Free Poker Tournaments Pt. 3

The Problem with Free Poker

Part Three

In Part One I discussed a few of the leagues offering Free Poker Tournaments around Houston, their shared histories, and the problem that can occur by lockstep following that which came before. In Part Two I covered some of the criteria that I look for not only in free poker tournaments but all tournaments including freerolls.

In Part Three, the final installment, I will discuss my opinion of the Pros and Cons of three free poker leagues. I will also mention another free poker league that I intend to visit in the near future.

PART THREE

I stated that I try to avoid tournaments that feature poor structures, poor application of generally accepted rules, and poorly run tournaments. As I share my views in the following paragraphs it may seem that there are contradictions. That may be but I will lay out plusses and minuses of three as I see it.

Snowman Poker League

http://www.snowmanpokerleague.com/

Founded in 2005, Snowman Poker League promotes itself as “… an entertainment company specializing in Hosting Free Texas Hold-em Poker Tournaments in the Texas Gulf Coast Region…”  And, “Our games are geared to be competitive, fun and as close to a real casino experience as possible. Playing in our tournaments offers you the opportunity to gain experience, learn accepted poker etiquette, practice and improve your skills and knowledge of the game.”

Snowman served as my introduction to free poker tournaments.  The venues that I have played at were run by hosts/TDA’s that were knowledgeable of Snowman’s way of doing things.  They also did a good job of keep things moving, resolving disputes, and managing the myriad things that come up during a tournament.

Some of the “house rules” they use are chipping down, half bets allowing reraising, Having to “complete the bet” when someone in front of you goes all in with less than a full raise (See Part Two for more information about these).  They do not come very close to a casino tournament experience in my view. 

Snowman holds regional tournaments and an annual event with bigger prizes. Participation in these events are for qualified players only.

Big Slicks Entertainment

http://freepokerinhouston.com/

From their webpage, “BSE™ is a FREE-TO-PLAY Poker League where you can compete in Tournament Style Poker Events at local Venues.” They don’t mention when they were founded.

Like Snowman they have “house rules” which includes chipping down, half bets allowing reraising, Having to “complete the bet” when someone in front of you goes all in with less than a full raise (See Part Two for more information about these).  They do not come very close to a casino tournament experience in my view.  But to their credit they don’t promote an experience like a casino would offer.

At the venue I have frequented the host/TDA does a good job of keeping things moving.  He administers the rules as he understands them to be and does some interesting pot splashes which are fun and innovative.

Again from their web page, “BSE™ is a Poker League where members compete in free-to-play Tournament Style Poker Events at local venues. The top 16 players in each tournament receive points and are ranked at the Venue and Regional Levels. At the end of the quarter, the top players at each Venue qualify for the Venue Championship. The quarterly venue championships are $300 Freerolls held at your favorite venue.

Top players also qualify for the Annual Regional Championship. In the Annual Regional Championship the winner gets a $10,000* seat to the Main Event at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Winners in the past have been offered a reduced cash alternative if they did not want the seat.”

Big Stack Poker

http://www.bigstackpokerhouston.com/

https://www.facebook.com/BigStackPokerHouston/info

Big Stack Poker (BSP) was founded on August 1, 2012 in Houston, Texas by a couple of former Snowman poker league hosts.  This is from their web page:

“Big stack poker (BSP) offers free Texas hold ’em games and offers you a chance to win prizes every night of the week.  Another difference from those other guys is we offer free pot limit Omaha on Sunday’s at one of our venues for you Omaha lovers.

We are the player’s league: we believe in you the player. You will never be a just commodity in our league.  Feel free to voice your opinion.  We will listen to you and try our best to implement it in the league. You will never, never, never pay a membership fee in our league.  It is always free to play and open to anyone, anytime, anywhere. All big stack poker venues have prizes for the top 3 finishers. BSP will also have a monthly, quarterly and yearly points event for top point earners in the league.”

 

In terms of tournament structure Big Stack poker (BSP) offer the best play of ALL the free leagues in which I have participated. It is not unusual to new entrants into any industry to be the most flexible and innovative in their approach. While BSP does enforce some of the rules you will only see in free poker leagues and that don’t apply in casino tournaments, it also does some interesting things.

They earn their name.  They offer the biggest starting stacks that I’ve seen: typically TWICE as big as other leagues.  They also have longer blind levels.  This makes for a better poker experience in that you have the time and the stack to really play poker, learn some of your opponents’ tendencies, etc.

They have generous bonuses, promotional items, and their payouts are the most liberal I’ve played at. Like most free poker Leagues, these bonuses end at the end of the break. Unlike the venue support at other places, however, BSP offers additional chips with almost every purchase (food and drinks). They also offer a premium number of chips on certain special alcoholic beverages.  This is one point of contention with me (although I understand why they do it). 

There are a surprising number of players that don’t drink alcohol for one reason or another.  Some are recovering alcoholics, others have their own reasons.  My opposition to this emphasis is twofold; 1) BSP makes no allowance for a non-alcoholic alternative for a patron to buy in order to get the same number of chips as an imbiber and; 2) It really encourages drinking quite a few drinks being consumed in a relatively short period of time.  These “specials” are aggressively promoted and encouraged.

For now I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and attribute these things to growing pains.  After all they are just barely over a year old. We’ll see. But I do want to mention one of my favorite things they do. Each month they raise money for a different charity and it benefits the players as well.  Players may buy up to three charity chips for $5 bucks each. That money is given to the featured charity. For each charity chip they purchase (up to a max of 3) the players get 5000 bonus tournament chips at time of purchase.  They then get 3000 bonus chips per charity chip for each tournament the remainder of that month.

Comparison of the three leagues mentioned.

Trap Holdem League

http://www.trapholdemleague.com/

https://www.facebook.com/trapholdemleague

I have not played in the Trap Holdem League. I mention them now because I am intrigued about their potential pay out structure on some of their tournaments.  They have posts that mention a $500 back-to-back prize. I emailed them asking about it and below is the reply.

“The tournaments are FREE and here are the parameters on the $500 Back2Back offering:

Win the 7 & 10 p.m. tournaments at Molly's Pub (Kingwood)

1. With at least 25 players in each tournament to win a $100 Visa gift card

2. With at least 35 players in each tournament to win a $250 Visa gift card

3. With at least 45 players in each tournament to win a $500 Visa gift card

They also offer the following according to the email response.

“We send players to major poker tournaments around the country ever 3 moths at our quarterfinal tournament including the WSOP in Las Vegas.  Our most recent trip was to the $100,000 Guaranteed Card Player Poker Tour Tournament at Choctaw Casino in Durant, Oklahoma.

We host a monthly $250 TRAP Monthly Challenge tournament, A TRAP Venue Challenge 2-4 times per year and many other special events.”

They will be the next free poker league I visit. I will write about the experience when I do.

I hope you enjoyed this series.  If you have any comments or questions I welcome them.

See you around the felt!