View Full Version : Australia wide series of freerolls, grand prize $250 000
It's free to join the APL and it's free to buy in to their games. The games are held each week at pubs and clubs all over Australia, you earn points in the freerolls and then top point earners play off for the prizes including the $250K and much more. Check out the site for all the details.
I can't believe how long this has been going on right under my nose without me knowing!!
From the APL site:
The Australian Poker League Pty. Ltd (APL) is an entertainment company involved in the organizing, development and marketing of a ‘Play for Fun’ poker tournament competition, as well as the licensing and sale of branded products and corporate sponsorships.
The concept behind the league and competition is to offer an event where participants with different levels of experience, from novices to professionals, can compete in a friendly environment for the chance to win prizes at no cost or financial risk.
With a total of four ten-week seasons evenly spread over a calendar year, the APL offers participants the opportunity to play in multiple events across major Australian capital cities, in order to gain points towards the competition and play-off for an end of season grand prize.
Apart from the league events the APL organizes celebrity, charity and corporate poker tournaments based on its normal event format to increase the company’s reach and brand awareness as well as support important causes, but results do not count towards the league.
Over time the APL aims to become a major player in the entertainment industry attracting people from all walks of life seeking a different leisure alternative
terryruss
08-05-2006, 05:22 PM
hi 3vbo, i checked out that place but it doesnt let you download or go to a table ,am i doing something wrong. thank you terryruss:happy:
--HONEY--
08-05-2006, 06:24 PM
Canada/US has that also 3vb0 that is the tournaments that I hosted last year and they will be starting up again under new directions and gaming privledges in the fall as I understand it. Always new criteria to meet.
Last year it was called... The CANAM Poker Challenge. Canada verses U.S. and was held at the Seneca Niagara Casino Niagara Falls NY
You were even able to win entry seats into these tournaments on-line at ur favorite on-line poker site.
Excellent prizes and exciting games !! indeed :waytogo: ;)
hi 3vbo, i checked out that place but it doesnt let you download or go to a table ,am i doing something wrong. thank you terryruss:happy:
Terry, this is a series of live games being played across Australia. They hold 4 10 week seasons of weekly freeroll games in various public bars in the bigger cities with points awarded for each freeroll depending on where you finish. Then after each 10 week season is over the highest point earners in a region play off for prizes inlcuding a chance to play for the main prize of $250K at the end of the year. They are also offering seats in games like the Aussie Millions. There is no online component to this promotion at all.
Since the APL isn't collecting a rake or entry fee from any players for any of the games, it isn't considered gambling so they can get away with holding the games outside of casinos, which I think is a brilliant way to go about it. I'm playing in my first APL game in about 2 hours. I'm very excited as it will be my first live MTT. Part of the goal of the APL is to attract new players to poker, so I'm not expecting high quality play unless I make the last few tables.
Canada/US has that also 3vb0 that is the tournaments that I hosted last year and they will be starting up again under new directions and gaming privledges in the fall as I understand it. Always new criteria to meet.
Last year it was called... The CANAM Poker Challenge. Canada verses U.S. and was held at the Seneca Niagara Casino Niagara Falls NY
You were even able to win entry seats into these tournaments on-line at ur favorite on-line poker site.
Excellent prizes and exciting games !! indeed :waytogo: ;)
This is a 40 week series of freerolls being played in public bars across the country (in 4 10 week seasons). There is no need to win your way in to any of the regular games as they are all freerolls. To play for the prizes however you need to qualify for the end of season finals by winning/placing well in the regular freerolls.
Well I played in my first APL game today, it was alot of fun.
They have quite a thorough set up. They play 8 handed NL HE, blinds start at 25/50 and the levels increase every 20 minutes. You get a starting stack of 1500 chips. They have clay chips (I guess 10g), casino quality plastic cards and round folding card tables with a felt top with the APL logo and drink holders in the cushion edging. They also have one table that is the regular long oval shape used in casinos, this one is the eventual final table. They take a 20 minute break after every hour of play.
We started with 72 players today, enough for 9 tables. I saw alot of passive play in the first hour, very few pre flop raises. Part of the aim of the APL is to draw in new players, and as we all know, n00bs will gamble more and make marginal calls. This can be good and bad for the better players of course. It's a social game atmosphere, I saw a few string bets and once someone got away with raising only half the minium bet.
I didn't play that well, I lost half my stack chasing on the very first hand when I flopped a flush draw with K 10s, turn gave me a gut shot straight draw to go with it... but they both missed. 20 minutes later I managed to claw my way back to just over the starting stack when I doubled up with QQ all in vs 88, then my first table broke and I moved to the main table.
By the first break I had 1300 chips left, 200 less then the starting stack, with blinds to be 100/200 when we resumed. The organisers did something during the break that kind of tilted me a little. They went around the tables trading in 4 $25 chips for 1 $100 chip, but if you had less then $100 worth of $25 chips, they would combine your $25 chips with someone else who didn't have $100 worth and high card for the $100 chip. So I came back after the break and found my chip stack had shrunk by $75. This really only annoyed me because in the first hand after the break I would be the small blind and that was 75% of my blind gone... Anyway, first hand after the break, reeling from this minor setback, everyone folds to the button who limps in for 200, I go all in making it 1300 trying to steal it with J 7s, for some reason the big blind calls with K 5o, he was kinda short too I guess, but that doesn't matter because the button had limped with AA and couldn't call us fast enough. An Ace comes on the flop and the rest is history. Well I did improve to a flush draw on the turn but it missed.
