Possible Blind Structure Revision

Following is a proposed revised starting chip count/blind schedule;
Reference Jan. 13th post for original blind structure.

The reason for the change is some discussion as far as the meaning of the first couple rounds. I know people like to use them as a get to know time and feel around. However, after thought and debate, taking these rounds out and adding more later in the tournament seem to be more beneficial to all players in the long run. As you can see by the blind schedule below, we have gone from doubling every other round to doubling every 3rd round for many of our tournaments. Obviously we are also eliminating the need for the $25 chips, but may introduce them, for the time being, as $2,500 chips until I acquire more $1,000 or acquire a new color of chip of a larger denomination.

I also posted the maximum time in playing time (not including late starts, breaks, chip ups, table breakdowns, etc.) that each tournament would take with 20 people. 24 person tournaments would last approximately 1 round longer, 16 person, approximately 1 round less.

Blinds:
#1: $100/$100
#2: $100/$200
#3: $200/$300
#4: $200/$400
#5: $300/$600
#6: $400/$800
#7: $500/$1000
#8: $600/$1200
#9: $800/$1600
#10: $1000/$2000
#11: $1200/$2500
#12: $1500/$3000
#13: $2000/$4000
#14: $2500/$5000
#15: $3000/$6000
#16: $4000/$8000
#17: $5000/$10000
#18: $6000/$12000
#19: $8000/$16000
#20: $10000/$20000

Exceptions - not limited to - are as follows

$20 tournaments
$4,000 in starting chips
$500/$1000, $1200/$2500 & $2,500/$5,000 eliminated
17 minute blinds
20 entrant tourney time = 3 hours

$40 tournaments
$5,000 in starting chips
$1200/$2500 & $2,500/$5,000 eliminated
20 entrant tourney time = 4 hours 20 minutes

$60 tournaments
$7,500 in starting chips
$2,500/$5,000 eliminated
20 entrant tourney time = 5 hours

$80 Tournament
$10,000 in starting chips
20 entrant tourney time = 7 hours

20 minute blinds typical

25 minute blinds for $80 event

Tony Uhlir wins Cully's Kids

Tony Uhlir was able to take down the entire $10,000 first place prize today!

The event saw 109 people show up to play (Mike Commodore was blinded for 2 rds, and had his chips pulled 5 minutes before he showed up) for a prize pool of $19,300.

Everyone started with $5,000 in chips and cards were in the air around 12:15. During the first 2 levels of blinds, only 2 people were kncocked out. The first, Jon Shilling, flopped a set of 4's only to lose to a turned set of Q's.

After we returned from the break to 100/200 blinds, things began to speed up dramatically and by the next break, through the next 2 and a half hours of play 71 more would find the rail. After the 3rd break, 36 players came back to 1000/2000 blinds, and in literally 1 hand on each of the 4 tables, 6 people were nearly simultaneously eliminated and we were down to 3 tables. It was on this table that Matt Cullen mad his last stand with A9 to AQ, but he couldn't catch up and was eliminated from his own tournament. Things continued rather quickly right through until we got to 16 people. Then after a short hiatus, more people had to leave the tables. Eventually we were at 12 people left and started hand for hand play. One big hand was Jason Stewart surving an all-in with J9, with the 9 of spades against 2 others, 88, which was all-in for less than Stewart and TT which had them all covered and there were thoughts that the final table would start after just one hand of bubble play. Robert Thompson (TT) caught a set on the flop but there were 3 spades. Both Jason and the entrant with the 88 and flush draws, but Jason's was still bigger. 88 improved slightly with a gutshot draw on the turn with a 9, but a spade on the river gave Jason a huge pot and we still had 11 people playing. Eventually, Annie Cullen was forced all-in for just 2K in the SB with 89, we had another all-in on the hand for only 5K while 2 others called the 10K blinds. the 5K all-in had 99 and won the hand as the other 2 hands were both KT and made no improvement. We went to the final table with:

Mohammed al-Naseer - Seat 1
Tony Uhlir - Seat 2
Jason Stewart - Seat 3
Robert Thompson - Seat 4
Jeff Hogan - Seat 5
Gail Brookings - Seat 6
Andy Moseng - Seat 7
Percy Perkins - Seat 8
Josh Dahlstrom - Seat 9
Mark Cullen - Seat 10

Things started off fairly quick as Jason ($300) and Percy ($400) found the rail early as J4 and QQ respectively found the rail against KK.

Jeff Hogan lost a huge hand to Mark when his Q9 failed to improve against Mark's AJ after he hit a J on the turn. Soon after Jeff ($500) was eliminated with K5 ($4K) on the same hand as Robert ($600) ($7K) when Mark hit a J on the turn again with AJ.

For the next while, the only hands won were by those before the flop as they went all-in to steal blinds. Eventually 2 hands would knock heads as Mark's JJ went up against Andy's AK. The flop was QQ3, the turn was a J to seal the deal for Mark and send Andy ($700) home in 6th.

Soon after on a hand we actually saw a flop on, Mohammed had K6 and Tony had 54. After check on the flop and check on the turn, Tony bets 14K to put Mohammed ($800) all-in. Mohammed shows K6 to be out in front of Tony's 54. But on the river, a 5 falls and Tony rakes the 68K pot.

Josh continued his plan to steal blinds, but when he was in the SB, he got caught with one too many of those attempts. He raised all from the SB with 63 while Mark woke up with AK and doubled up with a $180K pot when the 63 failed to improve. Josh was still left with a number of chips but they migrated into the pot shortyl thereafter with K8 for 73K total. Gail called from the BB for another $43K with QJ. Josh was ecstatic to be thinking of picking up the pot with K high, until the river brought a J to bust Josh ($1,000) in 4th.

