Quote:
Originally Posted by SageDonkey
I've supported the UKIPT Tour by playing in NLHE and PLO events, paying the 10% juice and the extra 3% witthheld to "cover staffing costs" and (being from London) have also of course had some expenses when playing UKIPT in locations such as Nottingham.
Fair enough, these are some of the costs of poker.
However, UKIPT London currently has an awful policy for some side events, certainly the £200 + £20 (-3%) PLO that I am playing tomorrow (25th Jan) in respect of how early you are able to buy in.
Having worked hard all week, including today, I thought I'd take a leisurely tube ride to The Hippodrome Casino in Central London this evening and get my registration out of the way so that I can arrive relaxed for midday tomorrow, avoiding any possible queues or other issues.
Having experienced the extreme jumping through various hoops that you had to go through to reg any comps at the recent EPT London, I thought I'd better call the casino in advance, and unbelievably they told me that reg is only available from 10 am tomorrow. (the comp starts at midday)
Frankly this is pathetic. Do they not want my 13% juice locked up, do they not want as big a field as possible to promote and enhance the UKIPT tour and brand, do they not want the many players already in the casino tonight who've either just busted an NLHE comp or who are playing cash games right now to come and register for tomorrow's midday comp?
This an awful piece of business strategy by UKIPT. All of these groups including me who could have bought in tonight (or I would suggest should be allowed to buy in at least 1 week before the comp) may not have the money tomorrow to buy in with, might oversleep, might change their minds about playing, might have an argument with their wife/girlfriend/partner, may just be invited to another social thing etc etc.
UKIPT are losing revenue with this policy and damaging the tournament itself.
I specialise in PLO MTTs which as it is have much smaller fields than NLHE and are already the poor man's relation of live MTTs because of the lack of satellites and publicity that they get compared to NLHE.
This ludicrous buy in policy of UKIPT's makes things even worse.
There may well still be 70 plus runners tomorrow, but there would be more if the buy in window was longer and more sensible, and what if there are only 50 runners, well maybe UKIPT will then scrap PLO MTTs next time or players will in effect scrap it themselves by next time saying to themselves "I'm not turning up for that rubbish 50 runner comp again".
By contrast the GUKPT PLO held at The Vic Casino London and the Omaha series of events that The Vic run for themselves allow much earlier registration. (a week or two before hand)
The chap who I spoke to at The Hippodrome, who was very polite and professional, told me that all side events at UKIPT London have this 2 hours before the start time buy in window and that only the ME can be bought into well before the event date.
If this is the case, then it makes UKIPT look even worse.
That is my rant over, just very disappointing that such a well run attractive group of tournaments can have such a silly policy regarding buy ins for side events.
Edit: Just had a text from a player who just busted the main and was very surprised that he couldn't buy in right now for tomorrow's PLO comp. So will he now play, or will he oversleep, change his mind etc.
Hi,
There are a number of logistical issues we have to think about when planning registration and this is affected by the different partners we work with, their registration system, seat draw, online reg, seating availability etc. In the past we have usually opened reg one hour before the tournament starts and we know we need to improve this.
I can confirm that where possible we will be opening reg the day before the event at 5pm and if possible players will be able to buy in, in advance (cash or wire) with our casino partners.
Tanks
Toby
