Tuesday, April 14, 2009

New League Prizes From PokerStars!

PokerStars has generously offered to further support our league by providing some additional prizes. Starting with Season 3, these additional prizes will be awarded:

League points leader after Week 3: Entry in the Sunday Million Tournament on PokerStars
League points leader after Week 7: Entry in the Sunday Million Tournament on PokerStars
Final Top 3 finishers: Custom PokerStars shirts

Thanks PokerStars!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Season 3 Start Pushed Out 2 Weeks

The start date for Season 3 has been moved out to April 28. Signups for Season 3 have been moving very slowly, so hopefully the extra time will encourage more folks to jump in. If you are interested in playing, please sign up soon so we can make sure there is enough participation to make it a go.

I'm working on getting some incentive PokerStars FPP points added to the league - details to come if it happens.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Season 3 is ready to go!

Season 3 of the MD DonkFest Poker League is about to start - don't miss out on the fun! It's easy to join the league, and all are welcome. The league fee is just $15, all of which goes into the league prize pool. See the league details here.

Need a PokerStars account? Click here!

The first tournament of Season 3 is Tuesday, April 14, and is posted and open for registration.

Season 3 Rules and Details

Updated 4/17/2009

The league details for Season 3 (this post will be kept up to date with the latest information):

The league will have a $15 league fee which will go completely towards the league prize pool.

Alternatively, a $2 fee can be paid to play in a single weekly tournament. This will allow latecomers to still get in, and possibly encourage occasional players. This obviously is more of a pain to manage, so it is hoped that most will pay the season fee instead.

All league fees and payouts will be processed via PokerStars transfers. To pay a league fee initiate a funds transfer to player "potnets" (will show city as Severna Park). Please take care to ensure the transfer is going to the right place. Other payment methods can be accommodated but PS transfer is strongly preferred.

All players in the weekly tournament will earn points, with significantly more points going to the higher finishing places. Points accumulate over the season to determine a champion at the end with the most points. The lowest score for each player over the 10-week season will be dropped, to accommodate late-joining players and people missing an occasional tournament.

LEAGUE FEES MUST BE CURRENT BEFORE EACH TOURNAMENT STARTS IN ORDER TO EARN POINTS IN THAT TOURNAMENT. NO EXCEPTIONS.


A league "season" will consist of ten weekly tournaments followed by a championship tournament.

League format:
A weekly private tournament on PokerStars for $5+.50
Tournaments for Season 3 will be No Limit Texas Hold'em
Tournament will be Tuesday nights at 9pm EST
Tournament password will be made available on the league blog prior to the tournament
Every league member who plays will get league points, with points ramping up the higher you place

Bounty: For Season 3 there will be a $5 bounty (no points) on the winner of the previous week. In the event of consecutive wins the winner gets the bounty. The bounty will be paid via transfer following the tournament. NEW: Only paid league members are eligible for the bounty. The week 1 bounty is the Season 2 Champion.

Additional Prizes: PokerStars has generously agreed to provide additional prizes for the league, as follows:

League points leader after Week 3: Entry in the Sunday Million Tournament on PokerStars
League points leader after Week 7: Entry in the Sunday Million Tournament on PokerStars
Final Top 3 finishers: Custom PokerStars shirts

When determining the points leaders for Weeks 3 and 7, the following will apply:
Week 3 leader: Will NOT reflect the lowest score dropped
Week 7 leader: Will reflect the lowest score dropped

At the end of the season, the Top 9 players in league points will play a Championship Tourney, which will also add to the points total.

The bounties and bonus points for the Championship Tourney are as follows:

Bounties
There will be a league points bounty on everyone in the Championship, but it will be a weighted bounty based on the leaderboard going into the tourney, as follows:

PlaceBounty
1)9 pts
2)8 pts
3)7 pts
4)6 pts
5)5 pts
6)4 pts
7)3 pts
8)
9)
2 pts
1 pt


Bonus points
There will be additional bonus points for finishing in the money in the Championship, as follows:

PlaceBonus
1)20 pts
2)10 pts
3)5 pts

The season ends after the championship tournament, with the league prize pool distributed over the top 3 point leaders. The number of payouts may be adjusted depending on how many people are in the league.

Two league policies to be aware of for Season 3:

1) Sitting out - Any player that registers for a tourney but doesn't actually play any hands (i.e. sits out until blinded off) will receive last place points for that tourney. It is OK (and even encouraged) to register to get 5 points for a tourney you can't attend, but it isn't fair to get more points than an active player in that case. You must actually play at least one hand in a tourney to be eligible for more than last place points.

