APAT Online now a "free for all" series?

[THESLIMMAN]

Given that you no longer have to input a password to enter online championship events the tournaments are open to all Blue Square players whether they are APAT members or not!

Yesterday when playing at the final table of a Blue Square league event a player, who was also playing in the APAT event asked what the APAT was all about!! Surely we are in danger of  losing sight of the original concept of the APAT, that would be a great pity.

It may be that anyone who plays on Blue Square is now regarded as an APAT member, fair enough, but if that is the case pro"s can play as well, that was never the intention.

Satellites to the ONLIVE event are imminent, to say nothing of the ONLIVE event itself, they are bound to attract a large number of players amatuers and pros alike many of whom will never have played in an APAT event before. Would it not be prudent to reintroduce passwords for these events? Personally I would like to see them reintroduced for all events.

[Swinebag]

I dont know what you considered the original concept of APAT, but one of APAT's aims is to reach a wider poker community and promote affordable deep stack tourneys. Players who registered for the online tourneys were automatically APAT members. It was part of the sponsorship deal with BSQ. We do get a lot in return.

Hopefully this guy who hadn"t heard of APAT, will have gone to the website, read about it and hopefully told his friends.

[Bodddders]

I dont know what you considered the original concept of APAT, but one of APAT's aims is to reach a wider poker community and promote affordable deep stack tourneys. Players who registered for the online tourneys were automatically APAT members. It was part of the sponsorship deal with BSQ. We do get a lot in return.

Hopefully this guy who hadn"t heard of APAT, will have gone to the website, read about it and hopefully told his friends.

Agree.


My only concern is that the last two online events have attracted fields of less than 120. Surely with the increased awareness and larger membership these numbers are disappointing.

[technolog]

That, I would guess is mainly due to the decreased buy-in and thus much reduced payouts combined with a perceived "late" finish.

I would like to see the buy-ins back at $22 for season 3. Also I would like to see the tournaments password-protected. Not because I want to stop people signing up to APAT (far from it, I want it to become massive) but because I want the people that play to buy-in, not only to the tournament but to the APAT ethos aswell. By requiring players to visit the forum to get the password we are at least giving them a look at what APAT is all about.

With the open-to-all policy we"re already seeing more "ungracious" behaviour at the tables that is certainly not in the spirit of APAT, and we now have a player that thinks Pokert**t is an acceptable moniker - for all I know he may be a long-standing member - but whilst personally I find it mildly amusing, surely it shouldn"t have been allowed? More of a Blue Square issue though I admit.

As I said, I"m all for the growth of APAT but I don"t want it to be at the expense of "cheapening" the brand.

I hope I haven"t given the impression I"m a whinger, I"m still loving season 2 but season 1 set the bar so stratospherically high - I"m not quite enjoying it as much.

Des, Rich, Tikay et al, please don"t take this as a personal sleight - just my two penn"orth as we climb this learning curve together  

[RioRodent]

Tournies are too cheap / last too long to be attractive to many.

Edit: That post above wasn"t there when I hit the post button... at times it is still taking a long time for things to happen on the forum.

[THESLIMMAN]

I would like to see the tournaments password-protected. Not because I want to stop people signing up to APAT (far from it, I want it to become massive) but because I want the people that play to buy-in, not only to the tournament but to the APAT ethos aswell. By requiring players to visit the forum to get the password we are at least giving them a look at what APAT is all about.

With the open-to-all policy we"re already seeing more "ungracious" behaviour at the tables that is certainly not in the spirit of APAT, and we now have a player that thinks Pokert**t is an acceptable moniker - for all I know he may be a long-standing member - but whilst personally I find it mildly amusing, surely it shouldn"t have been allowed? More of a Blue Square issue though I admit.

I whole heartedly agree with the above post.
In case my original post was unclear I too like Technolog  would like to see a massive growth in the APAT. That said I think it is desireable that those who play should feel part of something special which the APAT undoubtably is.
Allowing players to register without any prior knowledge of the organisation seems to me to dilute that ethos.
Password protected registration seems to me to offer at a minimum a sense of "belonging" to those who play.

[The_rookie]

Hi

firstly your right the apat tourny are to cheap but it"s helping bring new people in (like myself).

Bluesquare is very clever it"s got the apat on broad aswell as the gukpt which is getting people in aswell some new to the game some not.

i think making it £20 wouldnt take away from entrys but it would stop the wrong type of people.

