The Legends of Bristol St. - DISCUSSION
For those that have given up on the puzzle to get information, there's a backdoor. Hints in my sig sent you to www.roblegood.com/tlobs.aspx where you can still try your hand at the puzzle. If you've given up, enter "IMALOSER" in the password field to skip to the end page.
Now that that's out of the way, I'd like to start a discussion on the format of the tournament. I'll write down the ideas I have and look to the forums for comments. I'll try to seperate them out in to various sections, so that you can comment on specific sections.
A) Buy-in and starting chips.
$30 buy-in for $10,000 in chips. Freeze-out NLHE. I'm not looking for a big buy in and want to keep this open to a large range of people. My "thing" is low buy-in tournaments, so I don't want to go overboard here. Maxing the tournamnet out will put $1,280,000 on the table. The money is nice, but the real prize in is in the TV time.
Signing up
"Day 1" is split into four days, "Day 1A, Day 1B, etc.." (chances are each "day" is on a week night within a two week window of each other. Probably have one on a Sat. to mix it up). Each day is maxed out at 32 players. I'll have the date of each Day 1 decided beforehand, so to sign up, you list all the possible day(s) that you can make it. Registration closes a few days before the first day and players are randomly assigned a Day 1 heat, based on when they can make it, keeping the number of players for each day as balanced as possible.
C) Blind schedule.
Day 1 starts at 25-50 increasing at 20 minute intervals. Design the blinds so that the tournament runs starting from 7pm, ending around midnight. Play with antes, modifying the KWSOP schedule accordingly. The final table starts with 9 players, so that at 10 players play starts hand for hand. Once the final table forms, play down to 8 players, (one eliminations) who take their total chips into Day 2.
On Day2, reset the blinds so that the Big Blind is about 1/50th of an average stack. (eg. If 128 players, the average stack on Day 2 is $40,000. 1/50th of this is 800, so the first blind level is 400-800 (100 ante).) I'm doing this so that Day 2 gets a little more play in. Schedule for a Friday or Saturday and possibly raisng the blind levels to 30 minutes. Go hand for hand at the money (top 10%), and eventually play down to 6 players.
On Day3, the final table, reset the blinds to 1/50th of an average stack again. (so that the 'televised' final table has a little action to it.) Hold this on a Saturday and move the blind levels to one hour each to account for slow-downs due to taping. Day 3 will likely be one week after Day 2, so that we can convert the basement into a studio. (Does this kill the event for out of town players?)
D) Hole "cams"
I don't have the equipment to do hole cams properly and inexpensively, so an alternative needs to be found. The idea I have is to provide each player a folder that has listed hand numbers and the various cards they could have. The player crosses out their cards then play begins once the folders are put away. This takes a while, but is cheap and one of the arguements for making longer blind levels. We need to be able to trust players to accurately record their hands.
(Alternately, we can do away with showing cards, but I think that takes away a lot of the fun.)
E) Poker Filming
Two cams; one secured to the ceiling to provide a single shot of the board cards. One free moving camera to capture the players. Player would would need to wait to act until the camera moves to them, so there'll need to be a coaching session beforehand. Creative editing on my part would give the impression of multiple cameras angles. The problem with two roaming cameras is that colour balance and quality would be off unless we had two of the same camera, which I'm going to assume won't happen as primary filming will be done with a GL-2.
F) Other Filming
To keep with a fun show, we'll have the standard player interviews. (Possibly on a day leading up to the final table), exit interviews, and a Shauna-type announcer. (Does this mean I get to run auditions!!?! Woohoo!!) What else can we add to make it different from what's out there? The "Legends of Bristol Street could (would?) also incorporate other format games with smaller entrants and action between the hands could include the results of these tournaments so that more people get air time)
G) Announcing
Obviously, I'd like to be one of the announcers, but I'm definately open to running auditions. Voice-overs would be done entire post-edit.
H) Final Table Dealers
One dealer per blind level would be wonderful. Players that bust out are welcome to take part. I think we should have Dealer interviews.
J) DVD Extras
What else do we want to see? Chances are good that this will be a two DVD set. We could have our very own Bristol St. Roshambo tournament, interviews with the 2005 Player of the Year and 2005 Champion, etc, etc.
Start the discussion! Look to early Feb for the offical announcement and sign up thread.
Now that that's out of the way, I'd like to start a discussion on the format of the tournament. I'll write down the ideas I have and look to the forums for comments. I'll try to seperate them out in to various sections, so that you can comment on specific sections.
A) Buy-in and starting chips.
$30 buy-in for $10,000 in chips. Freeze-out NLHE. I'm not looking for a big buy in and want to keep this open to a large range of people. My "thing" is low buy-in tournaments, so I don't want to go overboard here. Maxing the tournamnet out will put $1,280,000 on the table. The money is nice, but the real prize in is in the TV time.
