Project Mayhem - Season 10

Fight Club was the beginning, now it's moved out of the basement, it's called Project Mayhem."

— Tyler Durden

Project Mayhem is the name we use for our completely voluntary league. PM has existed since Season 5, and is linked to our Saturday evening tournaments (which we call our Regular Season). The net effect of Project Mayhem is to have a big Final Tournament after the season is over and to crown a champion.

As of Season 9 we raised the buy-in price per event to $5.

Summary

The gist of Project Mayhem is that participating folks pay an extra $5 per tournament into the prize pool. How many Saturday night tournaments you enter (and to a much lesser-degree, how well you do during those tournaments) will dictate your starting chip stack at the final table. At the end of the season, all the PM participants set up a time and date for the Final Tournament (the "PMFT"), and we all play for the big money.

Goals

We have a few motives in setting up Project Mayhem. First up, we think having a big prize-pool tournament with deep stacks and a longer structure is a lot of fun. Secondly, we are motivated to have a more consistent set of participants showing up for our weekend games (recruiting is probably right up there with cleaning up the next day as being the least-fun aspect of hosting poker night) and PM is set up to reward folks for showing up more regularly.

Participation

There is room at the Final Tournament for up to eighteen players, so we can only accept that many Project Mayhem members. The first eighteen folks to physically buy into a Season X tournament will be entered into Project Mayhem. Project Mayhem events are part of our Saturday night Regular Season tournaments.

PM-eligible tournaments happen on our Episodic (regular season) Saturday nights. Members of Project Mayhem have the option to play as PM-eligible for our regular Saturday night tournaments (1 tournament in the case of a Standard Tournament weekend, or any of the 2 tournaments when we have a Quick Tournament and a Main Event). To be PM-eligible you have to pay the $5 fee (for the two-tournament nights) or $10 (Standard Tournament nights) at the time you're playing and all that money goes into a separate envelope. Playing eligible in a tournament earns you two types of points: 1) you get one Attendance Point (which ultimately gets used to determine your starting chips in the final tournament, see below for more details), and 2) you earn Project Mayhem Points (a.k.a. "PiMPs") based on how well you perform in the tournament. PiMPs also get you some starting chips, and they also have one other specific use for the final table which will be explained below.

If you've already established yourself as a member of PM you can decide to not buy-in to a tournament as PM-eligible. If that's the case, then it's just like you didn't show up for that particular tournament: you don't get an Attendance Point, nor would you earn any PiMPs.

For our Standard Tournament nights a Project Mayhem entry costs $10 and all associated Attendance and Project Mayhem points are doubled for that tournament. If it's a Standard Tournament night and you only need one more entry to get capped for your starting stack at the PMFT you can buy in for $5 and earn standard PM points.

If you're not a member of Project Mayhem, you can attempt a direct buy-in to the PMFT assuming any seats are remaining. Details are below.

Players for Season X

1. Shannon

2. Neal

3. Tom

4. Tory

5. Jason D

6. Elina

7. Brad

8. Michael

9. Charlie H

10. Tom H

11. Michael G

12 -18. open

Points

As indicated above, you need to buy into a PM-eligible tournament to earn Attendance Points and PiMPs. Even if you've already committed to being a Project Mayhem member if you don't pay at the time of entering the tournament you're not earning either of these things. Money up front, 100% of the time.

Attendance Points and Starting Stacks

Attendance Points are earned for each eligible tournament you enter. Each tournament is worth T2000 chips to your starting stack at the final table. Additionally, if you hit certain attendance thresholds, you get T2000 additional bonus chips (occurring at the 7, 9, 11, 13 and 15-tournament thresholds).

Before the Final Tournament starts, folks will have the option to buy additional starting chips at the cost of T2000 chips per $5 spent. The maximum starting stack, however, is capped at T50,000 chips. Obviously this money all goes straight into the prize pool.

APs are doubled on the evenings we only play a Standard Tournament, and PM entries cost $10.

