-in...if you are interested, let me know and then send me $20 on pokerstars (I will likely not be at the next GPN Live event).  I will need to know your intentions and received the $20 before the end of April.

2011 First Quarter Results

Congratulations to badbilly429 for winning Q1.9 and to Nahanni74 for winning the first quarter TLB

Tonight was another small group as only 5 players showed up.  Congratulations to badbilly429 for first win this quarter.  The results from tonight's game are listed in table below.

And congratulations to Nahanni74 for winning the first quarter TLB (updated on the side of the blog).  Next month starts a new quarter.

As for the optional quarterly "fee/buy-in" that I mentioned in last week's blog, I was thinking of proposing a $10 or $20 optional fee that people who are interested can pay (send me the cash via poker stars or in person at GPN live)...and depending on how many people participate, the top TLB person (or people) at the end of the quarter get a cash reward.  It would depend on the number of people that opt in as follows:

4 people or less = first place takes all
7-5 people = 70% for 1st and 30% for 2nd
12-8 people = 50% for 1st, 30% for 2nd and 20% for 3rd
18-13 people = 40% for 1st, 30% for 2nd, 20% for 3rd and 10% for 4th

Opting in would have to be done within the first 4 weeks of the next quarter however any new player who joins the league after the first 4 weeks is free to opt in any time during the quarter as long as they do so prior to their 2nd game in the league.

Anyway...something to think about.  Personally I am up for the $20 fee.  If you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the comment section of this blog (or email me).

Congratulations to mikeniks for winning Y1.8Q1.8

We had a fairly small turnout tonight...only 6 players showed up.  Congrats to mikeniks for winning.  The results are in the table below and the quarterly TLB points are updated on the side of the blog.

Next week is the last game in this quarter...it looks like the Q1 TLB win is going to be between crabbyjoe154 and myself (and MAYBE Lob Wedge...but that is a stretch...we would need at least 13 players, he would have to come in first AND I would have to be tied up at the Ambassador bridge all night and miss the tourney in order for him to win the Q1 TLB).

...Stay tuned to our super awesome blog (does anybody read these?) as I am thinking of proposing an optional quarterly fee/buy-in where, depending on how many people opt in, cash prizes are distributed to the person/people who finish at the top of the TLB (and I'm not just proposing this because I did ok this quarter...I just want to juice things up a bit...optionally).

Congratulations to Lob Wedge for Winning Y1.7Q1.7

The guy who complained the most about playing a rebuy tourney is likely not complaining now!  Congratulations Lob Wedge for winning our first ever rebuy tourney!  (now quit your whining!) J

Tonight we had a record turn out with 13 players!  And we had several new people join us…

Grimes2424 = Andrea E. (GPN member and Billy’s wife)

Spuratic = Donnie L. (Billy’s friend)

Ratz4444 = Sean H. (Roger’s friend)

The results are in the table below and the quarterly TLB and player tables are updated on side of blog.  

Don’t forget, there is NO online game next Thursday as we play GPN Live…then after that, there are 2 games left in this quarter…the first quarter TLB win is up for grabs!!! 

Also…BTW…we now have a $0.05/$0.10 cash game table now open for our club members.  I think you are free to play on the table with anyone in our club whenever you want…so feel free to use it any time (if you want, you can email me when you are playing and I can email the club to let them know there is some cash game action going on).

Big Tourney Win (brag) and Thursday's Home Game

Firstly…a little brag…I binked a $3.30 – 6-max tourney this past weekend for a win of $1400…there were 2964 players and after 713 hands and 8.5 hours later, I was lucky enough to book a decent sized win.  The ironic part is that I sort of inadvertently registered for this tourney by accident…had I realized it was 6-max, I probably would not have played because I prefer a full 9-player game…needless to say, 6-max is now my FAVORITE!  J

As for this week’s game…my last post indicated that I was toying with scheduling a heads-up tourney or a rebuy tourney for Thursday’s game.  I first wanted to email Poker Stars to get clarification on how the heads-up shootout deal would work for Home Games…their email is posted below and to be honest, it still isn’t entirely clear to me, BUT, it does look like something that can be scheduled with multiple players.  Having said that, I think I will go with a rebuy event for Thursday as our little league is slowly gaining speed and so maybe I’ll put off the heads-up tourney until we gain a little more momentum.  So…Thursday’s game is a $2.00 rebuy event.  Let me know if you need some cash…I can accommodate a transfer or 2 (or 3 or 4)…and leave a comment if you think $2 rebuy is too pricey…I can always cancel the $2 rebuy and make it a $1 rebuy if you prefer.

