Pokerati is headed to Chicago for an event you may not know about, nor should you. The awesomely titled “Pike Poker Tourney” takes place at the Best Western-Evanston on Saturday, Oct. 23, after Northwestern’s (5-1) homecoming football game against Michigan State (7-0).

It’s a $1,000+ freeroll for Pi Kappa Alpha alums and actives … with $1k going to first, and 2nd through 4th TBA tomorrow. Economists have confirmed that $1k is still “a shitload” to college students.

I’ll be serving as executive floor honcho, and found out earlier today the original plan called for only 1,000 starting chips.

Gahhh!

Just because this will be a very quick, luck-friendly 3(ish)-hour event doesn’t mean it has to suck! (We can stretch it to 4 hours if necessary, though it shouldn’t be hard to get players to push chips around — health officials confirm that college students still like to drink, as do aging alumni desperately trying to cling to their youth.)

Props to @SteveH369) for tipping me off to the blind structure calculator from BlindValet.com. It’s not perfect — got a list of unsolicited suggestions — but overall you can see how BV’s “Create a Tournament” feature will obviously drive Matt Savage out of business while landing Allen Kessler an endorsement deal.

One nifty thing I’ll be beta testing boldly and proudly introducing with this blind structure is the “stimulus add-on” … essentially, at each break all surviving players get extra chips. Like a soccer referee showing the stoppage time, I’ll declare how many chips (probably 5k, then 10k, then 0k) with 10 minutes to go before break.

(Love how the stimulus add-on announcement stands to change play at various points … as well as the potential for in-game TD corruption it creates!)

Check out the deeper-stacked structure for the Pike Poker Tourney below as I get back in touch with some of my underage gambling roots to study the next generation of midwestern fish.

Pike Poker Tourney

Real question for Nevada DMV: When will we be able to include an @ sign on a personalized plate? Could make a diff for @POK’TI. Please forward to state-gov suggestion box.

Alas, I arrived to an empty Amazon room — WTF? Couldn’t believe we mighta had the fastest bubble-break ever, and I wasn’t there to see/hear/record it. But tuned in to the twitters to discover that what I really missed was a roomful of BOOOOs, balking at the decision of @WSOPTD to go on a 90-minute dinner break four away from the money.

That woulda been the sound to record — the collective groan from a Jack Effel decision that will likely be debated for years to come. Two of the more civil tweets about it:

RT @WSOPTD @wsop ME plyrs, need time to prepare 4 the money bubble. Paying 747 places requires precise coordination. thx for understanding.

@AlCantHang @WSOPTD I don’t disagree with decision but I don’t agree with the explanation. The entire world saw the bubble looming except WSOP staff?

Check it out … a big move in poker, it would seem, for both Matt Savage and the WPT.

No word yet on how WHAT ARE OFTEN PERCEIVED TO BE some of the notoriously worst blind structures in poker, as seen on the WPT, might change under the aegis of a TD known for his much-heralded “deep structures” system of tourney progression. THE WPT, OF COURSE, CHANGED THEIR BLIND STRUCTURES (FOR THE BETTER, ARGUABLY) AFTER SEASON VI IN 2008, SHORTLY BEFORE SAVAGE MADE CHANGES TO HIS BLIND STRUCTURES IN A WAY THAT COUNTERED THE TREND OF DEEPER AND DEEPER STACKS.

WORLD POKER TOUR® ANNOUNCES MATT SAVAGE AS
WPT EXECUTIVE TOUR DIRECTOR

LOS ANGELES (June 16, 2010) – World Poker Tour® (WPT) announced today renowned tournament director Matt Savage will join their team as Executive Tour Director. In his new role, Savage lends his years of experience and vast knowledge base to WPT committing himself to improving player communication, tournament offerings, tour cohesiveness, and event growth.

“Matt is one of the world’s foremost experts on poker tournaments,” said Steve Heller, World Poker Tour CEO. “Matt’s expertise and relationships in the poker community will greatly enhance our upcoming ninth season.”

“I am excited about this opportunity to work with WPT as their Executive Tour Director,” said Savage. “WPT is one of the most respected and recognizable brands in poker and I am happy to be a part of its efforts to improve tournament poker for players, fans and casinos.”

Savage has appeared on more than 300 televised poker shows on Fox Sports Net, Travel Channel, GSN, ESPN, and numerous others. He was also the host of a nationally televised show called “Inside Poker” and is an actor in the Warner Brothers movie “Lucky You.” A founder of the Tournament Directors Association and recipient of the inaugural Benny Binion award for outstanding service in the poker industry, Savage has directed some of the most successful poker tournaments including WPT’s Bay 101 Shooting Star and Los Angeles Poker Classic.

