FYI, Poker Stars has started running Sats again to an Online (200 + 15) qualifier that will take place this Sunday, 9/13/2009, to the HPT ME.

To play in those Sats, go to the tourney page, click on Satellite, then Event to find them. Most of the Poker Starts Sats are 4 and 8 buck rebuys, but on Sunday, they will be having several no rebuy Sats into the Qualifier later that day, for $36 bucks.

The Casino is also running Sats Saturday and Sunday, to an HPT Las Vegas jetaway trip (along with your buy in to the Vegas HPT event ... only the winner get's the buy in) comes complete with private jet transportation for two, Hotel for two and party onboard the jet) as well, that will take place in January.

Details about the upcoming HPT Blackhak event here:

Has anyone ever played any of these HPT? what are the fields and structure like?

As stated in a couple of the other threads about the Heartland....the fields are what they are....you have some great players as well as people who just play home games and it's their first time at the casino. Structure isn't horrible not great either...a bit of juice but who really is caring that much if you qualify in for 100 bucks? The reason for the tour is to get "american joe's" the opportunity to compete for life changing money in the midwest etc...So take that as you will. I know the event that they hold outside Chicago 1st hasn't been below 120K and you are going through about 500 people. Any other info just go to www.heartlandpokertour.com

40 Min. Rounds
15K Chips
Slow in the beginning > Very Fast Middle >Moderate end

The field has more bad players than good. There are a few very good players though you'll notice who they are quick if they are at your table.

Blackhawk always has a great payout (170-180K). Its worth it to play one of the qualifiers which are very soft ($340). Seats can be transferred so you can win mulitple seats and sell them.

I will be there every Friday-Sunday all 3 weekends. I have a booth setup selling Blue Shark Optics. If you stop by while I am there and mention 2p2 (Secret Password Bing Blang Blaow) I will hook you up with a discount.

I also plan on playing a qual or two.

HA! I was just coming over here to post a question about the HPT in Blackhawk.

I've never played in one, so pardon the stupid questions.

I am thinking of playing in the Super Qualifier this weekend, where 10% advance; how many do they usually get? How many played this weekend?

Am I reading correctly that if I win/qualify, then I've earned an invitation to the 'finals' the first weekend of October?

I've won a few 30-40 person tourneys here locally, and would say I final table in about half of the ones I play, and cash in about 30-40%. Online, in the 90 person FTP 3.30, I've won or cashed in quite a few of them that I played.

Is HPT over my head?

And what does 'seat by list' mean?

Yeah I'm a dork....LOL

ccmcmg,

The qualifiers don't start until Friday, Sept 18th, as such, no one has qualified so far.

I'm guessing you plan on playing in the cheaper qualifier, the one where only 10 percent qualify?

The better bet in reality, is the $360, where 20 percent of the field qualify. However, if you have limited funds, then just play super tight in the 10 percent one.

The thing to remember (if you have never played a qualifier) is that a Qualifier isn't played like a normal tourney.

Think of the game survivor. Here with a qualifier, your goal here is to outlast 80 percent (or 90 percent if you're playing the cheaper one) of the field. This is because a Qualifier is a marathon, not a sprint, and say like 30 people qualify and will receive a seat.

Then with the 30 seats in the example being given, the one who is 1st, has the same prize as the one who is 30th in chips. If you squeak in with just one chip ... you just won the same prize as the chip leader.

In other words, you're not so much playing a real poker tourney, as trying to simply stay in the game long enough to win a seat to the HPT ME.

If you determine you have enough chips to simply 'Coast' to your HPT ME, to Qualify so to speak, my advice (for the Qualifier) is to not even bother to look at your cards, but to simply fold your hands without even looking.

There is no worse feeling than going out the bubble person in a Qualifier tourney, when you had a lot more chips then several others who had a lot less in chips then you did.

If those are all factual numbers then you will do fine.

looking forward to this

Anyone playing in the HPT $340 PLO 8 or better event that will run on Tuesday, Sept 22nd at 8pm?

Any guesses on how many runners this event will get?

ill be in denver wed sept 23, but i dont play tournies ill just be trying to find the spread limit 2-100 omaha8 game one of the casinos supposedly spread, most often only on weekends.

Well 7Card, I think that would be the Golden Gates. I know when I was up there this past weekend, they must of started like 3 tables within 2 hrs of the period on for the day I was up there.

i qualified in the 360 last night and sold my ticket for 1400, think i could have gotten more for it? worth 1650...gl to all that plays, qualifiers were pretty easy with the players at blackhawk, im sure us online players will devastate the usual crowd. all though there are some oldies and young regulars that are talented, but in my experience way too many nits that are bubble girls.

I think you got a fair price for your ticket, since ppl can buy in directly for $1650. Gone are the days where a ticket in Blackhawk went for 3k, those days disappeared when the maximum bet for live casino games went up to 100 bucks per bet, and 10k to enter a tourney.

I'm debating on if to go up tonight and try to play a sit and go to win my ticket or not, or just wait until they come back again in March/April of 2010.

The good news is, it appears that Poker Stars has gotten into the swing of things, when it comes to the HPT, and it looks like from the Downstream Casino event in Okalahoma in a few weeks, for the next 4 events after that they will be running online sats and qualifers online.

Hope that continues for next year as well.