2008 Fall Poker League Schedule 

All games are on Saturday nights

Buy-In Starts at 6:50pm

First Deal is at 7:05pm

..Week 1 Kickoff Special! ~ September 6th: No Limit Hold'em Tourney 

..Week 2 ~ September 13th: No Limit Hold'em Tourney

..Week 3 ~ September 20th: No Limit Hold'em Tourney 

..Week 4 ~ September 27th: Pot Limit Omaha-Hi Tourney 

..Week 5 ~ October 4th: No Limit Hold'em Tourney  

..Week 6 ~ October 11th: No Limit Hold'em Tourney  

..Week 7 ~ October 18th: Pot Limit Omaha-Hi Tourney 

..Week 8 ~ October 25th: No Limit Hold'em Tourney  

..Week 9 ~ November 1st: No Limit Hold'em Tourney  

..Week 10 ~ November 8th: No Limit Hold'em Tourney  

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Week 11 ~ November 15th: Winter Poker League Championship Game

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2008 Fall Poker League

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The 2008 Fall Poker League is a series of home games running on 11 consecutive Saturday nights at 7pm.  The games' structure, format, blinds and payouts will be the same as the '07 Fall League and '08 Winter League for the upcoming season.  We will again have 10 regular seasons games, which will include 2 Pot Limit Omaha Hi games.   The other 8 weeks will all be standard No Limit Hold 'em events.  (There will be no Heads-Up event this time around.) 

Points are earned each week based on how well you finished against the field.  See below to read how points are earned.  Everyone's top 5 scores will count toward the final game as always, so if you're not thrilled with Pot Limit Omaha (and none of us are big Omaha players, so don't be too worried) you will still have 8 other games to get in on.

Read below for complete details on how things work.

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  When:  September 6th thru November 15th 2008, Saturdays at 7:05 pm  (First buy-in at 6:50pm)

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  Where:  My home, south-west side of Lansing, about a mile from the Waverly/I-496 exit (CLICK HERE to request full directions)

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  How Does It Work:  The Fall Poker League is a series of 11 games played in 11 consecutive Saturday nights.  The first 10 games will be the "regular season" where anyone and everyone is welcome to play every week.  The 11th game will be the Championship game, where the TOP 18 points earners from the regular season play for the Championship Game prize pool (see below to view how the points system works.)

         The buy in will be $40 per game, with $5 from each player going to the league's Championship Game prize pool.  The remaining $35 per player will be paid out like a regular tourney each week.  Every dollar paid in buy-ins will be paid back out in prize money, either for that week's game or in the Championship Event; there is no "house rake" or fees of any kind.  Any drinks or munchies are complimentary, as some players occasionally bring snacks or beverages to share, and I usually have a few things here for everyone.

         The Championship Game does not have a buy-in at all--it is a Freeroll for those who qualify, where the league's pool money is used for payouts.  

         People may come to as many or as few games as they like; you DO NOT have to commit to playing all or even most of the games, just come when you can.  We have had over 100 people attend our league games over time, and several of them have only come to 1-3 events.

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  What We Play:  All of our tournaments are No Limit Texas Hold 'em, with two exceptions: There will be Pot Limit Omaha (Hi only) games played in weeks 4 & 7.  League points for these games are awarded just like they are for the Hold 'em events.

  Seating for Each Game:  At the start of each tourney we will randomly draw for seating.  Each table will be represented by the one of the four suits in a deck of cards--hearts, clubs, etc.  All players will randomly draw a card for their seat and match it with the corresponding card at one of the tables. Whoever draws the Ace for their table will start the game as the dealer for their table, the 2 is the Small Blind and the 3 is the Big Blind.

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  Blind Structure:  The blinds are raised every 20 minutes.  Our system has them moving slowly at first, then quickening up as the game goes on.  This insures everyone gets some good, enjoyable playing time in before the blinds force more action.

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    We've used this system (or ones similar) for 50+ tourneys and its worked very well.  The games have been ending shortly after midnight for the last 2 players.  For the sake of easier calculation during hands the Omaha game structure is modified slightly, but the over-all "aggressiveness" of the blinds remains mostly the same.

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  Optional Bounty Chips:  Everyone has the option of purchasing a $5 bounty chip at the start of the tournament.  If you buy this chip you will be eligible to win the $5 chip of other players when you bust them out if they have one.  No matter how you finish in the tournament you will be able to cash in all the bounty chips you accumulated during the game--you DON'T lose them when you bust out yourself, you only lose the one you bought at the start.  Once you've won someone's bounty chip it's yours to keep until you cash it in.  If you buy a chip, and are busted by a player who DID NOT buy one himself and is not involved in the bounty pool, you can cash out your own chip and get your $5 back, along with any other chips you earned along the way.  And of course if you win the tournament, you get the $5 back for your own chip.

  So far about 70-80% of our players are opting to join the bounty chip pool, and its working very well.  You may finish out of the weekly prize money, but you can still cash out $20 or more just from busting other players first.  There is no penalty of any kind for not getting in on the Bounty pool if you decide to pass on it.

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  Points System:  Points are earned during the 10 week regular season based on how well you finish each week AND how many players participated in that week's game.

The finishing places are awarded points in this fashion:

                   1st)  30 pts.

                   2nd) 25 pts.

                   3rd)  20 pts.

                   4th)  15 pts.

                   5th)  10 pts.

    6th-on-down)  5 pts. each

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         In addition to the placing points, all players will get 1 point for every other participant they outlasted during that week's game.  For example: If there are 21 players in week 1, 1st place will receive 50 points total---30 for 1st, 20 more for beating out 20 other players that week.  5th place will receive 26 points total---10 for 5th, 16 more for beating out 16 other players.  

Here are some examples for points awarded to the top 10 finishers with various total player entries.  Keep in mind everyone gets at least 5 pts. per game as well as 1 point for every player who went out before they did--I just listed the top 10 here for sake of space:

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  As you can see the top finishers in bigger games are rewarded for surviving the tougher field, however the difference isn't so dramatic as to render a smaller victory meaningless either.  As an example--winning a 15-person event awards almost the same amount of points as finishing 3rd in a 25-player field. One could argue both finishes are about as difficult to achieve, and worthy of similar points.

  For the record, a vast majority of our league games have had between 24-33 players per event.

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  Weekly Payouts Structure:  Here are the pre-determined payouts for the weekly games, based on attendance.  As you can see we average about 1 payout position for every 4-to-6 players: 

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