I tried the 11$ r (3x turbo)it is a shv fest, tried the 5$ r too and its the same thing. I might try the 50$ without the rebuy and hope ill get a seat.. good luck t8
For anyone thinking of travelling twice, the FTP Mega Overlay is this weekend and a ton of seats are going to be awarded.
The Mega Overlay is a $100 + $10 (optional dealer add-on $5 for 5K chips) with a 15K (+5K) starting stack and 30 minute blind levels with 3 Day 1s (Thurs & Fri 7:30pm and Saturday at 1pm). One seat for the FTP Montreal Festival Main Event will be awarded per $1,100 in the prize pool PLUS 50 seats are being added to the prize pool. This is a next-day re-entry event, meaning you can play from 1 to 3 Day 1s as you wish, but not re-enter on the same Day 1.
That means that if we get 250 per day 1 (very possible), 118 seats will be awarded. Capacity per Day 1 is 350 players, so it's possible that many more seats will be awarded.
Counting these seats and those that have already been won in satellites we're quickly getting to 300 seats already purchased/awarded a full month before the event, which already guarantees that the $1.1K Main Event will be amazing.
Hope it goes good Mike, but a 2 day tourney for a $1100 satty seat doesn't sound very appealing. I think you'd have been better off playing down to the seat every night, and split your g'tees between the starting days.
I'm likely to fly in from Edmonton...........are there any hotel deals you have hooked up for out of towners (preferably for downtown)?
T8 - yeah from Edmonton I can see how this wouldn't be something you wanted to travel for.
But for locals - and based on history, for lots of folks from Ontario - it works super well. Players who have an edge like the fact that the prize pool gets so big and then the overlay pumps it even more. It's a pretty efficient way to lock in a seat. The similar event we ran for the WPT Canadian Spring Championship was pretty amazing actually - there were something north of 45 seats awarded in that one weekend.
To be honest if you have to play a 2 day sat to get into 1k event, you do nt have an edge on the 1k field. So i would be glad they are doing these if pkaying
GTA - The Main Event in the FTP Montreal Festival is a $1.1K ($1000 + $100) event with a $1M guaranteed prize pool. Three Day 1s Sept 27, 28, 29. 3% Staff gratuity withholding from the prize pool BTW.
The WPT Montreal is a $3500 + $350 event with 3 Day 1s - Nov 29, 30, and Dec 1.
To be honest if you have to play a 2 day sat to get into 1k event, you do nt have an edge on the 1k field. So i would be glad they are doing these if pkaying
Every poker player I know tries to get into tourneys for as little $ as possible, so I don't think it's a question of *having* to play this to get in - but short of buying in full this is a pretty good way to go.
But it's also correct that for a good player, the fact that there are so many players from such a wide poker background (ahem) are going to be in the $1.1K is pretty good news.
Hey gang there were 281 players for Day 1a of the Mega Overlay. That number projects out to 126 seats awarded on Sunday but Day 1a tends to be the smallest starting day in multi-starting-day events so I wouldn't be surprised if the number of seats awarded moves higher than that.
I don't know if this will motivate any readers here, but there is starting to be a pretty cool list of pros coming for the Full Tilt Montreal Festival...
The biggest names (and associated with Full Tilt) are Gus Hansen and Viktor Blom aka Isildur1.
In addition we expect to see Jonathan Duhamel, David Williams, Chris Moneymaker, Victor Ramdin and Vanessa Rousso. Plus our friends Antonio Esfandiari and Jeff Gross.
Current estimate of seats for the Main Event awarded/sold is up over 400 now.
I don't know if this will motivate any readers here...
Lowering the virtually unbeatable cash game rakes will motivate readers here to play at Playground! To T8urmoney & anybody else going, GL and please post a report about Snake's Poker Club $10 cash/hour & other cash game structures available around Kahnawake.
I don't know if this will motivate any readers here, but there is starting to be a pretty cool list of pros coming for the Full Tilt Montreal Festival...
The biggest names (and associated with Full Tilt) are Gus Hansen and Viktor Blom aka Isildur1.
In addition we expect to see Jonathan Duhamel, David Williams, Chris Moneymaker, Victor Ramdin and Vanessa Rousso. Plus our friends Antonio Esfandiari and Jeff Gross.
Current estimate of seats for the Main Event awarded/sold is up over 400 now.
Does 400 include projected online sat ins?
Your 1ks have typically seen 325-380 walk ups from what I've seen at past classics, so could there even possibly be an overlay?
