Thanks Arch, feedback has been very positive. Hopefully we can get it rolling very soon!

Count me in as a vote for more $570+ buyin tourneys.

Haven’t posted here in a while, but headed up to the stone next weekend.

I have been saying it for a while since I played back in playground poker a few years ago. Button antes is the best ever. Less confusion, more hands played. So hope this rolls out ASAP.

Also Frankie is there a reason why there are less 100ks ? I feel like 2-3 years ago you had multiple 100ks and they never came up short. Why did 50k become the new norm?
I think even a 150k easily crushes. Need more incentive for people to want to come out!

Anyways , Goodluck to myself and anyone next weekend.



**** edit**** went back and read the last few pages.

And with reading that, have you considered trying a 75k or 100k for the $260 buyin? That seems very very promising and rebuys sure would cover it.

Also whoever said it, I like the idea of 200bb to start and make mid levels longer for more play.

Make it 50 bigs starting stack. Let's stop fooling around.

Hi Carl, just a quick note , as part of our Super Stacks Series we do a $100K for $250 and we have for the past 5 years.

We still do $100K events for $570 at times but the $50K's have settled into what our guests like. A lot of our guests, cash and Tournament , felt priced out when the larger events came around so we made some adjustments to our schedule and our price points. We added tournaments so that there is at least one $50K or above almost every month. Nothing is set in stone, we will add and/or adjust events as we move forward to satisfy the majority of our guests.

One last point, 2 to 3 years ago was a different time in the region for poker. Guests traveled from further destinations to play in events than need to now. There are more poker rooms, more venues and more events for guests to attend and many of them are closer to home for poker guests. Don't get me wrong, we still get great turnouts for our events but with more events available in the region we need to keep an eye on the timing of those events as there are many chances for them to overlap with other properties.

The response to the BB Antes has been split, but I will be looking to move forward with a trial as soon as we can! Thanks to all and hope to see you soon!

I can’t stress enough how much better button antes are than anything else.

You should steal exactly what playground poker does with there events.
Speeds things up TREMENDOUSLY and dealers love it as they don’t neeed to constantly tell the same players over and over and over. Also it causes less confusion regardless. More hands. Less stress.

Let me speak for everyone lol. Do it!

+1 for bb ante

I don't want to pay your ante and I don't want you speaking for me.

Nit much?

It’s literally the same thing. You have 7 hands you’re not paying anything.

I assume you haven’t played it yet. I want to say there’s 0 drawback.

More hands is critical. And I am sick of reminding the same 2 idiots every hand to ante up , and I am sure the dealers are too. Also no more fighting with whos ante is out and who’s isn’t.

I'm in favor of a bb ante but it's lying to say there's 0 drawbacks. It does increase inequities for shortstacks which is particularly relevant on bubbles. There are pros and cons. Weigh them.

Well said Zoo! And that is exactly what we will do prior to implementing any changes or trials concerning the BB Ante!

I want more hands per hour. Its obnoxious when players don't ante up promptly and it slows the game down. The fact there arent auto shufflers for tournies also slows down hands per hour. I'm not a fan of slow play when I have a 5-30 bb stack.

I honestly don't think players are going to care about a bb ante. Just my thoughts.

I was there yesterday for the 5pm flight. Gotta be honest, I see why tstone doesn't run $500 100k gtns. The turnout is bad. The room had solid cash game traffic but the 5pm tourny had 26 runners at like 8pm. IDK looks like live poker is a slowly losing popularity in upstate ny. I know today will have a bigger draw but 26 runners for a flight is just pathetic.

I can see it already but wait till the 50k gtn gets dropped to 25k and they are running 4 flights. I'm not saying turning stone offers a bad product either. The game just looks like its losing steam in the area.

Hi Jk, good to hear from you! Yeah the weekends pick up for the tournament flights but not so much during the week or even Friday. We ended up with 94 runners between the 2 flights yesterday and already have 103 for the first of our 2 flights today. Its what I was trying to explain before, number of events are up in the area and guests have a wider variety of choices that involves less travel and less down time between events so if they miss one they know another is right around the corner. Unless its a one off specialty event, I don't see our Guarantees dropping below $50K for $250 for the future unless our guests begin to lose interest. I believe we will still have our larger events in late summer and November(planning now). To your final point about game interest...I'm not sure yet if the game is losing steam in the area at an affecting rate or if its just a case of too many rooms in the area now and the pool has been thinned out and become more localized per property. I'm not saying your theory isn't valid or correct, just hoping that waning interest is not the main factor. Time will tell! Thanks JK

I think the Friday 5pm flight had low turnout due to how great the weather was after raining all week

Sure, it could be the weather, or it could be the fact that there are a whole bunch of large field TS MTT regs that have 0 interest in yet another $250/50k GTD.

They can't just blame other venues for their lower buyins and dwindling attendance. Venues both East and West are running larger tournies and getting more players. They need to try something different. TS hasnt missed a guarantee in years. Run some $250/75k's. Or a $350/100k. Or a $570/125k. There are enough players that will travel and enough locals that will play. You build it and they will come.

This was my thinking and feelings when talking to others.

The fact that TS doesn’t miss GTDs seems silly to make things less.

If you’re always hitting your guarantee why would you lower and get less people? Seems counter productive.

I think a $300 100k would smash. I’d def be excited to go play for that. It’s hard for me to get excited now when I can play a 50k gtd online for $20

And I like TS, my first casino I ever played at. I really enjoy going there.

Sure hope they beef some up!

Was just reading cardplayer and see turning stone is having a 25k gtn with a $25 buyin in July. I like it! I feel you guys will easily hit 1500-2k runners possibly.

Wish the buyin was say 75-100 as I feel this tourny will offer some serious value. I like it how it’s something different. Feel turning stone needs to throw in some variety with tournament series.

I’ll be there this weekend for the summer classic! Any chance big blind antes will occur soon?

Any truth to this tournament in July Frankie?

Driving 4 hours round trip for a 6 hour flight is not fun.
Driving 4 hours round trip for a $250 tournament is not fun.
Driving 4 hours round trip for a day 2 is not fun.
Paying $100+ plus for a hotel room to play a $250 tournament is not fun.
Playing TS tournaments these days is not fun.

yea there were promos up in the room this past weekend - not sure why it isn't on the website

with Del Lago, Resorts World and River's opening in the past year, i think it takes a big chunk of playerbase away willing to travel to TS even for a $500+ tournament. I think TS now mostly draws from Syracuse (143k pop), Utica (60k pop), Ithaca (30k), Auburn (20k).

It would be nice if the room rates were lower when the buy-in is lower, to help make it more worth it.

I suggest bringing a friend to help split room costs though.. thats what I do

Cool, yea I would like to see some information on their website at some point. Sounds like it could be a fun tournament. Something different anyways.

Their $75 PLO tourney got a whopping 7 entries last weekend!

Yea, last PLO tourney they ran got 12 entrants I think. Doesn't seem to be a draw for them but I am guessing most people who would play that tournament are already playing the 1B flight of the main.

Thanks to all for the posts and the feedback. Yep, PLO is not big in this area right now but we will keep running them to see if it catches on. All the promos for last weekend were on the website, refreshing the page will bring up the new promos. Just a note, the promos are always on Bravo for those that have it.

Thanks to those who came out this past weekend. The $50K tournaments continue to grow and we had 325 entrants for the $50K this past weekend. The July Tournament is a go! $25 buy-in for $25K Guarantee. Should be fun!!!