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Tikay.. Alternates at SPT Newcastle
aussie09
Member Posts: 8,033
Hello Tikay...
Can the number of Alternates at Newcastle be either very low or zero please?
Personally I believe that the benefit of allowing late entrants does not outweigh the dismay when playing for an hour and seeing a number of new players enter the tournament.
Best regards
Rob
Comments
Morning aussie,
I think we need to see both sides of that one aussie.
If you were a late arrival, or had not won a seat, you'd be grateful for the chance to be an Alternate. And Alternates boost the Prize Pool, too - every Alternate adds £100 to the kitty. They start with a small disadvantage, too.
The GC changed the rules to allow Alternates some 5 years ago, & on balance, overall, it has been a good thing.
Not everyone likes the idea, to be fair, but those in favour, or ambivalent, are in a huge majority.
Best regards to you, too. Sorry to hear about your upcoming Ashes thrashing.
I had this conversation a while back with Sky and Grosvenor casinos and like Tikay says it is a Gambling Commission policy that in live tournaments run by casinos they must allow an alternate or late entry facility. So hands are tied, if Sky use a GC registered casino, the casino has to abide by GC regs.
Dave
as a follow-on thought, and in the light of that rule, it might be good to know the number of alternates that will be permitted within a known time frame.
It is limited by time not numbers. For the SPT's we run alternates for exiting players up to the end of Level 2. At some other venues in the UK i've seen it up to 4 levels.
Also seen re-entry (not rebuy) competitions coming in too...ie you get knocked out and can re-enter for another buy in
Anyway number of alternates is down to a couple of factors:
The deeper the structure in terms of starting stacks, the less likely alternates will go in.
How many are on the Alternates list? At Blackpool I had 18 names and 7 got in, for example
the variance and distribution of starting hands and flops....the more coolers, the more alternates
the looseness of the players.
Put all that together and predicting is an imprecise science. The 7 SPTs I've done we get 5-10 alternates in, in a couple of cases 2-3, just to give you an idea.
I'm not too fussed personally and realise you have to balance ideal structure and the fact it needs to fit into a single day (and a loooong day at that), just wondering really.
Given that, if anyone can suggest a better structure, fire away, but really, I don't think it's possible.
You are not alone, lots of players think & post along similar lines, but it's an impossibility to improve given the criteria, bar the little tweaks you suggest.
Keep the feedback coming, we love it. It's when they say, as one regular Poster is wont, "it's not rocket science", or "you clearly never thought it through" that it tends to irk a little!
On the subject of alternates for the SPT, can anyone who is a member of the casino join the alternate list, or do they need to have a Sky Poker account before they register.
My personal view on this is, if they have an existing account on Sky, I see no reason why they can't join the list, but if they are non Sky players that they are excluded from entering on the day.
As I see it, these are Sky Poker Events and the hosting casino already gets a live qualifier for some seats, to offer their members.
Discuss
Col
150+ players have to play to winner in about 12 hours including breaks, to finish at 1am ish.
5000/30 mins achieves that, and actually there is an extra level in this year's tour too.
The structure is "fit for purpose" and by necessity is going to be quick-ish
Now if Sky ever tell me they want to run it over two days then you can play a real deepstack but that comes with added costs for the tour in terms of the venue, staffing etc and added costs for players (hotel etc), maybe a late finish Sunday too
Anyone in the casino can go on the alternates list. I know this is unpopular for the reasons you state but actually it has some upsides too..they have to create accounts and a percentage will be enthused and stick around, play on the site, try and qualify for the next one too.
As we know Sky players typically have 2-3 months to qualify online, and its not as if these non-Sky players are taking seats away from any of the existing players. I do accept it dilutes it being a 100% community event, but not necessarily is that a bad dilution.
As for the alternates, as long as its not to many, which it doesn,t seem to be I wouldn,t change a thing about these events
it seems everything has been thought through quite well
We have a Telecon every week to discuss the SPT, what we can do to make it better, what we can do different, what went wrong or right last time, etc, so yes, it is thought through with great care & thoroughness.
It's a little sad, imo, that some wish to exclude newcomers, but I hope we'll always be warm & welcome to everyone, within reason, exactly as I would hope others would treat us. Do as thy will be done & all that. As SPT has explained, it's not as if we are excluding or denying existing Clients.
Respect to Tighty (SPT), too, who manages the whole thing.
He'a great bloke, except he supports Leicester City FC. On the plus side, he has a son who is a goalkeeper with the Arsenal Youth Academy. On the down side, he knows the architect of every UK Football stadium. Oh, & he's wicked at karaoke.
Quite a fella, really. I believe he even won Mastermind once, too. "Novels of Ian Rankin" & "Football Stadia Architecture 1908 - 1933" were his specialist subjects.
I think we can trust him with the Tourney structure.