With Edgewater and Manitoba happening at same time, hard to say if this will be under 1000 players or stomp it. No history of "branded" 1k to even give a good guess.
Got my attention, look forward to seeing what happens
Your 1ks have typically seen 325-380 walk ups from what I've seen at past classics, so could there even possibly be an overlay?
With Edgewater and Manitoba happening at same time, hard to say if this will be under 1000 players or stomp it. No history of "branded" 1k to even give a good guess.
Got my attention, look forward to seeing what happens
Looks like about 180 as of now counting both FTP and Stars
I'm willing to make a friendly bet that it will reach the guarantee and no overlay. Even an unaffiliated and unpopular Fallsview can have two 600-player Day 1s if it finally gets smart and does it for its upcoming Poker Classic, so the popular Playground Poker Club with its unholy alliance with FTP will easily get 1,000 players after three Day 1s and players from around the world grinding the satellites in the two biggest online sites. While there may be only one forumer who's going so far, the 1,000 target will easily be met by poker players.
With Edgewater and Manitoba happening at same time, hard to say if this will be under 1000 players or stomp it. No history of "branded" 1k to even give a good guess.
When I post numbers they have and will include online satellite winners. We're getting the lists the following day and we produce physical tickets that we keep on hand here in the player's name so we're up to date on these numbers all the time.
There will be no overlay in this event, I'm 99.8% certain of that. I'm starting to think more about a sell-out than anything else.
I should add though that while I love good numbers and great prize pools, our primary goal is always to provide a great event for players, however many make it into the event.
Either result its win for the players, given GTD prize-pool.
Both brands involved have star power, so I expect fantastic numbers for Canada.
My reasons for even wondering are the 2 competing events in Vancouver & Manitoba (which usually see some players staying on home turf due to lower overhead) and 2 other series in Calgary and Saskatoon, right before and right after.
Given the great structure and multiple starting days, it's a 3 day commitment to min cash, so players are looking at what, about $1,500 to $2000 in expenses if they are traveling in, not including buy-in. With all that said, lets say 500 sat in total, another 500 walk up (shattering all your previous 1ks), what has been done differently this time around to more than double your projected attendance?
Outside forums and FB was it advertised in anyway I'm missing? I agree with Fallsview logic, but this is set up differently in terms of travel an accommodations. The 3ks make sense as a min cash puts you in black, plus you have significant side events.
US players can't sat in, most don't tend to travel up for a single 1k?
1500 would obv be the new biggest 1k field in Canadian poker history and crush even Vancouvers comparable WSOPc event, which would be good news & a very positive sign for Canadian poker and a step towards what I've said (and published) about where our scene needs to go; gtd prize pools or at least realistic estimates, several true majors a year across the country with exceptional numbers and effort, leaving more realistic and humble expectations for regional events.
It might be my personal bias, but I can see how recreational players will be drawn to WSOPc & WPT event to get the "I played in a" t-shirt, I just don't see "FTP live event" rolling off the tounge with the same prestige.
My other concern is that players will take the cheaper alternative, fire too many bullets at this and WSOPc to skip the WPT TV event or at least compromise it; just when we were building a world class stage to put Canada on the poker map, we are going to dilute it all with a saturated schedule.
The reason Fallsview does so well is because its take it or leave it for Ontario players. If there are too many events in an area, history shows all will suffer....
Jon - the festival is being heavily promoted via ads on TSN - I suppose they may not be airing them in the West? The ads are on all day alongside all kinds of programming and have been for a month. Also - it's a somewhat different audience than for the Fall Classic and WPT, so I wouldn't worry too much about cannibalization.
But as always it's all about the prize pool. This is the first $1M Guarantee tournament ever in the Montreal area (though we've well exceeded that in prize pools in the past in larger events). That's exciting for people. And excitement motivates people to play!
As well - satellites are the key to any big event. With somewhere around 400 entries already committed - that alone is enough to attract anyone who might have been on the bubble when this was announced. And there's still a month to go - there still a ton of seats still guaranteed in live sats between now and the Main event, and online sats are still running every day.
The other thing is that although the whole series is made up of smaller events than our Fall Classic, players really seem to be excited at the chance to play in a "Big Festival" that is still very accessible.
As you would expect, we're not skimping on anything for this event - players will have the same big event feel as they would in a much more expensive series. We're going to have as much wall-to-wall event coverage as I can manage with my 1.5 person team (which is quite a bit, if I do say so myself), for example.
Lastly - we're doing everything we can to grow poker in Montreal and Quebec and Canada, not just compete for a static player base. I'm just going off the top of my head with this (i.e., not from any internal research we may have done), but the daily player pool in Montreal has pretty much doubled since Playground opened. I think events like this help to do this on a wider scale.
