S8 Live Tour Discussion Thread

[HERBIEHACKIT]

Sorry des but i think you have got it wrong on a number of fronts. Starting with englang hosting the welsh championships. How can it be the welsh champs if played in england. Interesting to see what our welsh members have to say about this.   plo in ireland. This is not going to increase numbers. I am guessing it will reduce entries. Its not the game. The fact is ireland can be cheap to get to but tbere after the cost get silly. Ireland is a dear place for everything. Not to have an irish game would be so damaging to apat credability as the leading amatuet pkker tour. Agai  intested in views of people going to thus as to what they would preffer holdem or pli. Also from members who would have gone to ireland to llay but are not going now because it is plo. I am in this group. Off work but not going to play plo main event. Some come on peeps lets have some views.

[Fatcatstu]

I have never been to Ireland for an APAT event, but I most certainly will be making the effort this year!!

I think that having a PLO 2 day event is absolutely brilliant, it is certainly the first time I have had the chance to do that, and I"m pretty sure that a number of APAT "regulars" are going to be very very excited by the chance to give this a crack.

Overall a great announcement, good to see Leeds on there, finally an APAT that us North East contingent wont have to travel 3 hours to make!!

Hoping to make all events other than the welsh one (due to family commitments, nothing against the Welsh!!) soo see you all alot more this year hopefully.

[Fatcatstu]

Starting with englang hosting the welsh championships. How can it be the welsh champs if played in england. Interesting to see what our welsh members have to say about this. 

Does it matter, thats just semantics surely? I know that a few Welsh APAT players were actively lobbying for there NOT to be one in Wales as there is not the capacity in any of the venues at the minute? Surely APAT should not be compromising the quality of their product for the sake of a few miles??

plo in ireland. This is not going to increase numbers. I am guessing it will reduce entries. Its not the game. The fact is ireland can be cheap to get to but tbere after the cost get silly. Ireland is a dear place for everything. Not to have an irish game would be so damaging to apat credability as the leading amatuet pkker tour. Agai  intested in views of people going to thus as to what they would preffer holdem or pli. Also from members who would have gone to ireland to llay but are not going now because it is plo. I am in this group. Off work but not going to play plo main event. Some come on peeps lets have some views.

I have never bothered going to Ireland for an APAT main event, but I will damned sure be going over to play this event this year!! So for those who say they wont go, there may well be another person who will be the other way round.

There is a growing number of APAT members who play PLO, infact PREFER PLO to NLHE, and I am certainly one of them. I am sure that Tom has done his research into this, and having a "local promoter" on board means that the event will probably be well supported.

From Des" response it looks like APAT are going to be giving Ireland a serious push in season 9, so surely this is a great time to try a new concept out?

I would LOVE more APATers to give PLO  a go, it is so much more fun the NLHE, and can actually help peoples holdem game quite a bit IMO when its learned properly.

[HERBIEHACKIT]

The dropping of the home nation and euro team games is also a mistake in my book. These team games are great fun and help make apat what it is or was. Have to say i dont like the way things are going. Seems apat is heading towards the rich boys who can aford to play all the events are those that have a chance of being best player whilst those of us who have choose when we play are being left behind. Making o the irish champ game and the dropping of teams has made me rethink my schedule for this season and i am giving serious consideration to dropping all apat events this year.

[Des]

The dropping of the home nation and euro team games is also a mistake in my book. These team games are great fun and help make apat what it is or was. Have to say i dont like the way things are going. Seems apat is heading towards the rich boys who can aford to play all the events are those that have a chance of being best player whilst those of us who have choose when we play are being left behind. Making o the irish champ game and the dropping of teams has made me rethink my schedule for this season and i am giving serious consideration to dropping all apat events this year.

Actually the opposite is very much the truth I believe James.  This years schedule is a lot less exclusive than last year"s with more choice for a wider number of players.   The majority of change that we bring every year is determined by what members have asked for in the previous months, mixed with concepts that we feel need testing.  As I said elsewhere there is no guarantee that any season will be better for the changes, but we wouldn"t have created APAT or exist 8 years later if we weren"t willing to change.  The fact with the international team events was that the number of players able to travel to support their country in just those events was declining, no matter how prestigious or how much fun they were.  Obviously talking to every captain make me privy to the challenges they have in selecting their teams.

[HERBIEHACKIT]

sorry mate hope the season works out for you but apat is not offering me what i am looking for this year so i will be missing this season.

[DodgyEnd (Tom APAT.be)]

sorry mate hope the season works out for you but apat is not offering me what i am looking for this year so i will be missing this season.

Would be ashame not to see you next year in London...

I obviously don"t know APAT that well since I only attended the Euros and Worlds last season. But if I look at the schedule as an "outsider", I also think that there is some sense in what APAT is trying to do.

PLO is really the upcoming game and more and more people play the game; the same for me: I love it and I like it more than NLH. Since I"m in Belgium it"s impossible to attend all events, but I do want to go to one besides the Worlds. And Dublin would be my top choice just because of PLO. A deep PLO event is very much something that you will see more and more... And I think it"s an excellent choice! Also I read that the Ireland events always have low attendance, so why not give this a try.

I also loved to play the Team Championships the past season. The fun in both those tournaments is the best fun I ever had when playing poker. I met a lot of great people and the atmosphere is just amazing.