I do agree it should be members only and you should have to sign up to get the password but i DON"T think that would help apat grow.

So sometimes you need to take the good with the bad

Sorry if this sounds abit longwinded but anypokerclub/site/forum/ or player should welcome new players.

Again sorry i am still learning about apat myself but the more i learn the more i like it i met some great people at my first leg event who told me more about it. In short the more i heard the more i like and feeling really good about being apart of it so everyone should have that same chance i did.

ok i"m done

[kinboshi]

Would you play if it was $20 instead of $10?

[The_rookie]

i would but not sure everyone would

[kinboshi]

Maybe more would play?

[GiMac]

I would like to see the tournaments password-protected. Not because I want to stop people signing up to APAT (far from it, I want it to become massive) but because I want the people that play to buy-in, not only to the tournament but to the APAT ethos aswell. By requiring players to visit the forum to get the password we are at least giving them a look at what APAT is all about.

With the open-to-all policy we"re already seeing more "ungracious" behaviour at the tables that is certainly not in the spirit of APAT, and we now have a player that thinks Pokert**t is an acceptable moniker - for all I know he may be a long-standing member - but whilst personally I find it mildly amusing, surely it shouldn"t have been allowed? More of a Blue Square issue though I admit.

I whole heartedly agree with the above post.
In case my original post was unclear I too like Technolog  would like to see a massive growth in the APAT. That said I think it is desireable that those who play should feel part of something special which the APAT undoubtably is.
Allowing players to register without any prior knowledge of the organisation seems to me to dilute that ethos.
Password protected registration seems to me to offer at a minimum a sense of "belonging" to those who play.

I have to agree here. I was initially against password protecting the tournies, due to the blue square aspect. But any special connection to APAT has been lost somewhere along the way for these events and they are just another blue square $10 freezeout donkament, albeit with larger starting stacks and are being played as "just another $10 tournie" with no quality of play to talk of.

IMHO that is why the numbers have fallen off, nothing to do with buy in or late finishes, they are no longer "special events", so why should I, or anyone else for that matter rush home from work to play them, when they know that most people dont give a flying fig about APAT, or its ethos, let alone even heard of it or bothered to find out?

[APAT]

Just to clarify, APAT gain between 5 and 10 new members maximum from each of these events.  Therefore, they are very much APAT events and you are determining the tone of them. 

I think there are two core reasons why they do not seem as good so far this year. 

1)  We don"t know everybody"s new ID yet, as that takes time.

2) It is not as easy to communicate across tables with close friends.  Certaninly I feel completely locked out of dropping by tables and having a chat with everyone - particularly at the final tables.

There has also been a wealth of online series games, satellites, regional events, national events - so perhaps the same hunger is not there if there are 1 to 2 games available every other week.

As far as new members are concerned, I will repeat that in gaining their contact details we can then mail these members and tell them more about APAT and what we stand for.

Be assured, we continue to listen and learn from what you are saying and we may trial a month of events at a higher buy in througout January, with some form of structure change to allow for earlier finishes.

[celticriver]

Soory I think that if players want to play they must register with APAT first I enjoy being part of the APAT and feel it is something that has improved my game.  I feel letting anyone play in OUR tournaments is cheaping the brand. I want to part of something that is important and productive to my and other peaoples poker education.  Tournaments should be back to $22 to stop the donk fest I for one do not take then serious any more in try and double up or just play rag hand sfor fun an I the only one.  Lets take a pride in ourselfs again we ARE the main AMATEUR poker federation in GB lets look like one.  

[linziwan]

It is not as easy to communicate across tables with close friends.  Certaninly I feel completely locked out of dropping by tables and having a chat with everyone - particularly at the final tables.

Feel free to drop by anytime Des    unfortunately it"ll have to be before the final table, with the run of  bad cards and the "I call everything brigade" it gets harder to get there  .  Funny how when I get 83o I never hit anything...... when I have As everybody folds, or 83o beats me

I would say the behaviour at the table isn"t very good at the moment.... asked two people on our table tonight to "play nice", think their quotes were " up yours" and "eat s...".  Think APAT barred people from playing last year for less.  

See you all in Manchester.

[APAT]

I feel letting anyone play in OUR tournaments is cheaping the brand. 

This is not a position I would agree on.  Reducing the barriers to entry and increasing awareness is the APAT strategy for Season Two.  The big picture is to create a large and meaningful organisation that has a real chance to bring about meaningful, player focussed, change in this industry.