Celtic Poker Tour - Texas Hold'Em Poker

WMeathCool

Hi Guys,

I just joined this website today because of how annoyed I was at the s****Ee that some people have been posting up about Celtic Poker Tour. I was going to go to their first event in Mullingar but couldnt make it. When I read the stuff posted on here in the days after, I was glad I didnt go as it seemed a right ripp off; another one of these con jobs.

That old adage 'believe nothing of what you hear and half of what you see' came to mind however when curiosity got the better of me and I went along to their Athlone event last Thursday. They really do put on a great night. I love my cards and let me tell you, its about time that a properly run tournament has arrived to Ireland. There were bundles of staff, fabulous casino tables and unlike the rubbish i've read on here... there was indeed a chip race, the blancing of tables wasnt badly managed and there was a heap of free food for everyone there. The whole thing was so professional.

Its really annoying that some "players" from Dublin can come on here being all high and mighty and saying that they pity us country folk and what we have to deal with having visited one of the Celtic Poker Tour events. Because its not "Poker Events" we dont know what we're missing. Well, i'll tell you this, I attended a poker events once and it wasnt half as impressive as Celtic Poker Tour, which is why I went to the Celtic Poker Tour gig in Athlone on Thursday when there was a Poker Events gig on the same night. Having spoken to some of my friends that went to the Poker Events gig, I made the right choice aswell.

Make up your own mind people. Anyone who's standards are that high that they can't bare to approve anything past the M50 can stay behind it.

Ireland finally has a proper poker tour!

opr

I will be going along tonight to check it out so i'll you know tommorow what i thought.

The only thing i would say thats a big put off for me was NO DEALERS. I would have thought for any big poker tournament this was must.

Surely you get people at these events who like poker but are just not the greatest dealers in the world. I know its not a very hard thing to do but it is a hard thing to be very good at. Which for a big tournament i thought this standard would be called for ?

Do they even use dealers as the tables get down to a smaller number ?

OPR

WMeathCool

"The only thing i would say thats a big put off for me was NO DEALERS"

Another piece of flase information you read on here I suppose. They supply dealers to the final four tables. Most people can deal cards till then. But if there is a particular problem at a table they put a dealer in, one of the staff told me this the other night. He said the problem rarely arises.

Because they are a mobile tournie they couldnt possibly bring a dealer for each table.

ocallagh

What was their rake? How much was the buy-in, number of entrants, prize pool etc. I couldnt care less if i got free food or not! The reg fee is the important thing. I know a couple of the lads who wrote about their experiences at CPT events, and I fully trust their reports.

In regards to dealers, chip races, moving players.... I would guess that CPT have cleaned up their act recently BECAUSE of the feedback they got here. You can guarantee that they read this forum... Fair play to them if they have cleaned up, but fair play to the boardsters who pointed it out.

ps: were you at any of the previous CPT events that were reported on boards??

WMeathCool

That was the first one that I was at. I wasnt able to make it to the Mullingar event. I see on their website that te Mullingar event was their first one. So im guessing that it was just first night problems. I somehow doubt it that a big company like Celtic Poker Tour are going to be taht concerned about small few unpleasable people giving out on here. Anyone who goes enjoys it and goes back. Thats the vibe I got from the people I spent the night with anyway. And before anyone asks, yes we have played texas hold'em before, we were playing it before everyone wanted to play it!

I dont know how much their 'rake' was... thats impossible to determine. The buy in was €50.00 with a €5.00 reg fee. The reg fee of course being a legal thing, but at least they put it towards a draw for a poker table and chips. Expensive ones at that.

Im an accountant, i know how what kind of costs these companies incur starting out and maintaining their business' These guys are legit.

azzeretti

Sounds good.
Are you in anyway involved with the Celtic Poker Tour?

WMeathCool

azzeretti wrote:

Sounds good.
Are you in anyway involved with the Celtic Poker Tour?

No, I live in westmeath. I was at their Athlone event last Thursday. I nearly didnt go cause of the stuff i was reading on here but curiosity thankfully got the better of me. As i was saying, i love the game and was hoping that someone would get something going in ireland. I hate the attitude that irish people have towards people that have a bit of innitiative and get up and go! Thats why i said id say something.

