HPT $2000+200 Majestic Star

[HoosierAlum]

Is anyone planning on heading up to Chicagoland for this tourney next week? They are breaking it down into 3 days, so they must be anticipating a fairly large field.

[pacecar86]

i'm playing, it may max out at 420....the last event was a near sell-out 208 capped at 210 (rumour has it that it was actually a sell-out, but, 2 players were caught pocketing chips from a satellite & were DQ'd from the ME)

[mattmcegg]

Going to Gary tomorrow to punt some cash at the $45 STT satellites. then qualify, then win.

is it weird that im excited to go to Gary, Indiana?

[jacksquat]

playing in the 1 pm qualifier tomorrow...,may seeyou there.

don't be excited, about gary or ms, both are pretty weak.

[mattmcegg]

Alright, that sucks.

I wont be leaving til after work (5pm) so ill be there ~7 hopefully. Do those satellites run all night?

[DeuceSeven]

I went up there last weekend to try and qualify. We ended up getting there late and had to be put on the alternates list for the sat $450 qualifier. The poker room is so poorly run, and the tournament director wasn't allowing alternates to come with a full stack of 10k, he had 700 taken out before you even sat down. I've never heard of bs like this. Needless to say I didn't play.

[CincyLady]

Just curious here, but how much does normally their main events run for the Heartland Poker Tour anyway (in case anyone wanted to buy in directly)?

(This as I'm considering going to the one the end of October in Iowa up around Des Moines)

[CincyLady]

[ QUOTE ]
I went up there last weekend to try and qualify. We ended up getting there late and had to be put on the alternates list for the sat $450 qualifier. The poker room is so poorly run, and the tournament director wasn't allowing alternates to come with a full stack of 10k, he had 700 taken out before you even sat down. I've never heard of bs like this. Needless to say I didn't play.

[/ QUOTE ]

duceseven, it's actually quite common for this to happen for any room that follows TDA (Tournament Director's Association) rules.

It's to take the place of the blinds you would of paid, had you sat down at the beginning, and is assessed to all alternates in any (poker) room that follows TDA Rules. If you had played at the WSOP the same thing would of happened had you been an alternate. It's the only fair thing (to the players that were from the start) to do.

IMO, with a stack of 10k, 700 isn't really much in the grand scheme of things for being able to come late to a event, sit down and still have a chance to win a seat.

[DeuceSeven]

I didn't have a problem with them taking out the blinds, I had a problem with them not informing everybody before the sat started. In fact 700 is pretty huge, almost 10% of your stack.

I believe the main event buyins are around 2500.

[CincyLady]

Thanks DS.

I think the problem was they 'Assumed' that everyone knew they (the card room) followed TDA rules, but I agree, it should be written down someplace or the Alternates told when they sign up that this is what is going to happen.

You might want to go to the HPT website:

http://www.newsite.heartlandpokertour.net/index.php

(the above link is accessable where normally the main website isn't from most workplaces)

and click on the contact us links here:

http://www.newsite.heartlandpokertour.net/contact.php

and send an e-mail to say Todd Anderson who runs the HPT and voice your concerns/displeasure on what happened to you.

They are still growing and it might not of occured to them that people who are alternates wouldn't know about that rule.

I've found them when I sent an e-mail to them recently, quite responsive, so I get the impression they do care what the public thinks about them and only want to improve the tour and resolve issues as they arise.

[pacecar86]

Cincy - direct buy-ins for HPT ME's generally range from high teens to mid $2K'ish

FWIW - the Majestic Star folks think this weekend's ME should field 350+, short of the max 420, but still a decent prize pool awarding nearly $200K for first

[CincyLady]

Cool thanks! /images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Looks like the HPT event that's coming to Blackhawk (The Denver area), Colorado, you won't be able to buy in directly, but will have to qualify via satallites, so I guess I won't have that decision here.

Colorado has really quirky gaming laws here, and the max bet allowed is only 5 bucks.

The local casino's get around that for Poker events by making the first hand limit then switching to NL, but still, I was just informed that the max amount even then they can charge, is $500.

I still might try the Iowa one, but I'm excited that they are going to have the one here only 60 miles from Denver.

[pacecar86]

cincy - degen warning regarding Meskwaki IA HPT = nary a drop of alky on premises <<grin>> other than that..u sh have no trouble qualifying..gl

[Ultra Violet]

It turns out will be in MN the whole week of the Mille Lacs event, so might check it out with my dad. Has anyone played HPT or regular tourneys at Grand Casino Mille Lacs? How are the cash hold em games there?

I was trying to read the fine print on the Even Schedule web page and PDF, and still had a few questions....

Are the $450 + $50 qualifiers played as a single table tourney with two people from each table advancing? Or all the players lumped together in a multi-table tourney and then two advance for every number of starting tables?

Maybe I will shoot them an email or give them a call in the morning.....

[EdCota]

The cash games are normally pretty blah, but during the HPT they should be juicier. Spread limit is the main game there, 2-10, should be 5-60 going. The qualifiers are mega sats, not single tables. top 20% get seats to the main event.

[CincyLady]

Does the Majestic have NL games?

[pacecar86]

cincy, Majestic Star NL: ya, decent 5/10 $1K max, & sorta/kinda OK 2/5 $300.."next door" at Resorts spreads a $1K 5/10 that I have found to be looser/deeper than the MS game on occasions. Resorts also usually spreads a $1K min no max NL on Fridays, the largest NL casino game in the Chicagoland area that I know of (have not played this one tho')

[pacecar86]

Ultra - regarding the HPT qualifiers - typically they are MTT's advancing 20% to the ME. Sometimes they run $400-ish STT's advancing 2 on the last day of qualifying or whenever they think they have enough interest/state gaming commission latitude.

[Ultra Violet]

Cool. I have been checking out the event info and finally discovered the links on the event page (http://www.heartlandpokertour.com/eventinfo.php?yid=2007&eid=11) spell it out a little better. We were trying to decide if we wanted to play in the nightly events also, or just the satellites....