Here is my tuppence worth :
Live
- Countries & Venues ~ It seems to me that the more central the venue the quicker it sells (Aberdeen and Cork sold especially slowly). APAT is under competition from many similar good tourneys these days and sticking to more central venues would be a wise move. I don"t think Yorkshire has ever held an APAT and Leeds (ALEA esp.) & Sheffield have some nice rooms.
European venues just don"t seem worth it for a £75 comp TBH, but a little mini-festival might make it worthwhile. Somewhere with sunshine --> Spain at Easter/Whit would suit me, why go to Spain in Jan
.
- Structure ~ It has been tweaked and tweaked and is as good as you can get for a two day event now. Would like to see the games start earlier on both days if venue can accomodate, I know there are dealer issues on this but other tours manage it. This would allow for Saturday to play to the money and more chance to enjoy local establishments before closing time, also allows for people to get home earlier on the Sunday night.
- Buy in ~ I personally would prefer slightly higher, but agree current £75/£100/£50 is democratic choice.
- Pay structure~ This years adopted structure is way better.
- Added value ~ Whatever you can get is good, but reg free must stay number one priority for everyone to benefit.
- Trophies / medals ~ Please keep these, they are a great talking point beforehand and for the cost must be a very effective promotion tool.
- Rules ~ APAT's early years had this as a clear focus so lets get back to setting standards. I would like to see the rules on showdown/betting out of turn/verbal "raise" or "raise to" clarified, sorry to all you laid back players this is just the nit in me.
- WCOAP ~ DTD everytime as all have said. The STUD event only sold half the seats and it would be good to put a more popular event on the Thursday (say 6 max) or maybe put in a PLO8 or 8 game tourney.
- Streaming ~ Much better to watch if you can get that RDIF table that shows hole cards, although this would kick up a fuss over fairness. If an expense has to go, then sadly this is probably near the top.
- Live updates ~ The At a Glance page was great.
- Post event reports ~ Fine
- Photo galleries ~ Fine, altough would like to see one gallery that links pics to names.
- Team events ~ I enjoy the social side of these, and think they suit several short MTTs or STTs rather than a single MTT where people can be out early and not really involved for the rest of the w/end. Also I have a suggestion for one to back the online series (see online section below)
- Side events ~ Never played one, but they seem popular. Is there room for a 9pm one on the Saturday to get more varieties in the schedule ??
- Formats, ie reentry, rebuys, etc~ There is a place for these, but not in oversold APAT events aimed at amateur players.
- Guarantees ~ Not really needed imo
- Schedule, ie is one event a month right, etc ~ maybe too many in this increasingly competitive buy-in range.
Online
- Sponsors, one / multiple ~ I am happy with many if it means better deals, but I would imagine many dont want to be downloading and depositing into many different sites. So one big sole sponsor is probably best ~ Genting are going great in the UK live scene and would be good sponsor in the current climate.
- Online Championship ~ Fine, but Sundays are Poker night.....get them moved, everyone gives up so many Saturday nights already with the live games.
- Online side events ~ Fine, although would prefer a variety of games rater than PLO everytime.
- Online national league~ OK lets get started : DITCH the UNFAIR NUMBER DEPENDENT LEAGUE FORMAT ! This format loses way more members than it brings in.
Genting have run a few live team events that have followed an online league. They were in teams of 4 or 6 and the points you got in the league then were used to create your starting stack at the live event. This would mean APATers would create there own team bringing in new players to the APAT fold and nearly everyone would stay the distance as every event would be important towards your live starting stack.
- Online buy ins ~ $10 or $5 is probably best to attract the most. If a team format as suggested was to be taken onboard then there would need to be some thought over funding the live game prize pool. Say $5+2, with the $2 going towards the live final pool.
Bloody hell, that took the whole of the second half of the rugby...time to stop...kids are starting "we"re bored"
