Delaware Valley Poker Club/Series II

The Series II of the Delaware Valley Poker Club (DVPC) is a friendly group of poker players who wish to compete against each other in low-stakes poker tournaments online, in casinos, and in live home games. Participants each contribute $125 to a "Jackpot Fund" which will be rewarded to the best-performing DVPC player after a series of tournament opportunities. That winning player will use that jackpot to buy into larger-stakes poker tournament(s), and the winnings (if any) will be distributed on a pro-rated basis of terms back to the entire Club membership.

Members

Series roster now forming:

DVPC ...Series II... ROSTER

PLAYER	NICKNAME	HOME	POINTS
Gregory Kohs	thekohser	West Chester, PA	--
Bobby Zetusky	zed500	Ridley Township, PA	--
ABOVE THIS LINE	PLAYERS HAVE	CONFIRMED PARTICIPATION	--
Bill Myers	Bungalow PSU	Upper Gwynedd, PA	--
Mike Gargano	Cowpoke Mike	Philadelphia, PA	--
Christian Van Doren	swingerhead7	Bridgewater, NJ	--
Michael Wagner	mortylick	Blue Bell, PA	--
Paul Morrow	shep1005	Blue Bell, PA	--
Sean Scalley	beavis610	Blue Bell, PA	--
Al Gallo	RandyTheSlug	Hockessin, DE	--
Paul Saponaro	SAPMAN	Newark, DE	--
Jason Gallagher	Irish Hank	Bridgewater, NJ	--

We extend an open invitation for this round of DVPC Series action to any poker-loving friends who may want to climb on.

Deadline: July 5, 2008.

Format

Series II players will agree to participate in at least five (5) matches but no more than ten (10) matches. Players must compete in at least two different formats out of (a) online, (b) live in-home, and (c) live in-casino. We will schedule the following twelve (12) poker opportunities:

Calendar of events

• Online (PokerStars) – 6 tournaments available:

July 6, Sunday evening, 8:00 PM, $12 turbo sit-n-go (180-seat)

July 15, Tuesday evening, 7:00 PM, $4 standard sit-n-go (180-seat)

July 23, Wednesday evening, 7:30 PM, $2 turbo sit-n-go (180-seat)

July 27, Sunday evening, 7:00 PM, $4 standard sit-n-go (180-seat)

August 7, Thursday evening, 7:00 PM, $12 turbo sit-n-go (180-seat)

August 17, Sunday afternoon, 3:30 PM, $11 standard scheduled (2,000+ seat)

• Live In-Home – 4 tournaments available:

July 11, Friday evening, 7:30 PM, $40 buy-in, tentatively at the Kohs residence

July 26, Saturday evening, 7:30 PM, $40 buy-in

August 7, Thursday evening, 7:00 PM, $40 buy-in

August 16, Saturday evening, 7:30 PM, $40 buy-in

• Live In-Casino – 2 tournaments available:

July 29, Tuesday evening, TBA

August 21, Thursday evening, 7:00 PM, $180 buy-in, Borgata

Points system

The Series II of the DVPC will incorporate some modifications over the Series I scoring system, which players felt too strongly awarded points for large, low-stakes online tournaments, as well as left other players feeling "hopeless" when one player scored a very high finish in one large tournament (and going on to win the Series). Therefore, points for each tournament finish will be assessed as in Series I; however, in Series II, live in-casino points will be multiplied by 1.5, and live in-home points will be multiplied by 2.0.

Ranking of players will be managed in a new way. Series II player performances will be sorted from highest to lowest, for each player. Then both the highest and the lowest point totals (the outliers) will be discarded, leaving behind the "middle" scores for each player, which will then be averaged together. To reward dedication to the Club and frequency of play, after results are averaged, a 10-point bonus will be awarded for every match beyond five (5) that the player participated in.

There will be no need to "declare" your participation in any matches this Series -– if you are seated in a tournament, you are declaring it by default. If a player reaches ten (10) seated matches, he may continue to play for fun and profit in the 11th and/or 12th matches, but these will not be tallied for performance points or bonus points.

Example: Suppose a player, Chip Staxalot, participates in eight different tournaments, earning scores of 375, 250, 150, 50, 50, 50, 50, and 20. The scores of 375 (the highest) and 20 (the lowest) are rejected. The average of 250 + 150 + 50 + 50 + 50 + 50 is then taken, which equals 600 / 6, or an average of 100. Then, the average of 100 is boosted by a bonus of 30 points, because Chip participated in eight tournaments (three beyond the required five). Chip earns a final Series score of 130.