>----- Original Message -----

>From: J-Mo

>Sent: 2011/03/03 23:10:00

>To: support@pokerstars.com

>Subject: Heads-up Tourney

> 

>>User ID: Nahanni74        This message was sent from the

>>Contact Support

>form. Authenticated sender is "J-Mo"

>> 

>>Category: HomeGames        Sub-Category: Tournaments

>>Client Version: '4.386'        System (OS) Info:

>>'WindowsXP[5.1]'

>> 

>>Message:

>> 

>>If I were to set up a NL Hold'em knockout event and set the

>>players per

>table to 2 would that create a multi-table heads-up tournament

>whereby 16

>players could register (for example) and there would be 8 sets

>of heads-up

>tables and once they are completed, then the 8 winners would be

>paired up,

>then 4 winners play 2 tables and final headsup?

>> 

>>If so, then what happens if you have an odd number of players?

> 

>-----Original Message-----

>From: PokerStars Support [mailto:support@pokerstars.com]

>Sent: March 4, 2011 1:37 AM

>To: J-Mo

>Subject: PokerStars Support - Home Games - Forwarded to Accounts

> 

>Hello Jennifer,

> 

>Thank you for contacting PokerStars.

> 

>Please note that Heands UP tournaments in Home Games are a

>little bit

>different to standard HU elimination tourneys. Main difference

>is that Home

>Games does not have rounds. Having said that, when one player is

>eliminated,

>the winner will be paired with another player, and so on.

> 

>Please let us know if we can assist you further, and thank you

>for choosing

>PokerStars. Best of luck at the tables!

> 

>Regards,

> 

>Alex

>PokerStars Support Team

----- Original Message -----

From: J-Mo

Sent: 2011/03/04 23:01:00

To: support@pokerstars.com

Subject: RE: PokerStars Support - Home Games - Forwarded to

Accounts

>Interesting...however, I'm still confused a little.  So for

>example, let's

>say 11 people sign up to play, do 5 pair off and 1 person waits?

>And then

>let's say that the first pair finish real quick, then does the 1

>person

>waiting play the person who just won the first heads up?

> 

>It seems like it could be possible that some players could end

>up playing

>more games than other players...correct?

> 

>Also, would there still be late registration with a heads-up

>tourney?

> 

>What about the payout?  In the home games that I set up, I

>always select the

>maximum payout which is 20%, but we have so few people (between

>7 and 11)

>that the top 3 get paid (which is fine)...would the top 3 get

>paid if ~11

>players played the heads up tourney?

-----Original Message-----
From: PokerStars Support [mailto:support@pokerstars.com]
Sent: March 5, 2011 4:18 AM
To: J-Mo
Subject: PokerStars Support - Home Games & Byes in Heads-Up Multi-Table Tournaments

Hello Jennifer,

Thank you for contacting PokerStars.

Let us tackle each question you have answered. Firstly, for a

Heads-Up Home Games tournament, which are all shootouts, there is

no late-registration available.

Secondly, the payout structure works a little differently for

Heads Up tournaments. For tournaments with 4 to 32 players, the

following payout structure is used: 1st - 45%, 2nd - 25%, 3rd/4th

- 15%. For more players, the structure becomes 1st - 35%, 2nd -

20%, 3rd/4th - 10%, 5th-8th - 6.25%.

Thirdly, and most importantly, let us address the issue of byes

in Heads-Up tournaments which was not answered correctly in our

previous correspondence.

In Heads Up shootout tournaments, we often award players in the

first round with a bye rather than award them later in the

tournament. This will happen when the number of entrants is power

of two.

For example, if a tournament had 286 players, this means that 60

players will play round one whilst 226 will be awarded a bye.