They also have a wildcard entry into the final table, they draw a name from those that are eliminated and that person starts the final table with 75% of the smallest stack of the other players. Kinda neat, I didn't hang around once I busted out but I am gonna call in there on my way home and see if the draw is still to be done. I have better then a 1 in 64 chance, since some people will have left already!
My only complaint about how they run it is with seating allocation. They assign people to tables as they register, adding a new table when the last one is full, so if you are 9th to register on the day you are the first person assigned to table 2 etc. But the actual seat number at the table you are assigned to is done first come first served: When they call everyone to the tables you can pick any empty seat at your table. This didn't really result in any problems at todays game but at my second table I had a husband and wife sitting side by side... they weren't cheating, it just annoyed me a little. This seating loophole and the players dealing could open up the games to mechanics and colluders... I know I am being paranoid here and it's very unlikely, expecially in a town as small as mine, but in the big cities... in a nation wide contest in a country of former convicts... could happen.
I am keenly looking forward to playing in the next game they are holding, which is in 2 days time. I am sure I will do better next time out. This week they are also starting a 3rd weekly game at another venue in my town too. I'll be going to that one as well! :waytogo:
terryruss
08-06-2006, 08:02 AM
thank you 3vbo, that was a good desciption of how its done. i am impressed your smart. thank you so much terryruss:happy:
Amandolyn
08-06-2006, 11:54 AM
This sounds very much like the new poker room in Memphis. Trying to find the link to it as I write this. It's free to play, and they keep track of point standings from the games, each month top point earners can play a big money tournament. I have yet figured how they got about it being gambling is against the law unless in a casino. I remember reading in the article that you could subscribe to the room for news letters and so on $100 a month and only those that do have there points calculated and kept up with there. Grr wish I could find it, I'll keep looking. I know it opens soon and wanted to go myself.
Sounds like they are using the same loophole as the APL, they make it totally free to play so based on this definition of gambling: To take a risk in the hope of gaining an advantage or a benefit, it's not gambling, since no one is taking any risk. (Opportunity cost can't really be considered a risk)
The APL prize pools are generated purely from corporate sponsorship of the series. Wild Turkey Bourbon is the sponsor. They have really been getting behind poker in Australia, last year they sponsored a poker show on TV where they got comedians to play each other with the prize money being donated to a charity. It was totally crap poker, they were able to show every single hand in the games, because the games would last like 15 hands at most. Pure donkville, but WPT shows were finished for the year and I had no internet access and a home game only once a month...
The venue also added a prize pool today by putting up two $50 bar tabs for 1st and 2nd, which makes sense. It was Sunday afternoon and their bar was dead, there was about 5 people in the whole place who weren't playing poker, so the poker game bought over 72 people in for at least 3 hours.
--HONEY--
08-08-2006, 01:51 PM
Interesting and informative 3vb0. Kinda makes a gal wanna visit to check it out actually.
Any excuse for a trip :rolleyes: :roflmao:
Hey Boss? Wanna send me to ... haha ;)
I'm playing my 2nd APL game tonight. Since I know what to expect this time around I can relax and concentrate on playing my best game, so no excuses for not making the final table tonight!
Also, I gotta get a chip trick sorted out fast, what's the easiest one to do?
After my first 2 APL games I was starting to think that my particular poker style just wasn't suited to these donk laden fields... but in my 3rd APL game I dispelled that notion completely!
The field was only 63; I made my first APL final table in about 5th chip position and converted it into my first APL victory! Call me the mayor of Donksville! I got enough points from this win to move into 2nd place on the leader board for that venue too, but that is yet to be confirmed, someone on the board already may have scored points tonight as well. Next stop WPT! :silly:
I understand that thing they do with the extraneous chips when the blinds go up now and I agree with it, its kinda fun actually, especially since I won a $1000 chip in one tonight. They have stopped doing it while everyone is on break and now they do it after people return but before play resumes.
Besides the points I also got a voucher for $50 worth of Booze from the venue, (gonna try and trade that to my mother for cash) and a trophy (probably worth about $2) and a solid metal silver looking Ace of spades with the APL logo and 'Tournament Winner' on it. It's about the size of a credit card, to be used as a card protector.
Round length in the 2nd hour is only 15 minutes too.
Skallagrim45
08-10-2006, 06:05 PM
3vbo wrote:
"Also, I gotta get a chip trick sorted out fast, what's the easiest one to do?"
Depends on how dextrous you are!
The only one I have been able to partially master is the chip shuffle (mix 2 stacks together with one hand) and I can only do it with about 4 or 5 chips in each stack - if I can do it it must be the easiest! :roflmao:
All-in Magazine (or was it Poker Pro?) (or was it Bluff?) does a chip trick section in each issue, complete with detailed instructions. All have web sites, so if you cant find the printed mag, check the sites.
I am also sure I saw a book on chip tricks at the local big bookstore.
Good luck 3vbo, it only takes (alot of) practice!
Skallagrim
Ella9750
08-10-2006, 09:42 PM
Chip tricks the one I would love to learn is how not to lose mine. LOL
Well my win in that game put me in 5th position on the leaderboard for that particular venue and in 49th place overall in my state on the weekly state leaderboard. I've got one game left this week and if I can move into the top 10 on the statewide weekly leaderboard then I get a seat at the state champs, or if I can end up number 1 at that particular venue after about 8 more games there I will get a seat too.
There was a small crowd of about 20-30 people watching the final table play out, which was exciting for me.
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