EDIT: Participants see detailed instructions at the end of this thread

The basic idea is to get some practice in "high level" poker such as you typically find at final tables where the majority of people are strong to very strong players. This is where the big money is and where your decisions matter most, as you can end up winning as much as 15000 or only as little as 500 dollars.
Everybody is playing the early stages of a MTT over and over again, so we know fairly well how to deal with a table full of weak to average players. But many of us lack the practice to routinely deal with a table packed with strong to very strong opponents.

Therefore it is planned to setup a private tourney every week, which shall help us to compete in a tough environment with other strong players.
The tournament will be held on stars at 2:30pm eastern time on Saturday and the buy-in will be $50+5. The (for a private tournament) fairly high buy-in should help to get only people who are serious in playing.

After the tournament is finished all participating players shall upload their HH's to PXF and mark them "public". This way PXF will automatically join them together and we can review the tournament with all hole cards face up. Those who do not have a paid PXF subscription can mail the HH's to me and I will upload for them.
Later we can comment on each others game and discuss key hands in a private forum. This way we can point out each others weaknesses, learn about different strategies, and hopefully can altogether enrichen and sharpen our game.

So far I've got about half a table of people who are going to play, but I think it only makes sense if we get at least a full table. That's why I am posting here. If we get more than a table it won't hurt, but this isn't really necessary. More important is that we get people who reliably upload their hand histories and actively join in discussing the game.

The people who are going to play on Saturday are all (semi-) pro wining players with decent results, positive long term ROI and are playing mid stakes at least. So you also must have positive ROI along with an ABI that is not too low.
Sorry for all people who do not fulfill these requirements, but we really want to create a table with strong to very strong players only.

Cliff notes and key data:
* A private tourney will be setup on Stars every Saturday 2:30pm ET.
* Buy-in will be $50+5
* To join you should have experience, well positive ROI and decent ABI (at least mid stakes)
* After the tourney all hand histories will be uploaded to PXF and marked as "public". So all hole cards can be seen face up and we can analyze each others game.
* Comments on key hands and each others game will be exchanged in a private forum.
* This shall improve our game, particularly we shall gather experience in making tough decisions in an environment with other strong players such as on a final table.

To make sure that people are uploading HH's and participating in the post-game discussion there will be one special rule:
A player who does not upload his HH or does not join in the discussion cannot participate in the next tourney.
Sorry, if this sounds harsh, but first, I do not intend to "chase" people to upload their HH, and second, playing is only half the rent. We will improve most by analyzing and commenting on each others game, so I want to make sure that we become a group where everyone joins in the after-game discussion.

If you are interested then reply here or send a private message to me until Friday at the latest, so I can provide you with the tournament details.

Would be great to see you in the tourney,

Devil42

yeah if you can work someting like that out, i might be down. pm me.

A) Yes, 50 dollars isn't going to weed out all the bums.
That's why I also wrote that you need well positive ROI, experience and decent ABI to participate. All this can be checked out at OPR and that's why the tourney is private and you need a password to play.

B) It's not going to be just another tourney.
The difference is that all hand histories get uploaded and thus we can analyze the tourney with all hole cards face up, and later comment on weaknesses/strengths in each others game and discuss key hands.
IMHO this is what should bring the biggest gain for participants.

However, I agree with you that adding antes definitely would be a great idea, unfortunately it isn't possible to choose a structure for a private tourney.

If you know another way I'll gladly listen to your suggestions.

i like the idea alot but you should look for pos roi rather than abi imo.

edit: i would like to do this but i dont play on stars and it would really have to be worth my while to move some cash over. do it on tilllllt

i'll play if i "qualify"...

What would be a midstake ABI? $10, $20, $50...Let me know. I may be down for this.

translation: i want 2 play a tourney with the top ranked players, only spend $50, and learn everything i can from them when we discuss HH.

nice plan.

Id do it, but I have to work almost every Saturday...

for the avg person, wouldnt this be terrible game selection??

Of course it would be.

Actually we are not looking for avg, but we are looking for strong players.
Even for those it will be hard to beat the rake, and thus the tourney itself is probably -$EV for everyone.

However, we are not there to make money in this tourney.
We are there to play our best game, and later to analyze and learn from each other.
THIS will be ++EV for everyone.

It depends on what your focus is for the game. If you want to try and win the thing every time and make the tourney profitable it should be very difficult if the field is made up of strong players...

But if you see the $50 fee as a means to improve your game significantly and increase your ROI% for the regular tournaments that you play, then the knowledge gained (and profit earned) through these tournaments and discussions could more than pay for itself. PLUS you may actually do well and win the tournament anyway.

So once a week his boys are going to try and screw somebody off of $50? That makes sense. I am really trying to get better and this would be great. I am a member of PXF. Maybe it may make sense to have one player who is not as good, because even in a regular high stakes tourney, there is always that one guy you don't know about, and how you would adjust your game to that guy.

sweeeet idea on posting HH for evry1 in tourny. Something that i think would benefit evry1 in that tourny could also be having a pro/or competent player make a video analysis on the final table. What do you think?

Yes, 118% ROI and $33 ABI would qualify.

I'd play but I think I'm still not accepted into Devil's "crew"...as I was denied from his Discussion group based on ABI

LAWL at Devil and his ABI theorys of defining players