How can you knock a grand prizepool for a fiver buy in? If you are playing fiver buy in tourneys, why wouldnt you play it? Particularly when it finishes early enough.
I have never moaned about it once. I just choose not to play it anymore.
So why would you do that?
I actually occasionally do.... and I used to play the 6.30pm BH fairly regularly, as well as the Mini Gold Rush, and occasionally one of the other Mini's .
So why did you stop?
On the other hand if the only drawback to the mini is the late finish then why arent more players playing the 6.30?
Why dont you playing the minis, and the 6.30, when you regularly play a tourney that starts at 1 am.?
If you linked 3 mini tourneys, does that mean you would unlink the main from the mini? Because that would probably be quite unpopular. Or would you link the 3 minis to the main? Probably equally unpopular.
A chunk of the players that play the main, probably only enter the current mini because of the FT jackpot. So if you unlinked the main from the mini, then the mini would probably lose out substantially.
. it certainly wouldn't make the numbers any less. It may well do. If you introduce a new tourney at 7.30, it may well draw players from the other two. You cant have it both ways. You can either cater for players with smaller bank rolls, or you can introduce new tourneys, and obligate them to play all three, by linking them.
I never said a Speed Mini would benefit the 6.30pm BH.
Then why would you call the 6.30 a mini?
I actually occasionally do.
The odd player occasionally playing a mini will do nothing to affect the numbers. Players with smaller bankrolls have been regularly referred to in this thread. I am not sure what constitutes a small bankroll. But I could imagine someone who is happy to spend a fiver per day on the mini. So what do they do? Do they play the three for a couple of nights, or just carry on playing the mini every night. If you have a smaller bankroll, you will be limited in the number of tourneys you can play.
If there is a problem, I am saying that because Sky dont seem panicked into making any immediate drastic changes. There was a similar problem in the mains, but this was pretty much solved by allowing a re-entry. Some nights there will be a grands worth of re-entries.
Having a three-linked Tournament would give them a better identity
I think you will find that most poker players would prefer money to a better identity.
Surely I am one of the players that need encouraging back to play the Mini's, as well as other smaller buy-in Tournaments.
Why on earth would you think you need encouragement?
both @MynaFrett and myself didn't even know there was a Tournament at 7.30pm )..
And whose fault is that?
and I certainly would be very interested in playing Tournaments with a Great Incentive to play all three.
How many days per weeek would you play all three?
I am not sure what sort of increase in the number of runners you would expect from this master plan. Lets say you can get 20, thats £100 in the prizepool. Nobody would notice the difference. In fact on Wednesday this week, you needed an extra 52 players to cover the guarantee. So if you could have increased by 52 there would have been no difference in the prizepool. The irony is that if the numbers did rocket, you would have to start it earlier again.
I do appreciate that there are a small number of players that have contributed to this thread, that have said they would appreciate an earlier start. It would be interesting to see how popular this was. It would make no difference to me, but I am not sure how it affects the majority of other players. Maybe Sky should try it on one night and see if the number of runners rockets. Although I have my doubts. If it just suits a group of players to get to bed a little earlier, rather than attract new players, nothing will be achieved. As far as the main and the mini are concerned, I think they provide variety, and some nights you have a big stack, other nights they are turbos. I thnk it would do harm to tamper with the formats of the tourneys, and that a bit of variety is good. I think that you also have a group of the better player that play the mini, with only the FT bonus in mind, and any tampering with that may be counter productive. If there was a concensus that any particular tourney was finishing too late, you would surely just start it earlier. On the basis of if its not broke..........
I think there is a valid argument for changing a couple of starting times. If it was purely up to me, I would move the mini to 6.30, and the main to 7pm. I think this would be quite easy to do, and no need to completely mess with the schedule. The same late entry rules would apply. You could probably do a straight swap between the 6.30 BH, and the mini. The reason I am saying this is that the mini last night finished 40 minutes after the main. This doesnt seem to make sense. The mini finished at 1.37, the main at 12.57. So going on the above starting times they would both have finished at a reasonable time. The main on Thursday finished at 1.46.