3 handed play was extremely cautios as the only move was all-in several, several times without a call. Eventually Mark moved all-in with A9c, but, Tony woke up with AhKh in the BB and immediately called, and after a flop of 268J6, Mark moved to the rail with a $2,000 finish.

Heads up play last about 5 minutes, if even, when Gail ($3,000) moved all-in with KT for about $180K total and Tony made the call with A9, after a flop of 3QJ48 giving Gail an open-ended, but failing to improve.

Thus Tony Uhlir wins the 2nd Cully's Kids poker tournament!

Sunday, August 13th, $40 buy-in

Tenatively, I am setting the date for the next tournament on Sunday, August 13th at 1:00 - same place. I will try to get an e-mail out as soon as I am able to confirm the date. There is also a possibility of Omaha PL, Razz, and NL on the 9th of August - each a $20 game. The only way the NL would count ( it would be the 3rd event of the night ) towards points (only 1 pt) would be if the game starts with 8 or more people.

All Time Cashes

Another WSOP prestige, is the all-time cashes, which Phil Hellmuth currently holds the record for. Our list, again in major events, is as follows.

14 - Jason Kramer
11 - Roger Tangen
11 - Corey Eslinger
9 - Jason Hubert
9 - Pat Anderson
6 - Bill Burgess
6 - Mike Pacat
5 - Greg Joubert
5 - Marvin Holm
4 - Paul Muchow
4 - David Jarrett
3 - Gary Murphy
3 - Thom Hunter
3 - Kurt Hendrickson
3 - Marty Tallakson
3 - Craig Peterson
3 - Chad Krump
3 - Ryan Hanson
3 - Steve Erickson
2 - Eric Coughlin
2 - Jon Rubis
2 - Bobi Joubert
2 - Jeb Johnson
2 - Jon Shilling
2 - Brett Karlsrud
2 - Jason Steven
1 - Many others

Follow this up with best % cashers (min 10 tournies)

1. Pat Anderson - 45%
2. Jason Kramer - 42%
3. Mike Pacat - 38%
4. Roger Tangen - 33%
5. Paul Muchow - 33%
5. Jason Hubert - 33%
7. Marvin Holm - 31%
8. Corey Eslinger - 30%
8. Greg Joubert - 28%
10. Gary Murphy - 27%

All Time Wins

Just thought with the WSOP going on, I'd post our own list of 'bracelet' winners, if you will. These include all major events ($30 or more).

6 - Jason Kramer
3 - Marvin Holm
2 - Thom Hunter
2 - Bobi Joubert
2 - Marty Tallakson
2 - Jason Hubert
2 - Pat Anderson
1 - 17 others

Points Championship

This is an update on this post from December.

Based on current participation and number of tournaments, we are on course for over a $1,200 prizepool. This, of course, provided I still am able to cash for a bit more. It would be an estimated $1,300 prizepool if I max that out. Therefore we are going to have the top 16 advance, based on the chip format below.

I would like to get some feedback on possible payback at this tournament.

$500, $350, $200, $150, $100, or,

$500, $300, $200, $125, $100, $75, or,

$400, $300, $200, $150, $100, $75, $75, or,

$500, $250, $150, $100, $75, $75, $50, $50, $50, or,

$400, $250, $150, $125, $100, $75, $50, $50, $50, $50,

Any of the preceding are a possiblity or a combination. Do you prefer a top heavy payout, more graduated, more spots, etc.

_____________________________________________________________


The Points Championship this year will be for the Top 10, if the prizepool is below $1,200. If we would somehow manage to eclipse $1,200 though, we will bring the Top 16 into the tournament and pay the final table.

As before, there will be a bonus for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. As well, there will be a difference in starting chips for 11th-16th place if we happen to achieve the $1,200. Last year the chip counts were 10K, 9K, 8K, and 7K for 4th-10th. Added for a $1,200+ prizepool would be, 11th &12th would start with 6K, 13th & 14th would start with 5K, 15th and 16th would start with 4K.

Comments are welcome, and this is not set in stone as of yet. The possibility is fairly remote that we would achieve the $1,200 prizepool level, but it will all be based on how attendance fares this year.

If we average 16 people for each tournament, the likely prizpool will be between $1,000 and $1,100.

$100 or more possible buy-in

Wow ... what a scorcher it's going to be this week. Thankfully we'll be inside playing poker in air-conditioned comfort!

Wanted to bounce around an idea for a tournament. It would be a (preferably) 8-10 person tournament with a substantial buy-in ($100 or more). The game would be NL Hold-em. I'm resisting the urge to lobby for a H.O.R.S.E. event, as that tournament started today in Vegas at the WSOP.

The blind rounds would be 30-60 minutes or so, with plenty of starting chips, and would be an all day tournament.

Just wondering who would possibly interested in this? If we have interest to 16 people (doubtful), we could open it up to a 2-table format.

$60 Tournament, Sunday July 16th

Hello, everybody,

Well, it's the dead of summer, and I'm going to try to get a poker tournament going!

Yea, we'll see how many people show up. Last month we had 27 show up for the $40 tournament, I doubt we would get that many again this month, but we'll see how it goes. If you could, please drop me a not saying you would be making it, just in case we do fill up (32).

It is looking possible that we can end up with over $1,200 in the prize pool for the Points Championship (provided I actually start cashing at some point), and therefore the top 16 all have a shot to advance. Check below for the current standings. If you are not on the list and would like to know where you might be or how the point system works, just drop me a line.

The winner of this tournament should receive somewhere around 40 points, which would almost be enough to get them in at this point, and that's only based on 20 entrants!

Hope to see everybody at 1:00!!!