And... so far so good.
Jon I would be curious to know if you have compiled attendance records for Canadian events in the past 5 or so years - is that information you have at this point?
Excellent answers. No, I have not seen the ads, but it does answer where the extra players outside the poker die hard community will come from.
In terms of attendance Playground Poker events are some of the best attended. Obv BC & Ontario have had bigger 1-1.5ks so far, but PPC hasn't headlined one yet before now.
I don't have records either than looking back as usually make a point of zeroing in on a few stats (compare to estimate, cap, triple digits or 1k plus players) and keep a somewhat accurate mental note of them.
For instance any 1k (or event for that matter) over 300 in Canada since about 2008 is worth remembering.
Some of the static series have watched go by 5-10 times, so it's not hard to get a feel.
Consensus is that this will break GTD though. I was way wrong about WPT Montreal, despite what I thought was optimistic goal posts so I'm fully prepared to watch this set another benchmark
the festival is being heavily promoted via ads on TSN - I suppose they may not be airing them in the West? The ads are on all day alongside all kinds of programming and have been for a month.
I can confirm that the rare time I was watching TV and TSN, the FTP Montreal ads kept repeating. Needless to say, I lost my appetite and had to restrain myself from throwing stuff at the TV.
It might be my personal bias, but I can see how recreational players will be drawn to WSOPc & WPT event to get the "I played in a" t-shirt...
This is correct. While very few forumers will probably go to this or CPT Mega Stack series, the few poker players left in the forum are interested in checking out the "poker mecca of Canada" and other Montreal poker rooms so we will try to do so during the WPT or WSOP series. Those who make the highly -EV trips to Las Vegas/Seneca to buy into tournaments may decide to use that money to play in a WSOP/WPT event with no 30% withholding tax and higher EV. I'm looking forward to meeting the mikelbyl and Half-Man team!
Comments
Yup, I'm in for about 5hundy, and haven't qualified yet....lol
Those 3x turbo's on Stars and Monster $5 rebuys on FTP get real expensive when you run like shiiite
The Mega Overlay is a $100 + $10 (optional dealer add-on $5 for 5K chips) with a 15K (+5K) starting stack and 30 minute blind levels with 3 Day 1s (Thurs & Fri 7:30pm and Saturday at 1pm). One seat for the FTP Montreal Festival Main Event will be awarded per $1,100 in the prize pool PLUS 50 seats are being added to the prize pool. This is a next-day re-entry event, meaning you can play from 1 to 3 Day 1s as you wish, but not re-enter on the same Day 1.
That means that if we get 250 per day 1 (very possible), 118 seats will be awarded. Capacity per Day 1 is 350 players, so it's possible that many more seats will be awarded.
Counting these seats and those that have already been won in satellites we're quickly getting to 300 seats already purchased/awarded a full month before the event, which already guarantees that the $1.1K Main Event will be amazing.
Anyone planning to come?
I'm likely to fly in from Edmonton...........are there any hotel deals you have hooked up for out of towners (preferably for downtown)?
If you go to playgrounds website and click the full tilt festival link, you will see a tab for hotels.
Westin and holiday inn with a promo code
Ah fuck it. Here is the link you lazy bastard lol
Montreal Poker | Playground Poker Club :: Full Tilt Poker @ Montreal
But for locals - and based on history, for lots of folks from Ontario - it works super well. Players who have an edge like the fact that the prize pool gets so big and then the overlay pumps it even more. It's a pretty efficient way to lock in a seat. The similar event we ran for the WPT Canadian Spring Championship was pretty amazing actually - there were something north of 45 seats awarded in that one weekend.
6:30 PM - $125 "WPT Montreal" NL Hold'em Poker Tournament
Deerfoot Casino
but I couldn't find any info on the Deerfoot website
It's a series points leader thing. Best or luckiest player after it is done gets the package. Like a league, but in the casino
Arriving Friday 27th @ 17:30.....leaving on Oct 3rd as of now.
Going to try for one more seat so I have a prepaid bullet for Saturday and Sunday.
Main is $1100 or 4k?
1.1k......the WPT in December is 3.5k I think
The WPT Montreal is a $3500 + $350 event with 3 Day 1s - Nov 29, 30, and Dec 1.
Every poker player I know tries to get into tourneys for as little $ as possible, so I don't think it's a question of *having* to play this to get in - but short of buying in full this is a pretty good way to go.
