Chicago Charitable Games Player of the Year Points List and South Side Poker Tour Points... What are they?

What are Chicago Charitable Games Player of the Year Points?

Player of the Year points are accumulated by playing in Multi-table tournaments and cashing (making the money).  When you win money in any CCG charity poker tournament you will give the tournament director your ID, he or she uses your ID to write down your name and give you player points.

What is the South Side Poker Tour or SSPT? 

The south side poker tour is abbreviated SSPT, and is a bi-yearly points list from the SSPT events in Tinley Park, IL.  How do you know if an event qualifies for a SSPT event?  Every event in Tinley Park (VFW, American Legion, Viking Lodge, and Eiche Turner Lodge) make up the South Side Poker Tour events.  A prize package of cash, tournament seats and CCG cash will be given away to the top winners on the SSPT points list.  Each year the SSPT is made up of events prior to July 4th and events after July 4th.  So from January 2010 to the end of June 2010 will consist of SSPT Season 4.   

How are player points determined?  

Now that you know how player points are won, how many are you winning?  Well, the player point algorithm takes into account the total number of players, the buy in of the charity poker tournament, and what place you finished.  Therefore, if you won the $20 Early Bird Tournament with 100 players in it, you would not receive as many player points as a person who won the $100 Deepstack with the same number of players.

Where can I check to see if I have player points?  

The player points are uploaded via a PDF file on the Chicago Charitable Games website (www.chicagocharitablegames.com for those of us who did not know) underneath the points list tab at the top of the website.  Once on the player points page you can click to download the PDF file which will have the player points listed and when they were last updated. The PDF file will include both Chicago Charitable Games player of the year points list, and South Side Poker Tour Points list.

What can I win if I am on top of the Player Points List? 

The Chicago Charitable Game Player of the Year points list is a year long points list, and at the end of each year a CCG Player FREEROLL will be scheduled.  The top 40 players in the CCG Player of the Year points list will qualify for the CCG Player FREEROLL.  Chicago Charitable Games will give away $500 in CCG Cash to the winners of the Player Freeroll. 
For the South Side Poker Tour, the winners will take home cash, prizes and tournament entry seats into major tournaments such as the W.S.O.P, HPT, and WPT.  The SSPT Season 3 winners will be splitting up over $2500 in cash and prizes.

How does the Player Freeroll work for the Chicago Charitable Games Player of the Year points list? 

The Freeroll will be announced at the end of the year and will be open to the top 40 players and 5 alternates.  The starting chips will be determined by where you are on the player points list.  For example:

• 1st place finisher would start with 6000 in starting chips
• 2nd place finisher would start with 5500
• 3rd and 4th place finisher would start with 5000
• 5th through 10th place would start with 4500
• 11th through 20th place would start with 4000
• 21st through 30th would start with 3500
• 31st through 40th would start with 3000

This way everyone who qualifies for the Chicago Charitable Games Freeroll would have a chance at the $500 in CCG Cash, but the players who are farther up on the points list are at an advantage.

The 2010 year Chicago Charitable Games is also going to be giving away a player of the month prize to anyone who wins the most player points in any given month.  This way if you do not find Chicago Charitable Games until halfway through the year you still have a chance at becoming the player of the month.  Prizes will include Deepstack Tournament Seats, CCG Cash Prizes, CASH, and preferred seating in cash games, and several other promotions happening every month. 

Who do I contact if I have questions about my player points, or if I believe there has been a mistake?

Events@chicagocharitablegames.com is your best place to ask about player points.  At the events there is not really any way for someone to help you with player points.  When you have a question about player points remember to specifically include the tournament you played in, what place you finished, and what the situation was.  This will help Chicago Charitable Games rectify the situation as quickly as possible.  As always if you have questions about Player of the Year Points please feel free to email me at Ken@chicagocharitablegames.com or ask me at any of the events.  Please refrain from asking when I am yelling at another player, or running around like a mad man, or playing spades with friends :)  But 9 times out of 10 I am ready and able to answer all of your questions.

Happy New Year and Good Luck and no bad beats to all my favorite poker players, which happens to include myself!

Why serious tournament poker players should give the $20 Early Bird a chance...

The $20 Early Bird is a great tournament to play in.  I know what you are thinking already..."The $20 is not enough money to keep me interested!"  Well think of the $20 Early Bird as a Satellite Tournament into a bigger tournament or a chance to try new things with your game!