This means that 256 players will play round two. Consequently,

the subsequent rounds will have the following number of players:

128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2.

Obviously, it is preferable not to have first round byes, however

if the tournament structure is not adjusted in this way during

the first round, it would mean byes would need to be implemented

in later rounds.

We hope this answers your question. If you have any further

queries, please do not hesitate to email us again.

Have fun at the tables!

Regards,

Quentin

PokerStars Support Team

Congratulations to Nahanni74 for winning Y1.6Q1.6

Tonight we tied our record for highest number players as 11 people played tonight with 2 new players being:

mikeniks = Mike (my friend)
tammyandjohn = Tammy (my friend)

BTW...Mike runs an online poker league that runs on Tuesday nights...if you are interested in playing, click here.

The results for tonight's game are posted in table below and quarterly TLB is updated on side of blog.

Next week is suppose to be one of the "special events" we have scheduled.  I am toying with running a $1 or $2 rebuy event...OR...a heads-up tournament (because we can set up a knockout + 2 player max...so I am pretty sure a heads-up tournament can be scheduled...but I will have to email pokerstars first on that one).  Here is a list of some of our options:

1. deep-stack turbo (5000 chips with 3 or 5-min blinds)
2. short-stack turbo (1000 chips with 3 or 5 min blinds)
3. rebuy
4. heads-up?
5. "high-stakes" regular game (for $10 or $20 buyin)
6. bounty (but we did that last week)
7. any of the other games that Stars offers (like Omaha, 8-game, stud, etc...there are 17 different games to choose from...8-game is fun!)

plus there are combinations of the stuff in the list.  Sooo...you guys should let me know what you prefer by leaving a comment on the blog.  My preference is first a heads-up tourney (if we can run one), if that isn't possible, then $2 rebuy.  Sooo...if I don't hear from you, that is what I'm going with for next week.

Until then, may all your cards be live and your pots monsters.  

Congratulations to shweppsey for winning Y1.5Q1.5

We had 10 players to tonight's game with 2 new players:

shweppsey = Jim D
puddin111 = Bill O

(see side of blog for player's name and affiliation...let me know if I made a mistake on anything).

Congrats to shweppsey for first win on first game with GPN Online!

Game results below and quarterly results updated on side of blog.

GPN - Y1.5Q1.5 - Knockout Event

Thursday's game has been created.  Those of you who have joined the poker club on poker stars have been notified...those of you who have not joined the poker club WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!?!?!?  JOIN ALREADY!!!!  If you would like to join the club, email me or post a comment in the blog.

Anyhow, Thursday's game should be exciting...first time ever...a knockout (or bounty) tourney.  You will earn $1.25 for each person you knock out.

Shuffle up and Deal!

Congratulations to Nahanni74 for winning Matrix Event

Today we had a RECORD turnout with 11 people!  Which includes one new league member:


gutshot0378 = Scott G. who works with Steve B.


We had 11 people play in the first game and 5 people play in the second game.  The results are shown in the tables below and quarterly TLB updated on the side of the blog.


Next week the online league is OFF as we play live at Rogers.  See you back on the virtual felt on the 24th of February...for that game I am thinking of running a knockout tourney were the buy-in will be $5.00 + $1.25 + $0.50 (= tourney buy-in + knockout buy-in + rake)...this means that for every player you knock out you will earn $1.25.


Game 1 Results:

Game 2 Results:

Final TLB points/ranking for the matrix event:

GPN - Y1.4Q1.4 - Matrix Event

With all the excitement of being able to use Poker Stars Home Game, I forgot that I was suppose to run a "special" event last week...so I decided to run a special event this week.  This week will run a Matrix Event (click here for more info).

1st game starts at 8pm and the next 3 there are staggered 5 minutes apart.

Shuffle Up And Deal!!!

Matrix Event Format

What is a Matrix Event?  A Matrix event/tourney is where we have 4 games running simultaneously and points are awarded the same per game (see here for point system), but the final reported points will be based on the ranking that results from the summation of all points earned across all 4 games (i.e. first place points will be awarded to the person who earns the most points across all 4 games).  You don't have to play all 4 games if you don't want to...however, play all 4 games for the potential to earn the most points. Individual tourneys for the matrix event will be staggered 5 minutes apart to give people time to adjust to playing 4 tables at the same time.

