Blog Response

So, my blog yesterday created quite a discussion on Facebook yesterday. I'm glad at least someone is reading them. It's about my comments on the half point for non customers on Monday, Wednesday & Thursday nights at the Ultimate. As it was quickly brought to my attention, " We don't do that on Friday nights" by the Friday tournament director. My question is why not? As a former bar owner, I would not have wanted non customers to knock customers out and have them leave my business. If I saw this happening I would have had a private conversation with the non customer and asked to please start purchasing or don't come back. It was also brought to my attention that I had many such players when I ran games. There is a big difference between running games and owning the bar where the games are played. At McCann's, I had many conversations with Wendell about non customers and he was more looking at the numbers of players and figured more players was better then less even if they didn't spend money. Do I agree with this statement. Yes and No. First of all the bar poker industry has changed a lot since I owned a bar. I am guessing that if I still owned GB or South that there would only be one poker game at each place per week just purely on a numbers game. I was once told by a Marketing Guy that for every $10 you spend on a promo that the minimum return should be $100 in sales. So if a promo costs $100 which is close to the average bar poker game these days you would need $1000 in sale to justify the promo and that is only the minimum. There is the car in parking lot factor. If your parking lot is fuller it is more likely that someone driving by will stop and see what is going on. How many times have you gone to a bar that has an empty parking lot? Anyway if you have 50 players at your game which most local bar games do not get anymore they would have to spend an average of $20 each for you to hit your minimum to justify the promotion. The other comment was about about the Ultimate having the longest running games and I couldn't agree more. The Monday game at the Ultimate is the longest running bar poker game in MN as it was the original game that got the whole law changed in the first place and their biggest game the Friday one was also a GB game that got transferred when the new owners of the bowling centers couldn't justify running games anymore and believe me if the new owners would have been making lots of money on Bar Poker they would have kept the games going. I hope the bars keep running bar poker games as I love to go and play when I can, but most have moved them to nights of the week where there are only hoping to break even or make a small profit. Very few will give up prime time such as Friday and Saturday nights to actually try and profit from the promotion. I have been trying to help Dustin find a new home for his Saturday game and it has been very difficult. It has as much to do with the reputation of bar poker in the St Cloud area as it has to do with anything. I don't mean that in a negative way towards players, I just mean that the way bar owners think of it. Even the Casinos are having a tough time making a go of it, as management of Casinos continue to close and cut back hours of poker rooms. Bar Poker has evolved a lot in the past 8 years and it will have to continue to evolve if it intends to survive.

I'm back!

It seems forever since my last blog and that may be because it has been over a month. In that time frame I have played poker one time with a very respectable finish at the Ultimate. Of course the big news since my last blog is the closing of McCann's and the lose of three games a week in St Cloud. I always saw the closing of McCann's as enviable but was hoping for the them to keep going. They have been a great support for the CMPPA and the chance to play their will be missed. A big thank you and good luck to Wendell & Matt in their future endeavors. This really leaves a hole in the St Cloud bar poker market with not a lot of hope for someone to step and replace those lost games. There is still the Ultimate but he is not very committed to poker and will with any excuse cancel or change the payout of his games. The most ridiculous new rule there is the if you don't purchase anything you only get half of the points or prize money. I do understand why he wants to do this but I believe that he is going about it all wrong. He is encouraging players to not buy anything. I say if they don't purchase anything just give the tournament director the authority to kick that person out of the bar. Plain and simple. No purchase no play! Why as a bar owner would you want a non customer to be knocking out paying customers from your game. They just cost you money. Kick them out! A bar owner has the right to refuse service to anyone. Use that right! Anyway back to McCann's loss.

What does this mean to the CMPPA.

 Mostly we have lost our main sponsor and location to play. We can't trust that the Ultimate will follow through with allowing us to play there as he has already cancelled twice in the past. The Clearwater Legion will allow us to play there but it's hard to run events such as the St Cloud Series of Poker, which begins this month, and not play any of them in St Cloud. I am looking into possible other places but it's hard to get a commitment from others for Saturdays and we will need a place for two days for the main event. If anyone has ideas, please let me know through comments on blog or through my facebook page.

St Cloud Series of Poker

Begins on August 18th at noon at the Clearwater Legion with no limit holdem. The board of the CMPPA has decided that one month memberships maybe purchased for only $10 or you can purchase a rest of the year membership for only $35. The other events include Omaha Split, HORSE & a two day Main Event. For more info go to www.cmppa.com