Hi all,

Back from Vegas and ready for EPT12!

A special thank you to the people in my Triple Board Omaha Eight (lowest River card kills its board) game at Planet Hollywood during the 2+2 party, it was a lot of fun! Additional kudos to the sickos in the $4 - $8 Super Stud Teddy Ballgame that appeared to be costing 1 - 2 stacks per street Nice job by Chris and his crew for putting up with our nonsense

David/PLS/ROO - 1289/1321/1323 - I can now confirm we will not be offering hotel opt-out for any stops on EPT12. PLS, we have offered it before, a couple of times during EPT11, but after review we have decided not to offer it for EPT12

Vert - 1320 - Agreed. We're going to try and play around a bit at each stop, but the goal is if we have a 5K version, the 500 version comes before it.

Unknown - 1322 - The general feedback I got in Vegas is that 30 big bets is about where players want the Limit games to start. Maybe up to 40, but anything over that is wasting time was the consensus. Especially for events designed to finish in one day.

The schedules should be more spread out for Malta and beyond. The problem in Barcelona is the Estrellas NLH fields are so massive, they don't leave many tables in the early days for anything else.

DB / Sect - 1324/1325 - The missing 250/500 is a typo for the HR's and should be included, Toby is fixing it (it is already in the ME).

The 40/45 minute question is all about when the tournament finishes. For the National Tour HR's they just don't finish in 2 days with 60 minute levels and the number of entries they are getting. We had to trim them slightly because the fields have grown too big. No one we asked wants those HR's to take 3 days (either starting on Day 2 of NT or finishing on Day 1B of EPT ME) so the structure had to be adjusted. The same holds true for the Main Events.

Cheers,

Neil
PokerStars Live Events Specialist

What about a small change to make it less turbo on day 1:

Have 2x 100/200 blind levels and have 45 minutes levels instead of 40 on day 1; I don't think this change would make the tourney last for another day, I think people would appreciate it as it is a highroller and supposed to be played as a regspeed tourney rather than a turbo.

FR's FPS series has this structure for their FPS Highroller ^^

Hi Neil,

When can we expect to have the full PCA/LAPT in the Bahamas schedule out?

Hi Neil, about the no opt-out option. What happens if I win a Seat-Only first and then I win a package? Do I still have to get the hotel? Thanks

You get the hotel and then get T€ refunded to your account for the value of the duplicate seat.

yup ^ you're basically still stuck w the hotel at that point

Hi all,

As an FYI, our BCN hotel rooms (for packages) are sold (won?) out for both EPT and Estrellas, so Seat only or Seat + Expenses for the final month. EPT Travel still has hotels but our block for qualifiers is full.

325 EPT ME Quals so far
387 ESPT ME Quals so far

Dber - 1327 - +all other Structure feedback from the last 20 or so posts. We have reviewed everything here, plus our Schedules of Play from EPT11/10 and WSOP feedback from their non-NLH's. Our amended structures are being confirmed this week and should be posted on August 1st.

As an aside, the feedback I got from WSOP was (basically) that anything over 40 big bets for Limit was too much and pointless play.

Come - 1328 - Should be end of August. I know it is in final stages now, but PCA Schedule always requires a lot of sign offs

Roo - 1329 - That rule hasn't changed. You would be credited the lesser package and you would need to use the hotel package for your trip. Cheers Carlos, he beat you by a day Ase

We're putting Paradise Poker in Malta! Gotta change the name though...Choose your HORSE? HORSE Pick'em? Needs work

Also looking at something Goldenbears suggested of possibly a NLH, NL 5 Card Single Draw (maybe PL Double Draw?), NL 2-7 Single, PLO mix for 5K in Malta. The idea being to get some random games in amongst the games people feel comfortable playing.

Cheers,

Neil
PokerStars Live Events Specialist

Will there be any changes to the rules?

Hi Spacey,

We're having our final rules call at the beginning of August and I'll update everything for EPT12 in a large blog post. There will be a few small changes I'm sure.

Cheers,

Neil
PokerStars Live Events Specialist

Do you plan to implement a way for .bg .be .dk .uk players to register for live events using stars funds as before or is that option forever gone for us?

Hi Card,

We don't expect to see any changes in that policy for EPT12 unfortunately.

Cheers,

Neil
PokerStars Live Events Specialist

Hi all,

Please see below from PokerStars VIP Club...

--------------------

Subject: ***PokerStars Policy Change regarding Live Event VPPs***

From August 1st, 2015 going forward, players will no longer receive VIP Player Points (VPPs) for participation in PokerStars Live Events.

We are committed to making sure that 2015 VIP Rewards are not materially impacted throughout the year, and so to ensure that players are not impacted in 2015, the following procedure will apply for 2015 VIP Club Rewards:

-In January 2016, we will review our records and any player who would have earned additional Stellar Rewards or Milestone Cash Credits through earning Live Event VPPs will be manually credited their full value by January 31, 2016.

-From August 1st 2015 thru January 1, 2016, if you believe that you would have maintained or earned a higher status as result of live play this year, please contact us at vipclub@pokerstars.com. We will review your case, manually upgrade your VIP Status, and credit any discrepancy in FPPs earned to ensure no negative impact.

The above procedure applies exclusively to 2015. In 2016, no VPPs will be accumulated through Live Events nor exceptions made for VIP Status requirements.

If you have any questions about this procedure, I will try to answer your questions asked in this thread. Alternatively you can email vipclub@pokerstars.com with any questions.

------------------

Cheers,

Neil
PokerStars Live Events Specialist

Hi all,

What about these for Malta? There are some others, these are the new ones we're looking at.