Storied tournament director Matt Savage is stepping back into Las Vegas poker events — for the first time since 2004 — bringing the Las Vegas Poker Series to my weekly donk-stomping grounds at the Hard Rock, August 13-22.

The LVPS will feature low buy-in events ($230-$550), most of which count toward CardPlayer Player of the Year standings … with the Savage-tested deep structures (as opposed to deep stacks) that just about all players except Allen Kessler vigorously applaud. Also a money leaderboard of some sort is in play, though I’m not yet sure if this is about crowning an overall champion or qualifying for a player-appreciation freeroll … more TK as the schedule and other PR info gets released.

IMHO, bringing in Savage, who hasn’t hosted a series in Vegas since his Varkonyi-to-Raymer WSOP run, is a big coup for the Hard Rock, which has seen its games grow since a management overhaul a few months ago … but is still trying to firmly establish itself as a friendly service, professionally run room (despite its inclination toward hard-rocking, trash-talking action) that gives more and better player perks and comps than any other room in Vegas. Fiji water/Shmiji water … I can attest that in my Pokerati game, players seem to love the splash-pots, rakeback, and late-night $40 rebate promotion.

For the LVPS, in addition to seat-added super-sats and the player-appreciation freeroll, the opening NLH event (with multiple Day 1s) comes with a $100k guarantee, and the main event will have $200k guaranteed.

Savage, of course, is the former WSOP Tourney Director (2002-2004) who currently hosts numerous events at the Commerce Casino and elsewhere. (California State Championship about to get underway.) From blind structures to payout scales, his events seem to set a standard for TD’s worldwide … even though at the moment he is currently running his tournaments contrary to popular deeper-and-deeper-stacks theory, which he believes is over-hyped. Savage is also co-founder of the TDA and was the inaugural inductee into the Poker Room Manager’s Hall of Fame in 2003. (Yeow, anyone know where that HOF is?)

Whether this August event at the Hard Rock serves as a WSOP Second-Chance Series or summer poker-hangover recovery festival remains to be seen. But as the guy hosting the Thursday Pokerati Game there … I’m personally excited about Event #8, which I hear promises some semblance of PLO in a $200+30 with a single $200 rebuy. Any typical NLH player who doesn’t learn this game is falling behind the Europeans. And yet at the same time, the Eurodonks often aren’t as good at it as they think they are …

We may or may not get around to taking a closer look at the finer nuances of currently popular blind structs, but in the meantime we wanna know, unscientifically, of course, from a tournament blinds perspective, where you think the best place is to play. Daily voting to your right.

Oh, and then just for fun, be sure to check out the delightfully mock-a-vellian @ComplainSaw.

More challenging than a lotta people think …

Hey Dan,

So some friends and I are going to throw a poker tournament in February here in Dallas as a fundraiser for a theater production company that we started this fall (www.UpstartTheater.com). Blue Mesa Grill is going to host the games (free appetizers and happy-hour-priced drinks) and we are going to have a $20 per player donation buyin with rebuys. I was wondering if you had any advice/suggestions:

– How often should we up the blinds so that a game starting around 3 on a Sunday will be over by 8 or 9 at the latest?
– Do you know any poker company/group willing to lend/donate us enough chips and cards for 100 people or so?
– Do you know any poker company/group that would be interested in donating a prize?
– Do you know any poker company/group that would be interested in financially sponsoring the event (we’re tax deductible) in exchange for publicity on our event fliers, website, and performance playbills?
– Do you know ways to publicize this to the Dallas poker-playing community?
– Anything else you think would be helpful?

thanks a lot,
Nick

Nick, as always, good to hear from you. One of these days you will find purpose in your life and ditch the restaurant-service/medical-technology career combo, as well as your passion for the arts and philanthropy, to discover your true calling as a poker blogger. Either that, or you are clearly nothing without Markus and Andy.

In the meantime, click below for answers to your questions:

– How often should we up the blinds so that a game starting around 3 on a Sunday will be over by 8 or 9 at the latest?

You probably want 20-minute blinds. That gives you roughly 15 levels to work with. Generally, the best tournaments start off slow to give everyone play, pick up some blind pressure in the middle, and then slow down to bring skill back into when the money counts. But this will be a charity tournament, so you’ll want to facilitate rebuys. Don’t start with an insultingly low stack, but maybe like 3,000 or 3,600 with blinds starting at 25/50. Also, in addition to rebuys, be sure to offer an “add-on” … meaning anyone, no matter what their chip-stack, can pay an extra $20 for another initial buy-in’s worth of chips at the end of the rebuy period, which probably should come at the end of the 4th level.

(You know, I used to actually have different blind structures for different events posted on this site. But i can’t for the life of me find them … kinda like your posts from back in 2005!)

– Do you know any poker company/group willing to lend/donate us enough chips and cards for 100 people or so?

