This is a pretty standard charity room, lots of older people (40+) and very few young people. If you've played at a charity room, you know what this means about the level of play/competition. I was there on a Friday evening and there were 3 or 4 full cash tables before the tournament started which had five tables itself.
Starting stack for the tournament was 25,000 and blinds start at 100/200. Levels are 20 minutes, but I think there is some room for improvement because they go up really quickly after the first hour. Some of the tables have this ledge thing where your cards can easily get exposed if you don't catch them from the dealer.
There was one thing that really got me, though. Player A opens, Player B 3bets 3x, Player A 4bets, Player B thinks for a few seconds, Player A says something like, "You don't want any of this, I've got a big hand...," flips both of his cards over, and then Player A folds. I didn't see any other soft-playing, but the fact that this was approved (dealer confirmed it) in a tournament is just ridiculous.
Overall, this seems like a good place to play cash, but the tournament structure doesn't allow for much actual poker playing past the first 40 minutes or so. I don't think it's too much to ask to add one or two intermediate levels.