Earlier starting times may attract more players. The other thing Sky could do to give both tourneys a boost is to increase the FT bonus. They could keep the place money the same, and pay out 10k for winning both. This is not won often, and could be offset in the long term by the reduction in overlay in the minis, assuming the number of entries increased.
I dont think the earlier finishing times would do any harm. Neither would having a tourney with a decent guarantee earlier in the day. Currently the best guaranteed tourney up until 6pm is the £500 guaranteed BH, for £22. The sats for the main would have to be adjusted.
The other thing I would consider is starting stacks in the mini. I have often wondered whether some players, particularly new ones base the value of a tourney on how long it takes them to bust out. So maybe a 2,000 starting stack should be increased. Altthough I do realise that an increased stack, means a later finish, but if it was brought forward 2 hours, maybe not the end of the world. The mini on Thursday finished at 12.11.
One other thing that could be considered is a re-entry in the mini. This would certainly boost the prizepools. I do understand that it can put players with a smaller bankrolls at a disadvantage, but it would obviously be optional. Wouldnt most players prefer to see increases in prizepools, rather than reduced guarantees? That could be the choice before long. Doing this in the mains seems to have been accepted, and doesnt appear to have done any harm. In fact it has probably saved the guarantees. Falling guarantees dont inspire, or motivate anyone, nor do they attract new players. I dont suppose that regularly paying the overlay makes Sky very happy.
I think there is a valid argument for changing a couple of starting times. If it was purely up to me, I would move the mini to 6.30, and the main to 7pm. I think this would be quite easy to do, and no need to completely mess with the schedule. The same late entry rules would apply. You could probably do a straight swap between the 6.30 BH, and the mini. The reason I am saying this is that the mini last night finished 40 minutes after the main. This doesnt seem to make sense. The mini finished at 1.37, the main at 12.57. So going on the above starting times they would both have finished at a reasonable time.
One other thing that could be considered is a re-entry in the mini. This would certainly boost the prizepools. I do understand that it can put players with a smaller bankrolls at a disadvantage, but it would obviously be optional. Wouldnt most players prefer to see increases in prizepools, rather than reduced guarantees? That could be the choice before long. Doing this in the mains seems to have been accepted, and doesnt appear to have done any harm. In fact it has probably saved the guarantees. Falling guarantees dont inspire, or motivate anyone, nor do they attract new players. I dont suppose that regularly paying the overlay makes Sky very happy.
Lots of good stuff here.
An earlier start time for the main couldn't hurt as far as a lot of us seem to be concerned but I have little doubt that an earlier start time for the mini (at least one hour, so starting at 19:30 at the very latest if not 18:30, as HAYSIE suggests, or 19:00) perhaps with the option of a single re-entry could significantly boost participation and prize pools.
Making the mini a more attractive proposition again for players with a £5 ABI and even those with £15/£20 ABI including getting players back who are taking their action elsewhere during the week due to earlier start times/earlier finish times, better guarantees/greater returns for time invested, will not only boost the mini (and possibly the main) but could boost participation and prize pools across a number of tournaments starting within that sweet spot of MTT registration for UK players which I believe to be between 17:30-19:30. If you can get started on Stars and GG with a couple of huge GTD $5 games between 16:30-17:30 then add some Unibet, Party Poker, iPoker, 888 games around that buy-in range all starting before 19:30 why would you wait around for a Sky mini to start at 20:30 and finish after 1am sometimes? The answer increasingly seems to be you don't. If the mini started within that 17:30-19:30 window and/or finished by midnight I believe players would play it and would also be more inclined to play other Sky games around that window which could boost prize pools in those games too. You may even get players swapping out some of those Unibet/iPoker/888/PP games for Sky games again in that window.
If a Sky MTT session could be built around six existing tournaments with their existing formats/structures -
but the registration window for that schedule was brought forward and the tournaments were better placed to account for their structures/blind levels and finish times -
I would put an awful lot of money on this revised schedule having greatly increased participation and prize pools across the board. I have no doubt this 18:00-20:30 window outperforms the exact same tournaments in their current 18:30-21:30 window.
