Project Mayhem - S13

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.

The buy-in price per event is $5 (doubled on the nights when we only run one tournament).

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. By 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. For Season 13, we're looking at June 10, 2023 (or maybe June 17 — we're currently settling on a date).

Past Champions

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 twenty-seven players, so we can only accept that many Project Mayhem members. The first twenty-seven folks to physically buy into a Season 13 tournament (and also buy into Project Mayhem!) will be entered into Project Mayhem. Project Mayhem events are part of our Saturday night Regular Season tournaments.

Note that as of S13Ep9 we are able to physically seat 35 players for our game, but we're going to hold Project Mayhem to 27 participants. Also note that while we've had 27 total entries across the three years of Season 13, two of those have moved out of the area, so we will consider those two seats as available for the Final Tournament.

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 Thirteen (players who've moved out of the area have been removed from this list)

1. Shannon

2. Neal

3. Rich

4. Barb

5. Brad

6. Tom

7. Rich I

8. Michael

9. Shawn

10. Andy

11. Bronc

12. Doug G

13. Nancy

14. Charlie H

15. John

16. Charlie S

17. Holly

18. Stefan

19. Rachael

20. Dan S

21. Cindy

22. Jeremy

23. Heather D

24-27 —available—

Points

As indicated above, you need to buy into a PM-eligible tournament to earn Attendance Points and PiMPs. Money up front, 100% of the time. If you pay to enter a tournament after-the-fact (as in, that same evening), you will only earn attendance points for that tournament, no PiMPs.

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

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 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.

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.

After the mid-Season 13 structure reconfiguration, everything looks solid for its use in the PMFT, but there may have be some (likely small) time adjustments to the levels to try to wrap things up at the desired time. This is still in the works (as of 5/7/2023).

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.

We are currently looking at June 10, 2023 for our PMFT, but there's an option for June 17th if that's better for the majority of the players. This discussion is currently ongoing and should be resolved by 4/18/2023.

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.

Schedule (Season XIII & PMFT)

Events subject to change on the whims of the organizers.

September 14, 2019 S13Ep1: Standard Tournament

September 28, 2019 S13Ep2: WSOP Final Table Recreation

October 19, 2019 S13Ep3: Standard Tournament

November 9, 2019 S13Ep4: Quick Tournament (Short-Deck Hold'Em) & Main Event: Add-on Extravaganza

December 7, 2019 S13Ep5: Standard Tournament

January 18, 2020 S13Ep6: Quick Tournament (Crazy Pineapple) & Main Event: Progressive Knockout

February 8, 2020 S13Ep7: Standard Tournament

February 22, 2020 S13Ep8: Quick Tournament (Longmont Hi) & Main Event: Ante-Only Tournament

April 15, 2023 S13Ep9: Standard Tournament

May 20, 2023 S13Ep10: Quick Tournament (Omaha) & Main Event: Cheap Rebuy

June 10, 2023 S13PMFT: Project Mayhem Final Tournament (possibly June 17, 2023)

Results

Summary

At the end of Season 13 we have 23 participants, and a prize pool of $1435. Season 12 finished with $1310 in the prize pool.

PiMPs

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

After ten Saturdays across three years of pokering, 19 participants have earned full starting stacks in the PMFT, 2 need just a bit of a top-off if they want to start with full stacks, and Jeremy and Heather guaranteed they'll have seats in that tournament. Speaking of which, we do have four open spots for at-large participants to jump in if they're so inclined.

By Tournaments

S13Ep01 - Standard Tournament (9/14/2019)

We knew that playing on the day after Friday the 13th (with a full moon) was tempting fates for our lucky Season 13, and boy did the fates deliver. The Black table saw quads twice in the first two levels (one in the very first hand!) and then twice more before the end of the night. There were chip swings aplenty (including your humble host, who had to rebuy three hands before the end of the rebuy period, then hung on to an extremely swingy night to end up taking the top spot). We logged 27 rebuys and 5 add-ons, and signed 19 people up to Project Mayhem (Nancy bought in but was not able to attend, as she was concerned about seat availability). Andy was my heads-up opponent, and we outlasted Rich, Charlie S, and John in the money spots.

S13Ep02 - WSOP Preliminary Tournament (9/28/2019)

For the first time in ages, everyone participating in our tournaments this weekend were Project Mayhem members, so the full list of bust-outs can be found in the table above. Our defending Champ, Rachael, went out in 10th place, but her husband John avenged her bubble finish by taking down the early tournament. During break we sang Happy Birthday to Barb. One particularly notable bust out in the early tournament was poor Rich I, who turned his set of Kings with the same card that gave Andy his flush. The board did not pair on the river and Rich dusted off $60 and was out the door within five minutes. Better luck next time!

