I’ll play around with it this weekend, but it appears to have the function to..

“customizable features including the ability to set up a leaderboard to track results and pay out an overall season champion, as well as the opportunity to engage in either tournament play or mixed cash games.”

Seasons can run annually/quarterly/monthly.

Don't know what others think, but I particularly don't want to win or lose money off each other, but rather if we got some committed regs playing weekly, we can all agree on a buy-in that we're happy to donate each week, and all the funds (accumulative) go to major tourneys whether live or online and the winning points leader plays for the rest of the group and we all share in the winnings equally.

Saying that, I'm happy to do whatever we all agree on.

I've been fiddling around with the home game functions and it looks like that we're unable to generate a 'prize-pool' through it at this stage… see email correspondance at the end of this entry.

I still see considerable benefits in participating in home games, but in terms of generating a prize pool we may need to think out-side of the square.  PokerStars appears to be developing the option to create league prize pools, but in the meantime we have two options….

(1.) depending on how many members we can create our own initial prize-pool (i.e. 20 members committ $50 up-front to go towards a $1K buying of the league leader's choice of game) off which we all get a % determined by our ranking.

(2.) All winnings go towards the tournament leader's entry to a major event, and the percentages determined by each players relative contribution… i.e if at the end of the cycle, cousteer has $0 winning (which is highly likely) then he will have 0%, if bennymacca won say $250 in a 1K total prizes, then he'll own a quarter of the league leader, etc….

These options, however, rely on an honest committment… but given we all share common goals I don't see this as too much of a hinderence.  I'll also commit to posting regular updates/commentary either in the forum or on the blog page.

Ideally we'll want ~20 regular (weekly, or bi-weekly) players, in tourneys ranging from $5-30, depending on the relative affordability of members.  Whatever we do, we can have considerable flexibility in the tournament types, buy-in, structure etc… we could even mix in a few other games (Omaha, PLO etc..).

I'll create a tournament for the first week in March, so we can get the ball rolling, in the meantime lets flesh out what option we'll run with, recruit keen 'regular' members that can play during aussie evenings (7-11pm), spread the word amongst our poker buddies (remember that they need to be tpe members to play), and get pumped for some tpe down under!

……………

Hello Mike,

Thank you very much for contacting us and allowing us the opportunity to assist you.

Please be aware that this feature has not been implemented yet; however, we are currently looking into the ability to add prizes to tournaments, leagues and seasons in Home Games in a future release.

We do appreciate your feedback, and ask that you send feedback and suggestions to:

  ideas@pokerstars.com

More details about Home Games can be found at:

  …..ome-games/
  …..games/faq/

Regarding your second question, we are sorry to inform you that Play Money rebuy tournaments will unfortunately not be available until further notice due to technical issues, this also includes Home Games. Our programming team is working on resolving the issues but at this time we are unable to give you any time frame for when these games will be on offer again.

We hope this will not be of too much inconvenience to you and that you will be able to continue enjoying our other games in the meantime.

If you have any questions, please let us know and we will be more than happy to help you.

Regards,

Ana C.
PokerStars Support Team
—
We are poker!

—– Original Message —–
From: cousteer@telstra.com
Sent: 2012/02/10 20:58:10
To: support@pokerstars.com
Subject: create prize pools

User ID: cousteer        This message was sent from the Contact Support form. Authenticated sender is “cousteer@telstra.com”

Category: HomeGames        Sub-Category: Tournaments

Client Version: '5.448'        System (OS) Info: 'MacOSX – 10.6.8 – Intel'

Message:

Hi, is there the ability to create a prize pool that consists of a % of each players buy-in that goes to the league leader at the end of the cycle?Also, how can i set up re-buys in home game tournaments?

………………………

DONE! I'm in..

I'll hit up emufart to join aswell.

Hey OneEye, what’s your availability? We might be able to sort something out.

cousteer said:

Hey OneEye, what's your availability? We might be able to sort something out.

I will work around it, but like i said i will miss a few.