BigDragon

You are an accountant????

You are not interested in how many entries, rebuys and addons there were???

There are a load of 'nice' games out there. The problem is not the dealers or food. Its the return on investment by players. Some of these guys are taking over 50% of the prizepool. Thats extortionate. As an accountant you should be seeing this.

The people being ripped off are the players. THATS YOU AND ME.

F tables and chips and food. Its chicken feed. A very small cost of sales when you take a huge cut of the prizepool.

You're no Eddie Hobbs mate.

WMeathCool

Have you been to any of the events?

If you have... you TRY and work out how many buy backs evryone there makes, then take into account the advertising & promotion, staff, hotel transport and all the other general costs into account.

If you havent, dont get involved in this conversation until you have.

These guys arent taking 50% of anything. Im not bloody stupid, im a realist though. get a grip fellas.

jtsuited

please remember that the bitching that goes on here is a direct result of the epidemic of badly run tournaments by a load of clueless dishonest cowboys. And then there always seem to be people (maybe like you) who choose to ignore quite significant problems (like no dealers!!), and choose to emphasise the fact that 'everyone had a great night'. Most of these tournaments that i have played in have been an absolute joke, with players who don't have a clue, and organisers who have even less. There are of course exceptions, but for the most part, they are exactly that.

jtsuited

WMeathCool wrote:

I dont know how much their 'rake' was... thats impossible to determine. QUOTE]


No i think you'll find it is possible. You're an accountant yes???

WMeathCool

Im aware of that mate. Ive been to them all. The point I am trying to make on here though is that this isnt one of these tournaments. There are people jumpin on the bandwagon that have never been to one. It just annoys me! I nearly lost out on this tour because i was ALMOST stupid enough to not decide to make up my own mind.

jtsuited

WMeathCool wrote:

No, I live in westmeath

Which is a good answer to the question: Are you involved with the Celtic Poker Tour?
!!

WMeathCool

jtsuited wrote:

WMeathCool wrote:

I dont know how much their 'rake' was... thats impossible to determine. QUOTE]


No i think you'll find it is possible. You're an accountant yes???

yes i am. and only if i went around to everyone that was there that night and asked how many buy backs and add ons they bought would i be able to answer. Averages could be done, but in my experience they are always wrong when it comes to this kind of thing.

jtsuited

WMeathCool wrote:

Im aware of that mate. Ive been to them all. The point I am trying to make on here though is that this isnt one of these tournaments. There are people jumpin on the bandwagon that have never been to one. It just annoys me! I nearly lost out on this tour because i was ALMOST stupid enough to not decide to make up my own mind.

Well in a game like poker, you have to have a fair idea of probabilities. And what does your probability head tell you when you hear about a self dealing tournament with a possibly capped prizepool?
The chances are it's gonna be one of them. Realistically. And according to you, you're a realist

BigDragon

WMeathCool wrote:

Have you been to any of the events?

If you have... you TRY and work out how many buy backs evryone there makes, then take into account the advertising & promotion, staff, hotel transport and all the other general costs into account.

If you havent, dont get involved in this conversation until you have.

These guys arent taking 50% of anything. Im not bloody stupid, im a realist though. get a grip fellas.

If you dont want a constructive discussion on your post....DONT POST.

You can easily estimate the buyins, rebuys and addons. You are an accountant after all. If not ASK THEM!!!

ocallagh

WMeathCool wrote:

That was the first one that I was at.

How can you comment on previous events when you weren't at them! How do you know the posts you commented on were full of sh1te??

WMeathCool wrote:

I somehow doubt it that a big company like Celtic Poker Tour are going to be taht concerned about small few unpleasable people giving out on here.

I think organisers like CPT, Pokerevents and PaddyPower care very much about what the players have to say on boards... Pokerevents, PPP-Pitboss maybe you could back me up here?

WMeathCool wrote:

Anyone who goes enjoys it and goes back.

This is clearly not true.. Plenty of players have voiced their opinions on this topic, and will not be returning.