S13Ep02 - WSOP Main Event Final Table (9/28/2019)

Everyone who bought into Project Mayhem is listed in the table above, but only the top nine finishers from the first tournament were actually entered in this tournament. John and Holly battled hard for the top finishing position with the lead changing about six times before John finally won an all-in with more chips. It should be noted that Holly turned her 8th place chip stack from the first tournament into a 2nd place finish. (Barb also made a big jump, going from 9th in chips at the start to finishing in 5th place.) Shawn and Neal also cashed in the money tournament (and while I cashed "In the money" for the tournament based on the total number of buy-ins for the evening, since there were only nine participants in the second tournament only the top three positions are categorized as "ITM" in terms of PiMPs). And as expected there were robust cash games going on both tables before we pulled the plug on the evening around midnight.

S13Ep03 - Standard Tournament (10/19/2019)

We had 20 for our third weekend of the season and added former champion Dan S and newcomer Brian to the fold. Hilariously enough, the biggest howl of the night came from these two, tangled up in an Omaha 8 hand on the cash game table (I'll see if I can't find a video). As for the tournament, your humble host continued his streak of using fortunate river cards to pull down the victory in a hard-fought battle (or maybe just a shove-fest) with Michael during heads-up (five lead-changes by my count). We outlasted Norm, Doug G, and Dan S who finished in the other money places.

S13Ep04 - Quick Tournament: Short Deck Hold'Em (11/09/2019)

Twenty two folks showed up for our tournament that has no deuces in the deck and our basement survived an apparent all-night earthquake (tables were felled, pictures knocked off the wall, drinks and chairs knocked to the floor... some of which happened multiple times). Six folks chopped up our Short-Deck Hold'Em tournament: Bronc, Charlie H, Holly, Rich I, Shannon, and Shawn. We were happy to add Cindy as our twenty-third member of Project Mayhem (leaving us only two seats available for the end-of-season tournament).

S13Ep04 - Main Event: Add On Extravaganza (11/09/2019)

Twenty-four folks played in this Season's AOE (Tory and Brad came to play in the second tournament, Tory didn't buy-in, and Brad bought-in double). Michael used his lammers to the best effect, outlasting Shannon and Charlie S for the big money. Tory and Holly also cashed. Despite the evening's early start, we still played cash games until the wee hours of the morning, with your humble hosts finally nodding off some time after 3am.

S13Ep05 - Standard Tournament (12/07/2019)

It was a slaughter. 80 points! Cindy dominated our poker night of 26 players with an incredible eleven knockouts. She and Michael played heads up for a little bit, but the end result had a very inevitable feeling to it. Kim took third place after a lengthy sequence of bubble finishes, and Andy and Neal managed to finish in the money. Rachael's friend James was a new player to the basement as as I told him at the end of the night, "You're one of us." Definitely hope to see you again soon. Thanks to everyone who made our holiday themed poker night so much fun, including John and Shannon for keeping things flawless at the other two tables and especially Shannon for everything she did to make sure our home was decorated so beautifully. Folks noted their birthdays in our physical calendar (again — some-one accidentally threw away the first one we did about a year ago... sorry about that) and also were kind enough to make us new ornaments for our poker tree. The cash game wrapped up around 1:30 am and smiles abounded throughout the night.

S13Ep06 - Quick Tournament: Crazy Pineapple (1/18/2020)

We had 21 wonderful poker players show up to play on a mild Saturday night. Neal played, but did not buy into Project Mayhem, so Norm was our only non-PM player this weekend. Crazy Pineapple was fun because it's a lot like hold'em but we got to see some bigger hands shown down. Tom ran into that on his very first hand, keeping his AA, but was devastated when he ran into Tory's kept-77 that flopped a set. At the other end of the spectrum, six of us chopped the first place money: John, Michael, Neal, Norm, Shannon, and Shawn.

S13Ep06 - Main Event: Progressive KO (1/18/2020)

The Dan & Cindy race to see who gets more first place finishes is on! Dan tied his wife by outlasting the field with an especially bold heads-up strategy that paid off against John. I believe the bounties at the end between the two of them were $188, and combined with the first place prize of $360 made for an exceptionally lucrative top-of-the-chart finish. Other money finishers were Shannon, Barb, and Shawn (who rebought for 10,000 chips during Level 10 when the big blind was T2500!). A handful of us have earned our full starting stack for the PMFT (and a number are a slam-dunk away of joining us), so pay attention to the two charts at the top of this page to figure out your Project Mayhem buy-in strategy as the season winds down.

S13Ep07 - Standard Tournament (2/8/2020)

A return to a nice calm 22 participants made for a somewhat more intimate evening in our basement. As players get close to capping out for the PMFT, you'll see some half buy-ins on the list (and Shawn, Shannon, and Neal were also participating but did not need to buy into Project Mayhem this weekend). I punted on the bubble, which left Brian, Charlie S, and Tom to finish in the money spots, and terpsichorean Michael to overcome Rachael for the big money at the top of the prize pool. Big thanks to Andy for acting as table captain on the octagon!

