Constructive Criticism on the IPO?

carfax

Please discuss, what did we miss?

Stephen.

El Stuntman

not your fault necessarily but the parking was chaotic!

also the tables shape was a bit odd and meant that seats 1 and 10 had an even more restricted view than usual

great tournament though (for the 4 levels I lasted :rolleyes:)

smurph

Only a few points really

Point 1.
Side event on the Friday night was really really bad.
2K starting stack with re-buys for 6 levels, re-buy 2K or Top-up 3k, with 6 levels of re-buys you couldn't hang on until the top-up period. I know that the structure is fast and furious to give dealers a chance to rest before Day 1B of the main event, but there is fast and there is an average stack of 5BB's which is really bad . I understand that the structures did change for the Saturday and Sunday game, with the option to get your re-buy at anytime (and also the re-buy and Add on amount was the same), which is a Credit to Boyles and the TD's for the games.....

Point 2
The Rooms was really really hot for the Main Event, I thought the Room I was in was bad, but when I went into the Conference room to play the cash it was like a greenhouse. Maybe it was the extra lighting for the TV area or something, but it must have been twice as bad for the staff and dealers.

Other than that, the staff at Boyles, the TD's and especially the dealers were very professional at all times, and feedback was obviously taken on Board. There was plenty of food options, waiters etc., and the bar did a roaring trade.

The live feed was a great addition this year along with the daily blogging etc., and It had a very big buy-in feel to the whole event.

The points above are more nit picking really and can be easily fixed.

Wreck

Heat from TV lighting was terrible for some of the tables, day 2 was a little slow to start and when it did start the hand for hand was pretty chaotic.

These are very minor gripes though, I thought it was a well run weekend in general. There were big improvement in the areas of main complaint from previous years - overcrowding and the standard of dealing. Well done to all involved.

big_iain

Great event guys, really enjoyed it from start to finish.

I agree with smurf, the Friday was like Bingo. 140 people gone in 3 hours - can't complain to much as i did not play it.

So....I played the Saturday one. Had very much a turbo feel. Even with the extra chips.

Think you should concentrate on all of the events not just main and cash. Some of us like tournament poker.


On the whole it was great. How you and your staff kept going i have no idea. Well done.


I have a little bitch about the hotel. Way too hot on Saturday night. Jesus the Hotel rooms were like sauna's.

The Main Card room was too. Thank god the smoking doors were open in the side room. Lovely and cool in there, great for playing cards.

doke

carfax wrote: »

Please discuss, what did we miss?

Stephen.

Great tourney overall.

The "number of players remaining" in the side events was not being kept up to date and was often significantly out.

Lack of decent food in the hotel.

Flushdraw

The only gripes i would have are...

Wasn't mad about the chip colours. I thought the blue/black looked very similar, and there was a couple of other similar colours which made it more difficult when there was a raise from the far end of the table.

I wasnt impressed with the breaks. At one stage after the dinner break, the clock said "next break 41 minutes" When this got down to 1 minute, the break was scrapped and was changed to 80 minutes for next break.

Also the break towards the end of the night for 10 minutes was ridiculous. I was watching Gillians table and there was still a hand in play while the break ticked down. It meant there wasnt a lot of time to get fresh air once the hand was over. Then we werent allowed go out the door outside the room, so we had to walk the full length of the hotel to get outside. Barely got there and the break was over, so missed nearly 10 mins of the next level.

10 minute break for 200 people is just a waste of time.

copperfacegaz

much better set up than last year congrats ,, my only complaint wud be on returning on the sunday we were allocated our tables and seats. All the tables were surrounded by the rope so no one could go through except for two reject tables left on the opposite side ?? which i happened to be on.
i understand we were gonna be the first to break but all the other tables had their privacy while we had a bunch of french hanging out the back of our chairs , on complaining nothing was done.
i just feel that it could be accommodated so that all tables were inside the rope.

newbie2

Pros
1. Dealers and staff were very good.
2. great main event structure
3. great value
4. respectable rake at the cash tables

Cons
1. Parking was a little mental.
2. Heat in the main room was very uncomfortable, especially late on. - it actually contributed to me leaving the cash tables earlier than i had anticipated.
3. For the amount of reg - it might of been nice to have even complimenary tea/coffee or water.


Good job BTW

RasTa

I showed up and couldn't pay on the day.

Gillybean72

The heat was the main thing, the last table I played at was beside the TV table and it was unbearable for me.

As Tony said, the last break did not give time to get out the room and head for the ladies and I was caught between getting air to breath for a few minutes and ...