PiMPs

Things which earn you PiMPS:

1 PiMP.... Enter a tournament

1 PiMP.... Per player that finishes worse than you in a tournament (they do not have to be Project Mayhem-eligible players, players who chop prizes all finish one spot ahead of the last person not included in the chop)

1 PiMP.... Per knockout you put on a fellow tournament player (not affected if they rebuy: does not have to be a permanent KO; note that for the Add-on Extravaganza, making someone use a rebuy token does not qualify as a knockout)

1 PiMP.... For finishing in the money (based on prize allotment on Structure page, alternative pay-outs such as Bounty money do not affect this PiMP)

2 PiMPs.... For finishing in first place [Change new to Season VIII — was 1 PiMP in the previous seasons]

All PiMPs are doubled on the evenings we only play the Standard Tournament (with $10 PM entries).

Note that we will issue partial PiMPs in the case of folks chopping a tournament before it would be considered in-the-money (say 4 people chop a tournament which has 3 pay-outs: each PM participant who is part of the chop would earn 3/4ths of a PiMP), and [new to Season VIII] also for the two winner PiMPs as well.

PiMPs are good for two things. First, for every 15 full PiMPs earned (no rounding: 29 PiMPs is just as good as 15), you get another T2000 to your starting stack, so even if you don't make all 20 tournaments, if you can make it to 14 or 16, chances are pretty good you'll start with the max starting stack. Second, seating at the final table tournament will be based on the order of PiMPs. Whomever finishes with the highest number of PiMPs will have their first option of seats at the table, with the option to defer if they so choose. Each time someone selects a seat at the table, we will scroll back up to the top of the PiMP list and allow the top remaining person their option of seats. Once you've picked a seat, there's no changing your mind.

Past Champions

Tiebreaks among PiMPs first go to the person with the fewest total tournament entries (if someone gets 47 PiMPs in six tournaments, then they beat out someone who got 47 PiMPs in eight tournaments). The next tiebreak would be to add 1 extra PiMP per category starting at the bottom of the above list (so starting with the number of first place finishes) to see if that makes a difference. If there's still a tie after that, then we'll high-card to break the tie.

I won't be calculating PiMPs for everyone on the fly (between tournaments), but will update a spreadsheet and post it here between Saturdays.

One way to think about the Project Mayhem Final Tournament starting chips is in terms of "bundles." Each bundle is T2000 chips. Every time you buy into a tournament you get one bundle of chips. For certain thresholds you get a bonus bundle. And for every 15 PiMPs you've earned you get a bundle. For a max stack at the final tournament, you should be trying to earn 25 bundles.

Final Tournament (PMFT)

Structure

The PMFT is run using our Standard Tournament structure with these modifications:

1. longer levels,

2. bigger initial stacks,

3. no add-ons, and

4. one rebuy available through the first 16 levels.

We've settled on 15 minute levels in the general case, but depending on the number of participants (and the number of chips in play) this number may be adjusted with a target of having the PMFT run for about six hours (give or take).

Folks will have up to 50,000 chips in their starting stack. The details for PM participants are listed above in Points. For non-PM participants who would like to direct buy-in, the cost is $5 will get you 2000 starting chips, up to $125 which would get you a capped stack of 50,000 starting chips. This is the same rate that non-capped PM members can add chips to their starting stack.

Rebuys can be made for any amount of chips up to that person's starting stack. The cost for a rebuy is $3 for every 1000 chips.

Percent Starting Stack by AP vs PiMPs

Here's the breakdown of the total percent of starting chips which come from just showing up vs. performance by season. Note that our ratios were set up a bit differently in Season 5 (by design). Seasons 6, 7, and 8 were all just scaled versions of each other, so should be directly comparable.

Season 5: 87.8%

Season 6: 83.7%

Season 7: 82.6%

Season 8: 80.1%

The PMFT is the only tournament run on that date. Generally we try to schedule the Regular Season events such that the PMFT happens in the Spring before the end of the school year. We will negotiate a date that works for PM participants well in advance of the end of the Regular Season (generally sometime around Episode 8 or 9), though as hosts we have to reserve the right to modify (or even cancel in extreme circumstances) this event. If you cannot make the PMFT, you will not have your contributions refunded.

