[O Doyle Rules]

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This is a great idea for many of us, however, one of the things Scottyy stated in his e-mail to me was that discounting large event buyins takes money off the site that could be on the site and they don't want to do that.

I disagree with his stance on this issue. First of all, it's somewhat hypocritical because Stars constantly runs satellites to all kinds of different land based events.

Secondly, they're giving those packages to Supernova elites.

Third, it's what the players want. Land based tournaments are (I'm assuming - I've never actually played one) a lot more fun and interesting than online tournaments. I would think that the number one priority would be to please the players.

Ryan

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Hey Ryan,

As far as the land based tournaments, they are waaaay more fun and intersting than ever playing online.

If it were not for the ability to win a seat to a major land based tourney, I don't know if I would be even playing online poker.

I understand what Scotty is saying about keeping the money on the site, but I think what Stars is missing in this equation are players like you and me.

Let's take me as an example:

Last year I played accumulating 140k VPPs. As I already stated I personally don't have much enthusiasm to increase my play by 43% to hit 200k VPPs for a $ 1200 bonus in 2007.

However, if they gave me the option for a discounted WSOP ME or PCA for 350K or even 400K FPPs in their store instead of the bonus, I would definitely go for it. (200K VPPS or more)

What does this do? Not only locks me into playing at Stars for all of 2007, but will also almost lock me into playing beyond that because of the extra FPPs I will have towards other discounted tourney packages.

In fact, I could see my play never leaving Stars, because I know I would be able to earn enough FPPs on a yearly basis to purchase two major tourney packages every year with a discounted purchase price at their FPP store.

I think this keeps money on the site by catering to players like you and me that want it. (discounted FPP buy-ins to major tournies)

Without the discounted land based touney buy-in as an option, my more likely scenario would be to continue to play this year to assure me a WSOP ME packge with the FPPS I have already accumulated with what I will accumualte this year and pay the full price come June for the package. (700k) After that, with all my FPPs spent in June, I know I will then have to play another 200K VPPs over the next 12 months just to earn a seat to next year's WSOP. Not a likely scenario.