Re: Barry G Masterclass HORSE tourney
 

from pokerstars, "Barry will be answering questions and showing his hole cards at every opportunity."

this isn't just a regular sng with a pro; it's a masterclass. you are paying a premium to be taught by barry. very good value imo.

Re: Barry G Masterclass HORSE tourney
 

This is kinda grubby by Stars IMO. They should have made the prizepool more respectable. Yes I understand they are "paying" Barry for this, but it is still not right to the players, because the reason they are paying Barry is to generate publicity for the site. Because of this, this is not truly a 'service' that is offered by Barry that you are paying for, so it doesn't give Stars automatic right of way to charge for this service. We are talking in the area of $1,000 here, so its definitely not a major deal for Stars.

Stars should of paid out the money for the FPP like normal, and then paid Barry for providing publicity like normal. Instead, they let you pay for Barry (because hes Barry [censored] Greenstein) and then collected the advertising-draw for free. Why? Because they can.

This is exactly like the advertisements being used in big buyin events (WSOP, etc.), where the casino makes millions off the players, doesn't juice the pool from this, and still takes the 3% for dealers, some % for staff, more % for the casino, etc. - and it's a sin if you don't tip 5 figures to the dealers if you win!

They should have given players the fair value, and if that would lead to too many signups, anticipate a more appropriate (read: higher) buyin.

Also the structure should last 2 hours, not one. In the current structure, each "level" is 30 minutes, playing 6 minutes a game. The stack size is 150 and the stakes are 3/6, 9/18, 25/50, 50/100, so it ends really fast. The structure should have been a bit longer to give more than 1 hr with Barry.

IMO, the buyin should have been 80k FPP and pay 7k/2k/1k. It should last 2 hours. Of course none of what I said matters, because business wise Stars should just let you pay for their advertising, the same way that the companies that own WSOP let you pay for theirs.

Re: Barry G Masterclass HORSE tourney
 

I have to agree with Ice.

Re: Barry G Masterclass HORSE tourney
 

ice et al,

the given wsop example is not analogous.

the players are getting their full value from the fpps, it's just not in straight cash. it's up to the player to decide where she wants to get her value from. this is not a regular sng with a pro. if stars were to, for example, offer a teaching opportunity with barry without a premium there is little incentive for them to make these special events. stars is a business. yes, they will get some buzz about the masterclass, but that does not mean they should be expected to not charge for it. if you want a unique learning experience with barry then you pay for it. it's silly to think stars should shoulder the bill. the player gets the benefit.

Re: Barry G Masterclass HORSE tourney
 

I agree with most of what Ice said; I guess mine is a half-hearted protest since I am registered for the tourney. It's tough, because I want to do this, and clearly Stars will be able to get 7 people who want to do it, even at this price, so they don't really have a reason to make it a fairer deal. But there's also not much reason for them to give less than par value and have the tourney last one hour instead of two. It's not much of a financial difference to them to make it equivalent with other redemption methods, and there's good reason to make the experience as good as possible for the kind of players who have enough fpps to burn 60k on this.

I also understand the argument that the "Barry Greenstein service" is worth something. Given the (effectively) extra vig I'm paying, I hope that Barry puts forth max effort to help us get the most out of it. If he does, it's worth the extra vig (to me), and I assume he will.

If I had to choose between a bump in the prize pool and longer levels, I would definitely choose longer levels. There's no reason these things are mutually exclusive, but in case Stars reads this thread and doesn't want to change the prize pool, bumping it to 10 or 12 minute levels would be a huge improvement. I can't imagine Barry would object to it lasting an hour longer.

Re: Barry G Masterclass HORSE tourney
 

Blinds are now 10 minutes with a $7500 prize pool.

Scotty

Re: Barry G Masterclass HORSE tourney
 

[ QUOTE ]
Blinds are now 10 minutes with a $7500 prize pool.

Scotty

[/ QUOTE ]<3 Pokerstars
Also noticed the Grinder is registered. I guess he wants the experience of playing with Barry too [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Barry G Masterclass HORSE tourney
 

The two changes made were a direct result of this thread. I called them and told them that the value was being questioned. I'm happy to represent PokerStars when, with one short phone call, they make the correct change to an unpopular stance.

Barry

Re: Barry G Masterclass HORSE tourney
 

[ QUOTE ]
The two changes made were a direct result of this thread. I called them and told them that the value was being questioned. I'm happy to represent PokerStars when, with one short phone call, they make the correct change to an unpopular stance.

Barry

[/ QUOTE ]

This is the reason I pay $5000 of rake /month on stars.

Re: Barry G Masterclass HORSE tourney
 

[ QUOTE ]
The two changes made were a direct result of this thread. I called them and told them that the value was being questioned. I'm happy to represent PokerStars when, with one short phone call, they make the correct change to an unpopular stance.

Barry

[/ QUOTE ]

This is all the more impressive of Stars when you consider that the tourney was full when they decided to make the change.

OT