Bicycle Club - nooners and nooner nights

I have played a little on Pokerstars and done fairly well at both the $5 and $10 SnGs. Between that and a few mini-tournies my friends host at our monthly poker get-togethers I have limited tournament experience. However, my buddy recently took me to the Hustler casino for the Grand Slam of Poker events. I played in the 1st event, a $100 entry event, and ended up winning 3rd place without any re-buys when we struck a deal with 7 players left out of 373 entries and 460 re-buys. Both he and I were more than a little surprised at how well I did.

I'd relay the whole story but I'd be typing up a short story worth of hands and experiences. Suffice it to say that neither of us thought we'd be out that late and when I got home my wife was pissed! Thankfully the money I won toned the anger down a few notches.

I have kept away from both PokerStars SnGs and B&M places since I'm worried that my recent win will block me from doing well because of cockiness or some other mental/emotional handicap from an early success.

That was a long winded way for me to ask these questions:

1. On average, how many people sign up for those events?
2. What are the average payouts and for how many players?
3. What is the quality of play?

I think I am about ready to try playing again and plan to enter a few weekend events at the upcoming Legends of Poker down at the Bike but I think I'll limit myself to satellites mostly and try to enter the tournies that way. Have y'all had much luck in that?

Thanks in advance!

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Originally Posted by boobus

1. On average, how many people sign up for those events?

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Since you have played Poker Stars SnGs I assume you know that there is a set # of people in there. They have single table (9 ppl) and double table (18 ppl)
In the Multi Table Tournaments they are different. I'm just taking a stab here, but I would say that in a $1 - $5 tournament there is about 1500 ppl involved. When you are in a $10 - $20 buy in there is about 500 ish. Above that it depends. They have $100 - $300 tournaments that have anywhere from 50 - 500 people. Sometimes you can win a spot from a lower buy in tournament.

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Originally Posted by boobus

2. What are the average payouts and for how many players?

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They have a set up that I'm sure you can find out from Pokerstars.com What they pay and how many places depends on the prize pool and the number of entrants. I've played some $3 there with about 1500 ppl and top prize is over $1,000.

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Originally Posted by boobus

3. What is the quality of play?

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Better the further up you get in the buy-in. You will get a lot stiffer competition in the $100 buy in than you would in the $1 buy in. I seem to stick with the $3 / $5 as often as possible. The competition is pretty weak and I can usually go far in these. The plus side is it doesn't cost a lot to join in case you go bust. The negative is you have to get really far to get a good payout. Practically final table.

The number of entrants in the Poker Stars MTT is highly dependent on the time of day. A low buy-in $1-$5 tourney usually has about 1500 at night, like Humphrind said. However, they offer some morning tourneys at that price and afternoon tourneys that can have as little as 300-600 people in them. While the payouts aren't huge, it's generally a little fun, and fairly easy at those times. At night with the fields so huge, a lot of luck is usually needed.

i did the pokerstars $1 multi table tourney on saturday night along with 1734 of my closest friends. :)

i never really found the competition particularly tough, and the first hour was a joke. i arranged my screen such that i could keep an eye on people left in the tourney while i played, and we easily lost 800 people in the first hour.

i got knocked out 95th with A4 versus my AA - he caught 2 4's on the board. based on the blinds and my ever shrinking stack, i probably wouldn't have gotten much further.

it was fun, and for my 3 hours of playing, i received a 160% return on my investment. oh wait, that's only $1.60 (my prize was $2.60)... :(

Yeah, yikes. I'm not a big fan of Poker Stars, especially with their MTTs having so many damn people. I prefer MTTs on other sites with 300-500 people max, $10 or $20 buy-ins usually (that are probably softer than on PS as well). I've hit a few top 3 finishes with that many players, but with 1500, I'd probably go crazy if I didn't make it into the big money. Most MTTs that I do end about 3 hours after they start too, and PS's must be much longer if Fish is going over 3 hours and not even doubling his low buy in in prize money. :?