Congratulations to Lob Wedge for first win!

We had 7 players play on Thursday night and 2 new players...

Lob Wedge = Jerry (who just joined our live league)
redeal 66 = Chris (who is Joe's brother)

So congratulations to Lob Wedge for his first win in our league on his very first game in the league!  The results for the game are shown in the table below and quarterly TLB points updated on side of blog.  Also, if you are a member of the poker club, you can get more stats by checking out the result tab of our poker club on Poker Stars.

GPN - Y1.3Q1.3

We have 9 players that have joined our poker club and so that means that we can officially start playing in our club!  So this Thursday's game will be through our new PS poker club.  If you haven't already joined the poker club, then please do so before 8pm tomorrow in order to play in tomorrow's game (and all future games). 

I set the blind interval to 10 minutes (as oppose to the standard 15 minutes in the private games) but gave us 2000 starting chips.  I am excited to try out some of the other cool features like turbo, rebuy, knockout, shootout, etc. 

Name: GPN Y.1.3Q1.3
Tourney #: 360375645 (but you can't search for it because it is a poker club game)
Date: 2/3/11
Time: 8:00 p.m.
password: no password is necessary for the poker club

Congratulations to Crabbyjoe154 for winning Q1.2

There were 5 people who played on Thursday and the results in the table below and quarterly results are on side of blog.

So far we have 4 people signed up for the poker club...and we need 4 more to get the club going...so if you haven't signed up, then please do so ASAP so that next week's game can be played through the club. 

As for the club...I am submitting the following picture to be our "logo" for the poker club.  If you prefer something different, then let me know.



Rank	Player	TLB Points Earned This Game
1	crabbyjoe154	22.36
2	EDWT	15.81
3	AllPuddin	12.91
4	badbilly429	11.18
5	EFEN Captain	10.00

GPN - Y1.1Q1.2

Timing is everything sometimes.  Not enough people have responded to the poker club thing (only 1 person has joined) and I am going to Florida this week and won’t be around for Thursday's game.  So I decided to set this Thursday’s game up the same as previous weeks.  Meanwhile, please join the club next time you are on Stars (or take like 2 minutes and join right now even if you don’t intend to play for several weeks).  Maybe we can start playing in the club next week. 

Also, I did not set up the Canadian flag as the logo for the club…it was a default that PS assigned.  We can change that…so if there is something that you guys would like to see as a logo, send it to me and then I can submit it to Stars (plus I think we can put our logo on the “virtual felt”).

As for Thursday’s game:

Name: GPN - Y.1.1Q1.2
Tourney #: 356906767
Date: 1/27/11
Time: 8:00 p.m.
password: same as previous weeks

Poker Stars "Home Game/Poker Club"

Ok...soooo...when I first skimmed the information for PS’s Home Game/ Poker Club, I dismissed it at first as I didn’t think it would apply to our thing that we do.  But after digging in and really reading what they are offering, I realized that it is absolutely fabulous and plan to organize our game through the “home game/poker club” option on Poker Stars.  Now, I don’t know if we will be successful because you need to have at least 8 members…so if we don’t get at least 8 members, then we will have to play our games the way we have been doing.  Some of the differences by using the Home Game/Poker Club option on PS are:

1.      I don’t have to send out an email prior to the game…once you are signed up as a member of our “poker club” then every time I set the game up on PS, an email will automatically be sent to you with notification.

2.      We will be able to keep track of all kinds of stats on our members…such as:

·         Leader Board ranks members by points earned in tournament play

·         Sort club standings by points, games, average points per game

·         Choose which tournaments are included in club standings

·         Select length of Club Seasons: Yearly, Quarterly or Monthly

·         Stats: Points, Games, Wins, Finishes, In-the-Money, Knockouts

3.      We will have a chance to have a PS Pro join our home game with an additional $1000 added to the prize pool.  Plus we are also somehow eligible to qualify for a poker package for every member in our poker club to one of PS’s live events.  How all this works is not entirely clear to me at this point.  It appears as though the poker club manager (i.e. me) will get freerolls to compete to win these things (poker package, poker pro play our game, etc).  Anyhow, as I learn about it, I’ll let you all know.