The Beeg Weenah

The Series II top finisher will take $1,100 in jackpot prize money (plus a $150 travel stipend) to attend the Borgata's VIP Access super satellite tournament on Sunday, August 24th at 11:00 AM. One in every 25 entrants will win a prize package worth $25,000:

• One $10,000 entry into the World Poker Tour's Borgata Poker Open championship event (January 25–29, 2009)
• Plus $15,000 cash, which the DVPC would divest among Club members, per our terms).

Should the top finisher win the super satellite, any winnings he may earn later on the World Poker Tour would also be divested per our terms.

Alternately, the top finisher may use the $1,100 (plus $150) to participate in two (2) smaller weekly tournaments of $560 at Borgata on Fridays at 6:00 PM. Winnings would be divested per our terms.

The Leetle Weenah

If we have enough participants in the DVPC Series II to create a surplus in the Jackpot Fund, there may be enough cash left over in the jackpot to award a Second Place finisher to participate in either a $340 or $560 one-time tournament at the Borgata. Winnings would be divested per our terms.

The Trophy

The Commissioner reserves the right to set aside less than $100 to fund the creation of a permanent engraved trophy for the DVPC, with the previous Series winner retaining possession of the trophy until it is wrested from him by a new Beeg Weenah. One agenda item for the Series II participants is to name this trophy. Any suggestions?

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Costs

Those on a tighter budget will be able to fulfill this Series with less than $190 out-of-pocket ($60 for five tournaments, plus the $125 Jackpot contribution). Those who opt for the pricier selections and play in ten tournaments could potentially expend about $500. You keep what you win in each selected tournament, and everybody is contributing the same $125 to the Jackpot Fund. The $125 may be paid in installments -- $65 before July 11, 2008, and the remaining $60 before August 22, 2008. These payments will be coordinated and saved by Gregory Kohs.

Players who do not currently have an online poker account may contact Gregory Kohs for more information on getting one started and funding it.

Communications

Club communications will be handled by e-mail.

During online tournaments, we have a teleconference "bridge" set up, for the equivalent of multi-way calling. This will allow for Club-related dialogue while the tournaments are underway. Players at the same table will be asked not to discuss their hole cards, just as would be standard etiquette in a live game. We're competing against each other, so there's no incentive to collude, anyway.

There is a useful primer of tournament tips that you may read prior to playing.

Scoring

Each player will report their place of finish and (if possible) proof of such, such as an image screen shot of an online lobby window or facsimile of a casino payout receipt. Image screen shots may be executed with Windows by pressing the combination of Alt-Print Screen to capture only the current active window. By default, Windows does not save the screenshot to an image file; rather, the user must paste the clipboard image into a separate imaging program (such as Paint, IrfanView, etc.) to save it permanently. Apple computer users should go to this page to learn how to use PokerStars on a Mac.

Spreadsheet

Gregory Kohs tallies in a spreadsheet the DVPC payment history and Series rankings using a formula similar to PokerStars' player points formula:

Points = \(10\cdot\sqrt{\frac{n}{k}}\cdot(1 + \log(b + 0.25))\)
Where:
\[n\!\] is the number of entrants
\[k\!\] is the place of finish (k = 1 for the first-place finisher, and so on)
\[b\!\] is the buy-in amount (average including re-buys and re-loads) in dollars (excluding any administrative fee).

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Terms of Payout

Whatever money the Jackpot Fund winner is able to win back in the high-stakes buy-in tournament(s), the process of declaring that income and taxation is that player's decision and responsibility. For tournament winnings up to two times (2x) the buy-in, the Jackpot player would be entitled to keep all of those winnings. The amount between two times and ten times buy-in (2x-10x) would be split 70/30 -- 70% to the Jackpot player, and the other 30% split evenly between all the other Series participants. Anything over ten times buy-in (10x+) would be split 50/50 -- 50% to the Jackpot player, and the other 50% split evenly between all the other Series participants.

This way, all DVPC participants stand a chance of making back original stakes (and then some), while the Jackpot winner will earn much more than any of the rest of us, even with taxation considered. Is this really any different than trusting your money with a mutual fund manager? I say not.

Previous Outcome(s)

• Series I - Bill Myers took the $1375 Jackpot and headed two times to Atlantic City to participate in $500 + $60 tournaments. In his first bid, his pocket QQ was cracked by an inferior hand, and he went out 29th out of 61 players, no payout. In his second bid, the scheduled $500 tourney at the Borgata was cancelled, forcing Bill to play in a $200 + $30 at Trump Taj Mahal. Bill exited early. Per the Commissioner's recommendation, he played $5 slots to try to make up a big payout for the Club, but to no avail. About $150 remains in his Fund, and Bill will try to play a $100 tournament sometime soon, but the Club is considering the jackpot "expended". Time for Series II and better luck. (...read more about Series I.)