Season 6 Discussion

[gomarrrahh]

Excited about the pending Season 6 announcement
just to get my bit in...

Reg Fee - CANT BELIEVE YOU WOULD DO THIS??!!
obviously joking the fact there isnt one and hasnt been since its inception is a luxury you will not see anywhere else and quite rightly APAT have played this as its ace card for a poker tour. But quite frankly the pros, as explained by Des, really outweigh any problem with having a fee. Every poker game i play has a fee so introducing this wouldnt be of any concern. Way i look at it, if ur willing to pay £75-100 for a game, wots 10% on top really?

Scheduling - 8/9 sounds ideal. 6 is too few, especially as people cant make them all, so jus having more opportunities to play events wud be great. Ive never been involved in a team event so cant speak about the value of those, but they seem to get a great rep from participants, seems a shame to lose them but having said that do we really want them to take a place of a national event?

if we use a 6weekly gap between Live events, i dont really like the idea of the online champs being the thursday before. Space out the events over that gap,
one week - online league,
one week - online champs,
one week - off,
two weeks leading to national - sats into the live events,
or something similar?

Added value - UKIPT, GPS etc seats please.
Like most have said, vast majority will be playing the WCOAP anyways, and whilst the passport is a nice little money saver, it only counts for real value if u can turn a profit from the wkend. yeh sure, its nice to be freerolling but if it was a choice of that or freerolling a UKIPT along side some of the games top names, think most serious APATers would love a crack at that, especially those whose struggle to justify the buyin at that level.

either way, its all sounds great and cant wait to get together for another fantastic APAT festival

[Quasar]

A Reg Fee seems the sensible way to go for APAT. Like most, if not all on here I don"t think it will put people off playing and now seems a good time to use APAT money for other things and I definitely don"t have a problem with it.

With regards to 6 events a year I am also of the opinion that this is much too low. Some of us have to pick and choose the events we play for various reasons (finances, distance, annual leave availability) and with so few games in a year this could mean that only one or two events would be reachable during the season, which would be a shame. Also the team events lower the availability for a lot of people so I really hope these would be included as an additional part of a weekend, rather than a stand-alone event (if only 6 events were held).  In fact as I"m typing this and working out normal places/events for APAT, such as Scotland, Ireland, Wales, venue abroad, team event x 2 that is already 6 events and doesn"t leave one bog standard APAT weekend for anywhere in England. We definitely need more than 6 in a year Des  

With regard to the added value (which is highly unlikely to affect me haha) I would like to see this used for the bigger buy in games such as UKIPT etc. Most people will play the APAT Worlds anyway and the chance to play with pro"s and enjoy the experience is surely something to spur people on. People also then have an option to choose an event/date that suits them, rather than APAT having a problem if anyone is unable to make the Worlds for any reason. I also like watching any players progress in these events.

With regard to Online Championships I"m also not keen on having them on a Thursday night before an APAT weekend. Makes for a very expensive week for one thing and also if leaving for a weekend away on Friday then the Thursday evenings are normally busy doing other things. I much prefer them to be at the weekend as they currently are.

I"d also like to say thanks Des for all your efforts in trying to improve APAT and moving forward in a positive way. It"s very much appreciated and I totally love my APAT weekends  

[mylesfdo]

A few views from a new member!!

Reg:
TBH I had never heard of APAT until the Brighton event(and I used to be Area Manager for pub poker league and online blogger/live updater!!) and it was only through luck that a player mentioned the event to me the Friday before and I managed to get up early and sneek in!!..........I was totally amazed when I rocked up for a £75 event and there was no juice to pay!!

Wherever u play poker there is always a reg fee whether it be live or online(apart from Party Pokers promo at mo obv!!) so anyone who begrudges this isnt worth wasting your breath on!!......obv the lower the juice the better!!......£75+5 or £100+9 sounds a good option to me as then its still a reduction from the normal 10%.......obv dont go anywhere near the 20% that Rendezvous charges sometimes!!

The more promotion that can be done from the extra revenues obv the better so that newbies like me can find out about APAT and how it all works......still a bit confused at mo with all the offerings such as WCOAP etc........where can I actually find a breakdown on one page of the annual going ons?!!

Schedule:
6 a year is too low as mentioned in previous posts, would go for 9/10 as then people who cant attend for certain reasons get plenty of opportunities to catch up.

Online event on Thurs(what is this for by way?!!) before live event seems way too much for the weekend especially as the online Sunday events just about to kick off!!

Added Value:
Gotta agree with the big seats option here......what if someone cant get to WCOAP(whatever this is!!)........players would get much more of an experience out of playing UKIPT, GSP, EPT or possibly even small WSOP event.

Can I also make a suggestion that now as you are hooked up with Stars that there could be the possibility of online sattelites for the live events?........obv not all players can afford to always stump up the £75/100 but with a £10/20 sattelite every week/fortnight with 1/2 seats gtd into event of your choice this would offer people a great way of getting to all events even if not in there BR previously.........you could also possibly run a monthly say £50 satellite to win say a £500 package to include accomodation, travel and buy-ins to all events at festival of choice.....just an idea and dunno if this already done!!

