There are a number of changes I'd like to make to the schedule of games in the 2009 season which starts July 19th.
First, I'm planning on making the New Years HORSE tournament a fixture to the schedule. I think it needs a little tweaking from last year in that we should start a bit earlier and have each of the games last two blind levels instead of one but it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed spending New Years playing poker with everyone. So please, mark Wednesday, December 31st down for playing poker in Redmond Ridge. I'll work out the specific details as I finalize the schedule of games.
Second, I'd like to include a WSOP satellite (RAWSOP) game to send one Ragged Aces member to a $1500 buy-in WSOP tournament in Las Vegas. As we discovered this last season, the small satellite system didn't work well for motivating players to play in this tournament and we need to have a miniumum of $2500 to send someone to the big game. This year, I'd like to change the buy-in for all tournaments to $25 with $5 of that buy-in going to the RAWSOP game purse. If we had done that this year, through the first 21 games we would have set aside $1445 for the RAWSOP and could have held the tournament with 25 players at a $40 buy-in. Let's see...$40 to win $2500, the chance in a lifetime at the WSOP, and possibly $100,000+ more. This change wouldn't impact the pay-outs at the regular tournaments though the cost of playing each game would be $5 more. The structure of payouts for the RAWSOP game would be the winner get's the $2500 to enter the tournament in Las Vegas and 50% of whatever he/she wins. All the players at the final table would own a part of the remaining 50% based on the order they busted on the final table.
Third, I'd like to include a heads-up double elimination tournament in February in preparation for the March Madness. I have a threaded discussion post that goes into more detail, but I think the best option is to have one of our off-games be a Heads-up tournament. We'll again have to start this one early as I'd like to get all of the matches done in a single night, and the champion of Heads-up will win a trophy!
Finally, I'm going to schedule 2 Big Ace tournaments in 2009 with $55 buy-in's that fall on the first Saturday of a month (the 3rd Saturday is always the $25 buy-in). For those that want a little bigger risks and rewards...
With this said, the initial Ragged Aces schedule for 2009 looks something like this:
- July 19 - First game of the year, trophies from the championship are awarded, Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 6:30 start ($25 entry)
- August 2 - Open date, host TBD 6:30 start ($25)
- August 16 - Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 6:30 start ($25)
- September 6 - BIG ACE Tournament, Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 6:30 start ($55)
- September 20 - Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 6:30 start ($25)
- October 4 - Open date, host TBD 6:30 start ($25)
- October 18 - Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 6:30 start ($25)
- November 1 - Open date, host TBD 6:30 start ($25)
- November 15 - Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 6:30 start ($25)
- December 6 - Open date, host TBD 6:30 start ($25)
- December 20 - Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 6:30 start ($25)
- December 31 - HORSE New Years Eve Tournament, Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 6:00 start ($25)
- January 17 - Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 6:30 start ($25)
- February 7 - HEADS-UP Tournament, Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 5:00 start ($25)
- February 21 - Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 6:30 start ($25)
- March 7 - Open date, host TBD 6:30 start ($25)
- March 21 - Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 6:30 start ($25)
- April 4 - RAWSOP Tournament, Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 6:30 start ($ entry based on amount needed to reach $2500)
- April 18 - Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 6:30 start ($25)
- May 2 - Open date, host TBD 6:30 start ($25)
- May 16 - Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 6:30 start ($25)
- June 6 - BIG ACE Tournament, Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 6:30 start ($55)
- June 20 - Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 6:30 start ($25)
- July 11 - CHAMPIONSHIP, Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 1:00 start (invite only $20 entry)