I was taken back a bit by the $5 buyin,  i was expecting something around $30/$50 might be bit too small to take seriously but money is money i suppose.

Just up-dated the “tpedge_members” Home Game welcome page

The aim of this league is to accumulate a >$1K entry into a live event for our  tournament champion and the rest of the placing members compete for a % of the champ!

The live game is at the discretion of the champion (e.g. ANZPT, Aussie Millions event, local casino main event, PCA….).

The league will run over a 3 month cycle, with tournies varying in buy-ins from $5-50. Tournies will predominantly be NLH, but we may schedule a few other poker variant games (eg. PLO, Stud etc..).

50% of everyone's buy-in MUST be honestly pledged to the tournament champion (which will constitute the 'live' buy-in). 

This league is exclusive to TPE members

…..eredge.com

In an event of tied placings, tie-breaks will be played via sudden death HU (play-money)  games.

Average rankings will be weighted according to the number of tournies played, so player's don't have to play every scheduled event.

All stats, player rankings, weighted scores, prize-pool etc.. will be posted on the TPE forum for transparency.

Registration is OPEN for the inaugral tournament on March 3rd 4:00ET (19:30 ACST)… $5 buyin!!!

Get on it!!!!

Ok, it was a fizzer! Looks like there isn’t enough interest. Bytie was registered and blinded out, so I’ve refunded your cash mate. It seemed like a great idea, if anyone’s got any suggestions to resurrect the league please speak up, otherwise we’ll let it slide. Disappointing.

Sry,  I was working and could not make it in time.

Still very interested in playing any future games  when i can.

thnx for sending the buyin back cousteer, had a party yesterday and totally forgot about it. I kinda like bennymacca's idea to set it on a (preferably fixed) weekday as in the netherlands that will be in the morning and i will be awake mostly as i changed my day and night regime during the weekdays. So if u want it to have another go, I am all for it.

Is there some settings in the home game player admin that the sng will be autocancelled if less than x players? dunno.

Would it be an idea to setup a $10-$20 tourney every wednesday which will be cancelled below specific participating players? That way anyone can reg an hour before or so and auto gets money back if it gets cancelled. That way you can give it another shot maybe?

That seems to work for our local homegames as some are cancelled but often there are enough participants.

I can make it on any of those days that week,  looking forward to the game and to mixing it up with fellow TPE members

cousteer said:

Welcome aboard Boonos! Two more players and we're full ring! 

Monday 26th or Tuesday 27th MARCH for our first tourney with bona fide points!! Let me know which day suits and we'll go with the majority.  It'll most likely be a $30 buyin and 15 min levels.  Remember half of everyone's buyin need to be pledged to the prize pool.

We've had a few new aussies sign up recently, this league may be a great way to get to know some of the other members and develop constructive strategy convos (be sure to read the above posts to understand the overall objectives of this league).

Lets make this work.

gogogogo

Thanks mate, this is a great idea, and im well interested in a weekly game, tuesdays are generally good for me… although i cant make tomorrows game as its my brother in-laws birthday. I'm looking forward to the next one 🙂

Good one Mike, welcome. I’ll activate your account tonight… first game is tomorrow night (aussie Tues).

The payout/points structure has been sussed, with the help of Bennymacca….

We'll adopt the F1 points structure (1=25, 2=18, 3=15, 4=12, 5=10, 6=8, 7=6, 8=4, 9=2, 10=1, >10 =0) and 5 participation points for each game played.  The overall score will be the sum of the players 3 best plus their accumulated participation points.  So if your 3 best are 1st, 5th and 10th over 5 games your score will be (25+10+1+ (5*5)) = 61 points.

The winner of the league (with the most points) will receive 50% stake in themselves for a 'major' local live tourney and the remaining participants will be apportioned a % stake relative to their accumulated points.  So, if the champ has 100 points, and 5 other players have 80,70,60,55,44,10 points then the champ gets 50% and the other placings will get 12.54%, 10.97%, 9.4%, 8.62%, 6.89% and 1.56%, respectively.

