Poker Stars Event Dollars (E$)
Se me ha ocurrido una cosa sobre los satélites a torneos en vivo en Poker Stars y la he publicado en 2+2: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/61/mtt-community/poker-stars-event-dollars-e-742087/
¿Qué os parece?
I have been thinking about an idea and I would like to know what do you think about it.
There's a problem with must-play satellites. Many players don't play them because they don't want to play at the specific live tournament a satellite qualifies to. If it's a satellite to an online tournament and you win, you can simply unregister and get T$, that you can use to play whatever you want.
If people could choose to just keep the T$ instead of going to a live tournament, there would more traffic at satellites, as you would still have the option to just go and play the tournament or just keep the money and use it to play other online tournaments. What's the problem with that? Lots of players would just keep the money and only some would play the live event.
Poker Stars organizes satellites to increase the number of players at the target tournament, and to get rake at them, of course. They want as many players as possible at the live tourney, so letting players to just get the package money isn't a good idea.
So I thought about Event Dollars (E$). When someone wins a package, he can choose to just go and play the tournament, or to get E$ equal to the package value. Those E$ could be used only to register to live tournaments (which would be done at the Poker Stars software), not even to play satellites to them.
That way, players could participate in any satellite and then choose where they want to play. They wouldn't have to worry about preparing a trip to play a tourney at another continent 3 weeks later. If they prefer, they just keep the E$ and play something nearear, or save for a big package, like EPT Montecarlo, or play some small buyin tournaments with the E$ they won at a NAPT satellite.
Now, at satellites there are only players that are really planning to go to the live event. If E$ where given, instead of a must-play package, many more players would register, creating a bigger prize pool and giving more packages. Nobody loses in that situation. If you already wanted to go to the live event, now you have more people contributing to the prize pool. And if you don't plan to play that certain event, you now have the opportunity to win some E$ that you can use to register to any other live event you want.
Another options would be to just have tournaments of all kind of buyins that directly gave prizes in E$, but I think that wouldn't have much success unless Poker Stars added money to the prize pool, as they would be like "standard" tournaments but with prizes in E$, which is worse for players.
So I would just keep satellites as they are now, but offering players to get E$ instead of a particular package. The idea would be to directly register package winners at the Poker Stars software to the live event (as it is now), but letting them to unregister from it and get $E until certain day. For example:
I play a $33+R 3-x turbo satellite to Mohegan Sun now and I win a package. I'm automatically registered to a tournament placed at Poker Stars (243393372 specifically). At the same time I receive an email that tells me that I have won and what includes the package. Then, until certain day (which should be clearly specified at that email and the satellite lobby), I have the possibility to unregister from the tournament and get E$5000. Once that day has came or you have already registered via RegOnline, you can no longer unregister and have to play the tournament.
So, if someone wants to play a live event without winning a satellite to it, he would in first place register with E$ at the Poker Stars software, then he would receive an email like if they have won the package, and would also have the chance to unregister until certain day comes or he has registered at RegOnline.
What happens with people that play lots of satellite to a certain event to get $T or €T? They would get $T or €T when they win a package that they have already won, as it is now. They would get registered at Poker Stars the first time. Then they would have the option to just register at RegOnline and play it or to unregister. And if they win more packages to the same place, that time they just directly get $T or €T, as happens now.
Another option would be to simply give E$ after winning a package and make them register manually at Poker Stars if they want to play the tournament.
I think adding E$ would be a great improvement, as it's a way to increase traffic at satellites, which would result in more people playing live events with Poker Stars logos.