Just imagine taking down a $2k first place prize when you are only in the tournament for $20.  This is what you should be thinking if you are not a normal $20 Early Bird Tournament poker player.  I mean first place on average is $576 in the $20 EB.  That is pretty sweet return on your money for a $20 tournament entry.  Not to mention you only need to finish in the top 5-7 to get your Deepstack entry paid for from this tournament.  There is also the benefit that you are going to get hours of tournament poker experience for $20. 


The $20 Early Bird is also a great venue to practice some new techniques and change up gears.  It is difficult to try new and intresting things when you are playing in a $100 Deepstack Poker Tournament.  Where as if you are only into the tournament for $20 you are much more likely to change up your play an really get in there an test the water, because you are only risking $20.  There is nothing more important to improve your tournament poker play than getting out there and playing in poker tournaments.  Play deepstacks, short stacks, turbos, marathon poker, knockouts or bounty's, and plenty of other poker tournament styles that you can get involved with and if you can do so with real live poker players (rather than solely online) you are getting even more live poker experience.

The $20 Early Bird is a great place to practice new techniques and a cheap way to satellite into bigger tournaments.  Where else can you get live tournament poker experience for $20 with an average of 100+ players 3-4 times a week?

Flips and Showdowns... good for Cash Games or just for Action Junkies

A flip or a showdown is when players put in an amount of money into the pot, deal out the cards, run the flop turn and river without any more betting rounds.  So basically everyone gets two cards and you run out a normal Texas Holdem hand but there is no more betting, and the winner takes the pot.   You can play any poker game, and turn it into a flip or showdown.  Omaha, Holdem, Seven Card Stud, Five Card Stud, RAZZ, High Card, modified Blackjack, etc... anything will work for a flip or a showdown.

So the question is... do flips or showdowns increase the action in a cash game, or do they just slow the game down?

I have two schools of thought.  One, a flip increases the action in a cash game.  It will distribute funds to tighter players that are peer pressured into "flipping their money", which will increase the action in a cash game because money won is much easier to gamble with than money one worked for.  So with this theory the game is looser and money flows easier because with $140 flips exchanging hands every half hour (7 players in a $20 flip = $140 pot). Plus it breaks up the monotony of the poker grind at a cash table. 

Second school of thought, flips can break a cash game.  Whenever you involve luck into a cash game (more luck than is inherit in poker) people can get even more upset than when they are rivered a few times for a big pot.  For example, one player wins three flips in a row, second player gets frustrated by player ones incredible luck he decieds to up the ante and do $50 or $100 flips instead of the standard $20 flip.  Now the poker game turns into a raffle game and has become quite volatile.  Players that are not intrested in just rolling the dice for their money begin to leave or play other games.  Other players go broke, or one player wins all the chips on the table.  The point being is that you begin to stop playing poker, and begin to just gamble.

Flips and Showdowns... good for cash games if you can keep it under control?  OR is flipping starting down a path that will inevitably lead to straight gambling and no longer playing poker.

$200 Mega December Deepstack on 12/26/09

The verdict is in there will be a $200 Mega Deepstack at the Odeum on 12/26/09 starting at 4pm.  Each player will start with 14,000 in chips plus their 1,000 chip pre-registration bonus (or $5 add-on) where blinds will increase every 30 minutes with antes. 

Chicago Charitable Games helped make deepstack tournament play the norm on the Illinois Charity Poker scene.  With a great tournament structure, and arguable the best volunteer dealers the last Mega Deepstack at Chicago Charitable Games should be a great turn out.  Last Mega Deepstack there were close to 70 players to turn up to test their charity poker skills against what some would say was Chicago lands best poker players (don't believe me just ask them).  Play stopped at the final table when the last two players in the field decided to "chop up" the tournament each taking home a sweet little prize pool. 

Here is a few links to some of the tournament information if you are unfamilar with Chicago Charitable Games and their tournament rules, and blind structure. 

Chicago Charitable Games Tournament Rules...

Chicago Charitable Games Tournament Blind Structure...

12/26/09 Charity Poker Event Information...

Good luck and live cards to everyone!

