I dunno if everyone heard, the Lodge BBJ hit on Sat Morning at 1:30am for ~400k! Royal>Quad Q, there were only like 40 people in the room and 7 at the table where it hit.

Whoops my bad, it was a K high straight flush. room share was like 1300.

I know that many of you are looking for the structures for our upcoming tournaments at the Isle. Here is the info for the first two events we're having:

Saturday May 21, 2011 at Noon
Registration starts at 9am
$10,000 Guaranteed
$500 + $25 + optional $10 Dealer's Special Add-on
Start with 5000 chips. Dealer's Special gets additional 3000
Blinds increase every 20 minutes

Sunday May 22, 2011 at 2pm
Registration starts at 10am
Featuring Slacker and Steve from Alice 105.9
Isle will donate $25 for every player that enters to the Children's Miracle Network
$100 + $10 + optional $10 Dealer's Special Add-on
Start with 3000 chips. Dealer's Special gets additional 2000
Blinds increase every 20 minutes

Tournament Blind Structure for both events above

BLINDS ANTE
25-50 0
50-100 0
75-150 0
100-200 0
BREAK – 10 Minutes
100-200 25
150-300 25
200-400 50
300-600 50
BREAK – 10 Minutes
>>>Remove All $25 Chips <<<
400-800 100
500-1,000 100
600-1,200 200
800-1,600 200
BREAK – 10 Minutes
1,000-2,000 300
2,000-4,000 300
3,000-6,000 400
4,000-8,000 400
BREAK – 10 Minutes
>>>Remove All $100 Chips <<<
5,000-10,000 500
6,000-12,000 500
8,000-16,000 500
10,000-20,000 500
BREAK – 10 Minutes
>>>Remove All $500 Chips <<<
15,000-30,000 1,000
20,000-40,000 2,000
25,000-50,000 3,000
25,000-50,000 3,000
BREAK – 10 Minutes
Blinds are capped at 25,000/50,000
The ante will remain at $3,000

Payout Structure
# of Players
8 to 10 11 to 20 21 to 30 31 to 40 41 to 60 61 to 80 81 to 100

Order of Finish
1 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 33.00% 32.00% 30.00% 30.00%
2 40.00% 30.00% 30.00% 25.00% 25.00% 23.00% 21.00%
3 20.00% 20.00% 18.00% 16.00% 14.00% 13.00%
4 10.00% 14.00% 12.00% 10.00% 10.00%
5 10.00% 9.00% 8.00% 8.00%
6 6.00% 7.00% 6.00%
7 5.00% 5.00%
8 3.00% 3.00%
9 2.00%
10 2.00%
Totals 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00%

Sorry, it didn't line up as well as I would have liked, but I think it's pretty easy to figure out.

is there any early registration? sunday has ok buy-in price, what's the player capacity you can register before events are sold out? can you add tables if there's too many registering?

thanks for posting the structure

We will sell as many seats as we have dealers and tables for, hopefully at least 5 or 6. Registration starts at 10am.

Other than this missing the 1500-3000 level, the structure looks pretty good. If you want to offset the addition of that level a little, consider this maybe(bigger antes are pretty standard, and these sizes are nothing you will be criticized for):

1,000-2,000 300
1,500-3,000 400
2,000-4,000 500
3,000-6,000 500
4,000-8,000 1000

Don't know if ill be back in town for the 21st unfortunately, but i'm looking forward to playing it.

yes, I am aware that the level you highlighted is a jump, but overall I feel that the structure is very fair. Hope to see you when you're up next.

Best,
Matt

+1 with chase on this

Looks good Matt!! However id add make the 550 buy in- 30 min rounds and you got urself a killer strucutre and ill defenitly play it.

I mean tbh that is a good structure compared to the Gates dailys and Lodge
The gates 300-500 buy ins all have 30 min levels just fyi, if u add 30 min levels to that mtt im sure u will get an increase in entries.

And the better the tourney turnout is, in theory, the cash games will follow after, no?

I'm with ya for sure...we've scheduled already for June, so let's see how those go. The structure is very fair and my primary concern is that I don't want the tournament to last 7 or 8 hours (which is the risk with this blind structure and 30 minute limits). Let's see where they fall time-wise and go from there. I'm all for making the limits 30 minutes if the tournament is only lasting 3 hours with 20 minute limits, but IME this structrue goes about 5 hours or so.

Best,
Matt

Id imagine with the start stack size your mtt with 30 min blinds will last 5-7 hours depending on how many tables get filled , still i mean huge problem with Colorado poker is all their tournaments arent really worth playin if you gotta battle bad structure+rake ...So id love to see a poker room take advantage of putting up quality mtts even if its just 3-5 mtts a month, Quality of Quantity ..I hit up Matt Savage about rolling out here he told me to tell you he would love to ..