For some reason there was a mixup with our dinner break. We were told we had 55 mins and when I went back at what I thought was 55 mins I had missed a couple of hands.

smcb

i thought the parking was 100% myself. only arrived at 12.45, parked up and had ticket stamped for free on the way out

TripleAce

Plenty of space to leave the car on Griffith Avenue just around the corner though

Ollieboy

Great weekend of poker and great event and fair play to all involved.

I would make the following comments:

1. Heat.
2. Structure of side events and the offering, think this can be greatly work on in future. A €100 freeze out would make a lot more sense.
3. Clocks. It was impossible to follow the clocks or what way the tables were been broken up. I got moved around 4 times in the 1 hour and I don't think anyone knew what they were trying to do besides making space for the side events. Maybe a later start for the side events or max no of players would help this in the future.
4. breaks. There was no clear direction on the breaks. This seems to have been a bigger problem in the small poker room.
5. Maybe next year somewhere could be set a side for the cash game action as the whole event seem to be spread across the rooms.

In general they were small problems and every staff member was very helpiful and the event in general was run very professional. It was a massive improvement on 2007 and still a big improvement on 2008, so 2010 should be brilliant.

zuutroy

Constant loud updates of seats being available at cash tables were very annoying.

I got dealt 5 good hands in 10 hours. This has to change.

jobless

I thought it was an excellently run tournament.... big improvement on last year... have to say that all of the staff were excellent and very friendly..and the standard of dealers very good

the only gripes i had as others have said was the heat in the main room....it became uncomfortable towards the end of the night.

5starpool

zuutroy wrote: »

Constant loud updates of seats being available at cash tables were very annoying.

This was the only thing I was there long enough to be annoyed at. THat and being slowrolled by a frenchie that is. The speakers were very loud indeed, and a couple of times I had to wait to announce a bet amount or action because of this.

The rest of it seemed to be as well organised as much biggere events, so kudos to all on that. Parking was a bit of a nightmare as well, but I got parking somewhere and my ticket validated 7 hours later with no problems.

Breifne

Having played only the main event last year, i decided I would try and spend a bit more time around the event this year. The extra space was fantastic, parking was a bit awkward, but not the responsibility for the event organisers.

Side events were a bit short stacked, but i feel the changes made to the structure over the weekend were hugely beneficial in terms of the play.

I did really enjoy the weekend (winning a few quid helped!) but would like to see the side event treated the same as the main event in terms of clock info displayed being correct, a decent structure, etc.

Some players attending those festivals aren't interested in cash, and would be more than happy to play tourney after tourney. Why not have sit n go's running when the tables start to break later on in the evening. Might keep players interested.

westlife

if the heat was what it was I would have no problem. But when I went back Sunday it was fine, so I assume all the complaints (my day, friday) where just ignored by the hotel staff. really was uncomfortable. Hotels should be bending over backwards to ensure everything is good with such a money spinner for them. That's what duty managers are there for.....

thenutpeddler

doke wrote: »

Great tourney overall.

The "number of players remaining" in the side events was not being kept up to date and was often significantly out.

What a nightmare, how did you calculate your bubble factor?:D

insomniak

would have liked a texas freezout as a side event on one of the days. Really couldn't afford a €50 rebuy tourney if I'm being honest

Lplate

Firstly Stephen, congratulations on a major success.

I thought that the ME playing structure was superb for the buy-in, the event was excellent from an organisational viewpoint and all staff were friendly, courteous and good at their jobs.

Speaking as a customer, I had a very enjoyable experience, good value for money and will play again next year

The only gripe I had from your side were breaks. In over 12 hours, 1x60mins, 2x15mins and 1x10 mins is not nearly enough imo, especially considering that they were strictly adhered to, so that when I was involved in a big hand as the break arrived in one case, I only had 7 mins left when the hand was over.
(The 40k pot swept my way at the end of the hand did compensate though:))

I was very disappointed with the hotel though. The heat in the playing room was unbearable at times and led to me getting very tired towards the end of play (this was with zero alcohol). The security staff were arrogant and rude and gave a gestapo feel. It seems that the hotel have issues with neighbours so that they were constantly harassing people to not go out in front of the hotel. My hotel room was dated and the shower was a straight race between hypothermia and third-degree burns. At €100 per room only I would expect better. The bars closed dead on time and the residents bar was under-staffed and under-equipped. We were told on Friday night at 2am that they had run out of Guinness and then that they had run out of glasses!! These are issues beyond your direct control but you did ask!