Quite like this kind of idea but maybe keep the 7@7 at 1900 and start the mini and main at the same time this would not affect the small buy in players but may encourage more people to play both.
I would think a lot of recs or semi serious recs like myself would prefer the £5 (or close to that amount ie under a tenner) buy in mtts to be in a less staggered format but the big problem is sky has a smallish player base and if numbers drop on certain nights it would have a bigger impact on guarantees being met.
I sometimes play a few sats before 6pm but generally play most of my poker between 6pm and 10pm but obviously dont mind having to play later as that generally means I am still in a tourney however I am generally single tabling at that point and not opening any more. I rarely play the mini now or 9@9 or reload as my attention span has burnt out by then. Do like the mini goldrush so sometimes play that. Would I play more if they were earlier? Definitely as currently play the 1830 and 7@7 with sometimes the main if had a few results or satted in cheap. Some really good stuff on this thread and hopefully a few good things will result from it and hopefully we will see @SkyJames thoughts soon as that may help to at least move this discussion forward.
I think there is a valid argument for changing a couple of starting times. If it was purely up to me, I would move the mini to 6.30, and the main to 7pm. I think this would be quite easy to do, and no need to completely mess with the schedule. The same late entry rules would apply. You could probably do a straight swap between the 6.30 BH, and the mini. The reason I am saying this is that the mini last night finished 40 minutes after the main. This doesnt seem to make sense. The mini finished at 1.37, the main at 12.57. So going on the above starting times they would both have finished at a reasonable time.
One other thing that could be considered is a re-entry in the mini. This would certainly boost the prizepools. I do understand that it can put players with a smaller bankrolls at a disadvantage, but it would obviously be optional. Wouldnt most players prefer to see increases in prizepools, rather than reduced guarantees? That could be the choice before long. Doing this in the mains seems to have been accepted, and doesnt appear to have done any harm. In fact it has probably saved the guarantees. Falling guarantees dont inspire, or motivate anyone, nor do they attract new players. I dont suppose that regularly paying the overlay makes Sky very happy.
Lots of good stuff here.
An earlier start time for the main couldn't hurt as far as a lot of us seem to be concerned but I have little doubt that an earlier start time for the mini (at least one hour, so starting at 19:30 at the very latest if not 18:30, as HAYSIE suggests, or 19:00) perhaps with the option of a single re-entry could significantly boost participation and prize pools.
Making the mini a more attractive proposition again for players with a £5 ABI and even those with £15/£20 ABI including getting players back who are taking their action elsewhere during the week due to earlier start times/earlier finish times, better guarantees/greater returns for time invested, will not only boost the mini (and possibly the main) but could boost participation and prize pools across a number of tournaments starting within that sweet spot of MTT registration for UK players which I believe to be between 17:30-19:30. If you can get started on Stars and GG with a couple of huge GTD $5 games between 16:30-17:30 then add some Unibet, Party Poker, iPoker, 888 games around that buy-in range all starting before 19:30 why would you wait around for a Sky mini to start at 20:30 and finish after 1am sometimes? The answer increasingly seems to be you don't. If the mini started within that 17:30-19:30 window and/or finished by midnight I believe players would play it and would also be more inclined to play other Sky games around that window which could boost prize pools in those games too. You may even get players swapping out some of those Unibet/iPoker/888/PP games for Sky games again in that window.
If a Sky MTT session could be built around six existing tournaments with their existing formats/structures -
but the registration window for that schedule was brought forward and the tournaments were better placed to account for their structures/blind levels and finish times -
I would put an awful lot of money on this revised schedule having greatly increased participation and prize pools across the board. I have no doubt this 18:00-20:30 window outperforms the exact same tournaments in their current 18:30-21:30 window.
Lots of people seem to be criticising the mini, but it is the tourney with the most runners on Sky, most days, if not every day.
I am not going to go through the all the stuff I said earlier, because that would be pointless. I just think that the mini should swap times with the 6.30 BH, and the main should start at 7pm, thats it end of.
Does anyone really want the mini going on until 2 in the morning?
I cant see Sky ripping up and completely redoing the current schedule. I also cant see Sky being prepared to meet the overlay costs on the mini forever. So something needs to happen.
