APT live "online" tournaments rock!
I live in Illinois, land of no online poker, and not much live poker near me. That said, once upon a time, I played a lot of poker, mostly online, but some live tournaments.
When online poker evaporated, with a fair amount of my bankroll (some of which showed up eventually btw) I grieved, but moved on. My wife, bless her, encouraged me to keep checking up on efforts in Illinois to get online poker going again. One day while surfing info on that I saw an APT ad..... Sounded good. I checked it out and had an epiphany. I could study poker online. Then I discovered I could play LIVE tournaments against other APT members who played like REAL LIFE not free site donks!
I've played many APT tournaments since last November, experimented with styles, made some "anonymous" friends, got clobbered many times, won some hands and tournaments and had lot of fun.
I've learned a great deal observing my opposition in these events. People like Lisav, Publisher, aligning, PFAL, ThomPerry, 22tango, Alexfish, abers, jazzyone, DavidL, redryder, Hugo, mgmbob, papa, nabilgideon, ssserrbbb, Helenkeler and many others have ALL contributed to my resumed online poker game training. My sincere thanks to each of you. No hard feelings for the bad beats and justified beatings you gave me. I hope you've ALL learned from me as well.
If I could improve the APT live training environment I'd suggest several additions:
1) MORE multitable tournaments each day. Why not?
2) Sitngoes
3) 6 max tournaments
4) H2H sitngoes
Just a few of my thoughts.
Love the new forum......
Synthesist
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Great suggestions. I'll make sure Steve sees them. I love the idea of live SitNGos myself.
"APT live "online" tournaments rock!"
Part 2
Having slept on my original post some other thoughts occurred to me about why I enjoy playing in APT "live" tournaments.
I commented that they afford me the opportunity to experiment against some lifelike competition (Defined as: Players who, despite the prize being bragging rights and not $$$) without putting any $$$ at risk (That said, if online poker were legal in Illinois I'd be perfectly comfortable "experimenting" in cheap tournaments and certainly sitngoes). This is the best thing about these tournaments by far.
The typical size of these tournaments equates to them taking a "reasonable" amount of time to complete. For me that would, frequently, even usually, be 10-12 minutes (I'm working on the patience part of my game but haven't found the part of the APT site with those lessons yet, maybe Publisher will have a seminar) on many days but a max of 3 hours or so when I buckle down and,perhaps, get lucky. Some would say VERY lucky................... I can't dispute that.
When I watch the replays of my tournaments (another excellent learning APT tool btw) I can dissect where I was a nit and the poker gods smiled and let me beat the odds. I've learned, the hard way, that Ax, suited or not, can be very, very very dangerous except in late positions. Just ask (more of my respected competition): Vandelay , Adamslanding, arboration, MrBenson2U, Duxman, 8138jpd, microbet, Badger, TheNannie, MarciaK, bjnick, lokorai, and/or JasonJiuJit............ (if I left you off of the opponents I've named here, and in the prior post, please don't be offended, I'm old and memory fades. Maybe we just haven't clashed enough.)
There are moments in these tournaments of sheer amazement and joy for me. A recent such moment was when a deadly, dangerous player (far better then I am) said in the chatbox, " I hate having YOU on my left. I choked up with laughter. Several rounds later her superior skillz prevailed and she succeeded in trapping me but good.
Soooooooooooo my suggestion is that if you've already paid to join APT in hopes of improving your game , you should take advantage of the unpredictability of live players who will test your new found skills.
Say hi when you see me.
As PFAL says, " May the variance be with you"
Synthesist
I agree synthesist, this site does a great teaching job. I try to remember to tag hands that I messed up on to help me in the future. Also playing against live opponents gives us a variety of player types.
I also go over my 'faults' they post on Sunday night. Unfortunately, some of them are repeats, so I'm not getting the message. In Thursday's game 7/6, I chased too much. I have asked Allen, the director about more games. He said when the players increase enough they would have two games a day.
Synthesist: I am so glad you love the live tournaments. I did talk to Steve and he says that there are plans in the works to run them more frequently.
hnallen, moderator, I agree with Synthesist. I would also like to be able to play more live games. I'm glad to hear there are plans in the works.
Yeah guys, I hear you. I think we're up to a "critical mass" where we can experiment with doing more tournaments and more types of tournaments. Thanks for posting about this.
I appreciate the responses from each of you, and the many people who've said things to me during recent APT "live" tournaments, several who've never said a word in chat, that I've noticed, ever. I guess the new format is gaining traction
The community of APT tournament players seems to be expanding as well, I see new names each day.... a good thing I believe.
I believe that the combination of individual computer-based study, with the critiques and suggestions provided, and the opportunity to test oneself, in real time, against human opponents, speeds up the learning process a great deal. Now if only the cards would cooperate as well.
I think multiple events on the weekend, when people's schedules vary, would be excellent. I have a tough time fitting in the Saturday afternoon event myself but could play an evening one more easily.
Thanks again,
Syn
All very good comments and observations. Steve/Allen...consider adding synthesist as one of your writers! Glad to hear that we may be close to reaching 's Allen's critical mass for adding more live tournaments. Also, thanks to APT for continuing to improve the site.
Are there bots in the online tournaments, or is it all real players? I've played a couple and agree on everything folks are saying above, and I plan to play more. Spreading out the tournament schedule and adding tournaments will be helpful for me (and others) on that.
I doubt that there are any "bots" in the APT daily tournaments. There are players who never participate in the table's chat who, I suppose could be, but I'd find it shocking if the answer to this question was yes.
I also believe that the table's chat, typically, adds a great deal to the game's play. I admit to whining sometimes after taking a hit but that passes soon enough. There are players that come to my mind that would startle me if they, suddenly, started chiming in.
A different point I'd like to make is, at least for me, the daily tournaments are part of the APT learning experience and, personally, I appreciate it if someone feels as though they can help me by pointing out something I'm doing wrong. Other's mileage may differ.
Syn
In case you didn't notice, we took your advice and now run two tournaments a day, with some new types of tourneys added in. I hope you like them. Any suggestions, let us know, we try to do what we can. This forum has already resulted in three or four site additions and changes in just a little over a week!
Of course I/we noticed!!!
THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.
Did I say thank you? I think ALL the regular APT daily tournament players appreciate your acceding to our communal request for more events, various types of events and different times to accommodate people's varying schedules. I certainly do.
I particularly think the head to head (h2h) will be good for those who haven't had much experience mano a mano.
Warm regards,
Syn
Unclear how I can join a tourny-- I was logged on but I was never seated -- love to play a tourny but not sure what I did wrong-- link me please - thanks
Was a tournament starting? There is one starting in 6 minutes (about an hour after you posted) and you should get seated when it starts.
If you are having trouble, here is a link to the instructions for joining: https://www.advancedpokertraining.com/poker/multiplayer/tournament_instructions.php
There is also a video showing how to join: https://www.advancedpokertraining.com/poker/multiplayer/video/