Hey guys I have some answers for some of the questions.
First on the structure of the ME - you're right the bubble should be reached sometime mid- to late Day 2. But running estimates based on 500 runners is too low - we had that few runners once in a 1K Main in the past 2 years - but only once. The average since the beginning of 2014 is 817 runners per $1.1K ME - and that *excludes* the outlier which was the Full Tilt Main Event which had over 1600 entries. If anything, the huge number of online sat seats that will get in will put this on the larger side of events at this buy-in level at Playground (though I highly doubt we hit anything like 1600).
The other thing to remember is that this is a Festival Main Event, so it's played as a standard Multi-day MTT. Those other events like the WPT500 and the like are explicitly "alternative" format events - not a main event like this one, and the only way to do it is to play down to 10% of the field (the money) on Day 1. That's fine - we've run events like that as well - but it's not the same as a "normal" Main Event like a standard WPT or WSOP event.
If you go to the website, all of our Event Blog archives are online so you can pick around and see the exact details of any of our past tournaments if you're curious about times and how things play. Start from the Events page on the site or
Playground Poker Club Events | Évènements ?. All info is there.
Most of the online reg & deposit problems seem to be solved by using the safepaycard, which you can buy at any post office in Canada as well as a ton of other locations - that's how I got some money into the system. Some credit cards work fine as well, though mine didn't (RBC).
The rules for online sat seats are online. If you don't visit our website you're really missing lots of easily-accessed information!
It says: "Players who win from 1 to 3 tickets must play each entry they have won. If a player wins more than 3 seats, any tickets won after the third may be redeemed for tickets in other TonyBet-sponsored events at Playground Poker Club (not limited to the 2016 Winter Festival). Tickets won on TonyBet are non-transferrable and may not be redeemed for cash."
Tickets won in LIVE satellites are transferrable - download the structure sheet PDF for the event for details.
I'll be back if you have more questions...