You need to be logged in to your Sky Poker account above to post discussions and comments.
You might need to refresh your page afterwards.
Sky Poker forums will be temporarily unavailable from 11pm Wednesday July 25th.
Sky Poker Forums is upgrading its look! Stay tuned for the big reveal!
SPT 2011/12 - help us make it better.
Morning.
With the need to book venues, "slots" in the calendar, & staff resource, early, planning for the 2011/12 Sky Poker Tour has commenced, with preparatory planning meetings having taken place recently.
Proposed costs (to the Company) need to be budgeted, too, & the budget deadline for the next financial year is near at hand.
So, now is your chance to tell us what you would like to see in next season's Sky Poker Tour.
We are just asking what you most like, or dislike, what could or should be better, bigger, smaller, different, whatever, & we will listen to all reasoned input, &, if we think it will work, it will be considered, & perhaps implemented.
Feel free to include in your suggestions comments as to buy-in amounts, satellite structure, the structure of the SPT weekend as a whole, venues, dates, Live Streams, commentaries, folks from 865, Celebs, Poker Pros, anything which you think will not only help Sky Poker Tour remain as good as it has been, etc, but to get better.
It's becoming an established Tour now, but we can't stand still, we have to innovate & improve, & keep making it different, & better. Please remember, it's essentially about player involvement, & the toughest trick is to please as many as possible, without displeasing too many.
So, fire away, we are.....
There are various criteria as to Venues & other stuff, which MUST be adhered to, by the way, which I will outline in my next Post.
Comments
Sky Poker Tour criteria include......
Venues.
1) Must accommodate a MINIMUM of 150 players in a SINGLE area. Two separate rooms or areas are not acceptable.
2) The Tournaments must be Dealer-Dealt.
3) The Venue needs to welcome our players & treat them with respect. Poor Customner Service is not an option.
4) Venues must have full disability access - no exceptions.
Number of Events.
1) We think 5 or 6 is optimal, it seems about right, & suits players pockets, & staff resource. But this is not set in stone.
Tournaments.
1) The Main Event - 1 day, or 2 day?
2) Sideys - scheduled sideys on the Friday Night, Saturday, or even Sunday? We thought the Sidets at Leeds worked quite well, should we develop that theme?
3) Buy-in's (cost) to the Main Event.
4) Buy-ins (cost) to the Sideys?
Live Stream
1) We thought this worked very well, & we plan to include it for 2011/12. Suggestions to make it better would be welcome, though. We tried, for example, players commentating at Leeds (TRIP5, don't give up the day job...), but seriously, we thought this worked splendidly.
2) Would a sort of Live Stream "feature Table" work, or do you prefer wider coverage? Or even both?
Poker Pros, Celebs, 865 Presenters etc.
1) SPT 2011/12 - More, less, the same, what, which, why?
All of the above, & anything else you think might help - all constructive suggestions welcome.
For the stream, and ive got no idea as to how cost effective this would be, would it be possible to get "whole card cam" ??? again just a personal thing that may add to watching a feature table for those at home.
The side event at Leeds, i felt the venue didnt much care for it being there tbh, however a number of sky peeps really helped make it work and it was enjoyable. £15+4 seemed about right, although id have liked a slower structure.
The friday night at Leeds was good with 2 tournaments running, one for the higher buy in players, and one for the lower. However the problem with this was no communication about blinds. Certainly i know a couple of times the small buy in game was 10 minutes behind the blind level. If both started at the same time and ran the same structure would solve this problem. Although not sure how this would effect players etc.
I;'ve not played a 2 day event yet, although plan to get to DTD this year. Although i am a lover of longer structures, but this obviously wouldnt suit everyone.
its the only input i can put on the matter as i havent been yet(unless you have a freebie for cardiff??
I think a 2 day event would be good imo for all the events maybe a 3 day one for the Main
Good Things that need to stay!
1. Lisa Marie as SPT host, thought a dedicated presenter and the hour long show was a great idea.
2. The Live Feed, awesome, just awesome
3. Good, low bankroll side events for the railers and players who exit early
4. Keep using the venues who have excelled in the past (Aspers, G Casino Blackpool, Luton, Manchester)
5. Tighty as tour manager, legend
6. Give Tikay a seat more often, Blandy to play as well!!
7. Julian Thew - nicest man in poker, great signing
8. 2 day final at DTD, great structure and amazing venue
My New ideas
1. Official SPT Side Events, Friday night, Sat evening (space permitting) and Sunday afternoon (?)
2. A better structure or larger start stack or 2 day event
3. Bring back the goodies (hat at least!! - or card guard)
4. Run some kind of merchandise stall, there is plenty of demand for Sky Poker polo shirts and hoodies and players will carry the Sky Poker logo in games between tours that promote the site.
5. Perhaps add a GUKPT or UKIPT seat to the pot (similar to APAT live games), gets extra Sky Poker exposure at these events
6. Get the casino to allow self dealt SNG's arranged by the players and presenters, this isn't always possible (DTD didnt allow it) - allows better structures and fun variants like Indian poker.