Signing up"Day 1" is split into four days, "Day 1A, Day 1B, etc.." (chances are each "day" is on a week night within a two week window of each other. Probably have one on a Sat. to mix it up). Each day is maxed out at 32 players. I'll have the date of each Day 1 decided beforehand, so to sign up, you list all the possible day(s) that you can make it. Registration closes a few days before the first day and players are randomly assigned a Day 1 heat, based on when they can make it, keeping the number of players for each day as balanced as possible.
C) Blind schedule.
Day 1 starts at 25-50 increasing at 20 minute intervals. Design the blinds so that the tournament runs starting from 7pm, ending around midnight. Play with antes, modifying the KWSOP schedule accordingly. The final table starts with 9 players, so that at 10 players play starts hand for hand. Once the final table forms, play down to 8 players, (one eliminations) who take their total chips into Day 2.
On Day2, reset the blinds so that the Big Blind is about 1/50th of an average stack. (eg. If 128 players, the average stack on Day 2 is $40,000. 1/50th of this is 800, so the first blind level is 400-800 (100 ante).) I'm doing this so that Day 2 gets a little more play in. Schedule for a Friday or Saturday and possibly raisng the blind levels to 30 minutes. Go hand for hand at the money (top 10%), and eventually play down to 6 players.
On Day3, the final table, reset the blinds to 1/50th of an average stack again. (so that the 'televised' final table has a little action to it.) Hold this on a Saturday and move the blind levels to one hour each to account for slow-downs due to taping. Day 3 will likely be one week after Day 2, so that we can convert the basement into a studio. (Does this kill the event for out of town players?)
D) Hole "cams"
I don't have the equipment to do hole cams properly and inexpensively, so an alternative needs to be found. The idea I have is to provide each player a folder that has listed hand numbers and the various cards they could have. The player crosses out their cards then play begins once the folders are put away. This takes a while, but is cheap and one of the arguements for making longer blind levels. We need to be able to trust players to accurately record their hands.
(Alternately, we can do away with showing cards, but I think that takes away a lot of the fun.)
E) Poker Filming
Two cams; one secured to the ceiling to provide a single shot of the board cards. One free moving camera to capture the players. Player would would need to wait to act until the camera moves to them, so there'll need to be a coaching session beforehand. Creative editing on my part would give the impression of multiple cameras angles. The problem with two roaming cameras is that colour balance and quality would be off unless we had two of the same camera, which I'm going to assume won't happen as primary filming will be done with a GL-2.
F) Other Filming
To keep with a fun show, we'll have the standard player interviews. (Possibly on a day leading up to the final table), exit interviews, and a Shauna-type announcer. (Does this mean I get to run auditions!!?! Woohoo!!) What else can we add to make it different from what's out there? The "Legends of Bristol Street could (would?) also incorporate other format games with smaller entrants and action between the hands could include the results of these tournaments so that more people get air time)
G) Announcing
Obviously, I'd like to be one of the announcers, but I'm definately open to running auditions. Voice-overs would be done entire post-edit.
H) Final Table Dealers
One dealer per blind level would be wonderful. Players that bust out are welcome to take part. I think we should have Dealer interviews.
J) DVD Extras
What else do we want to see? Chances are good that this will be a two DVD set. We could have our very own Bristol St. Roshambo tournament, interviews with the 2005 Player of the Year and 2005 Champion, etc, etc.
Start the discussion! Look to early Feb for the offical announcement and sign up thread.
Comments
10K in chips, $30 buy-in
Random player playing days
As long as you can give us ample amount of time to beautify ourselves
Blind Schedule
With the added luxury of having this filmed you might want to think about giving yourself atleast an extra hour towards the tournament. I assume that you'll be pausing the clock when a player needs to halt action for the camera to come around.
Hole Cams
If you decide to have players use the folder idea, I would try to make all folders as random as possible. It could avoid "Mario made two checks in the right top corner, he has a pair of ducks". I do see this as the cheapest way to accomplish the task of knowing the hole cards.
Filming
I'll look great on film!
Announcing
You'll be a great announcer but will definately need a sidekick. Are you planning on playing too?
Dealers
Should have distinctive clothing on to seperate them from the players, dealer interiews rule!
Extras
I love the idea of player interviews, especially the POTY and TOCC interviews
This will be an amazing feat to say the least....thanks in advance for taking it on. When are you thinking of running it?
stp
According to his puzzle, its supposed to be in March of 06.
Just one suggestion in terms of the recording part. I'm not sure how practical it is, but maybe possibly run a simulation of the final table along with all the recording/folder thing that needs to be done so you can get a more accurate estimate of how much time is required.
You know, that might work. Run 6 cables into three laptops and have a sucker volnteer sitting there recording the hands on paper.
The move to one hour blinds (actually, probably closer to 55 minutes, due to MiniDV tape recording length) is to accomidate the time taken to do non-poker stuff.
I'm thinking of mid March, in a two week window to get this complete. I'll announce all dates in March with the finals likely the 18th-ish.
If you need some help, just let us locals know, We'd be glad to pitch in!
JohnnieH
stp
I've got one too if you need more
Ideas: The folder Hole Card counter could make things run really long. And I am sure you want this as painless as possible. Web Cams would be a great idea and could be installed semi-easily with the right table.