Tourney points will only be awarded when we have at least 4 players.

Upon winning 50% of the prize needs to be pledged to the prizepool. This preferably will be a direct transfer to me for safe keeping.  All money transactions need to be declared and confirmed on this thread to be witnessed by all. I can guarantee that all moneys will remain safe, and transferred to the champion at the conclusion of the cycle, either through site transfer, bank transfer, etc…

Get on board everyone, these tourneys will be a weekly fixture, and you don't need to play them all, although partipations points are an incentive.

let crank this and get a tpe member to a juicy live event!..

Also it would be great to get some guest pros to participate…

GAME 1 

Great to see 6 runners in the inaugral tpe_members tourney. The field consisted of 5 true blue Aussie and 1 mouthy Pom! For our international audience some of the greatest sporting rivalries have involved these two countries, and the pre-game banter (on Skype/Stars chat) was reminscent of a pending ashes series.

3-betting was the initial flavour and it was rare to see a flop during the first few levels.

Bennymacca shipped the tourney after an hour long HU battle with cousteer, and earned himself $180 and 30 leaderboard points.  He promply payed his 50% prizepool pledge, so we begin with $90 in the kitty.

cousteer earned 23 points, followed by mcgcanwin2 (20), OneEyeMule (17), running0uts (15), and Donskey (13).

The game was heaps of fun. The next one is scheduled for April 3, 19:30 ACST, the starting stacks will be increased to 5K with 10 min levels.

We currently have 10 members signed up, but if you're keen to play – join up via the details mentioned earlier in this thread, also familiarise yourself with the points system. There are plently of opportunities to earn points, so it does't matter if you can't play every game. All members who can play on Stars are welcome, however, the tournies will be biased to the aussie timezone.

Fire-up for GAME 2 (Benny_Buster) next week!

GAME 2 Benny_Buster

Six members lined up to scalp the league leader, Bennymacca. This tourney had a deeper structure compared to GAME 1 which opened up more ‘levelling’ wars and plenty of 3 and 4 bet action. The pregame banter forecasted a speight of light 3/4bets, however,with the exception of Donskey’s early suckout with 44 against Benny’s KK, showdown hands were generally strong! 

We welcomed a new member “Boonos” who showed some early promise and aggression before running into a Houndboy monster and eliminated in 6th place. We look forward to seeing the Sydney resident back in a few weeks. Cousteer was next to go, waiting patiently for a hand to “stuffy bake” Benny’s annoying penchant for 3-betting in LP, AJ looked like the ticket, but the the villian woke up with JJ… (nh bitch!!). Benny, however, didn’t last much longer running AK into mcgcanwin2’s quadruple!!! Well played sir, no back-to-back this time! Donskey was next to exit and we were all very proud that he managed to significantly improve his placing this time ’round! 

HU between mcg and Houndboy was a relatively short affair… Houndboy, at one stage, looked like he was about to resuscitate his short stack and fight the good fight, however, the clairvoyant poker hand-ranger, mcg, was our Game 2 champ!  Well done mate, well played. This win and last week’s 3rd puts mcgcanwin2 in the lead!

Leaderboard

mcgcanwin2 (50)

Bennymacca (47)

Hound (aka OneEyeMule) (40)

cousteer (38)

Donskey (33)

running0uts (15)

Boonos (13)

notable absentees

hapetimes

Bytie_nl

Mike__

mavman

(top 3 finishes count, and we’re looking at running a 13 game season, so still plenty of time to be competetive, slackers!)

with mcg’s direct deposit the prize pool is currently $180

GAME 3 POST_EASTER DIGESTIVE

19:30 ACST Tues April 10, $30 buy-in, 5K start stack, 10 min levels (this structure will be the default for the weekly fixture)

We will, however, offer some “shit n giggle” non-nlh games with a smaller buyin (no leaderboard points)… stay tuned for these!

Thanks guys for partipating, it’s awesome fun!