But on the other side, as much as I loved the team events, you have to admit a lot of teams have problems of finding players and travelling. Part of that, for the Euros at least, is because there are not a lot of other tournaments that people can play in. For the Worlds it is different: you have (next season) 10 days of poker! I think a lot of people (outside UK etc) would be interested to come over to London for the Team Championship, because they have a whole load of extra tournaments to play.

I would have liked a team event in the Euros, but it"s probably a correct decision.

Oh, and having the Welsh championship out of Wales: if in Wales there is not a cardroom that is able to have the capacity, why not? The big German championships are also always in the Czech Republic (for other reasons of course, but still). If I was Welsh I think I would be pretty happy of playing in my national championship, even if it means travelling outside of Wales (if it would"t be far our of course)

[s4ooter]

The euro and HN team events were pointless, they diluted the field from the other events being played and often features the same players each time. Prob around 70%. Some countries only had 4 interested, some just had captains picking the same faces.

APAT are 100% right to drop this and give those players a chance to play more sides instead of being stuck in those SNGs.

Ireland and PLO? Good to see them trying something, how well supported it is? We will have to wait and see.

Bristol hosting the Welsh? Happy with that, stones throw difference. Good casino, and the Welsh casinos were nothing more than poor.

Mix max and OFC at the worlds please

[dwh103]

The euro and HN team events were pointless, they diluted the field from the other events being played and often features the same players each time. Prob around 70%. Some countries only had 4 interested, some just had captains picking the same faces.

APAT are 100% right to drop this and give those players a chance to play more sides instead of being stuck in those SNGs.

Ireland and PLO? Good to see them trying something, how well supported it is? We will have to wait and see.

Bristol hosting the Welsh? Happy with that, stones throw difference. Good casino, and the Welsh casinos were nothing more than poor.

Mix max and OFC at the worlds please

Can"t argue with the Joker.

Need to market the hell out of Ireland though, have my doubts about how many will turn up for that given the Vic only pull in 3-4 tables for an Omaha festival. (and lammers FTW). GL with that.

Les Croupiers in Cardiff was brilliant, but they don"t want us back

Won"t see much of anyone this season, given Des and Tom have rather inconsiderately scheduled the closest APAT to me whilst I"m going to be at DisneyWorld and watching NASCAR. I mean, come on guys! See you at the epic sounding WCOAP

[LombBomb]

My tuppence:

Welsh championships in Bristol: No issues with this if there"s not a casino suitable for an APAT event in Wales. The UKIPT tour had to move one of their legs from Swansea to Bristol.

No European stop: Not too fussed about it, had a stop in Prague last season that was well supported, maybe one European venue every 2nd season would be a good compromise.

Scottish Open in Genting FP: Very good choice. Actually further for me to travel as a Glaswegian, but it"s a very well run card room in a casino that has a clear focus on poker, which is something the Alea can"t offer.

Team Events: Personally I enjoy playing in them however a lot of times I"ve found that they clash with other side events that I"d be interested in playing.  Having only one International team event on the schedule is a bold move, think we should let the schedule play out as is then re-assess for next season based on member feedback.

Overall I like the S8 schedule, there"s a few new venues on the tour for me and I"ll try to be attending as many as I can.

[Big Club]

Schedule looks great and kudos to APAT as always for continually changing and adapting to their members needs. The wcoap next year looks huge and great news that it"s back in London after all the hard work Aspers made to accommodate us this time around.

From a slightly biased point of view (as I"m at least partly based in Cardiff) disappointed to see the welsh championships being held in Bristol. The rainbow casino is without doubt equipped to hold the event but to say that there isn"t a casino in South Wales that can isn"t true. As Dave says above, les croupier certainly has the space but sounds unwilling, G casino is willing but lacks space. However, they are holding a GUKPT shortly so they must have a contingency in place for the extra bums on seats... Would be interested to hear whether the question has been asked whether the same could be used for APAT.

Having said that though, I"m sure the rainbow casino is stiil enough of an attractive proposition for the South Wales players to make the short journey across the bridge.

[Bigfella42]

Hoping to make it to a good few of these. Haven"t been to an APAT for ages, hope to change that soon.  

[MintTrav]

finally an APAT that us North East contingent wont have to travel 3 hours to make!!

In the South, we dream of only having to travel for three hours to APAT events. You"re so lucky.

[KarmaDope]

Schedule looks great and kudos to APAT as always for continually changing and adapting to their members needs. The wcoap next year looks huge and great news that it"s back in London after all the hard work Aspers made to accommodate us this time around.

From a slightly biased point of view (as I"m at least partly based in Cardiff) disappointed to see the welsh championships being held in Bristol. The rainbow casino is without doubt equipped to hold the event but to say that there isn"t a casino in South Wales that can isn"t true. As Dave says above, les croupier certainly has the space but sounds unwilling, G casino is willing but lacks space. However, they are holding a GUKPT shortly so they must have a contingency in place for the extra bums on seats... Would be interested to hear whether the question has been asked whether the same could be used for APAT.

Having said that though, I"m sure the rainbow casino is stiil enough of an attractive proposition for the South Wales players to make the short journey across the bridge.

I would expect that the GUKPT will have multiple starting days, but also they have their own dealer/TD crew which APAT don"t have. Having played Cardiff last year, can honestly say that short of putting tables in the bar, it wouldn"t work for APAT. Bristol a definite bonus.

[Fatcatstu]

finally an APAT that us North East contingent wont have to travel 3 hours to make!!

In the South, we dream of only having to travel for three hours to APAT events. You"re so lucky.

If you weren"t all still using horse and cart to get around there wouldn"t be an issue