2016 Great Blue Heron Casino Tournament Schedule

With only the King of the Cards (KOC) championship left this year, Great Blue Heron Casino has released the 2016 tournament schedule.

The bad: All the $300+$30 buy-ins with 10,000 starting chips have been replaced by $200+$25 with only 8,000 chips while rake has increased to over 11%. :( I like win-win compromises, but this is a lose-lose situation for both the players and the casino. Many of the players I talked to (including the only other forum member in KOC) do not want to drive all the way to GBH for only a $225 buy-in. The casino will earn up to $450 less rake/tournament by replacing the $330.

The good: For those that could not afford the $330 buy-in, you can now play up to eighteen $225 buy-ins, which are better than buying in to any US 30%-taxed tournaments. You get a buffet voucher worth up to $25, and final three players win a trophy.

WWBD: I will try to play all five $550 buy-ins with 15,000 starting chips and 9.1% rake. PM me if you are interested in carpooling, like DirtArse, Irunit4times, PocketTwos, lynx5, etc. have previously done. I was thinking of playing the $225s, but will probably miss too many of them with all the bigger tournaments DirtArse and I are hoping to play in 2016.

Comments

  • When it says Jan6-16 $225 freezout, does this mean daily?
  • "6-Jan-16" means January 6, 2016. 20-Jan-16 is Jan. 20, 2016.
    sn1perb0y wrote: »
    When it says Jan6-16 $225 freezout, does this mean daily?
    P.S. This will be an MCAT exam question. ;)
  • That's when you realize you failed :p
  • Do these tourneys usually max out? I'd consider coming for the $550 one on Jan 20th but don't want to purchase a ticket in advance.

    Also, do they have NL cash games or is it limit only? I haven't been there in years...
  • The $550 always have less than the 90-player maximum. You should buy at GBH by 10 am, which is the official deadline for sales.

    There is a 1/2 spread limit game available, with a maximum bet of $100. You should sign up for this when as you arrive, as the list takes time to get to ten players and seems to be the lowest priority for each newly available tournament table.
  • Here is the link for GBH's King of the Cards (KOC) Championship Series. If you are first on the leaderboard, you win $1,000 cash and a KOC trophy. Please ask the tournament director to have a flatter payout for the December 21, 2016 championship so that everybody in the final table wins something for Christmas, instead of all but five players having to drive all the way to GBH for nothing. :(

    In the past two championships, nobody was against paying out everybody in the final table, but the TD seems to think that players only want very top-heavy payouts, with a whopping 50% of the prize pool going to only one player! ^-^ In 2014, we could never agree to any deal during the entire final table, unlike the many multi-way chops at Playground.

    In Wednesday's KOC, all the players agreed with me again that the payouts should be flattened for next year and it's better for the GBH poker economy. Some players recognized the REG patch I was wearing and asked, and I told them that I was going to donate a percentage of any winnings to my favourite charity of Raising for Effective Giving. The chipleaders kept saying no to any deal, until we got 6-handed and the two former CL became short stacks. The two finally agreed with the rest of the table to give cash to whoever the bubble boy will be. When it got down to 3-handed, I was on friendly terms with the other two finalists; one I have seen many times at WPT/WSOP events and the other I just had lunch with when he was a short stack. The three of us had similar stacks so we agreed to a money chop, and we all won a trophy. The final hand was all-in blind.

    We collected all the prizes at the cashier, then went back to the table and distributed the cash. They were both unaware that unlike Fallsview & most US casinos, OLG casinos do not have any deductions for staff gratuities. I left a dealer tip as always, and one of them decided to also leave a tip.
  • Congrats on the cash and hardware. See you tonight....
  • congrats, back to back wins is damn impressive!
  • Thanks.
    Congrats on the cash and hardware. See you tonight....
    Congrats on the $2,500 win! :cool:
  • Congrats to both of you, I was planning to come out last night but I ended up throwing my guys a christmas work party, and well, beers witht he guys trumped playing. Congrats Buddy on another win at the KOC at the Heron, hopefully I can get to a bunch of these this coming year and qualify for the final tournament as well.

    Congrats Neil on the win! See you at fallsview!
  • BlondeFish wrote: »
    Thanks.

    Congrats on the $2,500 win! :cool:

    Thanks!
    Congrats to both of you, I was planning to come out last night but I ended up throwing my guys a christmas work party, and well, beers witht he guys trumped playing. Congrats Buddy on another win at the KOC at the Heron, hopefully I can get to a bunch of these this coming year and qualify for the final tournament as well.

    Congrats Neil on the win! See you at fallsview!

    And thanks again....see you in Fallsview!
  • The casino tournaments continue to sell out, including the $550 Deep Stack at GBH (90 players) and the DS at Brantford this week, which OVERSOLD by two players! The big difference is that there are now a few forum members playing these sold-out tournaments, something I have rarely seen since 2008. Here are the tournaments I am planning to play with one or more members:

    - Rama: March 21, April 4, etc.
    - Woodbine: April 3 and May 1 Deep Stacks.
    - Brantford: April 14; May 8, 19 & 29 Deep Stacks.
    - WSOP/WPT Montreal: April 19 - May 5.
    - GBH: May 18 $550 Deep Stack.
    TeezNutzAK wrote: »
    Do these tourneys usually max out? I'd consider coming for the $550...
  • Despite chopping in the $550 Spring Classic Deepstack, I'm barely in the top 50 required to be eligible for the year-ending “King of The Cards Championship” (KOC) since I've hardly played at GBH this year. If DirtArse & I want to return to KOC, we have to play more, so I shall start on Wednesday.
    ... have been replaced by $200+$25 with only 8,000 chips while rake has increased to over 11%.
  • I'm going with a friend to GBH's $550 Fall Classic tomorrow. Anybody else?

    The last $550 GBH Deepstack had 81 players. There were 78 players at the Deepstack last Thursday at Brantford, with Toronto Pimp, EdtheTed and moose there.
  • Today's GBH tournament sold out early as usual. With 3 tables left, I noticed the biggest ever security guard at GBH watching our table #1, along with another female employee. After a friendly player that had moved to our table just won another big pot, the TD whisked him off the table, ala Jack Effel and William Kassouf. I could see him having an animated conversation with the female employee. He briefly returned to the table to get his stuff and mentioned that he was being kicked out! :o I later heard that he was also banned.

    The TD took all his chips, but could not disclose the reason for the disqualification. I asked the TD for a chip count so I could factor it in the total number of chips and accurate average.

    When it got down to 12 and 11 players, there were the usual bubble donation proposals. Unlike Playground, Rama and Brantford, the chipleaders declined to light money on fire! :o The CL said he didn't want to be a "dick" and explained why he's declining, but the shortest stack said he WAS being a dick. When that shortie got eliminated by the CL, we were ITM and redrew seats for the final table. CL was seated beside me and explained his strategic reasons to me. He is one of the rare local players I know that understands the many reasons why he will keep saying no to giving up so much EV when all the shorter stacks are scared of being the next player eliminated and out of the big prize pool.

    I obtained a copy of the greatly improved tournament schedule for 2017, :h: and posted a photo on my Facebook.
  • Congrats on the cash! See you in Montreal!


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
  • Is anyone playing in Wednesday December 7th Tournament? Website says there is 54 seats left.
    I'm not sure if I have the time to play, however I would be willing to BAP if someone was interested.
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