UKPC Qualification

Rafa888

As someone who has played quite a few since Christmas the way I see it is this:

1) It's a cheap way to play with some of the top tournament regs. Not so many play the £11.50 and there are plenty of spots for the £52. It's a great way of getting practise in for a relatively small outlay.

2) As a rec player, one big advantage is they don't know much about you, so that can definitely help narrow the ability gap. Also many will be playing a few different tournaments so just playing one table will help too.

3) It will be the same challenge at Nottingham so isn't it better to see where your game is at now???

Lambert180

In Response to Re: UKPC Qualification:

Having been on Sky many years & having had the pleasure of meeting Gordon several times albeit several years ago now, I felt I could add something to this whole debate. Gordon is a great guy. You can tell he's a bit frustrated that someone who knocked him out already had a seat, which is only natural. Having said that. That person is perfectly entitled to be in the satellite as stated above, many times. Nowadays poker is a lot tougher and players will look to find their edges in various ways, one of these being satellites in which they feel they have a considerable edge in certain spots. Its the same in cash & tournaments across all sites.  The only way to give yourself a good chance of getting a seat is by having a big enough roll to try lots of satts. & don't give up, because you failed a couple of times. Or to go away and seriously study satellite strategy. Which I understand a recreational player may not have time to do. Poker is a dog eat dog world and its not going to change anytime soon.  Its a shame Sky stopped SPT's as I felt these were more catered to recreational players in terms of price range and accessibility. Maybe one day they will come back?! Until then I don't think there is much more to add or complain about. I'm afraid poker is a very tough game nowadays and it will probably only get tougher. Just try to remember why you got into the game in the first place, for the fun and the thrill of possibly winning something at the end of it. Winning isn't guaranteed, just like your aces aren't guaranteed to hold at any point.  Best of luck to all and hope to see all of you at the UKPC
Posted by lJAMESl

Great post ^^^

On the point of tournament cash, I really don't see the benefit. From the winner of the tokens POV, all it does is limit the flexibility of what they can use it on, and it won't stop any of the other 'issues' people seem to have a problem with. 

If Sky start giving tourney cash, it wouldn't stop me playing sats for cash at all. Most MTTs regs are gonna be spending prob £200-£250+ a night on BIs easily on Sky so if you win £1100 of tourney cash, you'll get through that in less than a week. So every MTT reg will play sats for cash just as much as they always did, they'll just withdraw their 'real cash' and play with the 'tourney cash' instead of withdrawing the winnings direct from satellites.

Fwiw, I think Sky have got the satellite set up for all these things pretty much perfect. Insane value in the freerolls, various promos and freebies, and loads of regular satellites with decent number of seats guaranteed.

It's not been mentioned but for anyone that doesn't know, Sky do block direct BI to the £1.1k main so you HAVE to win a seat and play the event at least once before you can play for cash. They also do the same for the £240 final (until about 20hr before it kicks off) so you do HAVE to win your £240 seat every single week before you can start playing the £52s for cash.

Tikay10

Agree with most of that, Paul. The reality is that T Tokens would make almost no difference at all to the gist of Gordon's observations, so (in my opinion) it's a bit of a red herring.

You are correct as to UKPC DBI's, too. I believe the UKPC Lobby will be opened up to DBI's as & from Monday, & until Wednesday, if anyone has the desire to buy themselves a seat.   

Jac35

Desire yes

Money no

Tikay10

In Response to Re: UKPC Qualification:

Desire yes  wherewithal no
Posted by Jac35

FYP. Such a great word.

Dollie

I must say that this thread seems to have had a very positive input, with some very good posts. Whilst my views will remain the same, I recognise that I have probably lost the debate J. I sincerely hope that I did not offend anybody, that certainly was not my intention.

I would like to thank all those who have contributed, some of whom I have met and enjoyed the company of, whilst playing with Sky Poker, both online and at about 20 live SPT events, over the last 9 years. I also value the input from the Sky team and agree with many of the posters when they say that Sky have put on many promotions for this and other events, online and live. I, like others, have benefited from time to time.

For the record, I have no intention of “throwing my dummy out” (perhaps in my case that should be pipe! J For those that don’t know I am a pipe smoker) and will probably try again to qualify for future events.

I do, however, believe that the wording of the terms and conditions could be looked at for the future. If you look at the highlighted area just once (and most people would not read it more), it is quite easy to assume you cannot gain any cash after first qualification. You have to read it a few times to understand the intended meaning, which I believe to be “if you qualify for the main event, you cannot get a cash alternative if you do not show”.

You may enter the Tournaments as many times as you wish however you may only win a maximum of one (1) Sky Poker UKPC Main Event seat.

No cash alternative is available for any part of the Sky Poker UKPC Main Event seat. Winners must not sell or transfer their Sky Poker UKPC Main Event seat to any third party and winners are responsible for the payment of any applicable tax, if any, due on winning the Prize, and/or any prize money won by participating in the Event.

See you on the tables and good luck to all the Sky players in Nottingham next week.

