As a loyal reader of this blog, It behooves me to reward you periodically with inside information on what's coming up at Pepper Street. Certainly, as a reader you deserve it, and truth be told I'd rather expend the energy on my planning here just once in writing, rather than over and over again verbally to multiple parties in the garage.
As you probably know, the World Series of Poker has released it's schedule for 2014 - and you can find it here.
As you can see, it is replete with lower buy-in events, including two of particular interest to us recreational players. They are...
Event #8 - the 2nd annual Millionaire Maker, a $1500 entry tournament with a guaranteed first place prize of One MILLION Dollars. (Place Dr. Evil pinky against corner of mouth here). This tournament takes place across two entry flights on Saturday, May 31st at 11am and 5pm respectively.
Jason H. played the inaugural Milly Maker event for PSP last year, and though he didn't cash he described the it as the poker playing experience of a lifetime.
A bit later in the WSOP, event #51 is a $1500 buy-in noon tournament on a Thursday, June 26th BUT the difference being a Monster Stack to start with - 15,000 instead of the usual 4500 in tournament chips. The structure is the exact same, including full hour levels, as every other $1500 NLHE tournament event in the WSOP.
Now this event on it's surface appears to be a great thing, and the truth is that players WILL get more hands to play; as it will take substantially longer to bust. But, keep in mind that one of the reasons the regular $1500 tournaments play so deep towards the final table is that blind levels are shallower. This is simply because players bust quicker with initially shorter stacks. In other words - the Monster Stack will be deeper to start, but inevitably have a shallower finish. Remember, it is a four day event for a reason, 10 extra blind levels will pass by before each bubble (making the money, final table and the big money at the end) and I imagine the avg. stack will be closer to 20 bigs at the final table rather than the usual 40 bigs found in the "smaller" stack NLHE tournaments.
That said - the play value of the monster stack is enormous and shouldn't be discounted. Also, no matter the actual math - recreational players like us salivate at the thought of a bigger starting stack regardless of what it really means.
So the point of bringing these two tournaments up as they relate to what satellites we will be playing - I was initially considering having sattys exclusively for one or both of these events. Then I remembered everyone's schedule will likely not line up - so instead of narrowing our choices I'm going to keep them open, but also add a bonus incentive if someone chooses event #8 or #51.
Right now - my plan is to have a single satellite and also to restrict it to one table. The entry will be $200 - this will get us to $1500 with a mere 8 players, but if we have 10 players it will provide the entrance fee plus a good amount of traveling money which has been lacking in the last few satellites.
I doubt we will have trouble filling the table - as of right now the tentative date for this WSOP Satellite is Saturday at noon on April 26th. The evite will go out to senior PSP players first at the beginning of April, and then later to more junior members if we do not fill.
If you win, you choose what $1500 event you want to play. If you choose either event #8 or #51 you will keep 70% of your winnings while the rest of the satellite players divide the remaining 30% evenly. If your event is not one of these two tournaments, then you get 60% of the money if you cash with 40% going to the group- the same as every other satellite we have ever run out of the garage.
I love this extra incentive for the two special tournaments, but I'm also glad that players aren't bound to it and can choose a different event with no actual penalty and the same split that we've always had.
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So this one satellite will be it for the 2014 WSOP regular bracelet events - but I have something else cooking up for what is simply the greatest tournament on the face of the earth.
The Main Event in the World Series of Poker is a $10,000 dream that any and all of us have had percolating in our brains at one time or another. This year, I'd like to make it come true for one of us.
At noon on June 28, Pepper Street Poker will have it's first ever Step 1 Satellite tournament. Entry will be $220 and the number of entrants will not be restricted to one table.
For every $2200 we raise, we will send one player to play in as many Main Event Mega-Satellites
as they can enter before the final day 1 of the main event begins on July 6th.
There are many mega-satellite choices leading up to the Main Event (ME).
There are $550 megas every day at 8pm. 4K in starting chips and the structure (the link is a sample from 2012) is very decent. It has half hour levels, though they typically give away only one 10K seat until about a week before the ME, this of course changes as the ME approaches and multiple seats become more and more common. You could play four of these at any time before the ME if you prefer.
But there are also $1060 megas from July 3 - July 6 at 1pm. In these, the structure is the same, BUT you get more starting chips (6K instead of 4K) and these megas always have multiple seats to award. With potentially hundreds of players, this is not a typical satellite turbo, but a real tournament with a real chance for skill to prevail. You can play two of these for a very decent shot at getting in.
Finally, there are also $2080 megas on the same dates as the 1K's, and they start at 8pm. Personally, this is the event I would play. 10K in starting chips, half hour levels and the structure which is comparable to the Aria or Venetian dailies. Plus, potentially twice as many seats awarded as the entry fee is doubled.
As you can see - lots of options to try and get in. The only real stumbling block here for us potentially is time. If, God willing, you get into the Main Event, remember that it is a 7 day tournament, with two hour levels! This means, if you enter in Day 1A or 1B on the weekend, your day 2 is on the following Tuesday. If you play day 1C on Monday, your day 2 is Wednesday. Day 3 is when everyone combines on Thursday, and you potentially make the money on Friday!
Not everyone, I realize, has flexibility at work - nor will everyone be willing to commit a week when they will be guaranteed to only play poker on the weekend in the mega-satellites. This Step 1 satellite may just be a pipe dream after all, but we will see based on the response when the evite goes out in June. I am opening up this opportunity to all PSP players, new and old, as we will not limit the seats available.
I hope you can take a shot at the dream with me, we will see!
As for other special events at PSP, I think just these two will have to suffice for the WSOP. I can always be talked into more, but really I'm going to concentrate on cashing in our regular events as my results thus-far this year have been rather crap!
Hopefully the next tournament report will be rosier when it comes to my own results! Until then, I look forward to seeing you on the felt!
