APAT Season Four - Pre Launch Discussion

[SirPercival]

Might as well stick in my views on the pro league.

Why not call it the Pro-am league?

I for one think it"s a great idea to have an alternative level buy-in event on the APAT schedule and have secured a seat for the first one on Swansea. I am not by any stretch of the imagination a "pro" and have no aspiration to be one either. I enjoy playing poker and am working hard to improve my game. I will happily play a £20 buy-in event at my local casino and have played a WSOP event at $1500 (with another $1000 coming up this year) and many in between.

I would love to travel to Estonia in July to play an APAT event but the cost will far out strip the £250 it will cost me to play say the Luton pro event. Others I have no doubt will travel to events like Estonia and will have a great time. The point is that we have a choice.

I am not aware of any other tour in the UK at this buy-in level. We have $500 and £1000 events and of course there are great events at DTD but they are not part of a tour/league with the added value offered by Betfair. We also have things like the Sky Poker tour, Virgin festivals etc at the £100 mark.

I agree that it would be preferable if this series didn"t impact on the £75 events. I hope this is something APAT look at and try to take on the views of the membership for future seasons.

I also believe that Des has plans for the future of APAT and this move is in keeping with these plans. I just wish he would tell us what they are...

[APAT]

Perceptive Stuart.  However good the S4 announcement was, APAT was within a whisker of pulling off an incredible coup; which directly led to the "delay" in announcing S4, but eventually we could not overcome a bigger picture timing difficulty. 

I would say one thing I"d like to do is get APAT out of casinos.

With regards to the Professional League; it is a necessity and it will be a success, even if it takes the full season to achieve.  I don"t recall too many players complaining about the ability to get seats at Amateur events last season and despite Swansea being the smallest venue on this year"s tour, I don"t recall too many complaints from players who were unable to get seats there either...

[MintTrav]

Congrats Paulie - not so easy to do. I"m sure that it was just the way it came across that was the issue and that you were just trying to protect APAT from criticism that you perceived as not constructive. I believe people were trying to be constructive in voicing their views - we all want APAT to continue its rise. Buy you a beer in Swansea.

[Mikeyboy9361]

Nice one Paulie.

APAT out of Casinos? I don"t understand that one?

[Chipaccrual]

Nice one Paulie.

APAT out of Casinos? I don"t understand that one?

Capacity ?

[Jon MW]

Nice one Paulie.

APAT out of Casinos? I don"t understand that one?

Capacity ?

Poker on the beach!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If it hasn"t already been considered - it should be  

[Jumbuck]

on a cruise ship? awesome!!

[SirPercival]

APAT at Des's house - awesome.

[Jon MW]

Actually bearing in mind the scale of Des's ambition I"m thinking more like:









The First InterPlanetary Amateur Poker Championship for Season 5 anyone?

[Paulie_D]

Actually bearing in mind the scale of Des's ambition I"m thinking more like:
The First InterPlanetary Amateur Poker Championship for Season 5 anyone?

Can I get there on EasyJet?

[CrizzyConnor]

Nice one Paulie.

APAT out of Casinos? I don"t understand that one?

Capacity ?

Yeah, don"t quite a few EPT"s run in hotel conference suites etc? I"d actually like the idea of this as it would mean 250+ runners every APAT and nearly everyone who wants a seat can get one (and maybe actually mean there could be the possibility of an APAT running in my hometown!). Seat and room packages with rooms reserved for members would be good too so there"s less of a scramble for rooms everytime. Roll on S5.

On the issue of the pro series, I think it"s a great idea and a welcome addition to the APAT tour. I believe in the long run it will be a great success, especially with sponsorship up for grabs. I"m sure anyone with the bankroll would love to play in the series for a shot at sponsorship. This season it has impacted on numbers but if APAT does get out of casinos in S5 then this wont be a problem in the future and everyone can stop complaining. Onwards and upwards...

[kinboshi]

APAT Open series is a better name than Pro imo.  Pro-am is OK too, but Open says it all really for me.

I"m with Alan in the opinion that the APAT Nationals are the flagship events of the APAT season.  They are what APAT is all about (of course this might change), and with the plans to move to bigger venues for S5, the Nationals will truly come to the fore imo with 300+ events at the £75 (or similar level) buy-in. 

[WASP]

I wonder if the winner of the first "Pro" Event will have a rapid rise to obscurity as the winner of the first "amateur" event did?

I really can"t understand any opposition to this being added to the tour as to me it makes perfect sense.  Poker has grown rapidly in the UK in the past 4 years and so has the skill set out there.  APAT cannot continue to cater for the newbies it has to move with the skill set that is growing out there.  Hopefully the winning players have grown their bankrolls and in doing so no longer find it worthwhile to make an 8 hour round trip for a £75 tourney but this addition makes it something worth thinking about.

I"m sure Des and co will not be worried about the initial numbers as there is the bigger picture to consider and I"m confident it will gather steam after each event is promoted but in saying that I"m also sure Swansea will see a surge in players nearer the time (even the GG are currently considering it  ) and it will be a successful event.  The numbers game will always be difficult to balance but you can only please some of the people some of the time.

One thing APAT/Betfair might want to consider is running more than one satellite to the event (if it doesn"t sell out) as the first only generated one seat (and that fish couldn"t make it).  Or running more steps in the lead up to the $50 sat for those who dont want to pay $50 for a sat, or even a rebuy.  I also think the sats for this should be PL (maybe it was I dunno I missed it!)

[AMRN]

I agree with you Brian, and the Pro series will be a raging success in the same way that all that APAT does is successful.  However, I think it"s worth remembering that APAT's grass roots were about giving a poker starting ground to lesser experienced players, and introducing people to deepstack slow clock "proper" poker for an affordable price.

By stepping up, I have to question whether that is still the ethos of APAT. As others have posted, there are other UK tours out there that provide proper poker for buy ins around £250 - why does APAT need to move into that field?

Ultimately, I have complete faith in APAT, and in Des and Rich"s vision for how this will turn out. I just hope though that the proving ground that many people have cut their teeth on is not removed or reduced. APAT provides something that is not available anywhere else in Europe (the World?), and I do wonder if something that isn"t broke should be fixed.

If the £250 events detract from the £75 tour, and decrease the available number of seats that are always in high demand, it wil be a shame if it potential new players find they are unable to play.

It"s all good though. I know APAT will do the right thing and continue to grow and be highly successful.

[Paulie_D]

I agree with you Brian, and the Pro series will be a raging success in the same way that all that APAT does is successful.  However, I think it"s worth remembering that APAT's grass roots were about giving a poker starting ground to lesser experienced players, and introducing people to deepstack slow clock "proper" poker for an affordable price.

By stepping up, I have to question whether that is still the ethos of APAT. As others have posted, there are other UK tours out there that provide proper poker for buy ins around £250 - why does APAT need to move into that field?

Ultimately, I have complete faith in APAT, and in Des and Rich"s vision for how this will turn out. I just hope though that the proving ground that many people have cut their teeth on is not removed or reduced. APAT provides something that is not available anywhere else in Europe (the World?), and I do wonder if something that isn"t broke should be fixed.

If the £250 events detract from the £75 tour, and decrease the available number of seats that are always in high demand, it wil be a shame if it potential new players find they are unable to play.

It"s all good though. I know APAT will do the right thing and continue to grow and be highly successful.

+1