Royal Poker Blog

Tuesday night we won our first ever city tournament championship in basketball. After an 8-2 regular season we rolled up three straight victories in the playoffs to capture the title. The most satisfying part is the level of competition we beat to take it down.

After a 1st round bye we beat a powerhouse of a team in a very close slug fest. The semifinals was a beating and the finals gave us the chance to avenge last year's semifinals loss.

63-41

Ship the title!

Al posted some details of the upcoming BBT3 series. 7 WSOP seats? Holy shit!

Not exactly poker, but we're expanding out horizons over here at Royal Poker!

General summary of the lawsuit:

• Gen Con failed to uphold its legal obligations in terms of financial reporting, accounting and payments to Lucasfilm ($500,000 in damages)
• Gen Con did not give auction proceeds to Make-A-Wish as they had agreed to do ($150,000 in damages)
• Gen Con did not give Lucasfilm their share of the auction proceeds ($150,000 in damages)
• Gen Con did this all unjustly ($150,000 in damages)
• Here is the full document.

In response Gen Con LLC files for Chapter 11 Protection

SEATTLE (February 15, 2008) Gen Con LLC announced today that it has filed for Chapter 11 protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the State of Washington. This action became necessary as a result of significant unforeseen expenses associated with attempts to expand its core business to encompass externally licensed events. Gen Con’s flagship show, Gen Con Indy, remains a vibrant, profitable event. Gen Con Indy will take place as scheduled August 14–17, 2008, in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The protections afforded by Chapter 11 will allow Gen Con to further its efforts to address its liquidity needs, preserve value for its creditors and explore strategic alternatives for the business. “Because the fundamentals of our business are strong; and because our debt problems are challenges mostly linked to one-time events, we feel confident that the profile of our company will benefit under Chapter 11 and come out strong in the end,” said Peter D. Adkison, CEO of Gen Con.

Chapter 11 refers to the section of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code that provides for court-supervised restructuring of companies as they continue to operate normally. This proceeding is intended to help companies to become stronger financially.

Gen Con LLC will continue to operate without interruption during this process and looks forward to an expeditious resolution to the short-term challenges and the ability to focus entirely on producing Gen Con Indy, The Best Four Days in Gaming. International Gen Con events are unaffected by this situation and will continue to operate as scheduled.

About Gen Con

Gen Con, LLC produces the largest consumer fantasy, sci-fi and adventure game convention in North America. Itts operations include Gen Con Indy and licensees for European and Asia Pacific Gen Con shows. It was acquired in 2002 by former CEO and founder of Wizards of the Coast Peter Adkison, who solely owns the company headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Gen Con is a consumer and trade experience dedicated to gaming culture and community. For more information visit the website at www.gencon.com.

Peter Adkison writes an "Open Letter" on Chapter 11

Friends: I wanted you to hear this from me first.

Today Gen Con is filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection.

Essentially what happened is that we lost a lot of money this year running a licensed non-Gen Con event. We owe several companies money from this show and it's going to take time to pay them off. To protect ourselves from the more aggressive companies we have been forced to seek protection from the courts.

While this is certainly an unfortunate development it will not impact our ability to operate Gen Con Indy, nor should it affect our licensed Gen Con events in the UK, Paris, and Australia.

The way a Chapter 11 works is that we negotiate a long-term payment plan with our creditors with the assistance of the US judicial system. The courts will closely oversee our business affairs to make sure we are running the company prudently and that we have a reasonable plan to pay everyone off. Which we do. The courts also protect us from aggressive creditors so that we can continue operating.

Gen Con LLC will get through this strong at the other end. Our fundamental revenue generating asset is our Indianapolis show, Gen Con Indy. This show is profitable enough to cover our direct costs, our overhead, and have some funds left over to pay off the debts from the licensed show. It will take some time, but this is one of those situations that the Chapter 11 filing was designed for, to help good companies get through a rough situation.

Everyone will eventually get paid and business will return to normal. In the meantime, Gen Con Indy carries forward without interruption. Heck, if the airline companies can do it, why not us!

I've learned some hard lessons about the event business over the last few years. After trying to get Gen Con So Cal to work, and then losing money on this non-Gen Con event, I've learned how difficult it is to run a "big show" and make money. It's a highly speculative affair where you're never quite sure until the show's over whether you made money or lost, mainly because you just don't know how many people are going to come and for how long.

So, going forward our organization is going to focus on what we do best:

managing Gen Con Indy, a healthy, vibrant show that has been growing nicely ever since moving to Indianapolis.

Did they really stiff Make-a-Wish? That's some shitty karma my friends.

Wait, do you even know who Isaac Baron is? Well you should! Maybe you know him by his online poker names: mr. menlo, WestmenloAA, and the guru 11? If you read the PocketFives weekly tournament recap you see his name pretty much every week. He's currently ranked #2 on P5s which is especially impressive considering the rankings heavily favor high volume players of which Isaac is not.