S13Ep08 - Quick Tournament: Longmont Hi (2/22/2020)

Getting down to the end of the season means that buy-ins are lessened as folks have already capped out. We had 23 playing poker in our basement this weekend including 3 "newbies", all of whom seemed to get along great with our crew. Shannon and I hope to see all of you back: Gavin, Ed, and Martin. Speaking of Gavin, he was part of the 6-way chop in our first tournament (word on the street is that he's been playing Longmont Hi since he was a wee lad), along with Doug G, Erik, John, Michael G, and Rich I. Congrats to all of you. Also thanks go out to John for straightening *me* out for my miscarriage of betting rules (I had preflop action starting with the high card rather than simply after the blinds). Having played the game both ways, the rules as listed on this website are the much better way to go.

S13Ep08 - Main Event: Ante-Only Tournament (2/22/2020)

Another 23 played in the AOT, and on the 40th anniversary of some sporting event, I'm drawn to ask the rhetorical question: "Do you believe in miracles?" Shannon and Neal chopped the top prize in the tournament (outlasting two Russian Michaels along the way). Dan S took third place (though he's still a few PiMPs behind Cindy after this weekend -- just eking out a position ahead of Andy on the list due to the second tie-breaker!) and newbie Ed and Charlie S also took home some money. I have to admit that early on the tournament I got frustrated at showdown seeing my hands which had been leading preflop losing at showdown. In a testament of mental fortitude, my fortunes turned around at a winning 95o, and proceeded to lay waste to a nearly innumerable list of better hands (my 54s all-in preflop call knocking out Brad's AK in 7th place probably being the worst of my undeserved results). Thanks to everyone for putting up with my goofy poker playing ways.

S13Ep09 - Standard Tournament (4/15/2023)

After a three year break (during which we did play some non-Project Mayhem events), we started to conclude Season 13. In the intervening time we saw a few Project Mayhemmers move out of the area (pour one out for Brian and Tory), and we made some new poker playing friends. We also figured out a way to add a fourth table, enabling us to seat up to 35 players at the start. Not all progress is horrible! We had 28 players for this Standard Tournament, and saw two new additions to the Project Mayhem lineup (welcome Jeremy, and Heather D!). Heather wasn't able to join us this time around, but much like Nancy in S13Ep1, was concerned about seat availablity so she bought into PM without being present for this event. She still managed to tie Jeremy for PM performance as he was the first one out this time around, but I have the inkling that he'll do just a bit better in future events. We also had a few "old school" Project Mayhemmers finish up their campaign for getting to 50,000 starting chips at the final table (congrats to Barb, Brad, and especially Holly who finished her regular season with a very strong money finish). Both Nancy and Rich I chipped away at their remaining journey and Bronc also participated in our tournament this time, but chose not to buy into PM this time around. Cindy also has a good shot at completing her PMFT starting chip journey in our next tournament.

Joining Holly in the winning side of the ledger were Dan S (to whom I put a terrible beat on in his last hand: he had position on me in the battle of the blinds and I shoved into with with KJ and he called with AK; one Jack later and he was out in fifth—he took it WAY better than I ever would have...), John, lucky Neal in third. This left Shannon and Brendan to chop the top two spots for a very nice score. Congrats to the money winners and thanks to everyone who joined us for an exceptionally fun evening. Special thanks to Shannon, John, and Charlie who were my fellow table captains (without whom our poker nights would look very different!), and to Charlie and Josh S for putting together a very touching scotch toast to my father who passed earlier in February.

S13Ep10 - Quick Tournament: Omaha Hi (5/20/2023)

We had 21 fine folks show up for our end of season final evening. With 21 participants, six were getting paid in the Quick Tournament: Doug (a wire-to-wire domination), John (a very nice comeback at an opportune time at the final table), Caroline, Charlie, Chris C, and Rachael. As far as Project Mayhem went, three participants tried like crazy to earn their final chips in the big Final Tournament next month, with Nancy finishing a bit ahead of Charlie H and Bronc.

S13Ep10 - Main Event: Cheap Rebuy (5/20/2023)

The Cheap Rebuy tournament went as anticipated, with over $300 of the prize pool consisting of $10 bills. In total there were 36 rebuys (Neal led the pack at 6) and 14 add-ons. Finishing at the top of the chop was Shannon over Josh, with Bronc and Charlie H also finishing in the money as well as John who managed to cash in both tournaments. Project Mayhem participants for this tournament were Bronc, Charlie H, and Stefan, all with very strong performances in this tournament.

History

Links

Previous seasons of Project Mayhem can be found:

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