As someone who stopped playing poker last year after 16 years, I will make a few observations. I hope they are not considered too negative but for a start I will give the reasons I have never played an APAT event. A seat is not guaranteed unless you reserve one in advance, and then the reserve deposit is lost, not considered part of the buy in.
I love the old games rather than NLHE all the time, in fact I came to hate the game. So for me there would never be enough stud and omaha type games to make it worthwhile a few days overnight stay to play the APAT. The only place that now does those games is the WSOP - perhaps a trip to the WSOP if ever I get off my arse and inspired enough to play again and donk off £10-15k. I know that's a lot more than a few quid to reserve an APAT seat but I consider that deposit money being lost to be a bit of an insult.
The APAT was sometimes tempting but it just never had enough of those alternative games (not the dreaded open face thing) to break through my increasing apathy. APAT is a very commendable thing, and I hope you keep going, but I also hope you broaden the appeal with a few more stud or omaha type games, not fewer. I know that's the way it's gone, and that's the way it will keep going. God I hate holdem.
Hi Anthony,
I should take the first part of this question as I was (and continue to be) the biggest exponent of the reservation fee at APAT. I should explain why we do it.
For years we offered a free 'reserve a seat' feature through the forum and we always had a large percentage of reserving players (50% minimum) let us down on the day. That meant certain other players weren't coming to events because they believed we were sold out in advance. Remember, APAT isn't a local game, so it became a barrier to many to travel across country for a game, when a motorway delay might mean there aren't any seats left when you arrive.
So we added a reservation fee.
This increased the reliability of the system and allowed us to continue to offer the system. However, we didn't do this as a money making scheme - it helps a little, but is a relatively small income line.
We offered it alongside direct buy in via our online partner - which had no fees attached, not even a requirement to play online. We also continue to offer online sats and we continue to offer seats in advance via the venue and on the day if availability allows. We've tried to offer something for everyone. Paid and free.
Why don't we offer a refund?
It would become an admin nightmare and doing so would erode that small commitment that we ask members to make for this optional service, possibly increasing no shows again.
Why didn't we include it within the buyin?
Again, an admin nightmare that we're simply not resourced to manage well. Quality is very important to the team at APAT, if we can't do it well, we don't do it at all. Even if it means we make a small profit on the activity.
Plus it's fantastic in this day and age to be able to offer a single button on the APAT home page that will enable a new player to get a seat without needing to download stuff or worry about getting to the venue days early. That's what today's mobile users expect.
That and the tons of value like Vegas packages that we add.
If you haven't experienced APAT before, then I'd encourage you to. In fact, I'd be happy to personally pay your reservation fees for an event or two so that you can see how good we are. PM me if you'd like to take me up on my offer.
ps - I pushed the multi format events for years also and am extremely proud of the schedule that Tom has put together for Manchester. We might well be the friendliest poker tour in the UK - I know we're the oldest - but that doesn't stop our players being very competitive and ensuring that we grow our non hold'em schedule is something that we'll continue to do. I think Tom will have some good news on that front in our S11 announcement, which I suspect is coming soon.
Cheers,
Des.