Overall, well done gg wp.

AdMMM

I have nothing to fault on the poker organisation side of things. Obviously having the main event split across two rooms is far from ideal but you did a great job of managing it and I was very impressed by how efficiently you broke down the tables. I had to count a lot of chips over the weekend and when lighting conditions weren't ideal, I often confused the 500 and 5000 chips (blue and black). It didn't really matter if I mistook a chipcount but I'd imagine a few players also had difficulty and it could have affected them in a big way.

I can't really comment on the side-events given that they were taking place miles away from where I was but I think it was clear that they were never going to be slow-structured deep-stacked marathons.

My only complaints are directed at the hotel and I have to wonder do they HATE making money!

Those chandeliers generated enough heat to turn the place into a makeshift sauna but seeing as they're the main source of light in the room there's not much that can be done about it!

What little food they were offering finished way too early and with no notice. If they gave 20 minutes notice instead of slipping away then they would have got plenty of orders and have kept the players happy past midnight.

The Residents Bar was a complete joke. On one of the nights I saw cans of Guinness being sold because they had ran out. On the last night they had no beer on draught and instead I had to buy bottles of Coors Light - I hate that stuff and only stayed for the one.

Overall I have nothing but praise for the way the poker was run (and that's the feedback I got from everyone else I had spoken to) but the hotel really needs to get it's act together. It could start by sending someone out the CityWest this weekend to see how they cater for poker players at the IWF!

CourierCollie

Much like AdMMM above, my only complaint is with the choice of venue. With all the hotels built in the last few years, there really has to be somewhere better available.
The heat in the main poker room was almost as bad as last year. The bar service a joke ( 4 staff in two small bars catering for 800+ people).
The room I had in the hotel reminded me of the b&bs my parents used to take me to in the 1970s. 14 inch TV without cable, no internet access, no minibar, no alcohol allowed in room, shower with no hot water in the evening(though it was hot in the morning). The residents bar was a bit of a joke too.

Had an enjoyable weekend overall. The Poker Ireland/Boylepoker team really outdid themselves with such a professionally run main event.

SligeachBoi

AdMMM wrote: »

The Residents Bar was a complete joke. On one of the nights I saw cans of Guinness being sold because they had ran out. On the last night they had no beer on draught and instead I had to buy bottles of Coors Light - I hate that stuff and only stayed for the one.

Yup..

nando9

Very good tournie and I wish there were more like it. A small few things though,

the breaks on day 2 of main event were way too short and it wasn't until late on we were told there would be no dinner break, but 20-30 mins would have done as opposed to 10-15

also food in hotel wasn't great

i didnt stay in hotel and looks like that was a master stroke......

horsebox1

Having only started to play bigger tourneys this year it was a great experience to sit at a table with Neil Channing and Rob Taylor, to see how they contested pots. (Time to get back the books!!!!)

Great set up and very professional. The antes this year helped the structure obv with the 75/76 from each day going into the final day.

The only thing to feedback for me was before the dinner break in 1b we still had 6 tables for the ME in the side event room. It may be better to break tables sooner into the main room and poss have the the cash tables start in the second room?


Overall a great weekend! Will defo play next year.

cooker3

Same as others. Main gripes are the heat and similarity between 500 and 5,000 chip. It made counting other peoples stacks hard at times.

All round, very well run. Improvement over last year and light years ahead of 2 years ago. Every single dealer was up to standard and I have no real complaints about anything. Congrats.

a-k-47

Change of venue i think should taken into consideration for next year. Also the removal of smaller chips during a level got to me and playing hand for hand should be played out with a stopped clock.

Overall well run and will play this again next year. Thanks.

one ill cat

The only criticism of the tourney I would have was how it turned into a complete crapshoot at the money end. I understand keeping this a 2 day event will mean it has to have a fast enough structure, however I for one would have preferred 30 min levels on day 1 moving to 60 minute levels on day 2 if this would be anyway workable. Also, it would also be nice to have a lil bit of flexibility in the structure so that the clock can be frozen or rolled back if necessary. No point turning it into bingo.

The hotel could have done a better variety of food, as it stood when on a quick break the choice of what to eat was poor. The heat was also too much for all of the first night.

That said, the tourney was excellent, first time playing it and I will deffo try to make it every year it runs. Testament to the organisation and planning involved, the effort sure did pay off. Fantastic job by Poker Ireland and Boyles, wd.

smcb

the hotel is in a perfect location - not everyone playing was from dublin so it was so handy to get to