Hi all, I"m John... I played the cash tournament in London and managed to do quite well. I am a cash player at heart and that is my main game on a day to day basis. From what I think you are trying to create I would suggest you have succeeded. It played like a cash game the whole time.
I completely disagree with limiting buyins. It does not achieve anything in real terms as the buyin cap of 100 (which I personally am not a fan of - but now see the light) performs the function of protecting the players from any "big players" doing anything silly.
I had to not only play hyper aggressive but also run pretty good in order to get the chip lead going into day 2. I am a fan of the two day structure as it meant a final table made up of 4 players I knew absolutely nothing about. This made every hand that much more important as you didn"t have time to make a mistake. Potentially the 2 hours could be extended on day 2, possibly 3 or 4 would be better.
For anyone who was there in London they will have seen that the lead was overtaken quite early on and significantly so.. This player then made the sensible decision to not play any pots, this meant he couldn"t lose the chip lead and anyone wishing to win would have to get the chips from the rest of the players. I don"t think there is anything you can do to stop this as a strategy and ultimately it did not work out for him, however it did kind of mock the spirit of the tournament.
Other than the comments above I would just like to say that I very much enjoyed the tournament and will defintely look to play it again.
Thanks and see you all soon,
Jb