Anyway  enough from me.....seems like a great thing you got going on here and looking forward to playing as many events as I can.

[EnglandBart]

Reg Fee:

Whilst the marketing aspect of a reg free series was great I agree with everyone else that the marketplace, costs etc has moved on since then. I too would wholeheartedly support the introduction of a fee, but wherever possible please keep overall costs down. The whole concept of an amateur assocation/tour/series etc in my mind is that it should be within the realms of the vast majority that show an interest and not be elitest or restricted solely to those who can afford it.

I also feel that APAT should retain it"s unique distinction and ladder gap from other "standard" £100+ events so maybe we could consider a £75+5 (with the marketing of one of the lowest fees still in the market) or if 10% is a necessity then maybe £70+7.
In saying this I do fully appreciate that we need to also balance the potential prize payouts against costs of getting there/staying overnight etc. I would love to see a £25 mini tour for example, but this is totally unrealistic considering min £30pn b&b & £30 petrol/train or £80 flight to get there etc.
I personally still believe something starting with a 7 would be optimal balancing point.

Schedule:

The UK calendar is getting extremely congested and my thoughts go out to you guys in trying to pull the logistics of all this together. At the end of the day members fully appreciate everything you do and will fit in with whatever you are able to achieve, knowing that everything you already do is an attempt to get the best possible package for members.

My only thought in terms of number of events would be a necessity of retaining the core "individual nationals". There has been a trend towards a large proportion of team events in recent years (appreciate the reasons behind it), but a number of these are out of reach of "average joe" who isn"t part of a pub or isn"t selected for forum/national team.

Locations:

Obviously try to retain the spread across the UK (& beyond), Brighton was great and a welcome short trip for those of us in the south.

Added value:

I must admit I too love the whole concept of our leading players going to represent us in the next step up, be it UKIPT, GPS, GUKPT etc.
Whilst this adds a lot of value to an elite few rather than being spread out across the membership, every member has a chance of obtaining it and I for one would be sad to see it go. There is nothing better than railing a fellow APAT"er in a big tour and it"s great exposure for the brand.

Online Sats to events:

The more the better, at all price points please. Again this allows entry to those where a £75 tourney & £70+ costs to get there/stay weekend is still a luxury as opposed to the norm.

Thanks for listening

[Des]

Now that Paulie and Myles have had your discussion, I"m going to remove the relevant posts as they just make my job a great deal harder.  

[Paulie_D]

Oops...sorry Des.

Didn"t realise.

[abdoman]

Has incorporation of a reg fee by reducing the buy-in been considered? For example, £70+5, which would retain the "magical" £75 total cost to play (which is nicely pitched). I guess that some might see this as a tax on the winners as the prize pool will be slightly reduced, but thought I"d throw it out there.

[mylesfdo]

Oops...sorry Des.

Didn"t realise.

+1 sorry

[pokerpops]

 

Has incorporation of a reg fee by reducing the buy-in been considered? For example, £70+5, which would retain the "magical" £75 total cost to play (which is nicely pitched). I guess that some might see this as a tax on the winners as the prize pool will be slightly reduced, but thought I"d throw it out there.

This

Seriously, reg fee up to £10 on £75 is reasonable for a dealer dealt tournament with the structure APAT gives us

[abdoman]

I never claimed that £75+10 was unreasonable, I just thought I"d suggest an alternative. That said, I think £75 (total cost) is a well pitched product, offering a step up from £30 & £50 tournaments that are commonplace, but still cheaper than the £100 tournaments that deter some folk.

I"ve only played one APAT event so far (but intend to play more) so my opinion might not reflect the mood of seasoned APATers, but I thought an option that eliminated the creep towards £100 might appeal to some. I"m happy to pay £70+5, £75+10 or even £90+10.

[AceOnTheRiver]

I never claimed that £75+10 was unreasonable, I just thought I"d suggest an alternative. That said, I think £75 (total cost) is a well pitched product, offering a step up from £30 & £50 tournaments that are commonplace, but still cheaper than the £100 tournaments that deter some folk.

I"ve only played one APAT event so far (but intend to play more) so my opinion might not reflect the mood of seasoned APATers, but I thought an option that eliminated the creep towards £100 might appeal to some. I"m happy to pay £70+5, £75+10 or even £90+10.

All suggestions are welcome and I hope we see you at several more APAT events  

[BOINGBLITZ]

The best part about APAT has always been the "Craic" and you get to meet friends old and new. 6 events a year is way too low...9-10 would be great but I agree about the Bank Holidays...that is not great for us with families.
 Online Championships on a Thursday sounds great.
One final request....PLEASE BRING BACK DUBLIN !! (CAPS as requested by Andy Duncan   )
Dublin for many was always the best APAT.

[cuzza23]

PLEASE let season 6 be announced today. That is all  

[Paulie_D]

One final request....PLEASE BRING BACK DUBLIN !!

I volunteer to do the recce!

I think Larry Murphy"s is missing us.

[cashman]

One final request....PLEASE BRING BACK DUBLIN !!

I volunteer to do the recce!

I think Larry Murphy"s is missing us.

and their takings are down aswell