On this Friday morning, greyish, your humble collaborator feathered rose, mit its equipment in his car and hit the road in the direction of Trois-Rivières. I thought taking pictures of tokens, photos of flop with deadly rivers. Reactions to vivid, poker faces. In short, I was expecting to attend a live poker tournament.
I had simply forgotten a detail; the tournament took place online on Espacejeux in a room of the salon de Trois-Rivières game. So I was surprised a little coming to see a beautiful row of Lenovo 60 rolling Windows XP installed on a poker table. Each post "floor" of a "cloth Cap" in order to hide the screen from its neighbour.
Several players also seemed to have forgotten this detail on arrival in the room. The surprise could be read on their faces. Some asked mice, because they were not quite accustomed to the 'touchpad'.
Quickly on the other hand, the astonishment gave place a fun. Indeed, the original format of tournaments was a success for both players and organizers.
Of course, you lose certain advantages that "lives" (tels, the noise of the tokens, etc.) normally found during tournaments but here are a few benefits:
-Players saw many more hands than with dealers
-The tournament is held within a reasonable time without having used a "crapshot" structure
-Players, after will be familiar with the format, were able to talk to each other.
Indeed, after a few minutes you could hear stuff from the genus:
-"You're Oualala!" "I will check go next time".
-"Good good good, Patrice, you like you with your chip lead there" (Brisebois has chipleade the first 15 minutes of the tournament).
Went to 3-4 players, there was also something special.
At the time of the big hands in which players were pushing all-in, they stood up to follow the action on the giant screen of the room instead of their respective small screen to then shake hands under the giant screen if one of the two was eliminated. A little action for the railbirds who otherwise could not properly see the action on the tables.
Unlike the appearance very little social online poker which is only played at home, the social aspect of this tournament was more than this.
Players have shook hands with polite after removal and all seemed to have enjoyed the time spent at the tables.
The presence of players invited as Patrice Brisebois and Isabelle Tremblay was much appreciated (Isabelle is very warm and friendly). For the curious, are nickname on Espacejeux is "Nascar07". Brisebois, his nickname is "TheBreezer".
Some small snags came tainted the course of the tournament, but nothing major. Bruno Landry who was on the list of invited players never came and went to 9 players, a guest driver-player had to leave to join his team in the pit, leaving his stack at the mercy of the blinds.
In the end, this is Sammy «Illraise8» Lafleur who won the tournament and the chance to sit in the safety car during a complete tour of the Grand Prix Sunday, more to win a seat with a value of $580 for the finale of the series of As de Charlevoix. The second place (one seat $ 580 for the series of ACE) belongs to François «Francoisch» Chiasson and the third place (an Espacejeux poker chips case) belongs to Jean "JohnnyP" Pellerin.
In summary, it was a beautiful original tournament. Maybe a little small in terms of size, but all seemed to have enjoyed. The hybrid formula which at the outset was amazing proved to be fun for the players and for the railsbirds also, especially towards the end with the final table on the giant screen.
In retrospect, I wonder if the tournament could be larger and have more scope. But turning things in their context, I understand that this was not necessary.
Unlike promotions like those of the celebrity tournament or series of ACEs in the Charlevoix region, this promotion is not an or the poker tournament is the central object of the package awarded to the winner. The winners of each satellite have won their prizes in entry for this "small" tournament, but also two nights in a hotel, as well as passes VIP for the Grand-Prize for all weekend with access to the lodge Loto-Québec, which was well located and filled with good food. For racing and car lovers, this is an overpriced experience that will remain etched in their memory.
Your humble contributor to pen is not a very big fan of bagnoles, but still able to drip down to this very cool atmosphere of mega "Tail-gate party". After the tournament, visited the lodge with my Coors light cold hands and pulled-pork on my plate that I understood that the winners of the satellites were a superb experience during their weekend.
On-site, an Espacejeux booth was available for new potential players who wanted to register. Beautiful Espacejeux and beautiful initiative team on site also.
Here, then, in closing a few photos of the event as well as a short video to give you an idea of the track.
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