WAPL Event Layout
Whether a WAPL Tournament is Free League or Pro League, the basic format of them stays the same. The only other WAPL event that will be held is a non League event for a Club or other Organization to raise funds, and the details of that event will be posted in the upcoming event information for the event itself.
WAPL Tournaments - Free League WAPL Tournaments are available to enter to Western Australian Poker League Members only. This means that you must become a WAPL member before registering into your first Free League Tournament. Pro League WAPL Tournaments may be entered in by Western Australian Poker League Members, or by Members of the Club organising the Tournament, if the player does not wish to become a WAPL Member. Staff will be on hand at all our events, and we have all the equipment necessary to sign you up right there, just make sure you arrive early enough before the Tournament is due to start to enable us to register new players and still get the Tournament underway on time. The Tournament will almost always be started at the specified time, and anyone who is late or not registered by that time may miss out. Western Australian Poker League has a responsibility to our Members, Venues and Clubs to start and finish Tournaments by a certain time.
Once you have your WAPL Membership Card, you will be able to simply register with the WAPL staff member who is controlling registrations and new memberships. Easy as that!
There is a laptop and projector screen, with our custom WAPL Tournament Manager software displayed throughout a Tournament for all players to see. Our software handles all aspects of our Tournaments, from generating random player seating to working out final ranking scores and uploading it directly to the website so you can find out where you're ranked!
During a match, the software will show you the time countdown before the next round, which signifies an increase in blinds. The current blinds are displayed on the projector screen, as well as the next rounds blinds, which will become the current blinds after the timer reaches 0 and restarts.
Once we have registered all the available seats to entrants, and taken a list of any additional players, we will run a short few minute speech, going over our WAPL rules. You will always be able to get the help of a WAPL staff member or another helpful player to clarify rules and decisions for you, and believe us, it won't be long before you're the one helping other new players out! Remember, the sharing of knowledge, tips and tricks will get more than a few people respecting your Hold 'Em skills, and we're all here to have fun and get better at this great game!
Before being called to the tables, no one will be permitted to sit at them. They have all the chips pre-placed and ready to go, and the first thing we'll be checking is that there's the right amount of chips per player as they sit down. Green chips are 25, Black chips are 100, and Purple chips are 500. Pink chips are 1000 and come out later in the tournament. A WAPL staff member will be coming around as people start accumulating a lot of chip worth, to start "chipping up" those players to get rid of lower denomination chips as they're no longer needed in the tournament, and bringing Pink chips into play for those players with a lot of chips.
Upon being called to the tables, the WAPL Software will display all the names of registered players, and you will then be able to go find your table. Make sure you introduce yourself to your fellow players.
Once the WAPL Staff member is ready to start the tournament and everyone is seated, the tournament software will start its countdown, and the game is on! Keep going till you are out of chips, or win the Tournament! If you bust out early, bad luck... You'll have to head over to the WAPL staff member at the registration desk and get them to confirm your status as out of the tournament, at which point you'll find your rank for the tournament and how many points you scored!
There will be two (2) breaks in each WA Poker League Tournament. The first break will be at the end of the 100/200 blind round, and the second break will be at the end of the 1000/2000 blind round. These breaks will be very important for several reasons. Firstly, all players will be required to vacate the tables for the duration of both breaks, leaving their chips and the dealer button in place. They can use this time to go to the bathroom, the bar for a drink, to catch up with their mates, have a bite to eat, or smoke break. During this time, our staff will attend each table to check chip counts to make sure no chips are missing off the tables, and chip up to get lower denomination chips off the tables. During the first break, we'll be chipping up to get rid of the green 25 value chips, and during the second break we'll be getting rid of the 100s and most 500 value chips, too, from the players with the most chip value. Once we reach break, any odd leftover chips will be "Chip Raced" to one of the players with odd chips, in order to get all green 25 value chips off the table. For instance, there may be a player who has 1, 2, or 3 of these chips left. Therefore they cannot be replaced with a 100 value chip whilst chipping up. There will be a multiple of 100 in green chips left amongst some players (unless there's green chips missing!), so we conduct a chip race between those players in order to leave one of those players with the culmination of the odd chips. Say we have a total of 200 chip value left on the table between 4 players. 2 players have 25 (2x green) each, and the other two players have 75 (3x green) each, equalling a total of 200 worth of green chips left. All players will be required to run the Chip Race in order to determine the winner of all the remaining green chips. The player who had the Dealer button should still have it in front of their position. They spread the cards out on the table (Washing the cards, this is called), then each of the players in the chip race pick their chip race cards in turn, from the left of the dealer around the table. If a player has for example 3 green chips in the race, they pick 3 cards (as they should have 3 times the chance of winning over a player with just 1 chip in the race). The highest card picked by all players in the chip race determines the winner of all the odd chips. Should two players pick the same highest card, for instance, Aces, then they will both pick another card each to determine the winner. When one picks the higher card, they are the winner, and take all the odd chips. At this point, our staff will come and chip the odd chips up to the higher denomination. This is the fairest way to do a full chip up, whilst keeping the chip count on the tables identical, which is very important to prevent chips disappearing from Tournaments.
If you end up in the top 20 in the tournament, your League ranking is going to get a big boost! The top 20 players score points based on the number of players in the tournament. For example, the 1st ranked player will score 20x the number of players at the tournament in points! The 20th ranked player scores 1x the number of players. Every player ranked 21st down scores a flat 10 points for entering the tournament. Any completed Free League Passport that isn't used for a re-entry will gain a bonus 100 points for that event! (Max 1 bonus per tournament)
In a WAPL Free League Tournament, if you end up on top, congratulations! You're the WAPL Tournament Winner for the night, and are going to go a long way towards raising your league ranking towards that enviable 1st position, where you could end up being the overall WAPL Free League Season Champion! Keep up your consistent play, and you could well be up there with the best of the Free Tournament Players at the end!
In a WAPL Pro League Buy-In Tournament, players who finish on the Final Table will be awarded prizes based on the number of entrants in the tournament and the Buy-In amount for the night! This could very well end up with multiple players on the Final Table walking away with hundreds of dollars each, at big events! In addition to that great prize opportunity, unless otherwise noted, all Buy-In League Tournaments run over the same WAPL season will also gain all tournament players points towards their overall WAPL Pro League Season Ranking, giving the best Pro League Season players first choice entry into the Pro League Grand Final, as well as the Season Winner automatically gaining entry through their Season Winner prize into the biggest tournament of the season, the WAPL Pro League Grand Final, and the chance to win our HUGE Grand Final Prize!
That's all there is to the Events. Hang around if you get out early, watch the games unfold and the great competition at the Final Table! It's such an exciting game to watch, you'll be glad you stayed to the end!
Obviously Tournament times will differ depending on venues, but most of our nightly WAPL Tournament will be played between 7pm and 11pm, where the finishing time may be earlier due to faster play. Just make sure you keep an eye on the Upcoming Events area, and get down early enough to register for the tournament and prepare yourself mentally for the challenge that lies ahead...
Best of luck in all WAPL tournaments you enter, and most of all, have fun! Remember, you can always come back to http://wapokerleague.com.au to check your and your friends' league rankings, how many points you need to make to get to first position, where and when the next tournaments are coming up, as well as any special events and news that might be happening soon at WAPL!
The Western Australian Poker League Team