Grand Rapids Heads Up Championship
Part of the Grand Series of Poker
August 12, 3:30pm - $40

Registration
Registration for the event will start at 2:30pm and end at 3:30pm.  If you have not paid by the time that registration ends you will probably be unable to play. Make sure you show up for this one on time. No matter what you think there is a chance this tournament could fill up with 128 players and you would be unable to play, there now I don't have to feel bad.  

Format
The Grand Rapids Heads Up Championship will be a double elimination seeded bracket tournament with a winner's bracket and a loser's bracket.  If we have 64 or more players it will be a 64 player bracket, and in the extremely unlikely event that we have less than 64 players it will be a 32 player bracket.  If we max out the tournament with 128 players then there will be a 128 player double elimination bracket and no qualifying rounds.

Qualifying Rounds
We will have an unknown number of players entering the tournament so we will be running three qualifying rounds at the start of the tournament to win your way into the bracket.  Each player will play three no limit hold’em heads up matches against three random opponents.  If you win at least two of the three matches you are guaranteed a place in the bracket.  If you win only one match out of the three you will still have a chance to win your way in through the crapshoot, but if you win zero out of three matches you will be eliminated.

The Crapshoot
All of the players who win only one match during the qualifying rounds will play in the crapshoot tournament to qualify for the bracket.  At this point we will know how many players we need to complete our 64 or 32 player bracket.  Depending on how many players we have versus how many players we need the crapshoot will be one of two things.  If we need to eliminate over half of the players then the crapshoot will be sudden death heads up matches where the first players to defeat their opponents will move into the bracket.  If we need to eliminate less than half of the players then the crapshoot will be a multitable turbo tournament where players will start with 1000 chips and 100-200 blinds that will go up every twenty minutes.  As soon as enough players are eliminated the bracket will begin.  Needless to say you want to avoid the crapshoot.

The Matches
Players will start every match with 1000 chips and 25-50 blinds, the player who is the dealer will be the small blind and act first in the hand.  After 45 minutes if the match has not ended the blinds will be raised to 50-100, if the match still hasn’t ended the blinds will go up every fifteen minutes after that.

Seeding
All players will be ranked as a one, two, or three seed.  All players who win all three of their qualifying matches will be the one seeds.  All players who win only two of their matches will be two seeds.  All players who qualify to play in the tournament through the crapshoot will be the three seeds.  When the bracket starts we will try to match up as many one seeds up with three seeds as possible.  You will also get slightly more points as a higher seed.  Don’t worry, you don’t have to understand what I’m talking about to play, all you need to know is that you want to try to win all three of your qualifying rounds.

Points
I might lose you here, just to let you know.  If you’re not playing in the Grand Series of Poker you can just skip this part.  All players who win zero qualifying rounds will receive zero points.  All players who win one qualifying round but are eliminated in the crapshoot will receive a number of points equal to the number of players who won zero qualifying rounds(the number of players they did better than).  If you are in the first group of players eliminated you will receive a number of points based on what seed you are.  If you are a three seed you will receive a number of points equal to the number of players who did not qualify for the bracket.  If you are a two seed you will receive a number of points equal to the number of players who did not qualify plus the number of three seeds eliminated in your same round.  If you are a one seed you will receive a number of points equal to the players who did not qualify plus the number of three seeds and the number of two seeds eliminated in your round.  This will continue on throughout the bracket system.

Tournament of Champions
Since this is a part of the Grand Series of Poker $5 will be taken out of every buy in and go into the Championship prize pool.  The winner of this event will get a free entry into the Tournament of Champions to play for an estimated prize pool of $2500.

Location
12540 60th Ave
Allendale, MI 49401
(Stay tuned for map and directions)
________________________________________________________________________
All information is subject to change.  Log on to GrandRapidsPoker.com for all the latest information or sign up for the mailing list to be updated automatically.  If you have questions you can email Quentin at poker@starvingauthor.com or call Greg (481-4677)  or Quentin (249-8389)  But please don’t call an hour before a tournament starts…