please read if you are a supernova

[Losing all]

[ QUOTE ]
It is more an issue of fairness. Under the current system people who have no interest in the tournaments are subsidizing those that do. Just because $1000 a year doesn't have much utility value to someone doesn't mean it wouldn't annoy them to have it taken from them and given to someone else.

Cash is a great universal item. People who like tournaments can take that cash and find a tournament if they want. People who don't can just keep the cash.

Think of it this way. How would people feel if the tournaments were moved to Tuesday afternoon? Personally that would be great for me and the other people who don't have jobs. Instead of 1100-1200 players we'd have less then 500 which is much better value. I'm pretty sure all the people who couldn't play no Tuesday would feel cheated because they were subsidizing the prize pool for the unemployed.

[/ QUOTE ]


I just don't get the feeling cheated stuff, you CAN play. Would it be better if they just took the value away, you know, to make it fair. I'm not trying to be a dic, but these things are worthless and hardly worth the time devoted to them here. $70 a month? pfffft even a broke super-nit like me doesn't care.

[Henry17]

How can you not get the feeling cheated part. It is no different then when in university they decided to add a $80 a year fee to get a bus pass for all the students. I didn't care about $80. It was an insignificant amount of money but I also had zero use for a bus pass since I own a car and have a very negative view of public transportation.

So basically all of us that had cars were being forced to donate $80 to students without cars. The $70/month is insignificant but I still don't like the idea of being forced to donate to a Freeroll I don't want to play in when it isn't necessary. All the people who do want to play in the freeroll can take their $70 and have a tournament.

[Losing all]

How many SN's didn't know about the system going in? Scotty has read the countless suggestions (mostly retarded). Maybe they think it would look bad to "take away" the freerolls, maybe they'll make a change, maybe they think the non-stop crying about a small fraction of the VIP system is annoying.

[Henry17]

Scotty was the one who opened the debate by asking what people would prefer. I assume since it is nearing the end of the year they are looking to tweak things.

[Losing all]

Ok, just understand these same threads have been constant for two years now. It's the same thing over and over.

[Henry17]

Ok well I've been on Twoplustwo for less then a month so this is the first time I've heard of it.

Second I'm personally more interested in how people think about it then the end result. The freerolls represent less then 1% of the value of the loyalty program. My PhD though was on a topic that makes who and what people argue for interesting to me.

[Pokerlicious]

As always, I'm following this annual discussion with some interest, but I thought I'd add an outsider's perspective.

Right now, I play on both Stars and FTP. I primarily play FTP because I have rakeback and because the games are better, but I still play enough on Stars to make Gold each month. The only time I have ever made Platinum was a few months ago for the 5B promo when they had double VPP's.

That said, it would be very easy for me to make Supernova if the incentive were there. However, getting 27% cash plus FTP points is more a more attractive deal than getting about 25-28% rakeback equivalent in FPP's, and the other 'nova benefits including the freerolls don't really do anything for me. From a marketing perspective, it seems to me that the freeroll money is ill-spent.

I offer this opinion because I genuinely do like and respect Stars, and I hope that this "outsider's" opinion proves helpful in deciding how/if to revamp the Supernova program.

[Cry Me A River]

I would easily go for option B as well, except it's such a tremendous loss in value.

This week's freerolls:

$50K, 1056 players, equity $47.34
$20K, 4569 players, equity $4.37
$100K, 4403 players, equity $22.71

Monthly Supernova value about $230.

With the monthly bonus having a value of $70, this amounts to a net loss of $160/month or almost $2K a year.

Obv if you don't play the freerolls, or don't want to play the freerolls it's a no-brainer. But for anyone who plays all day Saturday anyway and doesn't mind opening an extra MTT table or two it's a lot closer. Bonus would be a lot less variance and less work, but, I've made close to $5K in freerolls this year. That's a lot to give up for an $840 sure thing.

[Henry17]

[ QUOTE ]
From a marketing perspective, it seems to me that the freeroll money is ill-spent.

[/ QUOTE ]

It does in a sense. You are taking it from the perspective of someone who can do basic math and has at least thought about it. My opinion of people is that they are not that bright. I thought poker players would be better then average but reading some of the topics on here I've realized they are not. Anyway if you can itemize a long list of perks someone gets and they think it is more even if it isn't. The freerolls are just an added item.

-----------

With respect to the math why did you include the 100k and 20k tournaments? This is only about the 4 50ks so obviously you can't include the equity from the others in your calculation.

[Dennisa]

[ QUOTE ]
It is more an issue of fairness. Under the current system people who have no interest in the tournaments are subsidizing those that do. Just because $1000 a year doesn't have much utility value to someone doesn't mean it wouldn't annoy them to have it taken from them and given to someone else.

Cash is a great universal item. People who like tournaments can take that cash and find a tournament if they want. People who don't can just keep the cash.

Think of it this way. How would people feel if the tournaments were moved to Tuesday afternoon? Personally that would be great for me and the other people who don't have jobs. Instead of 1100-1200 players we'd have less then 500 which is much better value. I'm pretty sure all the people who couldn't play no Tuesday would feel cheated because they were subsidizing the prize pool for the unemployed.

[/ QUOTE ]

First of all, Stars is giving out money, they do not have to be fair. If you push, they can just take it away.

I theory on the freeroll system is that it costs Stars very little to run. They picked Saturday morning (pacific time) for a reason. They probably bring in enough players whom would not normally play at this time (Evening in Europe, Afternoon in the Eastern time zone) that the rake generated from the increased players pays for the majority of the cost of the Freeroll. If stars did not have an event to drive more traffic to their cash and sng tables, then they would have to absorb all of the cost of the promotion.