Oh sod it, I may as well let this blog rumble on for a few weeks longer. If I find myself posting nothing but brag posts or whingey bad beat stories then I reserve the right to pull the plug. Since I started playing away from home and blogging elsewhere, I seem to have done what I initially wanted to avoid and been posting about nothing but poker. My now staple diet of SNGs and a little bit of cash play doesn"t make for particularly interesting reading, so I"ll have to think of other ways to make this worth perusal. I intend continuing until my intended appearance in the national at Walsall and after I"ve won that.............
One of the biggest factors in me wanting to cease posting was that my involvement in APAT will be substantially less in season three than season two. I know I"m setting myself up to be shot down in flames, but the season three schedule just doesn"t float my boat. Unlike most people who have posted on the S3 discussion thread, I, and many others, will miss the regional tournaments. I realise that there seemed to be enormous differences between the level of commitment shown by the various Grosvenors across the country, but my experience of the service provided by the staff at Yarmouth was very positive. I know the numbers were very low, but given the lack of publicity, this was hardly surprising. I also believe that positive word-of-mouth feedback would have seen a substantial swelling in the level of participation. The players who attended last year were a real mixture. There were players who final tabled/won APAT online events, national live event final tablers,one who came within a whisker of cashing in a GUKPT event playing together with people who had never before played live poker. These were almost all players new to the casino and plenty of them gambled outside the poker room, bought drinks etc, so I think there was a net gain for Grosvenor.
My main area of disagreement with most people on this forum is the raising of the cost of the online events. $82 is way above what I am prepared to pay for a game of online poker. I don"t agree with the argument that its no more expensive than a larger number of smaller games, as if I was to set a budget of $80 in a given period for buying into tournaments, it would be insanity to blow it in one go as opposed to spreading the risk by playing either 8x$10 or 4x$20. I don"t think this reluctance on my part to pay the higher price has anything whatsoever to do with reservations about the strength of my game; my results in season two suggest I have nothing to worry about, its simply a reflection of personal circumstances. I have a modestly paid job in a call centre, I have a mortgage to pay and a car to fund. At today"s exchange rates, $82.50 equates to £56.48 and that is too large a chunk out of my small disposable income to be risking. Provision of satellites into these games doesn"t placate me as it just means that those with bigger incomes, who can buy in directly, have to successfully negotiate one competition rather than two.
I"m still undecided about whether I"ll take part in the online league. I have concerns about collaboration in an online team event and I have no geographical affinity to any of the "clubs" mentioned, so part of me feels I should pass on this one as well. However, I have a mercenary streak and if I can sense a way of making a few quid, then so be it. If I do decide to take part, who should I allign myself with? Who offers me the best chance of glory?
I would be horrified if any of the above is taken as a swipe at those who have worked so hard to provide us with what"s on offer. Its merely a reflection that things change and that the season three product is a very different beast to season two and is therefore less attractive to me.
