What do you think of this tournament structure?

[Vehn]

Canterbury Park’s
Triple Crown of Poker
May 15 – 18, 2003

Event #1
Thursday, May 15 7PM Omaha Hi-Lo $300+$30 200 players max.

Event #2
Friday, May 16 Noon 7-Card Stud $300+$30 160 players max.

Event #3
Saturday, May 17 Noon Texas Hold’em $300+$30 200 players max.

Bonus Event (no points for Championship)
Sunday, May 18 3PM No-Limit Hold’em $100+$20


The Triple Crown Championship
The Top 32 Points Leaders
Sunday, May 18 at Noon
The Triple Crown Championship will consist of 45-minute rounds split into 15 minute segments of the following games: Omaha HiLo 8 or Better; 7-Card Stud; Texas Hold’em

$250 of each buy-in goes towards the tournament payout with $50 applied to the Championship. The top 32 in each tournament earn championship points at a rate of 32 for first, 31 for second, and so on down to 1 point for 32nd place. The top 32 point-earners from all three events combined qualify for the Triple Crown Championship – no additional entry or buy-in required.


30 Minute Rounds
Players start with 3,000 Tournament Chips
(Bonus Event): players start with 2,000 in chips)
ROUND LIMIT
1 50-100
2 100-200
3 150-300
10 Minute Break
4 300-600
5 400-800
6 600-1200
10 Minute Break
7 1000-2000
8 2000-4000
9 4000-8000

My initial thought is its good for no one. I think it MAY be worthwhile if and only if you are going to play all 3 and you're decent in all 3 games. I think I'm going to skip it and just play in the $100 NLHE "bonus event" (but $100+$20 is pretty sad too). I also don't think their choice of running the limit hold'em event last was very smart.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

I agree. Also, why cap the number of entries? Why not build up the prize pool? All-in-all, it doesn't make sense. I'd do exactly what you're doing.

[Andy B]

If you think it's dumb now, you should have seen it the first year, when they had the three events on the days of the three Triple Crown horse races. Not too many out-of-town customers for that one.

If they had the hold'em tournament first, a lot of the people who didn't cash wouldn't play in the other events, having given up on qualifying for Sunday's event and considering themselves mostly hold'em players. This way, they get the most entries in the O/8 and stud events. I don't know about last year, but in 2001, the O/8 tournament had the largest field, as the first event. The hold'em event will have the most demand, and more people can play Saturday anyway.

I think you can only play if you're planning on playing in all three unless you think you're so much better than the field that you can make up for missing an event. I doubt many are. Last year, a lot of folks came up from Chicago and other points, and my understanding is that the field was significantly tougher than for your typical Canterbury tournament. Not that Canterbury tournaments are usually tough or anything (so how come you never cash, Andy?). I do play all three games reasonably well (although they've left out my strongest game), but I suck at tournaments. I have no idea how to play a short stack.

As for limiting the number of tables, CP only has something like 28 or so poker tables. They set up extra tables during their Fall Classic, but they probably won't be turning anyone away for this one.

I can't see taking a day off of work to play poker without a very good reason. If they have some cheap satellites on Wednesday and I win one (which would, of course, involve playing one), I probably would, though. I'll be around for the side action, although the $30/60 stud/8 game got tougher during last year's Triple Crown.