Open Ranking Series

Welcome to the information page for the 2008 Huyton Constitutional Texas Hold’em Open Ranking Series. 2008 will see two events. The first runs from Jan – June and the seconds from July-Dec. Each series is run in its own right and neither is dependant on the other. For this reason I will describe the format and rules of the first of the events which will be referred to as 2008 Open Ranking Series 1 (The event in the second half of the year will be called 2008 Open Ranking Series 2)

Events will be held on Friday’s and Sunday’s unless otherwise stated in advance and the final will take place on approx Sun 29^th June. Dates will be confirmed nearer the time.

We will be aiming for approx 22 events over approx 24 weeks and players will use only their best 16 events towards their final tally of ranking points. Should there be more or less events then the proportion will be the same i.e. 75% of the number of events played in total will be the maximum that any player can use points from. More details of this will be given as the final month approaches.

The reason for this is simple. It is to try and bring closer together the gap in those players who can only make (say) Friday’s events and cannot play on a Sunday or vice versa. For those who can play both then fine, but you will still only be able to use ranking points from 75% of the total number of tournaments in the whole series.

As an example if there are 20 tournaments then any player playing in all 20 tournaments will only be able to use ranking points from their best 15 tournaments. A player playing in only 14 tournaments will have to use all of the ranking points from the 14 tournaments they entered so as to maximise their chances of qualification.

There will be double ranking points in the final Friday event of the season as well as the last Sunday event. You can only use double points from one of these one of these towards your total.

All finals (i.e. when there are two players left) in an event must play at least 10 hands before play closes. So even if time is up the largest chip stack will only win once 10 hands have been played. This is to avoid slow play from chip leaders towards the end of events.

Entry fee for the tourneys will be as follows:

£18 for 5000 chips buy-in

Unlimited rebuys will be offered for the first 45 minutes of any tournament. Rebuys are offered in three values. These are:

£15 for 5000 chips

£12 for 4000 chips

£9 for 3000 chips

All players no matter how many chips they have will be offered the chance of one Add-on at the first break, which will be after 55 minutes. After this no player may Add-on or rebuy.

£4 from every £18 buy-in will go towards the top ten final table prize fund.

£1 from every rebuy or Add-on will also go towards this prize fund.

The final table will comprise the top ten in the rankings. The entire top 10 seated at the final table will pay £5, which will go towards any buffet or additional Mystery prizes on the night. There will also be a bounty prize for the player knocking out the player who finishes 1^st in the order of merit leading to the final. All ten players will receive a cash prize based on a percentage of the total prize fund that has been accumulated over the series preceding the final.

Player will accumulate ranking points as they go through the series of events leading to the final table. The points they accrue will then be converted to chips at the final table. There will be no rebuys or add-ons at the final table. It will be a purely Freezout and once a player loses their chips they are eliminated from the tournament.

The structure of the blinds and the timed intervals for the blinds will remain pretty much as it is with only minor changes to reflect the new amounts of starting chips.

Any probs, questions or suggestions please let me know.