CET Royal Riches Tournament

Has anyone played in this tournament before? It's a $100,000 (in casino credit) freeroll for... well... I don't know how I qualified. But I get three free nights at Bally's and it looks like the tournament is spread over two days. Apparently I'll get more information when I check in. I think they had one in September, did anyone here play it?

 

I don't play hardly any poker but I get invites to these events all the time. I'm thinking about trying my luck at the January event. I future worst case is that I get a little practice playing live poker again.

 

anyone have any details on this event

 

This is a copy of the e-mail I received. Not much in terms of detail, or even what kind of poker we're playing. (Ha ha, like it will be anything other than no-limit hold 'em.) http://view.ed4.net/v/B06HPM/O30LQO/BKL0SBJ/8M17YV/MAILACTION=1&FORMAT=H?ed_rid=B06HPM-AP8YP-BWH4QZ-0WD59N-X8WLST-v1&ed_mid=9204136

I do hate that the tournament's at Rio but I can only get rooms at Bally's or the IP. I decided to rent a car rather than deal with the shuttle bus.

 

If it's anything like their previous poker tournaments, you are seated at a table with 8 or 9 other people, the blinds go up pretty quickly, and once it gets down to heads up, those two people advance to the next day. There are several sessions throughout the day, with around 50+ tables in each flight. They usually have 1 or 2 sessions at the end of the day where you can buy back in for $100 cash. The next day progresses like a normal heads up tournament, but the blinds and antes go up pretty quick since they want to guarantee a winner at the end of the day.

If it's a Pai Gow tournament, you are seated at a table with 5 other people, and you get 10 hands dealt (so everyone gets a chance to be the first bettor twice), you bet in order of your seat, and the person with the most chips at the end of those 10 hands moves on to the next day.

P.S. I might be wrong on the heads up thing, and only 1 person per table advances, but I'm pretty sure it's both to avoid passing the same chips back and forth for an hour.

 

That is how it was when I did one a couple years ago--2 from each table advanced to the finals. Structure was horrid--like 1K chips & 10 min. blinds. Not much different than slot tourney--luck is really the only factor.

 

It was, indeed, a fast moving tournament. Basically a series of sit-and-gos on day one to get to 100 people. For those, you got 1500 chips with 25/50 blinds to start. But after 15 minutes, it was 50/100 with a 25 ante, and then everything more-or-less doubled after that every 15 minutes. Same structure for day two, but you start with 800 chips and they break down tables as people get eliminated.

You could rebuy on the first day for $100, but why on earth would you want to with that tournament structure? You're practically forced to go all in by the third level.

And though the tournament was at the Rio, I had to stay at Bally's to qualify and register for the tournament at Paris. Seriously.

 

Appreciate the insight here.
It is sounding more like a crapshoot.
My buddy and i signed up, cuz we thought i'd be fun to do. but i subsequently received an offer for just straightup freeplay at caesars that's seeming like a better deal now.

Andy, do i gather that you made it day 2 - to at least get some freeplay?

 

I got lucky when I did the tournament a few years ago; I was booked at IP, but the tourney was at the Flamingo. I think they use those tournaments as much for dealer training for the WSOP than anything else. How to move from table to table, take their breaks, stuff like that. I do remember the line for re-buys being impressively (stupidly) large. I kind of get it, since at least 2 of the people at my table had absolutely no idea how to play poker, you had to feel bad that you got beat out. But at that tourney speed once you hit the third level it was go all in or go home, and the newbies were just staying in on every hand and would catch all sorts of crap. It was like, "Hell for $100 I could win this thing with little effort." I made it to day 2 during my tourney, but finished just outside of the freeplay payouts. Cheaper than killing time at the craps table is what I took away from it.

 

Funny..

I look at it this way...with such horrid structure, it doesn't matter how good or bad a player is...the worse the structure the more luck is a factor.

I did make it to the final day, but got donked out early in that...

 

Thanks for the perspectives. Think I'm with you on the buy-backs.
I'm no real fan of the 1,000-chip, 25-50 tourneys to begin with. and you're right, by the time you buy back in, it's basically for one hand.
Trying to look at the tournament like you guys said - way to kill some time with a buddy ... and free rooms.
but the freeplay offer was tempting. (I could probably kill more time with $300!)