To recap a little from what I said earlier, the mini is meant to be the lower buy in version of the main. The minimum starting stack in the main is 5k, and only 2k in the mini most nights. Introduce a maximum of one re-entry. Boost the FT jackpot, just for winning both. I believe that doing this would boost the prizepools, and cut out the overlay. Perhaps another £5 rebuy mini, on one more night.
While I was thinking about this, and the players with smaller bankrolls. It struck me that a fun tourney would be good. What if you had a rebuy tourney, where you could only buy one additional lot of chips. You could either have a rebuy, or the add on, not both. So you would pay the entry fee, and get say 3k in chips. A rebuy is another 3,000. The add on is 6,000. But you cant get the add on, if you do the rebuy. This would keep the cost down, be less unfair on those with smaller bankrolls, and you could try it out on say the mini one night. So you buy in get your chips. You bust out, you can get your coat, or rebuy. So you will have players that bust out and go, others will rebuy, some will be hanging on by the skin of their teeth waiting for the add on, and some will rebuy straight away with a view to building a stack. I think it would be a bit of fun if it could be done.
I think there is a valid argument for changing a couple of starting times. If it was purely up to me, I would move the mini to 6.30, and the main to 7pm. I think this would be quite easy to do, and no need to completely mess with the schedule. The same late entry rules would apply. You could probably do a straight swap between the 6.30 BH, and the mini. The reason I am saying this is that the mini last night finished 40 minutes after the main. This doesnt seem to make sense. The mini finished at 1.37, the main at 12.57. So going on the above starting times they would both have finished at a reasonable time.
One other thing that could be considered is a re-entry in the mini. This would certainly boost the prizepools. I do understand that it can put players with a smaller bankrolls at a disadvantage, but it would obviously be optional. Wouldnt most players prefer to see increases in prizepools, rather than reduced guarantees? That could be the choice before long. Doing this in the mains seems to have been accepted, and doesnt appear to have done any harm. In fact it has probably saved the guarantees. Falling guarantees dont inspire, or motivate anyone, nor do they attract new players. I dont suppose that regularly paying the overlay makes Sky very happy.
Lots of good stuff here.
An earlier start time for the main couldn't hurt as far as a lot of us seem to be concerned but I have little doubt that an earlier start time for the mini (at least one hour, so starting at 19:30 at the very latest if not 18:30, as HAYSIE suggests, or 19:00) perhaps with the option of a single re-entry could significantly boost participation and prize pools.
Making the mini a more attractive proposition again for players with a £5 ABI and even those with £15/£20 ABI including getting players back who are taking their action elsewhere during the week due to earlier start times/earlier finish times, better guarantees/greater returns for time invested, will not only boost the mini (and possibly the main) but could boost participation and prize pools across a number of tournaments starting within that sweet spot of MTT registration for UK players which I believe to be between 17:30-19:30. If you can get started on Stars and GG with a couple of huge GTD $5 games between 16:30-17:30 then add some Unibet, Party Poker, iPoker, 888 games around that buy-in range all starting before 19:30 why would you wait around for a Sky mini to start at 20:30 and finish after 1am sometimes? The answer increasingly seems to be you don't. If the mini started within that 17:30-19:30 window and/or finished by midnight I believe players would play it and would also be more inclined to play other Sky games around that window which could boost prize pools in those games too. You may even get players swapping out some of those Unibet/iPoker/888/PP games for Sky games again in that window.
If a Sky MTT session could be built around six existing tournaments with their existing formats/structures -
but the registration window for that schedule was brought forward and the tournaments were better placed to account for their structures/blind levels and finish times -
I would put an awful lot of money on this revised schedule having greatly increased participation and prize pools across the board. I have no doubt this 18:00-20:30 window outperforms the exact same tournaments in their current 18:30-21:30 window.
Lots of people seem to be criticising the mini, but it is the tourney with the most runners on Sky, most days, if not every day.
I am not going to go through the all the stuff I said earlier, because that would be pointless. I just think that the mini should swap times with the 6.30 BH, and the main should start at 7pm, thats it end of.
Does anyone really want the mini going on until 2 in the morning?