I agree with dealer uniforms.
I won't question your blind schedule, you know more than most what works and what doesn't.
A sidekick announcer would be great as well. I am not sure if auditions would be the way to go, however, you could use popular Forum members on different days and rotate the guest annoucer ala Ultimate Poker Challenge.
I am sure Shannon would love to be an announcer seeing he is the popular person on the forum and as he probably won't be playing poker that day.
Prophet 22
I would love to help out with the announcing, that would be an unprecedented TWO sexy announcers. Yes, I called Rob sexy....man flirting! I hope to be playing long into the tournament but I thought that voice overs would be done after the tournament was over. I think another unprecedented event would be having the person that won actually be an announcer too! Thats my plan, I'll audition if Rob will have me....Other people I would suggest off the top of my head. Steve "All in", Mark "DrTyore", Amanda "Easy", Cory "Folded", Lou "magithighs"...just off the top of my head though...
stp
Or Dave Foley.....whatever
JohnnieH
He has TV experience now doesn't he?
I actually put my name in way back when the quiz came out to take on the sexy Shaunaesque host role.
Rob told me something about having to pudding wrestle for the job...
What about motivational speaker Matt Foley?!?!
"Now, as your father probably told you, my name is Matt Foley, and I am a Motivational Speaker! Now, let's get started by me giving you a little bit of a scenario of what my life is all about! First off, I am 35 years old.. I am divorced...and I live in a van down by the river!"
P.S. I also have a logitec web cam. This would probably work great, you can plug in as many as you can into a machine and they just show up as cameras under explorer. The only thing however is that I read in their documents that they say you have to have these plugged directly into the USB ports for proper operation. This means that extension cables or USB hubs might be out of the question, which means that the laptops would have to be pretty close to the table, probably within view of the players (this might also only be a concern for logitec devices, I don't know).
OK, Rob started this, so I apologize for my slightly long response (but I'm a geek
When I first started thinking about my Main Event I wanted to track the cards as well. I investigated using webcams, but personally I found it a bit intrusive and clumsy. It would require modifying the table or having the cameras on the table (a bit ugly), it requires a bit of training for the players to use correctly, and it requires a LOT of manual intervention. I did some tests with visual recognition software, but the software currently available (at my price level) isn't up to the task, so you'd need to manually view each picture to determine the cards.
The idea I settled on was RFID. Using an RFID reader and a tag on each card, the dealer would simply pass the cards over the reader while dealing. The software would automatically catalog everything, and you'd have instant hand histories with no human intervention, and very little additional time/work for the dealer. Unfortunately, this is slightly cost-prohibitive right now. I contacted a few distributors back in November, and the cheapest I could do this would be about $250, which is a bit out of my price range right now.
If I have a huge score and can afford to do this, I'll loan it to ya
Rob should add a brief documentary on his other passion ... beer
I have 3 Laptops and 3 web cams - I dont think it should be a problem to come up with the hardware.
Unfortunatel, I only have hardware! I have zero technicially know-how - but with the number of UW students here some one must know how to configure a lap top to a camera!
Let us know what you need in the end Rob and we'll get it for you.
Chances are I'd be long out...I'd love to throw my hat into the commentary ring if only for the "how not to" segments.
PokerJAH
E.
Amanda --"and now shannon makes it $400 to go with his KQo in early position"
Rob -- "yes, quite a risky move this early in the tournament, Amanda. Â And it seems everyone folds to John in the small blind who looks to be contemplating a call with his 10 8s. Â It's 350 more for john to call this.......AND HE DOES IT!!! Â WHAT A BOLD MOVE AMANDA"
Amanda -- "Yes Rob, lets go to the flop." Â
Heads-up between john and shannon
Amanda "Now we see a King of spades, a ten of hearts, and an eight of diamond"
Rob -- "I think we might see some fireworks here, Amanda"
Amanda -- "we just might, Rob"
Rob -- "John checks his 2 pair, and Shannon checks his top pair......... I think they're trying to slow play eachother here, Amanda."
Amanda -- "You coudl be on to something here Rob, and now the turn brings the queen of spades. WOW!"
Rob -- "Amanda, this gives them both 2 pair, but john is now on a flush draw. Â Lets see what happens...."
Amamda -- "John fires out $800. Â A pretty good pot sized bet, Shannon is sure to raise him here. Â AND HE DOES!!! Â SHANNON IS GOING ALL IN!!!"
Rob -- "Holy Moly, Amanda, Â John quickly calls it...........but ya knwo what Amanda??"
Amanda -- "Whats that rob?"
Rob  -- who really cares about all this silly poker business...........  lets go get some exotic German beer no ones ever heard of before.  What do ya say?"
Amanda -- "Sounds liek a great idea Rob, but only if we're doing it in as little amount of clothing as possible."
Rob -- "Great idea Amanda"
Johnny
Which was funnier the rehashing of Bristol, Rob's beer joke or Amanda's clothing? I think we need a poll.