Sadly, I do not. The poker biz is full of greedy bastards, and most are hurting for money moreso than back in ’06. At the same time, you may find some group that used to throw big events but no longer does that has a bunch of extra poker gear lying around. (If any Pokeratizens can help on this, speak up!) I also recommend contacting karridy – at – gmail dot com for tables.

– Do you know any poker company/group that would be interested in donating a prize?

Sadler & Carter have helped out with some prizes in the past. And they always had good gear. Bluff Magazine has donated subscriptions … that’s always a nice throw-in … top 3 get subscriptions to Bluff or something like that. And, of course, you could always hit up The Lodge for lapdance coupons.

– Do you know any poker company/group that would be interested in financially sponsoring the event (we’re tax deductible) in exchange for publicity on our event fliers, website, and performance playbills?

Ha ha, too funny. You said “financially sponsoring”! You know, it occurs to me that this isn’t a charity event — it’s just a fundraiser for the arts. (How are you tax-deductible?) That makes it more difficult to get help, because while poker players love to say they’re helping a good cause, few of them have read any Samuel Beckett.

However, there’s always an interest by those in the poker biz to reach poker players. And with that in mind, I would try hitting up Choctaw in Oklahoma for flyer sponsorship. WinStar’s good, too, but I suspect you’re too small for them to give you the time of day.

– Do you know ways to publicize this to the Dallas poker-playing community?
Yes, you should send an email to danm – at – pokerati dot com. If you get lucky, he may actually answer it. You also should probably take out a big ad on Pokerati. In the alternative, the guys over at BigStack.com (formerly Weston Poker) are nice dudes always looking for some good low-stakes action.

– Anything else you think would be helpful?

Good luck! I look forward to seeing coverage of the event on YouTube … and I’m sure everyone playing would too.

Oh, also, pack heat in case the Dallas Poker Bandits show up. I’ll vouch that you’re a good shot!

Some highlights:

Another problem I have: “What if someone dies before the final table is assembled?” Putting a little casket on the table and blinding a guy off would not only create a morbid setting, it would also change the strategy players might induce to move up in the money. And although a legend didn’t make that final table (such as Doyle Brunson), what if they did and then they died in October? What might have been perhaps the greatest final table ever would now be a very sad and tragic final table.

I also worry about collusion possibilities. … I’m not talking about players signaling one another as to what they have, but possibly just agreeing to soft-play each other, never bluff at each other, and only bet when you’ve got the goods …

My other problem with the WSOP was the way the floor people handled certain situations. … [Scotty Nguyen] was drunk and out of line on numerous occasions at that final table, criticizing his opponents, berating the cocktail girls with the “F” word and moaning to the tournament staff about it. Unquestionably, Scotty’s behavior deserved a penalty but none was given. I was disappointed with Scotty, but I was appalled the tournament staff allowed his behavior to take place. To me, this was a disgraceful dereliction of duty by the WSOP staff.

Perhaps that floorman was influenced by what happened to [Phil Hellmuth] earlier at the WSOP. … If top management doesn’t back up decisions by floor people, then naturally, they will be afraid to give ‘big name’ players penalties – and to me, this is pathetic.

… Why would any legitimate company want to sponsor poker if they see that type of behavior by the players? And shame on the WSOP staff for allowing it to happen.

I thought it would be extra funny if two people went out on the final hand … would’ve totally caused a “Doh!” moment to the folks who bought thenovembernine.com and thenovember9.com. (I’ll give you a hint, since I can’t link specifically to search results here.)

Craig Marquis made it! And even though he had the smallest cheering section of any player — save for maybe the stoic Russian — the dude from Dallas is clearly the man, and the only player who matters. St. Louis, Shmaint Louis!

In the meantime, while we figure out what’s up over the next almost-four months, you can see a few more details about the final table of the 2008 WSOP main event here.

(Apologies for the blur, but I had to kick into full-on Stalkerati mode and take these shots while running.)

25,000 Chips Introduced

“Hey, what are those green chips in your stack?” asked a surprised Maya Antonius. A small stack of forest green chips sat atop her tablemate’s stack of yellows and oranges.

He showed the chips to a curious Antonius– at the last color-up dark green 25,000-denomination checks were introduced into play.

Ms. Antonius looked a bit disappointed that she didn’t have any… yet.

The arrival of these chips have been highly anticipated — not just because they are big — but because of the color troubles last year with orange, off-orange, and pinkish-orange all on the table at the same time.

All the denominations higher than 5,000 have changed this year, and even the floor staff doesn’t now what they will be until they come out for color-up.