I cant see Sky ripping up and completely redoing the current schedule. I also cant see Sky being prepared to meet the overlay costs on the mini forever. So something needs to happen.
To recap a little from what I said earlier, the mini is meant to be the lower buy in version of the main. The minimum starting stack in the main is 5k, and only 2k in the mini most nights. Introduce a maximum of one re-entry. Boost the FT jackpot, just for winning both. I believe that doing this would boost the prizepools, and cut out the overlay. Perhaps another £5 rebuy mini, on one more night.
While I was thinking about this, and the players with smaller bankrolls. It struck me that a fun tourney would be good. What if you had a rebuy tourney, where you could only buy one additional lot of chips. You could either have a rebuy, or the add on, not both. So you would pay the entry fee, and get say 3k in chips. A rebuy is another 3,000. The add on is 6,000. But you cant get the add on, if you do the rebuy. This would keep the cost down, be less unfair on those with smaller bankrolls, and you could try it out on say the mini one night. So you buy in get your chips. You bust out, you can get your coat, or rebuy. So you will have players that bust out and go, others will rebuy, some will be hanging on by the skin of their teeth waiting for the add on, and some will rebuy straight away with a view to building a stack. I think it would be a bit of fun if it could be done.
I think that the main finishing at midnight on a Friday, and 2am on a Sunday, makes a huge difference. And the mini finishing at 11.30 on a Friday instead of 1.30, and 10.30 on a Saturday, is ideal.
I don't play much as I get up early, but definitely can't start at 6.30pm, but also have to get up at 6.30 midweek. Why the obsession with long structures? Can we start at 8pm and aim to finish at midnight for all minis? I don't think any mains should be finishing past 1am Monday to Thursday. Would love to change the Sunday Major to a different rec friendly day, but that ship has sailed long ago. We definitely don't need big add ons, they just make the game bad. Everybody just hanging round for an hour to get the big add on, that becomes 10 big blinds 15 minutes later, and we all flip? Yuck.
I don't play much as I get up early, but definitely can't start at 6.30pm, but also have to get up at 6.30 midweek. Why the obsession with long structures? Can we start at 8pm and aim to finish at midnight for all minis? I don't think any mains should be finishing past 1am Monday to Thursday. Would love to change the Sunday Major to a different rec friendly day, but that ship has sailed long ago. We definitely don't need big add ons, they just make the game bad. Everybody just hanging round for an hour to get the big add on, that becomes 10 big blinds 15 minutes later, and we all flip? Yuck.
The late finishing times seem to be a problem for a number of players. As the main, and mini are two of the most popular tourneys every day, I was merely advocating a way of getting earlier finishes, without throwing the baby out with the bath water. A reasonable amount of time allowed for late entries, may accommodate players in your position. I am not sure how many players would be in favour of a faster structure on both tourneys every day. We currently have a faster structure with a bigger starting stack on a couple of days per week. I look upon this as a bit of variety, although I cant say I would be in favour of the same blind structure on both every day. The obvious way to address what a number of players consider to be a problem, which is tourneys finishing too late, is to start earlier. Players that dont get involved because of the late finishes, and cant start earlier, are more difficult to accommodate. Although a late entry may satisfy some of them.
I can recall when I first started playing on Sky. I would phone a friend as close to 8pm as I could when travelling home from work. This was to get them to log me in, and enter the main. With a view to losing as few chips as possible. I would still play, despite being blinded away, during the rest of my journey home. There was no late entry in those days, so if you entered before 8pm, you were in, if not you were out. There has at least been an improvement since those days.
If Sky implemented earlier starting times, this would be a huge improvement. Each player could make a choice of which tourneys they play on a daily basis. I believe this would attract more players than they do now, out of those that are put off by the late finishes. I dont believe it is possible to please everyone all the time.
Comments
I think there is a valid argument for changing a couple of starting times.
If it was purely up to me, I would move the mini to 6.30, and the main to 7pm.
I think this would be quite easy to do, and no need to completely mess with the schedule.
The same late entry rules would apply.
You could probably do a straight swap between the 6.30 BH, and the mini.