Take a look at these stats:

2007 PokerStars
Winnings: $898,783
Profit: $650,845
ROI: 263%

2007 FullTilt
Winnings: $292,301
Profit: $224,607
ROI: 332%

2008 PokerStars
Winnings: $81,288
Profit: $45,490
ROI: 127%

2008 FullTilt
Winnings: $110,354
Profit: $98,771
ROI: 853%

Isaac is a sick sick player and it's only a matter of time before he cashes big in a live event. If not I guess he always has that million dollar online bankroll to comfort him.

Play Bodog's Poker Blogger Tournament Series Tuesday Nights




Next Tournament: Tuesday February 19th, 2008 Start Time: 9:05 pm ET.

Details on the tournament and how to register are provided below.

Bodog is proud to host the Bodog Poker Blogger Tournament Series opened to any Online Poker Blogger. Join up and challenge other Poker Bloggers each week in our Bodog Poker Room and live to tell about it. Earn points and work your way up the Tournament Leader Board for a spot in the final tournament for your chance to win a $12,000 World Series of Poker* prize package and be a part of Team Bodog 2008.

How it Works
The Bodog Poker Blogger Tournament Series is composed of a series of 18 qualifying tournaments that run weekly beginning Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 to Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008. The top 30% of finishers in each qualifying tournament will earn points based on their finish. These points will be used to rank players over 4 months of qualifying. At the end of the qualifying series, the top 18 players on the Tournament Leader Board will play in the Final Tournament on Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 with the first place finisher winning a $12,000 WSOP* prize package!

Prizes
Weekly Tournaments
Buy-in: $10 + $1
Prize Pool will be distributed as per Bodog's standard multi-table payout table. In addition, the top 5 players each week will also win T$109 to be used to buy-in to the $100,000 Guaranteed Tournament held every Sunday at 4:00 PM ET. The top 5 bubble players each week will win a free buy-in to next week's Weekly Tournament. (T$11 will be credited to these players' Bodog account within 24 hours after the completion of the tournament)

Final Tournament
Buy-in: $0 + $0 (must finish in the Top 18 on the TLB to be invited) Grand Prize: $12,000 WSOP* Prize Package with Team Bodog 2nd place: T$540 to be used to buy-in to (2) World Series or Players Choice Semifinal 3rd place: T$379 to be used to buy-in to (1) World Series or Players Choice Semifinal and (1) $100,000 Guaranteed Tournament
4th: T$270 to be used to buy-in to (1) World Series or Players Choice Semifinal
5th: T$109 to be used to buy-in to (1) $100,000 Guaranteed Tournament

Bodog Blogger Tournament Leader Board
The Tournament Leader Board will be available at http://www.bodoglife.com/promotions/poker/blogger-tournament/ throughout the course of the Bodog Poker Blogger Tournament Series. It will provide the point totals for every player that has played in the qualifying tournaments. The top 30% of players in each tournament will receive points according to finish which at the end of the qualifying tournaments will ultimately determine who will move on to the Final Event. The top 18 players on the TLB at the end of the qualifiers will earn their way to the Final Event.

How To Register
To register for the Bodog Poker Blogger Tournament Series, poker bloggers must first go to http://www.bodoglife.com/promotions/poker/blogger-tournament/ and sign in with their Bodog account information in the upper right hand corner. Once this is completed, they then must click on "REGISTER NOW" to register themselves into the tournament series. Bloggers will each have to do this once in order to play in the series. Once this is done, they then need to find the "Online Poker Blogger Tournament" in the software and register as they normally would each and every week.

If you need assistance with signing up for the tournament or with starting a Bodog member player account please call or email Bodog's Poker Customer Service at 1-866-909-2237 or Bodog's Poker Customer Service email at poker@bodoglife.com

Bodog Blogger Tournament Host Site
http://www.bodogbloggertournament.com will host this tournament series and will provide poker bloggers with weekly updates on:

• tournament results for winners and losers
• Feb 5th 2008 final table results
  
• Feb 12th 2008 final table results
• announcements for special promotions or guest players
• the latest in Bodog Poker Room news and gossip
• tips on how to succeed at Bodog Poker
  

Basketball went well on Tuesday as we delivered a beating to an outclassed opponent. That makes us 7-2 and near the top of the league. Of course they re-shuffled the Tuesday leagues mid-season and the standings no longer make much sense. We have one more regular season game before the playoffs.

When I get back from playing ball the Mrs. is of course in 2nd place at first break in the BoDonkey. I try to get her to continue, but she makes up some excuse about going to bed. I proceed to donk most of the chips away, short-stack ninja back into competition and bust in 20th place when AJ calls my re-raise push with TT. It's a poor call against my re-raising range, but I'd been active earlier with a shorter stack so whatever. Of course the poker gods can't just give them the A or J and make it easy. Running 7s to make quads on the board and the ace plays. bah!

The problem is I busted in 20th at 11:30PM. And the ~54 players that entered last week will likely be the smallest field we'll see as the word spreads. I cannot realistically stay up late enough every Tuesday to give this a go. So good luck to everyone else!

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I have two potential monthly live games next week and hopefully I can make at least one of them. I don't remember the last time I've played a semi-decent structured live tournament.

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Finally, congratulations to doubleas for making both final tables in the Full Tilt Poker Big Double. Ship the $8K bonus!

The Mrs. might have to play for awhile tonight as I have basketball. Good luck to everyone and thanks to Bodog for another sweet promotion.