It's never too early to begin negotiating for a Final Table date. If Neal and Shannon aren't doing a good job with kicking off that conversation, please initiate it yourself.

Seating

PMFT seats are awarded based on the number of PiMPs you have earned. A ranked list of participants in the PMFT will be created based on PiMPs, then based on direct buy-in amounts (tie-break for those will be based on when you email me that you would like to participate). Seat selection will be in rounds starting at the top of the list. Someone can defer each round to someone lower on the list and if the list makes it all the way to the bottom, the last person is forced to make a selection. After each round, the next selection begins with the remaining person at the top of the list.

Potential Schedule (Season X & PMFT)

September 2016: WSOP Final Table (not affiliated with Project Mayhem)

October 22, 2016 S10Ep1: Standard Tournament

November 12, 2016: S10Ep2: Preliminary, WSOP Final Table Tournament

December 10, 2016 S10Ep3: Standard Tournament

January 7, 2017 S10Ep4: Quick, Progressive Knockout Tournament

January 28, 2017 S10Ep5: Standard Tournament

February 18, 2017 S10Ep6: Quick, Add-on Extravaganza

March 4, 2017 S10Ep7: Standard Tournament

March 25, 2017 S10Ep8: Quick, Ante-only Tournament

April 15, 2017 S10Ep9: Standard Tournament

April 29, 2017 S10Ep10: Quick, Cheap Rebuy Tournament

May 20, 2017: S10 Project Mayhem Final Tournament

Results

Summary

Here are the up-to-date standings at the end of Season 10.

PiMPs

Here are the final PiMP results for Season 10.

Rebuy Example

Let's say you attended 8 tournaments (8 APs, which cost you $5 each, so you're in for $40) and earned between 60 and 74 PiMPs in that time. This would get you 16,000 + 8000 = 24,000 starting chips. Say you wanted to bolster your starting stack with an additional 8000 chips (which costs you $5 for each 2000, so an additional $20). Your original stack is then 32,000 chips.

If things go sour for you and you bust out, you would have the option to rebuy up to 32,000 chips. You could buy in for less if you so chose, but you only get the one rebuy (and it has to be prior to the end of the 16th level). The rate for rebuy chips is $3 gets you 1000 chips.

So your first 32,000 chips cost you $40 + $20 = $60. If you wanted to rebuy up to that same amount that would cost you $96.

Finished Rank is calculated from the sum total of the number of folks you've finished ahead of.

KOs is calculated from the sum total of knockouts you've performed.

Avg/Tot is the average per entry for that column (if centered), or total amount (if shifted to the right).

Final Table Chips

Here are the earned FT Chips.

By Tournaments

S10Ep01 - Standard Tournament (10/22/2016)

Tory and Brad chopped at the end, with Tory taking a bit more. Jason finished in third place money. We had 10 for our first game of the season and seven signed up for Project Mayhem.

S10Ep02 - WSOP Preliminary Tournament (11/12/2016)

Suzi crushed the preliminary tournament followed by Shannon, Tory, JasonD, Neal, and Tom (nice showing Project Mayhemmers). We also had two newbies, Greg C (hosted by Michael L) and Sherri (hosted by Suzi). This was our first-ever tournament with a full 18 players.

S10 Ep02 - WSOP Final Table (11/12/2016)

While we were hoping for the exceedingly rare Stangis 1-2 finish, we had to settle with first and third. Jason D was part of the heads-up portion and since we had 18 in the Preliminary Tournament, we extended the prize pool to fourth place which scored Tory some money.

S10 Ep03 - Standard Tournament (12/10/2016)

Two new players joined us (welcome Steve F and Kirk D) while Jason continued his money streak in every contest so far this season (3rd place finish). John took fourth place money, and Michael and Neal duked it out for the top spot.