The reason I am saying this is that the mini last night finished 40 minutes after the main.
This doesnt seem to make sense.
The mini finished at 1.37, the main at 12.57.
So going on the above starting times they would both have finished at a reasonable time.
The main on Thursday finished at 1.46.
Earlier starting times may attract more players.
The other thing Sky could do to give both tourneys a boost is to increase the FT bonus.
They could keep the place money the same, and pay out 10k for winning both.
This is not won often, and could be offset in the long term by the reduction in overlay in the minis, assuming the number of entries increased.
I dont think the earlier finishing times would do any harm.
Neither would having a tourney with a decent guarantee earlier in the day.
Currently the best guaranteed tourney up until 6pm is the £500 guaranteed BH, for £22.
The sats for the main would have to be adjusted.
The other thing I would consider is starting stacks in the mini.
I have often wondered whether some players, particularly new ones base the value of a tourney on how long it takes them to bust out.
So maybe a 2,000 starting stack should be increased.
Altthough I do realise that an increased stack, means a later finish, but if it was brought forward 2 hours, maybe not the end of the world.
The mini on Thursday finished at 12.11.
One other thing that could be considered is a re-entry in the mini.
This would certainly boost the prizepools.
I do understand that it can put players with a smaller bankrolls at a disadvantage, but it would obviously be optional.
Wouldnt most players prefer to see increases in prizepools, rather than reduced guarantees?
That could be the choice before long.
Doing this in the mains seems to have been accepted, and doesnt appear to have done any harm.
In fact it has probably saved the guarantees.
Falling guarantees dont inspire, or motivate anyone, nor do they attract new players.
I dont suppose that regularly paying the overlay makes Sky very happy.
New Popstar ..... Alexander O'Hayes-Neal
An earlier start time for the main couldn't hurt as far as a lot of us seem to be concerned but I have little doubt that an earlier start time for the mini (at least one hour, so starting at 19:30 at the very latest if not 18:30, as HAYSIE suggests, or 19:00) perhaps with the option of a single re-entry could significantly boost participation and prize pools.
Making the mini a more attractive proposition again for players with a £5 ABI and even those with £15/£20 ABI including getting players back who are taking their action elsewhere during the week due to earlier start times/earlier finish times, better guarantees/greater returns for time invested, will not only boost the mini (and possibly the main) but could boost participation and prize pools across a number of tournaments starting within that sweet spot of MTT registration for UK players which I believe to be between 17:30-19:30. If you can get started on Stars and GG with a couple of huge GTD $5 games between 16:30-17:30 then add some Unibet, Party Poker, iPoker, 888 games around that buy-in range all starting before 19:30 why would you wait around for a Sky mini to start at 20:30 and finish after 1am sometimes? The answer increasingly seems to be you don't. If the mini started within that 17:30-19:30 window and/or finished by midnight I believe players would play it and would also be more inclined to play other Sky games around that window which could boost prize pools in those games too. You may even get players swapping out some of those Unibet/iPoker/888/PP games for Sky games again in that window.
If a Sky MTT session could be built around six existing tournaments with their existing formats/structures -
18:30 (£5.50 BH)
19:00 (7@7)
20:00 (main)
20:30 (mini)
21:00 (9@9)
21:30 (reload)
but the registration window for that schedule was brought forward and the tournaments were better placed to account for their structures/blind levels and finish times -
18:00 (£5.50 BH)
18:30 (9@9 structure)
19:00 (mini)
19:30 (main)
20:00 (7@7 structure)
20:30 (reload)
I would put an awful lot of money on this revised schedule having greatly increased participation and prize pools across the board. I have no doubt this 18:00-20:30 window outperforms the exact same tournaments in their current 18:30-21:30 window.
18:00 (£5.50 BH)
18:30 (9@9 structure)
19:00 (mini)
19:30 (main)
20:00 (7@7 structure)
20:30 (reload)
Quite like this kind of idea but maybe keep the 7@7 at 1900 and start the mini and main at the same time this would not affect the small buy in players but may encourage more people to play both.