Quintuple Stud - 7 Stud High, 7 Stud Hi/Lo, Razz, Super Stud, 5 Stud High. €500

Quintuple Draw - (formerly Fiple Draw) - A-5 Triple, 2-7 Triple, Badugi, Badacey, Badeucey. €500

Sextuple Omaha - PLO and PLO8 as 6 max with 6 games. 4, 5, and 6 card versions of both games. €500

HORSE Dealer's Choice - Formerly Paradise Poker as described in post 1313. €5K and €500.

Mix - NL Holdem, NL 2 -7 Single Draw, PL Omaha, PL 2-7 Double Draw. €5K

Thoughts?

The final day is Halloween also, so don't be surprised to see the Haunted Hyperturbo, the Friday Frankenstack or the Saturday Spookystack

Cheers,

Neil
PokerStars Live Events Specialist

Hi all,

Forgot one...

• Splitsville Dealer’s Choice – All split pot games. Texas H/L, Pineapple H/L, Crazy Pineapple H/L, 4/5/6 card Omaha H/L, 5 Stud H/L (no Qualifier), 7 Stud H/L, Super Stud H/L

Cheers,

Neil
PokerStars Live Events Specialist

Yeah I'd be in for all of those for 500

Hi Neil,

I'd just like to thank you for expanding the variants offered on the EPT. I will be playing the 5k Razz. My request for a variant in a future 5k would be NL 2-7 Single Draw, it's popular among higher stakes tournament regs and plays great in a tournament setting.

I'm also glad to see the 500s returning, I hope to see these at future stops too. I was disappointed there were no 1k championship events in draw games last year, so I'm hoping to see 2-7 Single and Triple Draw as well as Badugi and 5 Card Draw this season.

All of the funky ones you've mentioned look great and I plan to support these across the season!

Last season I attended London, Prague, Malta and Monaco - festivals that had great mixed offerings. I ended up firing a decent amount of NLHE too, so please be aware of this impact in the future if left with a scheduling dilemma. Mixed events brings mixed players who also play NLHE.

Thanks again.

What about final table players appear with music like in boxing, snooker etc. ? I'm asking for a friend

Hey Neil.

Any updates on releasing the full EPT Malta schedule (ie: with all side events)? It would be nice to try and book travel plans ASAP as I would prefer to play as many of the mixed game events.

The proposed mixed game tournaments would all be great, although I would rank some as a higher preference.
Shouldn't Splitsville DC include badeucy and badacey though?

Hey Neil, can we have a look at the amended structures?

If you do play this and other mixed games events, we'd love to hear your thoughts on them over in the stud forum.

Hi all,

I'll have a Blog post coming out next week detailing any and all changes for EPT12. I'll post the link and details here once we launch it.

Marek - 1340 - Good, because all of them will be in Malta Prague is still in the drawing board, but most of them and others that we can think of will be in all stops this season.

Tentacle - 1341 - You mean stand alone 2-7 Single? Or part of a bigger mix? We have it in mix in Malta, I think we're going to try it stand alone in Monaco (not sure). We appreciate you supporting the formats and your point is a good one. Mix players also play NLH, even if a lot of NLH players don't return the favour Trust me, I am the champion of non-NLH tournaments and as long as I have a say in it, we will keep offering them (and even expanding a bit) .

Ereb - 1342 - It depends on if it can be done with style and the music really matters. What music would your 'friend' enter to? My HOLPOPE entrance music is supposedly 'Take Me To Church' by Hozier

Unknown - 1343 - Malta Schedule releases Sunday when Sats start Although Toby is in Bristol for UKIPT right now so the thread won't go up until next week.

Dber - 1344 - With the new game changes we held the structure updates until next week. I hope they are on the web on Wednesday.

SG - 1345 - If you guys get any feedback on our new offerings, please let me know. I mainly do searches in 2+2 for 'EPT', 'PCA', 'UKIPT', etc... so I might miss some things that if they don't have the tour in them. Any feedback is appreciated.

Cheers,

Neil
PokerStars Live Events Specialist

Hi, I am SNE and have missed two months this year..

If from August i miss another month, with the new changes not getting any VPPs for live, will these "exceptions" you mention above mean I will maintain SNE and NOT lose it if I would have otherwise got 50k VPP? you can imagine it is pretty hard to get 50k when Barcelona allows no online play..

If I do not get 1m VPP by the end of the year, but would have if live tourneys VPP were included, do I still get SNE for 2016, all the benefits and milestones etc?

if answer is yes for both and as described you will manually credit everyone who would have achieved other status or milestones etc why did this change just not start from Jan 01 as I don't see m/any cases where it'll actually make a differ be until the end of the year? other than arbitrary stuff such as people playing more than they "need" to since they aren't sure how many VPPs from live they would have gotten etc.

Thanks Neil! I saw the schedule was posted on the EPT site about 8 hours ago! It looks great. I would have personally preferred a €500 non-turbo PLO8, but it's ok.

Unofficial Link before Toby creates the own dedicated thread:
http://www.europeanpokertour.com/tournaments/malta/

Hi all,

OMG - 1347 - Apologies but I don't have specifics. Everything in that post comes from the VIP Club and they are the best ones to provide you with the proper answers. Please email them at vipclub@pokerstars.com

Unknown - 1348 - I'm just happy nothing happened to mess up the announcement. It seems like every time I tell 2+2 'X' is coming on Tuesday something pushes it to Wednesday, Thursday or the following week. I got one right! There will definitely be non-turbo PLO8 at future stops and Mike is looking at putting in PLO or PLO8 'something' everyday of the PCA.

Cheers,

Neil
PokerStars Live Events Specialist

Since you're officially letting people keep € in pslive account now it would be good to have some way to view your balance and basic history apart from sending a load of emails to registrations.