MicroHULA Rules/Interest/Sign Up Thread

[MrWookie]

For those of you not familiar with it, HULA (Heads Up Limit Association) is a tournament run on the 2+2 boards every so often for people to practice (or perhaps flaunt) their HU skills. It runs in a team format with a captain and 5 other team members, each of whom compete in a round robin format against the other teams. The stakes of the entry fees in the past have been $100-$200, but for the version we'll run in Micro, the stakes will be just $20. This isn't designed to be a big score for the best HU players. Instead, it's supposed to be a fun time for learning and bragging rights. However, any self-respecting poker player always has a little money on the line [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]. Here are the official rules, based on the post from Perseus about the HULA tourney in March, with a few of my own modifications and clarifications.

Entry
- There will be a $20 dollar entry fee which will go to the prize pool. Additionally, each player will be required to submit an addtional $10 deposit. This $10 deposit will be returned after the player successfully completes all of his or her matches. If a player does not complete all matches, his or her $10 will be added to the prize pool.
- If you with to participate you must sign up in this thread and submit your entry fee and deposit by a $30 Stars transfer to MrWookie. In about one week from today the list will be closed and the captains will hold a draft. Players who've not submitted the entry fee will not be eligible for the draft. In the event that a player is not drafted, his or her entry fee and deposit will be promptly refunded. If we don't get enough interest for this to happen, same thing.
- Captains will receive 5% rake from each player on the team. Therefore, the captains will receive 120% of the individual prize payout and other players receive 95%.

Draft
- There will be six teams consisting of a captain and five other players.
- Captains will be picked from whomever volunteers to take this position.
- The draft will take place in an AIM chat room.
- Players will not be eligible to be drafted unless they've paid their $30 in advance.

Season
- Each week, the teams will be paired off as home and away teams. The home team captain will determine which players from his team match up with the members of the away team. However, both captains must play each other unless one or both captains have elected to sit the week out. Away team captains are responsible for notifying the home team captains with their rosters (i.e., who's sitting out) immediately at the start of the week.
- Each team match will consist of 5 individual matches. Since there are six team members, this implies that one team member will sit out each week. No team member will be allowed to sit out more than twice and may only sit out twice in the event of extenuating circumstances ("He's not any good!" does not count as extenuating circumstances). One, possibly two, team members will play every match.
- Each team has one week to play the other. At the end of the week if there are unfinished matches you have 24 hours to get me e-mailed or PM'd proof you tried to contact your competition at least two times. If proof is shown, your opponent has 48 hrs to make up the match or else they forfeit. If both players agree to an extension, then this must be played within five days of the end of your scheduled week (so then you have a total of twelve days to play your match instead of seven). Extensions will only be granted by me if I see an e-mail or PM from each player before the week is over. If any match goes past the deadline and there is not specific blame on any one party the entire match is void. There will be no exceptions to this rule
- The season will last for five weeks
- At the end of the season there will be an optional seven days rest period to clean up outstanding matches. If the two prevailing teams both wish to start their championship match immediately, they may.
- The two teams with the best overall records go to the championship. In case of a tie, individual wins from all the matches will be added together with the team showing the most wins moving to the playoffs. If there is still a tie, the two captains of the tied teams will pick two other players and play a three game match in the bye week before the playoffs.

Matches
- Matches will consist of a 50 BB buy in.
- After one hour, if the winner is not decided, each player will rebuy for half their stack, effectively doubling the blinds.
- If after a second hour a winner is still not decided, there will be a second rebuy for half stacks.
- If at the time of the rebuy a player's stack is less than twice the minimum buy-in, preventing a rebuy for exactly half stacks, the players will continue playing until BUSTO or as soon as the player has enough to rebuy for half.

Championship
- All six team members will play in the championship match. The home team will be decided by the team with the highest ranking in the regular season.
- In the event of a 3-3 tie, each captain will pick two other team members to play a deciding 3 man match. The home team for the tie breaker match will be the away team from the original match.

Payouts
- 70% of the total prize pool goes to first place
- 30% of the total prize pool goes to second place
- The individual $10 per person will be returned after the playoffs have ended. I will hold the money during the season.

These rules will be enforced. This is a big commitment, so don’t sign up if you’re not going to be able to handle playing all your matches


If there are any rules I left out, anything you want changed, or need clarification now is the time to speak up.

Oh, one final though as to where to play. The Stars 2c/4c HU tables are now dead, and they were the best place to play. Another good alternative is Prima play money. They have the correct blind structure (SB = button), dedicated HU tables, and no rake. And really, they're about it for good HU play at stakes < $30/$60 AFAIK. I'm not sure about the PT compatability of their HU tables, but if you want to be sure to document your match for your team mates to review, you can always make a video. Also, don't forget the unmentionable when you sign up at a Prima/Microgaming skin. Some of the skins have very high percentages and they automatically pay you.

[bennyhana]

sign me up

[MrWookie]

Oh, just to add, there isn't a need to start sending me your $30 yet. Just sign up in here, and when it looks like we'll have enough to light this thing off, then I'll start collecting entry fees prior to the draft.

Oh, and as to whether or not I'll play, I probably won't. This is intended for newer players. However, if we have 35 players, I'll play so this thing will run. Also, if someone goes MIA right out of the gate, as happened in MiniHULA, I might step in to give the team that got screwed a fighting chance. Mostly, I just want everything to run smoothly.

Also, once we get rolling, I'll send a PM to pokergrader who graciously wrote and hosted a web interface for running HULAs and tracking the results. It'll be a nice addition.

[Bilgefisher]

This sounds fun. I'd like to try it. One question, when?

[Jaran]

I'm in...I guess (though I suck HU)

-Jaran

[MrWookie]

[ QUOTE ]
This sounds fun. I'd like to try it. One question, when?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, I'll see based on the responses today and tomorrow if we'll likely have enough. After that, we'll have people pony up their fees. If we get 36 or more people in time, then we'll have the draft either next Saturday or Sunday. If not, then we may postpone it a couple more days for when the captains will be around. I think a Wed-Tue week schedule works well so that the weekend falls in the middle of the match period.

[Buzz-cp]

K i'm in.

[Rev. Good Will]

In

[HouseCalls]

I'm in; I suck at HU too but hopefully this will help.

[johnnytt]

I am in but it is dependant on when its starts as I am going to be out of town 1st or 2nd week of august. Most likely second week.