I would think a lot of recs or semi serious recs like myself would prefer the £5 (or close to that amount ie under a tenner) buy in mtts to be in a less staggered format but the big problem is sky has a smallish player base and if numbers drop on certain nights it would have a bigger impact on guarantees being met.
I sometimes play a few sats before 6pm but generally play most of my poker between 6pm and 10pm but obviously dont mind having to play later as that generally means I am still in a tourney however I am generally single tabling at that point and not opening any more.
I rarely play the mini now or 9@9 or reload as my attention span has burnt out by then.
Do like the mini goldrush so sometimes play that.
Would I play more if they were earlier? Definitely as currently play the 1830 and 7@7 with sometimes the main if had a few results or satted in cheap.
Some really good stuff on this thread and hopefully a few good things will result from it and hopefully we will see @SkyJames thoughts soon as that may help to at least move this discussion forward.
I am not going to go through the all the stuff I said earlier, because that would be pointless.
I just think that the mini should swap times with the 6.30 BH, and the main should start at 7pm, thats it end of.
Does anyone really want the mini going on until 2 in the morning?
I cant see Sky ripping up and completely redoing the current schedule.
I also cant see Sky being prepared to meet the overlay costs on the mini forever.
So something needs to happen.
To recap a little from what I said earlier, the mini is meant to be the lower buy in version of the main.
The minimum starting stack in the main is 5k, and only 2k in the mini most nights.
Introduce a maximum of one re-entry.
Boost the FT jackpot, just for winning both.
I believe that doing this would boost the prizepools, and cut out the overlay.
Perhaps another £5 rebuy mini, on one more night.
While I was thinking about this, and the players with smaller bankrolls.
It struck me that a fun tourney would be good.
What if you had a rebuy tourney, where you could only buy one additional lot of chips.
You could either have a rebuy, or the add on, not both.
So you would pay the entry fee, and get say 3k in chips.
A rebuy is another 3,000.
The add on is 6,000.
But you cant get the add on, if you do the rebuy.
This would keep the cost down, be less unfair on those with smaller bankrolls, and you could try it out on say the mini one night.
So you buy in get your chips.
You bust out, you can get your coat, or rebuy.
So you will have players that bust out and go, others will rebuy, some will be hanging on by the skin of their teeth waiting for the add on, and some will rebuy straight away with a view to building a stack.
I think it would be a bit of fun if it could be done.
And the mini finishing at 11.30 on a Friday instead of 1.30, and 10.30 on a Saturday, is ideal.
Why the obsession with long structures? Can we start at 8pm and aim to finish at midnight for all minis? I don't think any mains should be finishing past 1am Monday to Thursday. Would love to change the Sunday Major to a different rec friendly day, but that ship has sailed long ago.
We definitely don't need big add ons, they just make the game bad. Everybody just hanging round for an hour to get the big add on, that becomes 10 big blinds 15 minutes later, and we all flip? Yuck.
As the main, and mini are two of the most popular tourneys every day, I was merely advocating a way of getting earlier finishes, without throwing the baby out with the bath water.
A reasonable amount of time allowed for late entries, may accommodate players in your position.
I am not sure how many players would be in favour of a faster structure on both tourneys every day.
We currently have a faster structure with a bigger starting stack on a couple of days per week.
I look upon this as a bit of variety, although I cant say I would be in favour of the same blind structure on both every day.
The obvious way to address what a number of players consider to be a problem, which is tourneys finishing too late, is to start earlier.
Players that dont get involved because of the late finishes, and cant start earlier, are more difficult to accommodate.
Although a late entry may satisfy some of them.
I can recall when I first started playing on Sky.
I would phone a friend as close to 8pm as I could when travelling home from work.
This was to get them to log me in, and enter the main.
With a view to losing as few chips as possible.
I would still play, despite being blinded away, during the rest of my journey home.
There was no late entry in those days, so if you entered before 8pm, you were in, if not you were out.
There has at least been an improvement since those days.
If Sky implemented earlier starting times, this would be a huge improvement.
Each player could make a choice of which tourneys they play on a daily basis.
I believe this would attract more players than they do now, out of those that are put off by the late finishes.
I dont believe it is possible to please everyone all the time.