But it's also correct that for a good player, the fact that there are so many players from such a wide poker background (ahem) are going to be in the $1.1K is pretty good news.
Mega Stack schedule just released which coincides with this event. Bigger buy-in prelims.
The biggest names (and associated with Full Tilt) are Gus Hansen and Viktor Blom aka Isildur1.
In addition we expect to see Jonathan Duhamel, David Williams, Chris Moneymaker, Victor Ramdin and Vanessa Rousso. Plus our friends Antonio Esfandiari and Jeff Gross.
Current estimate of seats for the Main Event awarded/sold is up over 400 now.
Does 400 include projected online sat ins?
Your 1ks have typically seen 325-380 walk ups from what I've seen at past classics, so could there even possibly be an overlay?
With Edgewater and Manitoba happening at same time, hard to say if this will be under 1000 players or stomp it. No history of "branded" 1k to even give a good guess.
Got my attention, look forward to seeing what happens
Looks like about 180 as of now counting both FTP and Stars
There will be no overlay in this event, I'm 99.8% certain of that. I'm starting to think more about a sell-out than anything else.
I should add though that while I love good numbers and great prize pools, our primary goal is always to provide a great event for players, however many make it into the event.
Both brands involved have star power, so I expect fantastic numbers for Canada.
My reasons for even wondering are the 2 competing events in Vancouver & Manitoba (which usually see some players staying on home turf due to lower overhead) and 2 other series in Calgary and Saskatoon, right before and right after.
Given the great structure and multiple starting days, it's a 3 day commitment to min cash, so players are looking at what, about $1,500 to $2000 in expenses if they are traveling in, not including buy-in. With all that said, lets say 500 sat in total, another 500 walk up (shattering all your previous 1ks), what has been done differently this time around to more than double your projected attendance?
Outside forums and FB was it advertised in anyway I'm missing? I agree with Fallsview logic, but this is set up differently in terms of travel an accommodations. The 3ks make sense as a min cash puts you in black, plus you have significant side events.
US players can't sat in, most don't tend to travel up for a single 1k?
Lmk. This one is a complete guess to me.
It might be my personal bias, but I can see how recreational players will be drawn to WSOPc & WPT event to get the "I played in a" t-shirt, I just don't see "FTP live event" rolling off the tounge with the same prestige.
My other concern is that players will take the cheaper alternative, fire too many bullets at this and WSOPc to skip the WPT TV event or at least compromise it; just when we were building a world class stage to put Canada on the poker map, we are going to dilute it all with a saturated schedule.
The reason Fallsview does so well is because its take it or leave it for Ontario players. If there are too many events in an area, history shows all will suffer....
But as always it's all about the prize pool. This is the first $1M Guarantee tournament ever in the Montreal area (though we've well exceeded that in prize pools in the past in larger events). That's exciting for people. And excitement motivates people to play!
As well - satellites are the key to any big event. With somewhere around 400 entries already committed - that alone is enough to attract anyone who might have been on the bubble when this was announced. And there's still a month to go - there still a ton of seats still guaranteed in live sats between now and the Main event, and online sats are still running every day.
The other thing is that although the whole series is made up of smaller events than our Fall Classic, players really seem to be excited at the chance to play in a "Big Festival" that is still very accessible.
As you would expect, we're not skimping on anything for this event - players will have the same big event feel as they would in a much more expensive series. We're going to have as much wall-to-wall event coverage as I can manage with my 1.5 person team (which is quite a bit, if I do say so myself), for example.
Lastly - we're doing everything we can to grow poker in Montreal and Quebec and Canada, not just compete for a static player base. I'm just going off the top of my head with this (i.e., not from any internal research we may have done), but the daily player pool in Montreal has pretty much doubled since Playground opened. I think events like this help to do this on a wider scale.
And... so far so good.
Jon I would be curious to know if you have compiled attendance records for Canadian events in the past 5 or so years - is that information you have at this point?
In terms of attendance Playground Poker events are some of the best attended. Obv BC & Ontario have had bigger 1-1.5ks so far, but PPC hasn't headlined one yet before now.
I don't have records either than looking back as usually make a point of zeroing in on a few stats (compare to estimate, cap, triple digits or 1k plus players) and keep a somewhat accurate mental note of them.
For instance any 1k (or event for that matter) over 300 in Canada since about 2008 is worth remembering.
Some of the static series have watched go by 5-10 times, so it's not hard to get a feel.
Consensus is that this will break GTD though. I was way wrong about WPT Montreal, despite what I thought was optimistic goal posts so I'm fully prepared to watch this set another benchmark