Looks like 20 days of poker with 100 tourneys with 5 days of preliminaries before the ring events start Oct 29. Schedule: https://jsommerfeld.egnyte.com/fl/GS...B#folder-link/
Structures:https://jsommerfeld.egnyte.com/fl/QP...N#folder-link/

Good stuff

While I think the tournaments are Choctaw are as good as it gets, especially with the tournament staff, I find the new schedule very frustrating. Multiple bounty events, dropping big O even though it is a very popular game locally and draws well every year. Also, dropping the buy in for every tournament except the main and one other to $400? A 1k or even $2200 high roller would draw very well at Choctaw. I understand the goal is to draw large amounts of people, but replacing multiple tournaments, especially other games, $400 bounty tournaments? Very frustrating

I see information on there for Congress...not a ring event, but there is at least the one $500 event (in addition to what looked like at least two different $1K PLO events).

I was sort of surprised there was not another go at the Seniors 6-max given that it seemed to have done well last January...not looking for it to be a ring event, but maybe the four starting flights for the Seniors took away the slots that might otherwise have allowed for the 6-max for us raisins...

I have one thing to be thankful for and that is no big blind ante is used in any event. Played it in the WPT main and it is ok at first but when levels increase near bagging at level 12 then the BBA begins to hurt not only short stacks but even average stacks forcing them to play marginal hands to stay in the game. And if you are Card dead at this time you might as well go play craps since you will be shoving with anything. And the floors need to do a better job at keeping tables equal as a table with 6-7 players vs a full table is paying the BBA more times and that ain’t fair.

Making a 1k plo a non ring event will kill that turnout, as will making the big O a non ring event. The plo will get maybe 40, as oppose to 200 if it was a ring event. And the big O will get maybe 100, as oppose to 350 it were a ring event.

Considering how many get their gamble on with PLO and Congress in Texas and Oklahoma, I doubt there are that many that really care about whether it is a ring event or not. Schedule it and the degens will come...

As to Tex's comments...glad to hear someone else has played a BBA event and come to the conclusion that it is not good for the game. There seems to be an increase in the number of such conclusions when people are actually honest with themselves...

For those that drive up from Houston area, do you take 45 through Dallas ? Or is one of their loops and avoiding downtown better?

I voiced my opinion to the WPT staff and a couple agreed with me that it does penalize the short and average stack players when you get deeper into the play. Funny thing happened on my table in the monster stack, a player said we have a celebrity on our table as I trying to figure out who he was talking about he went on and pointed me out saying Bigtex a great ambassador for poker is at seat 8. Kind of left me laughing. But he did thank me for all my poker tourney info posts on 2+2, my website and Facebook pages.

Much depends on when you are trying to make the drive. When I leave from the lake house, I am usually going through the Dallas area either after 8P or before 9A, which makes 45/75 a not-to-horrible drive. It is even better now that they have finished a lot of the construction through McKinney.

Be forewarned that there are a lot of idiots closer to Sherman that don't believe in doing the speed limit and will camp in the left lane at five under...problem is really pronounced when trying to drive home.

By taking 45 to 75, you are basically skirting around the worst of the downtown mess...but during the more traditional rush hours, all of the options pretty much suck. I don't know that you really save any time to go east before heading north and back over to Sherman/Denison...

Not to keep complaining about it because it makes no difference at this point...but if you look at the numbers, all the non nlh ring events at choctaw have drawn good numbers. All non nlh events at choctaw that are not ring events draw less than 100. It makes a big difference.

The only way it penalizes short/average stacks is when the tables are 7-handed or less. Playing 10, 9, or 8-handed, BB ante actually costs less per orbit than standard ante. Also, as a short/medium stack, you would prefer getting more hands per level, before the blinds go up again. BB ante facilitates that.

It does definitely suck to post the BB+ante, then your table breaks and you have to do it again. The flip side is that it is pretty awesome as a short stack to get moved to a new table in late position and get several totally free hands to choose to shove with rather than getting whittled down on each hand. To me, these two things offset each other, especially since they are purely random.

I definitely agree that BB ante does require floors to be diligent on balancing tables, and I do think that they should drop the size to the SB when 5 handed or less, and drop it headsup.

One of the problems was the floors are not used to BBA and were slow to balance tables. At the 2K blind it costs 5K per orbit and in 30 hands a table of 9 pays 15K while a table of 6 pays 25K. And I saw one player post the BBA then his table broke and ended up B.B. again. This should be taken into consideration when moving players.

Sure, but the flip side is that sometimes you will be UTG and your table breaks and you come into the button. It's going to be tough to adjust on table breaks without allowing the floor to assign seats which brings favoritism in.

