Poker Tournament In Las Vegas?

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Sat Oct 09, 2004 5:25 am

Perry Van Hook has asked me if I'm interested in organizing a poker tournament in Las Vegas only for NFBC members during the weekend of March 18-19. Although I haven't talked about this with him in more than a month, I thought I would throw this idea out on the message boards now so that we can gauge the level of interest. I'll let Perry chime in about the price, payouts and how many people we would need to make this happen.

Ideally, I'd like to do this on Saturday night, March 19th, although that will be a VERY busy time for the casinos. Doing it on Friday will be impossible. I'll be meeting Perry in Arizona later this month to go over the details, but let's hear from anyone now if they have interest in us pursuing this possibility. The idea is to extend the comraderie of participants and keep the fun going into Saturday night. Anyone interested?

Nevadaman · Post by **Nevadaman** » Sat Oct 09, 2004 10:08 am

I would definitely play in the poker tournament!

Dyv · Post by **Dyv** » Sat Oct 09, 2004 11:49 am

I would play if it can be done at a fair cost/price and Kahuna has nothing to do with it.

Dave

KJ Duke · Post by **KJ Duke** » Sat Oct 09, 2004 1:39 pm

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:

Perry Van Hook has asked me if I'm interested in organizing a poker tournament in Las Vegas only for NFBC members during the weekend of March 18-19. Although I haven't talked about this with him in more than a month, I thought I would throw this idea out on the message boards now so that we can gauge the level of interest. I'll let Perry chime in about the price, payouts and how many people we would need to make this happen.

Ideally, I'd like to do this on Saturday night, March 19th, although that will be a VERY busy time for the casinos. Doing it on Friday will be impossible. I'll be meeting Perry in Arizona later this month to go over the details, but let's hear from anyone now if they have interest in us pursuing this possibility. The idea is to extend the comraderie of participants and keep the fun going into Saturday night. Anyone interested? Yes, but I think you and Tom (if he is in Vegas) should be in it too.

[ October 09, 2004, 07:40 PM: Message edited by: KJ Duke ]

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Sun Oct 10, 2004 3:24 am

Now Kevin, don't get started with Tom also being in Las Vegas during the NFBC drafts. It's a sticky subject here as he LOVES that place and DESPERATELY wants to go there not only twice a year but 12 times a year. But I need him to run one of the events I'm not running and UNFORTUNATELY I have to be in Las Vegas!

But we'll see what we can do.

We're more sheepshead players than poker players here in little ol' Iola, but I'll start watching the Travel Channel to learn the ropes about poker. It would be a donation to the cause, but it would be a good donation. We'll see about my participation as we get closer to March.

Dyv, have no fear about doing this the right way as you know you can trust me by now. I have to work with Perry and his contact in Las Vegas (Tom) to see what the house's take would be and if we can guarantee that our event will be limited to JUST our players. If not, we'll rent a suite with Meat Loaf that night and do it privately. But if we can get a good deal somewhere and have a night of poker playing, a few beverages and comraderie among fantasy baseball players, then let's go for it. More on the details soon, hopefully.

Let's see how many guys are interested and continue to plan accordingly for that Saturday night after the draft.

cfolson · Post by **cfolson** » Sun Oct 10, 2004 4:23 am

I would play.

Leaderboard Sports · Post by **Leaderboard Sports** » Sun Oct 10, 2004 10:59 am

The Leaderboard Sports contingent booked a large suite (Thanks to Meat) at the Hilton last year and rented a couple 6' round tables from housekeeping and 25 chairs, we told them it was for a fantay baseball draft because all the hotels have a strict policy about not playing poker in the rooms. We brought our own chips and had a $300 buy in and all chips were the same value so each player got the same number of chips. We had about 22 players, played no-limit Texas Holdem and paid the top 4 places.

I was planning on doing this again this year for the Leaderboardsports people but there's no reason we can't combine it with the rest of the NFBC. Renting large suites that can handle 20 to 30 people can be expensive. The Hilton suites were about the cheapest and with the table and chair rentals it was $950.

I would suggest since many of us will be staying in the Rio suites that we have sattelite games in several rooms. Maybe 10 to a room, play it down to 5 and then combine two rooms, etc etc till we get down to one table in one room with the final 10 players and pay the top five finishers 50%, 40%, 30%, 20%, and 10% of the pot minus costs (table and chair rentals)

We would have to have an even number of players 20, 40, 80, or 160 and that would take 2, 4, 8, or 16 rooms as well as that many tables and chairs and I'm not sure if the Rio can handle that but if nothing else we could sit on the floor and play on a sheet. We'd have to have some way of monitoring that everyone starts with the same amount of chips, probably just buy all one kind of chip and hand them out at the buy in.

Depending on the number of players we might have to reduce everyones stock pile of chips in half every round to keep betting and managing your stack simple.

I'm in for a game however you want to do it. Probably couldn't do a $300 buy in, but at $100 we could probably get 80 people.

Nevadaman · Post by **Nevadaman** » Sun Oct 10, 2004 2:35 pm

After figuring the expense of the suite, extra rooms, table and chair rentals, etc. wouldn't the cost be as high or higher than just having it in a casino?

Leaderboard Sports · Post by **Leaderboard Sports** » Sun Oct 10, 2004 4:10 pm

It would be if you had to book a large suite big enough for everyone but the Rio is an all suites hotel and the standard rooms are plenty large enough for a 6' round table and 10 chairs. Many NFBC people will already be staying there and if we get enough people to volunteer their rooms as a satellite game room then the only cost would be the card tables and extra chairs.

