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Carrots and Sticks
HAYSIE
Member Posts: 32,547
in Poker Chat
The above are the usual motivators in life. There are probably quite a number of tourneys that don't get off the ground on a weekly basis, particularly sats.
I was watching the 1pm bounty hunter today. One minute before 1pm there were 4 entries. So it was close to being cancelled. When it launched there were 6 runners. So it was on the final table when it started, then it wasn't, then it was, then it wasn't, and so on, as more players registered. It ended up with 18 runners.
I am sure that some players don't enter sats because the number of entries is so low, they don't look like they will start.
I appreciate the fact that many players will bust in a tourney, and just late enter a tourney that suits them.
I also remember playing on Sky before there were late entries. I would be on the phone travelling home from work, getting someone to log in an enter me in the main event. I would have to leave it until late, so it didnt cost me too many chips, but not too late so I missed the start. It was a case of fingers crossed that I had some chips left by the time I got home.
So what about a discount if you enter a tourney an hour before the start, the same conditions as usual apply up until the start, and a surcharge for a late entry.
The discount and the surcharge would be equal, and not have to be a lot. It could be 50p for instance. This wouldn't be enough to put people off, but for those that play a lot, quite an incentive to enter early. Looking at the main the other night around one third had entered in advance. So this would also increase the prize pools slightly.
If this is too radical you could do something with the points. More points for registering in advance, and less for late entries.
I was watching the 1pm bounty hunter today. One minute before 1pm there were 4 entries. So it was close to being cancelled. When it launched there were 6 runners. So it was on the final table when it started, then it wasn't, then it was, then it wasn't, and so on, as more players registered. It ended up with 18 runners.
I am sure that some players don't enter sats because the number of entries is so low, they don't look like they will start.
I appreciate the fact that many players will bust in a tourney, and just late enter a tourney that suits them.
I also remember playing on Sky before there were late entries. I would be on the phone travelling home from work, getting someone to log in an enter me in the main event. I would have to leave it until late, so it didnt cost me too many chips, but not too late so I missed the start. It was a case of fingers crossed that I had some chips left by the time I got home.
So what about a discount if you enter a tourney an hour before the start, the same conditions as usual apply up until the start, and a surcharge for a late entry.
The discount and the surcharge would be equal, and not have to be a lot. It could be 50p for instance. This wouldn't be enough to put people off, but for those that play a lot, quite an incentive to enter early. Looking at the main the other night around one third had entered in advance. So this would also increase the prize pools slightly.
If this is too radical you could do something with the points. More points for registering in advance, and less for late entries.
Comments
However I am not sure how easy this would be to implement for the technical folks (not that I doubt their abilities, I just assume there no pre-existing option to do this within the software).
I doubt that a discount would be particularly easy to implement.
An alternative could be to have an early bird bonus similar to what many casinos do
Eg rather than having 5000 chips at the start of the main you could start with 5500 if you’re regged by 7.59
So you would only lose out if you late entered the micro that you played to qualify for the semi, or just late entered the semi, rather than qualified for it.
I think I would prefer to see a discount and a surcharge.
I also think it will encourage players to enter tourneys that are well subscribed, and stop things like half hourly sats where 10 players have late entered one and the next one is cancelled through a lack of runners.
However if you did use extra chips as the incentive, you would have to treat those that had arrived via a late reg semi, as though they had entered early.
So if it was a discount on an £11 tournament. You would pay £10.50 if you entered early. £11 for a normal entry, and £11.50 for a late entry.
If it was chips it could be 5,500 5,000, and 4,500.
Didn’t seem fair when you’d driven 25 miles and hit traffic and arrived a minute late. Zero chance that Olga would let you play. No choice but to turn around and go home
I think there are certain times that aren't as popular on a site like sky.
However I think an incentive to register early could be a nice idea that bumps field sizes up. Maybe then with slightly larger field sizes the games may seem a more favourable option for potential players deliberating whether to join a game or not.
Due to work I tend to late reg a lot. I wouldn't be too enamored with being even further behind those that were lucky enough to get bonus chips prior to the start of the tournament. I certainly would be even less inclined to join if I was handicapped even further.
Give people a reason to be there longer than they need to be...
The other side of the coin is that if you registered early it would save you money. If your name was Matt Bates and you had registered early for all your tourneys, just counting the ones that Aussie covers which come to almost 3,200, you would have saved around £1600.
However if that is too harsh it could done with rewards points.