WMeathCool wrote:

I dont know how much their 'rake' was... thats impossible to determine. The buy in was €50.00 with a €5.00 reg fee.

It's not that difficult to determine. Just ask them in the FO period how many buy-ins they had, and how much is in the prize pool. They can of course make up the figures, but if you pay attention to the buy ins at your own table you should have a good idea yourself.. In a frezeout it's even easier...



I'm not against CPT. It would be interesting to hear from someone who attended both events.. or even from CPT themselves. I'm sure Lenny Leonard will have something to say on this topic...

WMeathCool

Listen fellas, i have to go now... im after getting drawn into a discussion which i didnt intend on.

My reason for coming on here today was to pass on my positive experience of Celtic Poker Tour in Athlone last Thursday, and to let my fellow players know about it.

Those of you who have been there and didnt enjoy it... dont go back.

Those of you who havent been there, which seems to be the majority, do yourselves a favour and make up your own mind. I was glad i did.

And on a last note... the prize pool isnt capped.

Later fellas!

BigDragon

WMeathCool wrote:

Listen fellas, i have to go now... im after getting drawn into a discussion which i didnt intend on.

My reason for coming on here today was to pass on my positive experience of Celtic Poker Tour in Athlone last Thursday, and to let my fellow players know about it.

Those of you who have been there and didnt enjoy it... dont go back.

Those of you who havent been there, which seems to be the majority, do yourselves a favour and make up your own mind. I was glad i did.

And on a last note... the prize pool isnt capped.

Later fellas!

Good luck.

This is a discussion forum....none of this is personal. Take care.

PokerPlayerPaul

Does anyone know their what their website address is?

opr

Link to website

OPR

PokerPlayerPaul

Thanks OPR, looks good.

Lplate

WMeathCool wrote:

And on a last note... the prize pool isnt capped.

The organisers were asked directly at the Killarney tourney about this and agreed that the prize pool was indeed capped. Also the general feedback down here from those that attended was poor. The chip leader when it got down to 2 tables had 2.5 BB's, the blind structure was so bad. Basically the tournament is a crapshoot at this point with no post flop play at all.

IMO looking at the texture and tone of the original post, frankly I would be amazed if the poster is not a CPT rep unwilling and unable to defend his tournament openly.

WMeathCool

I hate to dissappoint you Lplate, but i dont work for celtic poker tour, i just happened to enjoy myself at their Athlone event.
Its funny how when i asked the company DIRECTORS in Athlone whether the prize pool was capped they said no. They said that the only thing that was certain was that it was a minimum prize pool of €10,000. If they get the numbers that pool rises.

ThePirat

hi i am a tournament organiser,having run the northwest championship sponsered by paddypowerpoker (a well run event with everything above board and transparant)
Having read the comments on here about celtic i thought i should have my say. i was in athlone on thursday attending the pokerevents game.hearing about the celtic game i decided to go on a spying mission to check it out.so off i go to the radison
On arrival there was 2 tournament organisers on the door. i pretended to b intrested in playing the event ..so in i go ....i looked around there were 180 players at this early stage ..but one of the staff tryed to convince me there were only 150 players.. ?.. there were no dealers and there seemed to b alot of players that were new to the game and had problems with dealing. . so then i sat down with 2 tourny organisersto get some more info ..the game was a 50 buy in with 3 buy backs and 1 top up of 25,,
+ 5 euro reg? max spend per player 155 euro... multiply that by 180 players and u have a max take of 27,900 EURO .so to the prize money..they guarantee 10,000 but i asked if u take 20,00 how much do u pay out ..10,000 i was told??? so i said with such a massive proffit why the 5 reg...i was told ...look at the overheads it cost 8 euro per person for food alone...tea + sandwiches buffet 8 euro i dont think so( free food ??) also there was a cheap table top a chip set for a draw from the reg. they took 900euro in reg,,so hey thats a good deal ....not ,,,about the number of staff ..there were loads of guys in black shirts standing around,,there only purpose was to collect all the rebuys which were non stop.then there were the 2 guys on the door ..probably on look out incase the guards came along to arrest them for ROBBERY.
once the rubuys were finished and there was no more money to be made.the blind level was shortened,,+ an anty was introduced to get the game over as soon as possible...all of a sudden it was a TURBO tourny??..
Celtic are on tour and are apearing in a town near u...they are heading for Letterkenny and ballina .. i would abvise anyone intrester intrested in a night out for a few laughs and to spend loads of cash to go along to the event,, but anyone that wants a game of poker ...dont toutch CELTIC with a barge poll !!!!!!!!