S10 Ep04 - Quick Tournament (1/6/2017)

Shannon and Tom chopped the first tournament while John and Jason scored the other two money spots. We had three newbies join us, Michael (a friend of Dave's), Stefan, and Doug (the last two we had met at another poker game).

S10 Ep04 - Progressive Knockout Tournament (1/7/2017)

Some repeat winners on the list this week, but Doug managed to win the largest amount, beating Jason in the heads-up portion while Shannon and Tom also pocketed some more money.

I uploaded some fun time-lapse videos from the evening (links open in their own windows):

View from the beer fridge

Kitchen

Living Room

S10 Ep05 - Standard Tournament (1/28/2017)

We had all nine current members of Project Mayhem show up to play in our Standard tournament. And PMers did well for themselves, with Elina and Charlie making some money and Tory and Michael chopping the top of the prize pool.

S10 Ep06 - Quick Tournament (2/18/2017)

Carl and Rachael chopped the first tournament, and Steve F redeemed his first appearance with a money finish. Your humble host (with the less impressive rack) took third place money.

S10 Ep06 - Add-on Extravaganza (2/18/2017)

Carl completed his sweep by winning the AOE, with Jason taking down second place, and Jeff and Brad also finishing in the money. On the evening Shannon gifted $2 cash to pots as she attempts to "swear less and stop talking about my boobs" on poker nights in some sort of bizarre swear-cup situation. Stay tuned for further developments for the rest of the season!

S10 Ep07 - Standard Tournament (3/04/2017)

Note PiMPs are doubled for most entries, but Jason only needed one AP to get a full starting stack so his points are not doubled. Neal participated, but did not enter Project Mayhem. We added two new members to the roster (welcome Tom H and Michael G). Max took the top of the chop, but Jason (of course) nabbed a few partial first place points with a savvy chop negotiation. Michael G (welcome aboard) took third place, and Elina nabbed fourth. Another good showing for PM participants. I never saw Shannon put any cash into any pots, so maybe this whole toning things down thing is working for her?

S10 Ep08 - Quick Tournament (3/25/2017)

Andy was a new player this week and boy did we ever give him a show. We had unprotected hands mucked inappropriately, we had players shoving and then mucking after getting called, I struggled with getting the prize pool to work appropriately — you know all standard stuff for a well-run game. Anyway, John and Neal chopped at the top (after being short stacked four-handed) while Michael and Dan took the other money places. Jason D and Neal both participated but didn't enroll in PM for this tournament.

S10 Ep08 - Ante-Only Tournament (3/25/2017)

The AOT started out a bit slow (I was thinking to myself, why do we play this silly format), but by the end the strategy considerations were very interesting (at least to me). Michael and Dan chopped the top while John and Michael G took the other money finishes (it was a pretty good night for anyone named Dan, John, or Michael). Neal, Shannon, and Jason D participated, but did not enroll in PM for this tournament.

S10 Ep09 - Standard Tournament (4/15/2017)

Shannon, Neal, and Tom participated in this tournament but didn't have to buy in as we're already capped in chips. We saw three newbies (welcome aboard Nancy, Justin, and Bronco) which was fantastic. Bronc managed to chop first-place money with Brad at the end of the (very long) evening, and Andy (a first-time returner) and Stefan (a second-time returner) took the other two money spots. Shannon swore up a storm, but she's not in the business of handing our free money any more so she didn't care.

S10 Ep10 - Quick Tournament (4/29/2017)

All Project Mayhemmers in the money this time with Charlie chopping 3-ways with your humble hosts, and Michael taking the 4th spot. Also attending (but not participating in PM) were Jason D, and Brad. Vahid was our token newbie for the evening and I had a great time playing with him — hope you can make it back!

S10 Ep10 - Cheap Rebuy Tournament (4/29/2017)

Pretty good night for Charlie, as in this (crazy) tournament he chopped three ways with Bronc and Dan S. Taking fourth place money was John. We outdid ourselves with 24 total rebuys and 15 add-ons to cap our Season 10 regular season. Thanks to everyone who participated, we really enjoyed your company this season.

History

Links

Previous seasons of Project Mayhem can be found:

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