2) Non-league players - Non-league players are welcome to play in any regular league tournaments. This only increases the weekly prize pool, and league points are only awarded to active league players. No league points will be awarded retroactively should a player later join the league. Non-league players are not eligible to win a cash bounty. Of course, anyone playing in these tournaments is welcome and encouraged to join the league!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Season 2 Champion: potnets

MD DonkFest Season 2 (Mixed Games) concluded with the Top 8 vying for additional league points, bounties, and bonus points in a HORSE tournament. HiRoller88 came on strong, continuing a Championship Tournament bounty streak by taking down the first three bounties. xICEPICKx chipped out a third place finish after potnets started a bounty streak of his own. Potnets outlasted HiRoller88 in heads up action, which combined with the last 5 bounties and the bonus points was just enough to take the overall point lead for the league.

Bounties: potnets (5 for 26 points), HiRoller88 (3 for 10 points)
Bonus points: potnets (20), HiRoller88 (10), xICEPICKx (5)

Season 2 Results:
  1. potnets ($176.50)
  2. HiRoller88 ($105.90)
  3. ravensfutbal ($70.60)

The Championship Tournament results:



The final leaderboard:

potnets(2) 202.96
HiRoller88(2) 200.72
ravensfutbal(1) 157.18
xICEPICKx 139.78
Biggfella(2) 138.11
Arcturus(1) 132.66
goateedude(1) 130.72
EJ89(1) 125.19
c2d2 101.70
RLD93(1) 98.06
rusdog13 94.63
laxstarr1995 88.87
themerk08 68.55
hvillethugg 61.68
nekendrick 53.42
BmoreBilly 41.41
raquel1988 41.02
EHonda500Mob 36.11
highslot84 29.27
Beano583 26.39
degenizens 17.68
Wilson980 13.54
XPreacherX 13.19
FiveFingerz 10.63

Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to everyone for playing. Season 3 (NLHE) starts next week - hope to see everyone there!

Friday, April 3, 2009

Season 2 Championship Tournament

It's Championship Week, and congratulations to the Top 8 players that will be competing Tuesday: HiRoller88, ravensfutbal, potnets, Biggfella, Arcturus, xICEPICKx. goateedude, and EJ89. Here are the tournament details:

Format: HORSE
Buy-in: $10+$1
Date: April 7
Time: 9pm EST
Tourney ID: 145101672
Tourney Name: MD DonkFest s2CH
Tourney Password: emailed to participants

NOTE: Due to the way PokerStars currently runs private tournaments we are unable to disable late registration or limit the players to 8. Because of this, the tournament will start on two tables until the late registration period ends. I tried to get this changed but could not; PokerStars has said they will consider adding this feature in the future.

As mentioned earlier, some changes were made to the Championship format to make it more competitive. There will now be bonus points for the top 3 tournament winners, along with a weighted bounty system.

Bonus points
There will be additional bonus points for finishing in the money in the Championship Tournament, as follows:

Place Bonus
1) 20 pts
2) 10 pts
3) 5 pts

Bounties
There will be a bounty on everyone in the Championship, but it will be a weighted bounty based on the leaderboard going into the tourney, as follows:

Place Bounty
1)HiRoller88
8 pts
2)ravensfutbal 7 pts
3)potnets 6 pts
4)Biggfella 5 pts
5)Arcturus 4 pts
6)xICEPICKx 3 pts
7)goateedude 2 pts
8)EJ89 1 pt

The tournament winner will keep his own bounty. There are a lot of points up for grabs in this tournament!

Payout
The league prize pool for Season 2 is $353. Three places will be paid based on overall league points for the season, as follows:

1st place - $176.50
2nd place - $105.90
3rd place - $70.60

Good luck everyone!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Week 10 Results

NOTE: Biggfella - I need an email address for you. You can leave it in a comment here (it won't be published). Or get it to me some other way.

First, thanks to everyone who played in Season 2. Hopefully the mixed format made it more interesting, particularly for those who may not play the other games much. PokerStars has added more games to the private tourneys, so the next time we play mixed (Season 4) expect to see 8-game in the mix, and maybe others as well.

11 players competed in the last game of the regular season, and it seemed like we played short tables forever trying to get down to the final table. In the end, HiRoller88 landed a second victory of the season, locking up first place in the points standings (and taking down the bounty as well - a nice night's work). Goateedude took second and EJ89 third, both preserving their spots in the Top 8.

Before we get to the results, here are the Top 8 players that will compete in the Championship Tourney next week:

HiRoller88(2) 165.72
ravensfutbal(1) 148.04
potnets(1) 133.68
Biggfella(2) 133.11
Arcturus(1) 126.97
xICEPICKx 123.45
goateedude(1) 123.07
EJ89(1) 118.64

The password for the Championship Tourney will be sent out by email this week. Congrats to all who made it, and thanks again to all that played.

The results:



Some numbers from Season 2:

Number of league members: 24
Average weekly attendance: 17
Most 1st place finishes: 2 (BiggFella and HiRoller88)
Most cashes: 4 (HiRoller88)
Best average finish: 7.0 (xICEPICKx and RLD93)
Most bounties: 2 (BiggFella and HiRoller88)
Weeks where 1st place also won the bounty: 5, including the last 3 weeks in a row

Details about the Championship Tournament as well as Season 3 to follow.