Cheers

Tikay10

Gracious as ever Gordon, & no, there was nothing in your post at all that could possibly offend anyone, which was why I felt obliged on several occasions to correct comments which were wrongly attributed to you.

tomgoodun

Hi Gordon, I have met you once at a SPT event, you were very welcoming and put me at ease as I travelled alone and didn't know anyone at all as it was in my early years as a member of this great site, for that I thank you.

I used to think the same as your op in as much that someone who had already won a seat shouldn't be playing again for the same seat , or the cash alternative, but have come to the realisation that if they didn't play on,there would be far fewer seats on offer.

It is quite interesting trying to make sense of the bolded part above, as I am pretty sure someone has indeed transferred their seat, albeit not won in the "normal" fashion of the final tourneys. Having said that I have to applaud sky on their generous give-aways and fab freerolls.

Good luck to all that that make it to Notts.

weecheez1

did not manage the ukpc but i did manage tonights main for £1.60 and i start the freeroll with 10000 viva satelites and sky

StayOrGo

Hi, I tend not to reply to these post, primarily because I do not have a strong view on it.

I can understand the points from all sides.

I do play these satellites for cash, simply because it is within the rules to do so. So ethically I don't have a problem with it. It is for Sky to detemine the "rules" and for us to play by them. Equally, if we were only "allowed" one seat, I would not have a problem with that either.

However, I thought I would write post, as I do think there is something that Sky can do here.

Firstly, as alluded to by Jordz earlier in the post, if it was enforced that people could only qualify once, the early games would not fill, due to people waiting for a "softer" field to arise, as the weeks progressed.

So how about this. What if, after a few weeks, there were two £240 satellites on the Sunday.

One for people with that are yet to win a seat, and the other for those that have already got in. Might need a bit of a software "add on" and a bit of a "juggle" with guarantees, but not too difficult. It would "toughen" the field for those already qualified, and "soften" it for those who haven't.

This would give a greater opportunity for recreational players to get a seat, which is ultimately good for the game, and the ethos with which these satellites were created. If the regs want to do battle with each other for the tournament cash, they can do that too, albeit with a slightly tougher field.

Just a thought. It may be harder to implement than I'm suggesting of course. :=)

Cheers,

Graham

MonkeyGLB

I have been on both sides of the fence. 

Last year in trying to qualify for the UKPC I bubbled (or as good as) 3 times to qualify in the final. On two of these occassions, it was to the same player who had qualified already on several occassions. It was extraordinarily frustrating at the time especially being so close to qualification. However these are the rules and I have to say that I have played and won multiple tickets to Super Rollers in the past.

Its very difficult for SKY to find the right balance here as it is easier to qualify when there are a larger number of seats then if there were only 1 or 2 available. Maybe tournement tickets are the answer or maybe if "expenses" were included in packages and these were not available to players to whom had already qualified this would possibly discourage some ??

i.e. You win a £1100 seat + £200 expenses and if you have already qualified you only win the cash equivalent to the ticket only ?? 

An almost impossible thing to admin except for carrying over these £200 extras to those who missed out or bubbled who would get a ticket or cash depending on what cash was available ???

Its a very interesting debate and one that will continue for years to come no doubt.

Gary

Tikay10

Hi Graham, thanks for that, & I'll certainly send it upstairs.

Personally, I'm really not sure about this, though.....

".....So how about this. What if, after a few weeks, there were two £240 satellites on the Sunday.

One for people with that are yet to win a seat, and the other for those that have already got in. Might need a bit of a software "add on" and a bit of a "juggle" with guarantees, but not too difficult. It would "toughen" the field for those already qualified, and "soften" it for those who haven't......"

Much as I have always championed, lobbied & worked for the small ball players, poker just does not, & imo, should not, work like that. In amateur golf, we have a handicap system, & it works in snooker, too, but I'm just not sure it'd work in poker.
 
Poker is all against all, like the FA Cup. 

A "already qualified ONLY" Satellite would not fill, either.

I know a few players get a bit uppity with the "better & bigger" players, almost a class war thing, but it's the basis of poker, that we all play against each other on equal terms. The differentiator is buy-in levels - nosebleed guys don't play small stuff, smallball guys don't play big stuff, & in that respect, it works just fine.

But when it comes to Satellites for big events, I think it has to be open to all, & everyone has the same chance. 

Over the long term, the more skilled players will win more often, of course they will. But poker has those magic extra ingredients, variance, rungood, luck. That's the very essence of poker. 

I know 1 or 2 guys disagree with me strongly on this, but it's not personal, it's how I see it.
 
And it does work, as we have seen so many times, in UKPC & Viva Las Vegas.    

 

CxE1

Hi Tikay, Notwithstanding the for or against, people seem to like the format. Why not incorporate into scedule. Daily finals leading to weekly £250 or/and £500 payouts and a monthly £1k so all levels have a chance. Sats to daily finals.The over generous freerolls could be geared to daily final entries.Rather than 2 or 3 winning a big entry ticket,more players could win smaller entry tickets with a real and equiliberous chance of winning some 250/500 or 1k bankroll money.