[ October 10, 2004, 10:11 PM: Message edited by: Leaderboard Sports ]

Leaderboard Sports · Post by **Leaderboard Sports** » Sun Oct 10, 2004 4:20 pm

I tried getting a game set up in a casino poker room last year and was told they could not offer private games because of the gaming laws. This was even after we told them we had a celebrity in the group who wished a private game. They said if we had some unique variation that wasn't offered they would set up a new table and if we filled it before any outsiders wanted in that would be the only way we could get a private game.

One female casino host once she found out Meat Loaf was in our group offered her own 5,000 sq. ft home for our use

, kind of wish we had taken her up on that she sounded kind of cute.

Team Herron · Post by **Team Herron** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 4:44 pm

I would play. I played in the tourney heald around the WCOFF and thought it was a blast.

TBill · Post by **TBill** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 12:57 am

I would also play. This sounds like a natural idea for those who want to come to vegas. Could we use our drafting conference room for the tnmt.? It seemed like our conf. room was idle the night before. Can we get a sponsor (Harrah's ? They're getting into televised poker events) or take a modest prize pool out of the league entries ? That glowing Sports Illustrated article could be of help. (Harrah's gets the TV rights to the Draft where people can see Meatloaf and the poker action which is wildly popular now)

[ October 13, 2004, 06:58 AM: Message edited by: TBill ]

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 2:49 am

Perry organized the WCOFF tourney in September and he volunteered to do one with the NFFC as well, but we didn't get enough guys. I will talk with him first to see if we can organize this on Saturday night at a fair price. I think some guys felt the "take" was a bit high by the casino for that event, so I want to make sure we do this right.

In September for our Fantasy Sports Trade Conference, we cleared it with the Flamingo to host a friendly poker tournament in our conference room after the meetings were done. They agreed and we brought our own chips and people dealt themselves. We had 60 people and had five hours of great fun. The Flamingo was cool with it and no money exchanged hands on the spot, although we did pay back 100% at the end to the winners. I'm not sure if the Rio would allow us to do that, but we could find out. Basically we could start the poker tournament in the draft room around 4 or 5 and still allow everyone to enjoy the night in Las Vegas. But let me check on that first.

Lots of time to make this work and with 100+ teams expected to be in Las Vegas for the NFBC and several co-managers, I think there is real good potential for a Saturday night poker tournament.

bowlingfool · Post by **bowlingfool** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 11:39 pm

For those of you serious poker players who will be drafting in Vegas, take a look at this link at cardplayer.com. Looks like the Rio will be having a WSOP "tune up" event during the weekend of the NFBC draft!

tune up event for WSOP at the Rio in March

Leaderboard Sports · Post by **Leaderboard Sports** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 11:41 am

Greg, What's the status of the Rio allowing us to use the room after the draft for Poker?

Would this be a co-ordinated tournament with a set buy-in for a set number of chips and moving from table to table till the final 10 guys are left or would each group set their own table rules and just play among themselves?

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 3:45 am

I am still seeking an answer from the Rio to allow us to do that. As I told Dave, I'm trying to get clearance to do that for our Trade Conference as we had chips and no money showing at the Flamingo in September and the guys had a blast with two guys splitting $2,500. So I'm asking the Rio to let me do that on Thursday night for the Trade Conference and Saturday for you guys. So far they're still mulling it over. I'll let you know as soon as they get back to me.

alexado · Post by **alexado** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 3:39 pm

Count me in for the poker tournament. Texas hold'em of course. I think a buy in of two or three hundred is good.

Live Draft followed by poker game...It's gonna be a great day!!

sandckaye · Post by **sandckaye** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 1:39 am

I am very interested in a poker game but I sure hope everyone would agree to have it a non smokeing game.

Stan

J. Roth · Post by **J. Roth** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 10:43 am

Does Mr. Loaf ever comment on the message boards? I am looking forward to meeting him.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 10:56 am

No, Meat saves his rants and rages for Draft Day and he usually takes his frustrations out on guys like Dyv!

He is scheduled to participate in four events over three days, so he will have plenty of time to go crazy on Draft Day!!!

Dyv · Post by **Dyv** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 7:59 pm

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:

No, Meat saves his rants and rages for Draft Day and he usually takes his frustrations out on guys like Dyv!

He is scheduled to participate in four events over three days, so he will have plenty of time to go crazy on Draft Day!!! Just to improve your chances of getting an autograph if you're seeking one... call him Meat. Mr. Loaf won't fly too well

I can't wait to hear how he hammers me this draft... what pick will put him over the edge?

See you in Vegas!

Dave

[ January 21, 2005, 02:02 AM: Message edited by: Dyv ]

Captain Hook · Post by **Captain Hook** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 4:08 am

Doesn't look like enough poker players, but we have a couple of months yet. Perhaps after signups are finalized.

Leaderboard - it can be done, IF you have someone on the inside make the connections and pay a little vig - still much cheaper and a lot easier than trying to play in rooms without professional dealers, rules etc.

KJ Duke · Post by **KJ Duke** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 1:04 pm

Hope it is still on ... I'm in greg if we can get this going.

hankstr · Post by **hankstr** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 1:09 pm

I might be interested in a little Texas hold'em -keep me in the loop