4.      We will be able to play cash game if we want (setting up a private cash game was not an option before). 

5.      We will be able to choose starting chip amount!  This is really cool!  We may be able to set up the blind levels (time and value) and perhaps set up a rebuy option …???  I won’t know until I set up the poker club and investigate. 

The PS Home Game/Poker Club does keep track of TLB points…not sure yet if we will just use those, or keep with the format that we are using.  Anyhow, we can try the Poker Club out and if we don’t like it, go back to setting up the private tourneys the way we have been doing it. 

In the mean time, you all are going to get emails from PS letting you know that you have been invited to join our Poker Club…you have to log on to PS and “Join a Poker Club” where you will enter the Club ID, Invitation Code and your name.  Even if you don’t think you can play next week (or the next several weeks), join the club so that you will get the weekly game notices from PS.  (also, if you don’t want to participate, then I can remove your name completely from the list…just let me know).

Sounds exciting!  I can’t wait to try it out!

Congratulations to Journey85 for winning Q1.1

It is always nice to start a season off with a win...and Journey85 did it!  We had 6 players show up tonight.  3 players were knocked out fairly quickly after 45 hands and then it was an epic battle for the remaining 3 players for 100+ hands.  Results are listed in table below.

While I was playing I was reading up on Poker Stars "Home Game" and it sounds VERY COOL!  I will post a separate blog on this...but I plan to set our game up on PS's "home game".

Rank	Player	TLB Points Earned This Game
1	journey85	24.49
2	AllPuddin	17.32
3	nahanni74	14.14
4	EDWT	12.25
5	99RAW99	10.95
6	crabbyjoe154	10.00

2011 GPN Online Point System and Schedule

I apologize for not getting this information posted sooner (I thought I would have more time over the holidays to post this stuff).  The point system has been slightly revamped from last quarter as follows:

·       All players will receive Tournament Leader Board (TLB) points for every game that they play.

·       The points are determined using the same formula that Poker Star uses to determine their TLB points, which is:  TLB points = 10 * sqrt(P)/sqrt(F)…where P = number of players and F = how you finish.  For example, if 10 players play and you go out 5^th, then you would be awarded 14.14 points

·       There will be a quarterly TLB and a yearly TLB (for this first quarter, the yearly TLB will not be posted until the 2nd quarter as it will be the same as the first quarter points).

·       The leader board points are just meant to give regular players something to shoot towards and count for nothing more than “bragging rights”…if you are an occasional player and don’t want to commit to a weekly game, then come play when you can, and don’t worry about it if you can’t.

·       Again, this is open to friends and families…feel free to invite them.  Just email me with their PS user name, real name, and email.

·       Each game is $5.00 + $0.50 on Poker Stars and starts at 8pm on most Thursdays.

·       Schedule

o   The game is every Thursday except for every 3^rd Thursday of the month (as that is when GPN Live League plays).

o   The schedule for this year is listed in the table below.

	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
	01/13/11	04/07/11	07/07/11	10/06/11
	01/27/11	04/14/11	07/14/11	10/13/11
	02/03/11	04/28/11	07/28/11	10/27/11
	02/10/11	05/05/11	08/04/11	11/03/11
	02/24/11	05/12/11	08/11/11	11/10/11
	03/03/11	05/26/11	08/25/11	11/17/11
	03/10/11	06/02/11	09/01/11	11/24/11
	03/24/11	06/09/11	09/08/11	12/01/11
	03/31/11	06/23/11	09/22/11	12/08/11
		06/30/11	09/29/11	12/15/11

·        The yellow highlight dates in the table above indicate special game formats.  I’m thinking of changing up the format a bit on those dates…perhaps run a matrix event where we have 4 games running at the same time, or we play Omaha Hi/Lo, or we play HORSE, or we play 8-game.  I’m up for suggestions…pretty much every game that PS offers, we can schedule as a private tourney, so provide suggestions.  I think for the first highlighted event we will play a matrix event.

I think that’s it…nice call, good game and good luck!