sickpuppy

barge poel how about a heap of pick handles the scamming fukers thieves like that should be locked upor at least beaten badly

Lafortezza

Any more direct insults on this thread will lead to some bans being handed out.
Give your opinion on CPT but no abuse.

The reason I think alot of people have a negative opinion of CPT is because, relative to PokerEvents and the casinos, these tournaments are bad value.
It's not that they don't have value, or are badly run or not enjoyable but for the money you pay you can have a far more lucrative tournament elsewhere.

Another thing that annoys people is the lack of transparency shown by some of these tournament operators. If the organisers are clear about whether the prize pool is capped, or give a total of the rebuys/topups and the resulting % going into the prize fund then people can make an informed decision about whether they want to play or not.

What really annoys us punters is when it's obvious that there has been X number of entries/rebuys/top-ups, the prize pool should be a certain amount and then the prize pool is announced as a fraction of this amount. Sometimes this fraction is very small indeed.

ZZR1100

WMeathCool wrote:

Have you been to any of the events?

If you have... you TRY and work out how many buy backs evryone there makes, then take into account the advertising & promotion, staff, hotel transport and all the other general costs into account.

If you havent, dont get involved in this conversation until you have.

These guys arent taking 50% of anything. Im not bloody stupid, im a realist though. get a grip fellas.

i worked out the average.every1 gets a top up up because u have too.there are at least 8 rebuys per table (taken from 5 tables)so it 100 euro per person.theses guys need 100 players to make the payout.the staff they have are there just to give out chips and watch tables for rule problems which most cant sort out.
You ask if any1 has been to to the events.have u been any other events which are run properly.if there are 200/ even 300 players 20k/30k.they take the lot.overheard the organiser outside in the break
(while the clock was running btw)when asked by the chip leader why give every1 a 10 k addon as it is eating into his lead/reply ..it gives the short stacks a chance.they wouldn't bother buying in if they were only getting 5k.
enough said..
and yes when asked directly on both the phone and in the event if the prized was capped at 10k was (after alot of bs about expenses and low turnouts )was yes it is.

DeVore

I'm going to comment on this simply because my finely-honed muppet radar is no longer functioning due to it *blowing up* on reading this thread.

Firstly: I've worked with The Pirat in poker-terms before. I believe him.

Secondly: I do NOT believe for one moment that WMeathCool is uninvolved. I have no proof but in five years of doing this, I've also never been wrong.
I started to dig and found that the email used to sign up that account is linked to what seem like pyramid schemes on the internet:
http://lhcb-elec.web.cern.ch/lhcb-elec/_electronics/000000dc.htm
Finally the IP addresses used to access boards for that account all terminate in Carlow. I dont know much about outside of Dublin but that seems the wrong way to Meath.
I think someone is pulling our chains lads.

DeV.

DeVore

btw the general average is 1 buyin , 1 rebuy, 1 topup. Its amazed me that despite the varying scale of buyins and top ups from 10 quid to 500 it doesnt vary much from that. Its always slightly less then that, in a 20 + 3rebuys tournie you can expect about 50 a man should go into the prizepool. In an unlimited rebuy tournie that might be a little more.


DeV.

NickyOD

Just in case it was missed before. If anyone representing The Celtic Poker tour reads this thread and are thinking of running a tournament in Limerick, please do not bother because the Limerick Poker society will make sure it doesn't go ahead. That goes for any other tournament that does not meet the criteria outlined in our forum on poker.ie. If anyone has a problem with that they can PM me through the boards forum and I'd be happy to discuss it either privately OR within this hread. As far as I'm concerned the CPT have zero experience or interest in running professional poker tournaments and their main goal is profit, profit and more profit.