Rolling with it

I have been fairly busy this week. Tuesday I drove about an hour and fifteen minutes away to the Oklahoma/Arkansas border to play the first event of the Reindeer Games Series at Cherokee Casino in West Siloam Springs, OK. The first event was a $100 re-entry event with a $10 add-on and I took 5th for 1k. Wednesday they had a $100 mtt with $20 re-buys and I chose to stay in Tulsa. Thursday they had a $150 entry partners event with a $20 add-on and my partner and I got 10th but no money. Tonight, which was Friday they had a $230 re-entry 15k gtd with a $20 add-on. They called it a deepstack but then gave us 8k in chips and surprised us with a $20 add-on for the other 7k to make it a deepstack. The structure was decent, they only skip about four important levels. I went out with 3 tables left in a hand where we got over 40bbs a piece all-in pre. I had QQ and the villain had J9o, he made a straight. Although I wasn't able to do well I was still happy because my good friend Tim got 6th for $1300 and really played well, congrats Tim.

Overall the tournamnets have been decent, but Thursday when they made both partners do a dealer add-on for $10 to make it $20 in add-on for a $150 mtt, and tonight when they got a $20 add-on for a $230 mtt and the fact there was nothing posted anywhere really had me annoyed. That is just way to much for that size of a buy-in. I asked one of the managers why it was $20 and he said that last time it was $15 and they had a problem and needed to make it an even number this time, so they chose $20, how covenient. Dealer add-ons should be in relation to the buy-in and the fees. In my opinion anything under a $500 buy-in should never have more than a $10 dealer add-on. For buy-ins between $500 and $1,000 maybe $15, and $1,000 and above maybe $20. But, I could also make sense of the dealer add-on never being more than $10 and then the winners will probably start tipping a little more again.

I made a post on twitter that also posted to Facebook about my disgust with the overcharging on such a small buy-in and I was surprised at the mixed responses. Several obviously understood my points and supported me, but a few bias Casino workers only saw the good of padding their own pockets and I don't think put any thought to the fact that they should not be overcharging their customers and run off more players. I just applauded Hard Rock Tulsa for their improved structure and reduced fees during the recent Hard Rock Poker Open, as they built the add-on into the prize-pool and reduced it a little. I praised them and offered several tips that I think will help drive in more business for the next event. I am all about Oklahoma poker and I will speak my mind and try to help where I can. We need to stand up and let them know that this overcharging should not go on.

Variance101 is still going strong, I have given a couple lessons this week and spent some time working with a couple live players as well. The variance101 poker chat is still alive and well and I stop by there a few times a day to try and get my poker discussion on. Also keep your eye out for a new article on BRM that should be published on P5s soon.

If you are interested in taking poker lessons or would like any information, contact me at variance101@gmail.com and/or visit http://variance101.com/# and http://variance101.blogspot.com.