As a rec player this schedule resonates well with me. Will be playing many events at PH this year. Nice job Chris.

what happened to all the $600 500k guarantees from 2 years ago? they were removed last year and are not back this year.

The program is good for a mix-game rec. player from Switzerland like me, despite the fact that I don't see a HORSE and eventually a Triple-Stud event. ...for me to be super happy, thanks for sharing and listening

I really like the schedule at this point! Good Work!!!

Me too! Good work Chris

Would like to see the $1100 with $500 bounties and tag teams.

Change the plo 8 handed on the june 7th to BigO since you have the weekly plo the day before and a plo on the 9th. WSOP has the mix O/8 tourney on the june 5th and you will this crowd to play on the 7th.

Increase the buyin to $400-$600 range

The BigO on the 24th is a good spot so leave that alone to coincide with the wsop 1500 plo8.

Definitely not.

Looks good.

If you could start Late Registration at 30 big blinds or higher it would be great( nobody would object unlimited reentries if Late Registration is reduced).

I know that I had mentioned it, and I stand by the position I have held since this nonsense came into being, specifically that competent players who are paying attention to the game and NOT their phone/tablet/other devices don't have issues at a table.

I made it a practice to fly out to events specifically because they had conducted events with a traditional ante. When they caved to the nonsense, I quit traveling and the Circuit events came off my calendar since most are just made up of different levels of buy-in for NLHE. Gone are the days of being able to find people willing to enter HORSE or other stud-based events...guess those require too much thought for the kiddies.

I would have been willing to continue to travel for anything on short notice that was a traditional ante NLHE but those options no longer exist. Chris and I had this discussion in person a few years back.

At least there are still some non-NLHE events on the calendar...and in the meantime, my discretionary income that had previously gone for poker is spent elsewhere.

As to the schedule, I have concerns about the June 11th 2-7 Triple Draw since many who would enter that are also probably looking at the WSOP $1500 Stud 8 which begins three hours later. I am sure that I am not the only person who actually believes in entering and being seated when cards go in the air since there are a lot of relatively free chips in the first few levels of an event. This has a very real potential to impact entries in a cheeseburger stakes 2-7 event...

Ahhhh the BBA zombie has risen! Seeing as it is now 2020, I would summarize the state of affairs with respect to the BBA as follows:

1) It is pretty much the standard (at least in the Western Hemisphere).

2) Dealers prefer it. Why wouldn't they?... less work for them.

3) The vast majority of players prefer it. This is largely due to a psychological fallacy. But it doesn't really matter, does it?

4) Despite their best efforts and a variety of different measures tried, TDs have not figured out a perfect way to alleviate the late-stage structural problems BBA causes. Fortunately (or I guess unfortunately), the vast majority of players will never experience these issues since they will not make it far enough through the field.

5) If a tournament series contains a handful (5% by Chris' estimate) of traditional ante events, whether it is to throw a bone to those opposed to the BBA like Michelle, or just for some logistical or structural reason, no one should get all twisted out of shape. BBA is here to stay. I don't see any way traditional antes come back as the norm so long as players are required to actively move chips at a live table.

What is it about BBA that you dislike? It speeds up the game resulting in more hands played. The only issue that I see is in short handed play but with a good TD that issue is solved

This is a well-tread topic on 2+2. If you are actually interested, just do a search for BBA and you will find more content than you likely care to sift through. The long and short of it is, though, that the time saving benefits of BBA for players are vastly overblown and are the result of psychology as opposed to reality. In reality you get about 1-2 hands more per hour (or less than 10%). It just feels much faster since the process is simplified and players have one less thing they can ignore in lieu of other focuses.

All that being said, if there were no structural issues with the format, ANY time savings, even minuscule ones, would be an improvement. But the system does have its warts. And some (certainly not the majority) feel these warts are not worth a largely psychological improvement.

In any case, you say these issues are "solved" with a good TD. I'd be curious where you have seen this and what the solution is. In my experience, the things TDs do to try and mitigate the problems with BBA are either half-measures, or introduce their own inequities by creating new problems out of the ones they are solving.

Another year means another round of complaints about BBA from Michelle.

This is the standard now. Adapt or die.

Hi everyone, there are many other forums on two plus two to discuss the pros and cons of big blind ante. GOLIATH will follow WSOP and next to all NLH events will feature BBA.

Thanks!

Adding more

As far as an update goes - (subject to change)

-Adding a weekly Tag Team event every Sunday @ 3pm / $200 buy in
-More 6 max
-Trying to carve out a $500K / $600 Ultimate GOLIATH stack around our Main Event
-More changes based on the feedback from here, Facebook, and Twitter

Which one(s) will be traditional? That way I can mark my calendar even if it means flying back for just a day or two...and hopefully they will be events with a meaningful buy-in.

Right now, I am looking at four trips, three in June and then one in mid-July (for the $1500 8-game mix at The Rio).

Hi Chris,

thanks for listening to the feedback. You got most of the general consensus right.

Just one remark regarding the 600$ 500k gtd. They were very popular with the players, when you had them early in the series. Two years ago you even had a 1M gtd 600$ ; one where the GTD was easily smashed.

So if you could consider to put at least one of the 500k 600$ (ideally 1M 600$) in the first or second week of June (ideally not clashing with Millionaire Make at Rio to guarantee numbers) that would be highly appreciated.

I haven't played a NLHE tournament in *years* but I just booked a stay at PH from June 27th-July 4th (and then hotel hopping over to another one) so it looks like I'll probably be in the Main Event and hope to last through the first day.

All of the mixed game tournies I was considering playing are either on days I'm flying into Vegas or the days I'm planning on playing the WSOP though. Going to try to finagle my schedule around to make some stuff but I think, at this time, I'll be missing the Razz and 2-7 tourney for sure.

agree with this. 600$ event early of the schedule, maybe once every week or so

My assumption is that since the WSOP has added several more NLH Bracelet events in the $400-$1000 range that PH has scaled back/removed their events not to conflict.

Oh...is payment by credit card still going to be an option for PH events this year? Makes things so much easier...to say nothing about the bonus whoring that can be had on some of the offerings out there.

Thanks for putting out the early draft of the Goliath! I'll be playing the last flight of the Big 50. If I don't make it to day 2 I'll definitely be playing in your two day events for June 1st and 2nd. Thanks for having a budget friendly option for all the Big 50 folk in town!