I was planning on playing the Saturday tourney but not anymore. 5k chips? Lol no thanks. I want 40k 30min blinds at minimum

The total starting chips is actually 8K, not 5K, but in your "I want 40k 30min blinds at minimum," you left out the most important element...the progression of the blind structure.

If you had a $40K starting stack and 30 minute blinds and put it with our structure, the tournament would last about 18-20 hours...Is that the kind of event you're looking for? Maybe if we were doing a bigger, two-day event.

Tournaments are not all about how many chips you start with or how long the limits are. When you start with $40K and then the blinds start at 100/200 and then they double almost every limit, it really doesn't matter that you started with that many chips. I mean, I can write a structure where I give you half a million in starting chips. But then we'll start the blinds at 1000/2000 and go from there.

It's about the progression of the structure and the blind limits relative to the total chips in play. It's easy to offer inflated starting stacks with rapidly advancing limits...but it doesn't make it a good tournament.

Best,
Matt

I'm talking with Michael at WPT right now about doing a WPT Regional Event. I'm a big fan of Matt Savage and when we go with WPT, he'll be part of their package. I'll keep you informed...

Best,
Matt

Nice Matt, in no time im sure ur room will be rockin steady alot of my buddies dont even know u know have a poker room, so im sure once things get goin more on the regular it will be a superior room.

How is the 1-2 and 2-5 100 cash game going?
Ill be by there tommrow to drop by and say hi if ur working

I know you are only planning on three tables, but a $500 tourney that only lasts about 5 hours seems like a very fast structure to me.

When I play a $300 buy-in tourney, I usually expect it to last at least 7-8 hours. (The $100 Tourney that the Gates used to run at noon on Sundays usually lasted longer than that, but often had 80+ players.)

please consider 30 minute blinds. its nice that you have a lot of levels, but at 20 minutes its still going to be way too fast for a $500.

I'll be there until 5pm or so tomorrow. $1/$2-$100 games have been pretty steady and good. We've only spread the $2/$5-$100 once I think. I'd like to get that one more often.

Best,
Matt

Same...are there weekday games going nowadays?

Yeah, it lasts 5 to 6 hours with only 2-3 tables and would last 7-8 hours with 60-80 players. It's really a very player-friendly structure. I hope you'll give it a try before you just decide it's no good. It gives you a ton of time to play early and is extremely fair through the middle, with the bigger stacks able to take control late. Again, if we decide that we need to go to 30 minute limits, then we will certainly do that.

Best,
Matt

We've been getting going between Noon and 1pm on the days that we don't have a game go all night. Usually 2-3 games by 3pm/4pm during the week right now. Have had 8 games on Saturday night and as many as 7 on Fridays. We're getting there, step by step.

Best,
Matt

Does at least one fixed limit game run consistently Fri through Sun at Isle yet or is it all $1/$2/$100? 3 of us are coming up Fri to play $4/$8 and would prefer to play at Isle if possible.

Matt there is no way your mtt would come close to 18-20 hours if u added in
30 min levels because of field size. The venetian ds structure is here
http://www.venetian.com/uploadedFile...08_NoLimit.pdf

And we would be down from 700 players - 28 players with 40 min levels and a noon start time with a dinner break in 12-14 hours. and break for day 2 which would be 4-6 hours but thats from a huge field .

I sense that all tournament directors in black hawk all feel the same about running longer mtts, because most of them feel that daily mtt poker isnt popular and well that is because like i said most good players loose to a bad structure+huge rake, so in order for volume to go up with these types of players we would love to see more and more often better structure tournaments(i.e. your best poker dealer on a good day can deal about 35-40 hands an hour) .. Matt i gtd if you threw mtts just Fri,sat and sunday
buyins from 150-500 with something close to the venetian structure you would crush the competition soon enough and more tournament players more cash games flow imo... Ill be there tommrow and we can defenitly talk more about boost up your room. Again this is a huge first step imo that we have one mtt director on 2+2 ..

30 minute levels + the missing blind round and this is a great structure for a 1 day event.

A $500 Tournament with 5K in chips and 20 minute rounds that is planned to last less than 7 hours = CRAP SHOOT not poker tounament. I agree 14-16 hours is too long. A viable $500 should last 10-12 hours. I was looking forward to this tourney but will have to pass. 10K in chips, plus dealer add on, plus 30minute rounds should make this a 10-12 hour tournament. When you get closer to that let me know and I will be there, until then count me out.