Pot Limit Omaha/Pot Limit Omaha 8 or better Single Table Sit N Go Tournaments

This past Saturday night at Chicago Charitable Games (event hosted by the VFW in Warrenville), Zeus followed by his friend the Driller orchestrated a $115 PLO/PLO8 Single Table Sit n Go Tournament.  It was a really fun tournament where we switched rounds between PLO (pot limit omaha) and PLO8 (pot limit omaha high low).  We started with $6,000 in chips, and the blinds went up every 15 minutes.  Omaha is one of those games where a ton of action takes place, and people are more inclined to play because...well you have four cards to justify your play, which translates to twice as many reasons to play a certain hand.

I am a big advocate of Omaha and all its variations (except NL Omaha).  This is the poker game of the future in my opinion.  It gives card players a lot more options, and it is a post flop game (than pre flop like in No Limit Holdem) with more strategy and odds to calculate than any other game in poker.  I also really like the action, in almost any hand of Omaha you can justify a pre-flop call...typically all omaha hands are relatively even pre flop (worst off you are looking at 60-40 against any opponent's hand...with some exceptions).  Pot Limit Omaha is the game of the future because it is fast moving and has tons of action for us action junkies and no foldem holdem players.  This translates to a younger range of poker players, as well as the online poker players joining in on the Omaha fun.  I have heard that switching from No Limit Holdem to Pot Limit Omaha is similar to switching from Live Poker to Playing on the Internet.  The internet players are used to playing two or three games at once, and never waiting very long.  At least with Omaha, there are more cards to look at and poker players get to play a lot more hands.

So the next time you are getting board with your same old poker game, try switching it up and going for an Omaha SNG or MTT.  Chicago Charitable Games will be offering some mixed game single and multi table tournaments such as:

• HA (Pot Limit Holdem/half Pot Limit Omaha)
• HO (NLH/PLO)
• PLO/PLO8

Just so everyone knows here is a key for some of the poker games and what their acrynomns are:

• PLO = pot limit omaha 
• PLO8 = pot limit omaha 8 or better (high low)
• 08 = limit omaha 8 or better 
  
• NLH = no limit holdem 
• LH = limit holdem 
• HA = half pot limit holdem and half pot limit omaha (games switch every round or dealer orbit)
• HO = half no limit holdem and half pot limit omaha 
• HORSE = limit holdem, O8, Razz, Seven card stud, and Seven card stud 8 or better
• HOSE = limit holdem, O8, Seven card stud, and Seven card stud 8 or better 

230 Players in Record Breaking $20 Early Bird

On Friday 11/27/2009 at 2:00PM Chicago Charitable Games and Chemically Imbalanced Comedy set a new record for the most players in a $20 Early Bird Tournament.  The old record of 203 players was blown out of the water with 230 players on the day after Thanksgiving.

Top 20 players were paid out in this tournament with the top prize being $1100*.  The whole tournament took close to 5 hours to complete, with over $690,000 chips in play and 12 minute blinds that is not too bad.  I am not sure if this is a record or not, but we had one player down on the third hand of play...I guess that is better than on the first hand.  

Thank you to everyone who came out and supported Chicago Theater by playing at the Odeum this Friday.  We know you have a choice on where you choose to play poker and your friends at Chicago Charitable Games thank you for choosing CCG for your Charity Poker Events.

Chicago Charitable Games Black Friday Event.

The day after Thanksgiving "Black Friday" has typically been one of the busiest days of charity poker in the year.  Chemically Imbalanced Comedy Productions will be hosting an event at the Odeum in Villa Park from 2pm until 1am. 

There will be a record breaking $20 Early Bird Tournament at 2pm.  We are looking to have 300 players in this tournament and beat the current record of 203 players.  There will also be a $200 MEGA DEEPSTACK Tournament at 4pm for all you high rollers out there, and a $80 Mini Deepstack at 7pm for all of us medium stakes players out there.

Last year there was five or six cash games going all day, with plenty of action in the $1-$2 and $2-$5 games.  As well as some great mixed games including $1-$2 PLO and $3-$6 Limit Omaha 8 or better. 

Remember to be early for the tournaments that you want to play in, they will all sell out (minus the $20 early bird tournament) and there will be lots of Single Table Tournaments offered all day long.  Last year there was a little wait for Single Table Tournaments, but the hosting charity will have more tables to help accomodate all the charity poker players.

I really hope everyone comes out to support Chemically Imbalanced Comedy Productions on the biggest day of charity poker in all of Illinois. 

http://www.chicagocharitablegames.com/calendar/details.php?EventID=412