NLHE Tournaments in Milwaukee

[lawpoker]

i probably shouldn't be posting this, as my chances of success will likely decrease. but, if you're in/around milwaukee, you probably want to check out www.badgerpoker.com (http://www.badgerpoker.com) and register for the tournaments. these are free entry tournaments, with 10 weeks of prelims. in october there will be a championship.

just thought people might be interested in this.

good luck.

[BradleyT]

Wooo, thank you!

[Cleveland Guy]

Just be warned- live or online, when you enter a FREE tournament - you get exactly what you pay for. lots of bad poker and people who care less if they bust out on an inside straight draw- then hit 2 pair.

[lawpoker]

agreed. but unfortunatly, there are no buy-in tournaments that i am aware of. so we take what we can get up here. the play i experienced in the first freeroll i played in live was not all that bad. some very new and inexperienced players, but you do what you can with that.

[lawpoker]

you're very welcome. enjoy.

[BradleyT]

2. Each player will start with 10,000 in chips.

Good - I hate those 300 chip tournaments...


6. There will be no checking allowed in this first round of betting. Minimum bet is equal to the Ante in the first round of betting only.
13. Ante will start out at 200 and will raise according to the following schedule:
7:00 – 7:45 - 200 5 minute break
7:50 – 8:30 - 500
8:30 – 8:55 - 1,000 5 minute break
9:00 – 9:30 - 2,500
9:30 – 9:55 - 5,000 5 minute break
10:00 – 10:20 - 10,000
10:20 – 10:40 - 20,000
10:40 – End - 50,000 We will play out until a champion is crowned!

Hmm, if everyone has to ante then you're getting 10-1 if you bet the ante amount. I.E. 10 players ante 200 in round 1, the pot is 2000 pre-flop. That is freaking huge implied odds.


10. After the flop, another round of betting will commence. In this round and all future rounds of betting, players are allowed to check. There is no minimum bet. Players may raise any amount up to the amount of chips they have left.

No minimum bet?? With the pot so freaking huge pre-flop you'll be committing almost half your stack on a pot size flop bet lol.

3. Players will deal themselves. First hand will be determined by drawing high card.
4. Deal will rotate clockwise around the table. There will be two decks going aroud to keep play going. The person before the dealer will get another deck ready for there turn to deal.
12. If a player does not have enough chips to match the other players during a hand, a side pot will be formed. Additional chips bet during the hand will be awarded to the player with the best 5 card poker hand that contributed to the additional pot.

Yeah that's going to be fun when you get 4 players going all in and 3 side pots some dealer who has never even played hold em has to figure out.


This thing is going to be one big gamblefest with mistakes galore. Players acting out of turn, being skipped over, short-betting the pot, etc..

[lawpoker]

did you play in any of the Rock 102.1 tournaments they sponsored a few months ago? they at least had correct blind structure...but a ton of newbies who didn't understand the game.

yes, this whole ante thing is bothering me. i guess i don't really like it. maybe it's a good thing and i'm missing something. help? i also can't understand why the minimum bet on the subsequent rounds would not have to equal the ante in the PF round. answers? and it also seems that the minimum reraise would not have to be the amount of the raise. correct? i can imagine this "i'll raise t800, total of t1000". next guy "i'll call and raise t75." i know it'll happen. wtf. anyway, am i missing anything here?

[BradleyT]

Missed the rock 102.1 tournaments but did hear about them on the radio. Never got a chance to head out to Silk and the other places to play in them.

I signed up for the Wednesday night one. It will be pushing it though - I usually don't get home from work until about 5:45.

But yeah this sounds like it's going to be a big mess with the current betting structure.

[lawpoker]

got an email last night from the badgerpoker guy. apparently there was some major confusion at the first event concerning the antes. thankfully, he's decided to eliminate the ante and move to the regular 100/200 blind structure to start. whoohoo! real poker!

[nuclear500]

Confusion? How can there be confusion?

Everyone is required to put in an ante to get cards, and if you want to see the flop, you are required to at least call the ante again, plus whatever raising occurs.

How hard can it be? By moving to a blind structure instead of ante, your blinds are going to be moving VERY fast. At least with the ante you're forced to put money in every hand, thus accelerating the course of play.

In Madison its been running great since its inception, no problems whatsoever.

There are fish, big fish and extremely lucky fish (big stack called all in with his Q4o vs AA and scored flush with the 4c). Mostly have to worry about people who don't understand that A4o is NOT a good hand, so play your premium hands wisely and smart.

[nwaddell]

thanks for the insight. any other insight you might have about these particular tournaments would be greatly appreciated.

[AtlChip10]

Having the ante system from beginning to end in a tournament setup removes a large part of the actual strategy involved in Texas Hold'em and introduces the crap-shoot factor. There's a reason that nearly every major tournament out there starts off with the normal blind structure and then introduces antes later in the tournament. Last night with the blind structure used things ended up moving just as fast as they did the first night; up until the final table when Jason stopped moving the blinds a couple times due to players request. Tonights games should stick to the schedule with the added antes being introduced about 30 minutes quicker to make the big guns move faster and help the bar clear out before 12:30. If people in Madison are happy with the ante system that's great, but the majority of the people thus far in Milwaukee seem to prefer the normal blind system.

[nuclear500]

Oh trust me, everyone of us in Madison would prefer a true tournament system with normal blind progression - but that simply isn't feasible in the allotted time frame and the number of people. Everyone of Madison's events has about a minimum of 90 people and some of the bars see no less then 110.

Thats the biggest hold back, alotted time. Start at 7 and majority of people want to be out of there by 1030, 11 at the latest. With blinds you'd still have 50% of the people around by that time.I did not play when it first started out in Madison, but the more I play and the more the same people play, it has slid into the "I respect that raise and will not call with my A9o" - of course some people are scrubs and will anyway, free play and all. The same people (for the most part) consistently make the top 25. Every so often someone consistently good makes a bad play, but thats the nature of Free Play and the nature of actual Hold 'Em, sometimes you have to try and make a play with your 45o and hope no one holds cards heh.

[nwaddell]

did anyone else go? and if so, how'd you do?

[uw_madtown]

I've gone to about 5 in Madison, and usually bust sometime between the first and second break. I think I may be playing a bit too tight, but I dunno. Every time I've busted, it's been to an inferior hand that caught cards, so I feel pretty good about my all-in play. I tried loosening up last time to play fewer offsuit hands (like AT, KT, AJ) and play more suited connectors (T9, 98, 87 if I'm in position) and didn't do any better.

The antes suck, but blinds would make it go forever.

- UW

[MilwaukeeBull]

I have done the first 3. Came in 7th on Tuesday night. Went out early on Monday (tried to bluff on a 8 8 3 flop and raised the bet, only to have him call me down with A high- not the best play), and ended middle of the pack on Wednesday.
The blind structure has worked much better than the antes. Play did not slow down. The game must have ended around 11:30 or so on Tuesday. It may have gone longer because the final table was extremely tight.
Overall, there are a lot of inexperienced players who will go all in on draws or will call down with third pair. They will raise preflop with an ace or face. Playing a tight aggressive game works well, but expect the suckout. Some of the players are extremely aggressive. I like them because they are guaranteed to go on tilt with a beat.