I also think people ignore the benefits of BBA to the short stack, and only focus on the drawbacks. Say we are playing 1k/2k, and I have 12k on the button at a 6 handed table. If I jam, and we are playing BBA, I can win 5k. If we are playing traditional ante, I can only win 4500. Folding for me is free, where folding costs me 300 at traditional ante.

And I was wrong on 7 handed above, it really is still very often better for short stack cost per orbit down to 6 handed. Here are some cost-per-orbit for the upcoming WSOPC Main Event and what they would be if it was BBA instead:

LEVEL 9
BBA - 2000
Traditional Ante 9 handed - 2100

LEVEL 12
BBA - 4000
Traditional Ante 9 handed - 4200

LEVEL 15
BBA - 7500
Traditional Ante 9 handed - 9000, Traditional Ante 7 handed - 8000

LEVEL 18
BBA - 15k
Traditional Ante 9 handed - 18k, Traditional Ante 7 handed - 16k

So for short stacks, they pay less chips per orbit with BBA, and get more hands per level with BBA. The other impacts can either help or hurt equally, so I just can't see how BBA actually would penalize short/medium stacks when tables are 7+ handed.

I told the Wpt staff that if they really cared about speeding up tourneys a simple solution would be to ban all electronic items from the table. Dealers have to tell players its on them because the player is playing with phone or tablet all too often.

^^^this precisely

It would have FAR more of an impact on speed than the claimed one or maybe two hands per hour that BBA advocates insist that farce creates.

Of course, taking away the electronic pacifiers would also mean more people potentially paying attention TO the action at the table...not that some of them seem to know what to do with it.

Sure, that would also speed up play. But the question is whether BBA is actually bad for short stacks or if that's just a perception.

I think saying no electronics will also shrink and toughen up fields so the question would be is that worth it.

The Wpt staff said a ban on electronics would speed up the game at a cost of fewer players. I didn’t like the BBA but then I don’t like no limit holdem. I prefer stud but then if they held a stud tourney you could the number of players on one hand.

Anybody interested in splitting a room for a week??

will all events be re entry like previous years? structure sheets like some as re entry, but others (including plo) don't say either way.

I really don’t get the hate for the big blind antes. I love it. It speeds the game up and is great not having to worry about putting out an ante every hand.

And all the complaints don’t seem to be based on math or logic. Although, I do understand Big Tex’s complaint if they aren’t balancing tables properly. But if tables are balanced properly, I have yet to hear anyone explain why it’s worse than normal ante tournaments. A lot of people seem to have a weird aversion to it for unknown reasons. I think a lot of people just don’t like change and assume it has a ton of draw backs without actually working the math out.

I’ve also heard people argue that it makes you defend more from the big blind bc you’ve already put money in. This seems to be another mistake some players fall into. The same amount of money is in the pot, so I don’t see why the big blind’s decision would be any different than if it was normal ante.

Maybe I’m missing an obvious reason of why some players don’t like it. Everyone is entitled to their own preference, and I’d still play a tourney if it was normal ante. But I think I know prefer big blind ante. I just don’t see any downsides to it.

The only hate for BBA comes from the NIT community. It’s an amazing improvement to tournament poker that 90% of players love and 100% of dealers love. It is here to stay!

Nuts, the big blind ante is an action killer where the nits roar. Most people play poker and go along; playing this 90% and 100% thing is specious and the big lie.

Imagine, one has such a hard time pitching antes that the big blind ante saved mankind; I saw it with my own eyes. LOL

Most of the " I'm for" people are bringing their inner handicapper to the debate which is meaningless for its so nebulous (the positives) that a real comprehension is negated.

I doubt that players complaining to the tournament directors about the old ante system brought this about ; its all in your head boys, which is immersed within an illusion of unreality.

Having now played and dealt both types of tournies, it is just completely false that BBA is an action killer. Go play the Aria $240 nightly during the summer with BBA and tell me that.

Funny that the anti-BBA crowd (or pro-ante, that sounds odd heh) argues it both ways. On the one side, it sucks for short stacks because you put more money in than before, but now it is an action killer because less money in the pot. Other people have said it speeds up the tourney by creating more action.

The Aria 240 nightly has 20 minute blinds for the first 12 (twelve ) levels. At other venues( Venetian and Orleans off the top of my head) if there is a change in blind level it usually occurs at 6 (six) levels .

Four (4) hours versus two (2) hours of the 20's. A good tournament fallen into the pit of fast, not because of the big blind ante but because of the level length.

The tournament director can adjust the structure as he sees fit and has in the past, but this has nothing to do with the big blind ante or the pitching of antes.