Indeed … today we moved from yellow-chip ($1k) threat level to orange ($5k) — with tighter than usual security notably apparent during the green-chip race-off today. After clearing out the fans then players, the perimeters around the table we’re extra secured: no media allowed in, no masseuses, no waitstaff. A couple people did wander in unknowingly and were quickly and sternly ushered out. It was all taken so seriously — making sure every chip was properly accounted for, one can only presume. For as empty and quiet as the entire Amazon room was — only about a dozen small-stakes cash games going — it was totally abuzz. Floorsuits half-running down the aisles, barking questions, answers, orders … dealers making sure the chip trays were aligned at the perfect angle … all done with a certain military efficiency that suggested they had done the dress rehearsal, and now it was go-time.

(Even in the hallways, I saw for the first time semi-armored chip carts, arriving empty, and by the end of the day returning full.)

The only non-tourney staff allowed in to the tournament area was the sanitation crew. On breaks, they pick up empty cans, bottles, discarded magazines, general poker waste, etc. while wheeling overstuffed black trash bags between the tables. For all the effort that went into protecting the integrity of the 2008 main event race-off, these necessary laborers were the security weakness should anyone want to engage in shenanigans. Pay these guys off with something akin to their annual wages and before you know it those garbage sacks arrive amid the floorstaff frenzy stuffed with a orange chips machine guns or even bigger and stun grenades … poof, a little slight of hand while cleaning, and whammo, a dirty player returning from break finds a few big chips tossed onto his stack or wedged between the felt and rail. At least that’s what I would do.

What, you think it doesn’t happen? Probably not … but it would make a good movie if it did.

Apparently Scotty lost one of his capuchin monkeys. The fire department was still trying to get the the pesky little primate out of a tree when Scotty decided he just had to go. Not sure what the status is of said monkey, but one thing that is interesting is how the floor handled his depleted stack.

From Adanthar:

Naturally, Scotty was unhappy about that and asked the dealer why he didn’t have 3K. But at the WSOP, only late registrations get their full 3K chips (and get seated in Seat 10); everyone else gets a regular seat and then gets blinded off if they’re late, which is normal. Scotty, though, obviously didn’t like the idea of starting out with a 9 bet stack, said “I’m not playing”, and went off to find the tournament director. I think he just wanted to be allowed to unregister, but instead, a couple of minutes later, the floor showed up with a full stack and gave it to him. On the one hand, this is pretty much blatant cheating – it’s a free 1200 chips that nobody not named Scotty Nguyen would ever get;

Murmur?

(Thanks, Shamus, for the link.)

The event was one of last week’s big-field $1,500 NLHs … and the problem began with a single table in which every player started with an extra 1k in chips. Conclude what you will about donkament ethics and how the “prisoner’s dilemma” applies to poker … but no one said a word, and cards went in the air with every player at one table given a 33 percent starting-stack advantage.

It was supposedly about 20 minutes into play when a dealer recognized the problem. Floor supervisor Jimmy Sommerfield made the quick decision to rectify things by removing 1,000 chips from each player’s stack. Sounds simple enough, and in this situation it really was — very few chips had moved around, and not many decisions affected by falsified stack sizes. And besides, every one of them at the table was technically a dishonest bastard, so what are they gonna say?

But what if a few more hands had passed, and one of the players had only 900 chips remaining?

Every floor person I spoke with said, yeah, yeow, that’s a tough one … and ultimately would defer as high up as possible, to top-dog TD Jack Effel, for a ruling. But if they had to make the decision themselves, it was a 50-50 split on whether that short-stacked player would simply be eliminated, or allowed to continue play with the same 900 chips, thus leaving an extra 1,000 chips in the tournament.

The $5,000 NL Holdem event is down to heads-up action as Scott Seiver has a slight chip lead over Dave Seidman. The $3,000 HORSE final table is down to six, with Doug Ganger in the lead. Marcel Luske, Hoyt Corkins and Steve Zolotow are the other notable names at the table.

The $2,000 NL Holdem event is down to 47 as they’re now on their dinner break. Andrew Jeffreys appears to be the chip leader, with Matthew “mlagoo” Lagarde a close 2nd. Other names left include Blair Hinkle (his brother Grant won a bracelet last week), friend of bloggers Maria “Maridu” Mayrinck, and Brock Parker.

The $2,500 PL Holdem/PLO event just hit their money bubble and with 41 left in the field go on their dinner break. David Penly is the current chip leader, other notables include Minh Ly, Max Pescatori, Allen Cunningham and Sorel Mizzi.

The $10,000 NL Holdem Heads-Up World Championship got underway with a full field of 256. Round 2 is over and everyone whose won their first two matches has earned at least $14,000. Round 3 will start at 10pm, then finish for the night.

The $1,500 Razz event got underway at 5pm and a certainly older group of people turned out. It also caused what may be a first, with Tournament Director Jack Effel inquiring on who was interested in having sushi for dinner, because the sushi kitchen would close at 8 (before the dinner break). You can read that update, as well as more normal updating of information here.