Different format?
First let me say the Kiowa Casino is very nice and the staff are very friendly. However I have to say I wasn't impressed with the format they used the other night.
It was a EBJ style format (which is fine), but with some strange modifcations. They had a $25 entry and played 7 players per table, 21 hands with elimination hands on 14 and 21. It was possible for 5 players to advance from each table and since you had to finish the entire 21 hands possible that no one advanced from a table.
Both a friend of mine and I found out just how different the format was. I was in 3rd place with 4 players left on hand 21 (last hand). I had over a max. $2,500 lead on BR4 and was on the button, so my bet was the min. $100 so BR4 could catch me with an all in DD.
As it happens I caught a BJ and BR4 ended up DD on a hard 13 vs. dealers 5. When the dealer pulled a 4 card 20 and BR4 had caught a 5 for 18 they were eliminated and the 3 of us all advanced to the next round...WRONG!
Seems we were told incorrectly how their elimination hands worked, it doesn't matter that a player or players bust out on one of the elimination hands, they still eliminated the lowest chip total anyway...WOW, I was sick, and the same thing happened to my friend on teh next table.
It got better, we ended up reentering for another $25 and while we were waiting for our session to start several players were talking about the format and happen to mention that the chips carried over from round to round, WOW, another small rule they forgot to mention to us.
They had a total of 9 tables for Round 1, sessions 1, 2, & 3, with 7 players at each table. They called Round 2 the semifinals, but they had 9 tables of 7 in that round and I figured they were just taking the top 7 highest chip counts for the final table...WRONG again.
The Finals as they called it had 3 tables of 7 players, they played down to 14 and then stopped and re-drew for new tables and seats and started over again after they eliminated 7 more players. Then they drew for seats and played the final table.
It was blackjack with a cross of EBJ and poker format.
The tournament started at 6:00 p.m. (they started registraion at 5:00 p.m.) and when I finally got beat out it was 12:00 midnight and they were just starting the final two tables. I figure they finished around 2:00 a.m. Tuesday.
Now they did pay the top 14 players, however 8th - 14th places had to wait until the entire tournament was over to get paid.
Another negitive is they don't have a hotel on site, closest is about 5 - 10 minutes away in Texas.
Closest airports are regional (Wichita Falls, TX or Lawton, OK). The casino is about 2:30 from D/FW airport or 2:45 from Love field (the bigger airports).
Now would I go back up there and play another tournament there, not with that format, but with another style format, I'd go back up again for the right price pool.
Again the Casino it's self and the staff were great.