Alright kiddies, for those who are interested GAME 3 wrapped up last night.

We had the biggest field yet, almost filling an entire table! We warmely welcomed league virgins Mavman and Mike_ (aka Wabbit999), who indeed cracked their seals with some premium hands, despite the heckle of new blood.  Wabbit was out of the blocks with brutal aggression, weilding steals, 3 bets and shoves to amass a decent stack early. Mavman, our international guest, was also invovled in his fair share of pots but came a cropper in a 3-way pot with 88, against the houndboy's QQ, who also sufferred at the hands of a cousteer AK 'closed-eye' binkage. Mav finished 7th, but played admirably and we indeed look forward to his return. Cousteer was next to flail, unable to convince anyone of his speculative hands, and once again running into a ****in' benny miracle, shoving 20ish BB from the button with A7s into “I run so great” Benjamin's SB AK.  Wabbit continued to involve himself in pots but fell victim to shoving Q8s into mcgcanwin2's KK.  Incidently, this tourney was mcg's side event as he was on his way to shipping a hefty $1R for 800 lumps. Donskey also sufferred to mcg's brutal arsenal running K9o into AK.  Dons is continuing to make inroads in this tourney and no doubt it is only a matter of time until he is dealt some intimidating hands! Meanwhile Benny was building stacks, 3 and 4 betting more often than many of us would care to acknowledge.  Mcg finished a solid 3rd, falling to that old Benny chestnut , but at least he had some extra time on his hands to admire his peakin' green line.  Houndboy and Benny battled it out HU and the Hound was once again the bridesmaid, with Benny taking home the chocolates! Well played boys!.

Benny pocketed $105 for his efforts, and pledged $105 to the 'kitty' giving it a running total of $285.

Same time next week for GAME 4 “Houndboy's Turn”….

Here's the updated leaderboard:

good luck during the week!

Great to hear Hape, was wondering where you’ve been.
Still 10 games to go young Benjamin, you’re brave staring both the talented field and Mr Variance in the face!
Although pre-mature revelry does add quite a bit of spice to the battle field.

ok guys – just letting you know i've registered for the home game but ill prob be pretty late to play b/c our club poker is on tonight and i normally dont get home till approx 1 hour after the tpe game has started (11pm NZ time) so unless i get home early ill be showing up with some short stack play 4 sure.. at least ill be contrbuting thought:)

GAME 4 is in the bag and we've amassed $405 in the kitty!

We had 8 runners last night and warmly welcomed two new guys, Clydesdalez, sirduggan13 and a tardy kiwi (Hapetimes).  A key feature of this game was background banter on Skype, as most of us participated in a simultaneous conference call. What initially started off as awkward intergections by a diversity of strange accents developed into a master class in the use and misuse of English adjectives!

Anyway back to the game… This was unofficially Houndboy's testimonial as he been runner up in consecutive tourneys and we all thought it was his time.  He had different ideas, however, and successfully screwed the pooch with a butchered miss-clicked hand to be the first one back to the lobby.  Wabbitt then got it in with AK against Dugg's JT, with a J hitting the turn, to prematurely put a smile on Dugg's face, only to be smacked off by a K on the river. After a bit of angst between hapetimes and the “God of Run Goot” (BM), hape's AQ was railed by the workhorse's (Donskey) set of 8's to finish 6th.  Clyde was next to go shoving 43o into local town rival wabbit's QK. Donskey suffered at the hands of Benny in a raise, re-raise, flip-off, losing to a set of 8s. Whereas a pair of 8s was no good for cousteer, who ran them into a wabbit's flopped flush….. This left Benny and Wabbit to battle it out HU…..

You'll be pleased to hear that Benny didn't 3-peat this week, particularly as he was hosting the conference call, and we may have never heard the end of it! Wabbit's JJ held and he opened up his winning account.  Well done mate! Smear your FIGJAM on your toast buddy!

Here's the update leader board….. same time next week gentlemen!

For those who've played >3 games, your best 3 (+participation points) are used to calculate your score.