7. Winner given place in TSP? Top 5 into final rather than top 3?
8. Possibly record a Sky Poker school show with live players? Record a live cash game ?
9. Run a team event similar to APAT forum team event where teams of 8 players play for a split prizepool, this enhances the community as well, the online team events were very popular and it is where TeamKnightPlop and TheHitSquad originated from!
6.
Apart from agreeing with the obvious point about a venue south of Luton, by made4game,have heard the ThanetG is good and am hopefully goin to The Fox this weekend, Been BrightonG, is this a bit small?
Anyhow Mi Main point has been touched on... Marketing wise u have had a great success with SPT saturdays, and have increased interest in the Fri nit local tourneys from a 'Hard-core' & growing sky players...Well Done!!
I Do feel you are missing a massive potential, in that saturday nite, it is at its peak, with Final Table MainEvent, and various fun sit'n'gos finishing, you have basically many players & Railers at event who will eventully get to bed sat tween 11pm to 3/4pm that night.. depending lol !!
NOW SUN morning!! Everyone gets up, breakfasts, then mostly drifts off home, without hardly seeing anyone else!!
YOU HAVE A BUZZING CAPTIVE MARKET!!!!!
A MIDDAY/1pm Tournament option would be brilliant, Something not as big, Maybe to finish at bout 5/6/7pm!!
My Suggestion would be 2 Fun/lighter tourneys maybe a 10/20quid Holdem & 10/20 PLO !!!!! runnin at same time for choice!!
You got every one there already FFS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now people got option of maybe stayin over FRI or Sat Or BOTH, and railers/family/beginners can join in the lighter tourneys on Sun, just turnin up for day even !!
YOU EVEN HAVE the option of a Midday 'Court' for 5/10 mins with some fines or prizes, before tourny starts, [blimey i been on too many footie/rugby tours] LOLOL
Before anybody says it, dont, cause I know i'm Barking LOL
In fact......
LIKE
great idea LOL_Raise
Brighton G & Thanet. Both are at (UK) Geographical extremeties, & as such, are awkward for 90% of the players to get to. Coastal venues in the South, East, or West will always be a travel nightmare for the greater part of our Community. We have to try to "most please most people", & those Venues do not satisfy that criteria. Think simple geographical logistics. 90% of our players can more easily get to, say, Luton, or the Midlands, or the North, than a venue on a Coastal extremity.
Fox Club. A very well-run venue. BUT...err.....sponsored by another Online Poker Room. (This argument might also apply to DTD, it could be argued, but that would be incorrect, for a whole tranche of reasons).
I know you guys are listening hard which is great btw.
Nobody has yet suggested a different Venue which fits the criteria.*
* I exempt MAXALLY & Grosvenor Srtoke from that - that MIGHT be suitable.
Would sky considering going down the same road ad the UKIPT and rent out the Corn Exchange?
Just a suggestion no idea if it meets criteria/
Did you know that the Online Packages to the Event you mention were valued at about £1,500? But the Event buy-in was £500?....... Think about THAT!
Sorry, that's never gonna be the Sky Poker style.
You have a pleasant & chilled evening playing elsewhere last night, by the way?
I understand, i know i tried for Newcastle last night (heven forbit it crashed lol) and the way i went was for £550. But theres a way for £1100 aswell, i believe you also win a hotel room and £120 towards travel cost (similar to VIVA LAS VEGAS i think). Which im not looking for tbh.
fully understand the reasoning there tikay and thanks for the responce. Will ask around and see if i can pick up info on any suitable venues. Know a guy whos quite close to a card room manager for a casino, so will ask him see what he says.
Just wondering if Sheffield G could be a possibilty of holding the SPT next Year?
One thing that I think would be good is to have a live streamed cash table running on the Friday night. Make sure that only Sky poker players can play at the table too.
I think that due to poularity of the tour it now needs to progress to a decent structure tournament with a day 2 like nearly all other UK tours running at the mo. I beleive a price hike to £220 per turny with the final being between £350- £500 would generate much bigger prize pools and therefor interest from alot of people who are not interested in giving up a weekend for a 100 buyin turny. Also if it is a 2day event you could increase numbers to 200-250 as I am sure there is the demand there.
If you make it a 2 day event this also means you could run a smaller turny on Sunday as suggested by several above. This could be a much more affordable affair for everyone involved - £25 dc or something like that. And if you start at 12pm -2pm it should finish early enough to enable people to travel home sun night.
I know some poeple would say higher buyins are prohibitive to some. However for me the buyin is only a third at most, of the cost of the weekend. So if the prize pool was so much higher(attractive) the cost of hotel/ travel etc would be less of a hinderence to whether I go or not.
Shame you don't play K-K as well as you make predictions.....
n Response to Re: SPT 2011/12 - help us make it better.: Without sounding arrogant, yes, between us, Tighty & I are familiar with all suitable UK Venues, & there are not many (beyond those we already use) that fit the bill. A few are, though....
People will ALWAYS ALWAYS suggest the Venue nearest to their home, which is perfectly natural, & understandable. But we have to think of everyone, not just the "homers".
Friday night streamed Cash Game? That's a right wowzer!