Room is a nice nook off just off of the main floor. 11 seated tables are huge and you had to make sure to push your blinds/ bets in so the dealers could reach. Plenty of plasma tvs but there were all on the same channel, which one dealer said never happens. The felt on the tables looked new but the padding is rock hard. For $30 you get 400 chips plus a dealer addon of $3 gets you 200 more chips. B
This must be one of those tournaments that are cheap enough that people that have only played online for that last month want to get in on. There were 55 players plus alternates.
No one had a clue about strategy, inflection points or anything like that. There was one lady down to less than the small blind and she sat on it until she had to put it in and double up about 4 times!! She probably though that was the smartest thing she ever did. There were a few like that actually.
Tight aggressive is the key. And then make sure you win the coin flips (I don't think I won one the whole trip).
Because there are so many limpers and calling stations be prepared to get sucked out on!
They were ok on average. Kevin and Kha (?) were both very good. Only one overturned card. One dealer at my wife's table was very anal that the blinds had to be put right in front of her, almost to the point of splashing the pot. She got messed up a couple of times as to who had called and if the blinds were in or not. She also lost track of making change for a blind.
They were around and came about every 10-15 minutes.
Very disorganized, no clue as to what was going on. I do have to say that managing a 60+ person tourney and cash games probably is not easy but they were freaking out! Sending the wrong alternates, etc. No tournament director program, no idea what the blinds were or when levels were over. One guy at another table said we were at 200-400 for 5 minutes longer while they were already in 400-800 blinds. I think I heard an egg timer go off near the end of one blind.
Did not ask, played in tournament.