An idea for an Online Tournament Festival

[Tom Bayes]

I've got an idea for a tournament series and I'd like to see if there's enough interest for me to pursue it with the appropriate online rooms.

As many of you know, I tend to be a contrarian and like the less fashionable and more obscure poker games. I'm this way about books, movies, music, sports, etc. too.

I'd like to set up a tournament series that I would tentatively call the "You Can't Play this in the WSOP" or something similar. The idea is that the games we will play will ONLY be games that are not currently offered as choices in the WSOP.

Here's a tentative list of games and possible rooms. I know that I can set up the Omaha games as private tourneys at Stars and I suspect setting up a HORSE tourney at FullTilt and some tourneys at GamesGrid would be no problem. I have no idea if 24h or UB are amenable to setting up private tourneys.

Please give feedback as to if you would play. I envision a $10+1 buy-in and playing once a week and setting up some sort of points system.

Tentative Possible games/sites list:

Limit Omaha
Pot Limit Omaha/8 (both easily available at PokerStars-I want to avoid NL Omaha games)

H.O.R.S.E. (Full Tilt)

Dealer's Choice (GamesGrid-maybe this should be our "main event")

NL 2-7 Lowball
Limit 2-7 Triple Draw (Games Grid)

Pot Limit Stud
Pot Limit Draw
Pot Limit Sökö
Spread Limit Holdem (all games available at 24h)

Crazy Pineapple or Crazy Pineapple/8 (available as ring at UB; would they run a tournament????)
A-5 Triple Draw (same question at UB)

Limit Draw (Planet)
Limit A-5 Lowball (used to be spread at Planet-still available???)

[timprov]

I'd be interested.

Given UB's response to our repeated requests for real-money triple draw tourneys, I think hoping for anything out of them is a bad idea. I doubt asking Paradise (for pineapple/limit draw) would get anywhere, but it's more likely than UB.

They had NL 2-7 at the WSOP this year, FWIW.

I'm not sure I buy dealer's choice as a tournament game. Definitely need a trial run on that one before making it a "main event" type tournament.

[THWAP!]

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Pot Limit Sökö


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you definitely have to help out the less initiated; what's this game?

[popniklas]

I like this idea a lot. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I would probably play the Crazy Pineapple and Draw tourneys. Why not ask Paradise to hold them?

[bobman0330]

This idea is outstanding

[lucas9000]

i would be interested, though the thought of LIMIT omaha high really makes me want to jump out of a window.

[Quicksilvre]

I love it. A few comments:

Pot Limit Stud should be changed to Pot Limit Mississippi Stud. Regular stud's five rounds of betting make it ill suited for pot limit IMHO.

Also, I'd like to suggest some other possible events:

Chinese Poker
Limit Hold'em/Limit Stud
PL Hold'em/PL Omaha
Limit Hold'em/Limit Omaha-8
History of Poker (5-stud, 5-draw, and 5-draw A-5 lowball in rotation)

Too bad they don't have Chowaha or Chowaha-8 online; those both would have been good too.

[bobman0330]

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History of Poker (5-stud, 5-draw, and 5-draw A-5 lowball in rotation)

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This idea is so great it makes me dizzy.

EDIT: But are there any rooms that spread all 3? I don't think so

A straight 5-stud event would be good too.

[Tom Bayes]

It seems like there is some positive interest. I will over the next few days email the potential online rooms and see what games I can set up.

Unfortunately, as much as I enjoyed some of the esoteric suggestions for games like Mississippi stud, chowaha, or various mixed-game formats, I will probably be stuck with games currently offered by rooms. I anticipate that a Dealer's Choice (GamesGrid) and a HORSE (FullTilt) are likely, but not so sure about the others.

I have tentative plans for using PLO/8 at PokerStars as the opening tournament. I can already set up private tourneys there, lots of people have accounts there, and some people do actually play the game. I want the final event of the series to be a mixed-games tourney, possibly HORSE. What's in the middle is gonna depend largely on the response I get from the various online rooms.

Do we want this on a weekday night or a weekend???

[timprov]

It's worth asking PR about Chinese Poker, I think.