Questions about Pokerstars million hand giveaway;

[kemystery]

* Background: Thise past week Pokerstars has been giving away cash prizes on tables that deal a particularly numbered hand (i.e. 3456000000, eveery millionth hand) during prime hours awards cash based on the limits of the game and VIP level(s) of the player.

This weekend I have seen the message 'Hand # 65432000000 is about to be dealt on one of our cash ring game tables, cash and prizes yada yada yada'

My question is how do they 'know' that hand is going to be dealt on a cash ring game table? With the 1000's of tournament and sit-n-go tables also running at the same time - shouldn't it be just as likely the hand be dealt at one of these tables? (I would think the guys paying $500 rake on a $5000 HU sng would like to think they have a shot at winning something in these 'giveaways')

Well to follow up my own question I asked one of the guys (think it was HostMktg) awarding the bonus on one of these tables "why sng's and tourneys aren't included in the promotion?" he replied that it 'can't stop a tournament' or something to this effect - which then begs more questions:

Why aren't rake paying sit n go and mtt players included in this promotion?

Given that stars position (at least that of this particular host) was that '(we) can't stop a tournament (for this)' - isn't it still just as likely that the millionth hand could still be dealt on one of the 1000's of sitn go and tourney tables?

And if it 'can't' be dealt on one of those types of tables, is Pokerstars directing the deal to 'only' deal the 'million hands' on 'cash game tables' specifically?

If they are dealing these hands only on specified 'cash game tables' doesn't that mean in some way or another they are manipulating the 'random shuffle'?

Can someone explain any of these to me?

This has kind of been bugging me since this promo came out because I play primarily mtt's and apparently can't cash in on this promo [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[MicroBob]

When that table gets to the milestone hand they then PAUSE the action and make the announcement to all the other tables so that you have time to find that table and watch the drama unfold if you like.

They aren't predicting that it's about to be dealt there.
They already got to that milestone, and then stopped everything so that they could go tell everybody.

[kemystery]

[ QUOTE ]
When that table gets to the milestone hand they then PAUSE the action and make the announcement to all the other tables so that you have time to find that table and watch the drama unfold if you like.

They aren't predicting that it's about to be dealt there.
They already got to that milestone, and then stopped everything so that they could go tell everybody.


[/ QUOTE ]

Bob, not sure which question you were answering

I'm referring to the announcements that state the hand 'Will be dealt on a "cash game table"' not the announcements that specifically name the table the jackpot was dealt on, and that support personel told me that they 'can't deal a jackpot' on a tournament table.

Can anyone here confirm a "million hand jackpot" being dealt on a sit n go or tourney table?

[MicroBob]

Yes, that's what I'm talking about.

You can watch the counter in the upper-left corner.

Right after they get to that then they PAUSE THE ACTION.
And they make the annoucement, "Hey everybody, hand # X is about to be dealt on such-and-such table."

It hasn't happened yet because when they got to that hand-number they stopped the play on that table.

I'm not sure how better to explain it to you.


That announcement you are referring to would be slightly more accurate if it said, "Table X has just reached Hand # 900000. We've stopped the action there before dealing the cards out so that you can come watch the hand play out if you like."


First they say: "Hand number 900000 is going to be dealt in a few minutes."

Then they get to the point that is confusing you where they are essentially saying: "Woo-Hoo!! We have a winner. We paused the action though so you can come watch. But hand # 900000 is ABOUT TO BE DEALT at table X."

Then they wait a few minutes while the chat-box on that table is going crazy and people arrive to watch.

Then they make an announcement to everyone: "Well, we finally dealt the hand. And Joe Shmoe won $4200!!"

[kemystery]

my questions aren't really about when they pause the tables though, will try to bold the ?'s in the OP

besides the announcements I'm reffering to occur when the counter is approxiamtely 300,000 to 500,00 hands BEFORE the million mark- apparently to drum up interest on the cash game tables, which it certainly does - The announcements read something to the effect of:

"Upcoming Anniversary hand # xxxx000000 is about to be dealt on one of our cash ring game tables"

This announce ment precedes the announcement you speak of which indicates the table and type of game.

[MicroBob]

they do 3 announcements.

The one that is BEFORE the milestone is to say that it's going to be dealt in a few minutes. They don't know which table yet.

The one shortly after the milestone is passed on your counter is the 2nd one where they say it's about to be dalt on Table X.

The 3rd one is to announce the results of the hand.

[Shoe]

All I know is that their million hand announcements are really annoying, especially since i have been playing sng's and the announcements completely cover up the cards, and I can't see if I have a good hand or not until it goes away. Very annoying. And yes, I do have tournament announcements shut off. I could care less about the stupid million hand thing, especially since I'm not even eligilble to win anything. Atleast don't make it so intrusive that it interfers with my play.

[kemystery]

[ QUOTE ]
they do 3 announcements.

The one that is BEFORE the milestone is to say that it's going to be dealt in a few minutes. They don't know which table yet.



[/ QUOTE ]

exactly, but why do they state it will be a cash game table, if when in fact there are 1000's of sng and tourney tables also running?

[PokerStarsJeff]

[ QUOTE ]
This weekend I have seen the message 'Hand # 65432000000 is about to be dealt on one of our cash ring game tables, cash and prizes yada yada yada'

My question is how do they 'know' that hand is going to be dealt on a cash ring game table? With the 1000's of tournament and sit-n-go tables also running at the same time - shouldn't it be just as likely the hand be dealt at one of these tables?

[/ QUOTE ]

The PokerStars server reserves hand numbers ending in 5 zeros for real money cash games. Such numbers cannot be assigned to tournaments or play money games.

[ QUOTE ]
If they are dealing these hands only on specified 'cash game tables' doesn't that mean in some way or another they are manipulating the 'random shuffle'?

[/ QUOTE ]

Absolutely not. The deck is still randomly shuffled, as always. The table number is simply a database query -- "give me the next sequential hand number, I'm about to deal a new game". The random number generators aren't even aware of the hand number.

[ QUOTE ]
Why aren't rake paying sit n go and mtt players included in this promotion?

[/ QUOTE ]

The decision not to include tournament players in the
milestone hands is quite deliberate, and it's not because we don't like tournament players. We LOVE tournament players, as our recent revamping of the tournament schedule to add even more tournaments and tournament innovations shows.

The problem with including tournaments in these promotions is one of integrity. When such a hand is dealt at a table, there's tremendous incentive to be the winner of the hand. The money you have stacked in front of you is often inconsequential in comparison to the windfall award
for the hand winner... so many players push all in in the hopes that others will not make the correct decision (i.e. that they'll fold, thus increasing the jamming player's chance of winning the hand).

In a ring game, this is not a big deal -- each hand is its own separate universe. In a tournament, the milestone hand would not be its own little universe, but would affect every hand to follow in the entire tournament. Someone would quadruple up (or better) on garbage cards, which offers that lucky player an unfair advantage over everyone else at the table and even to everyone else at other tables in the event.

In the interests of fairness, then, we do not permit milestone award hands to be dealt at tournament tables. Instead, for our tournament players, we've offered a series of $1,000 and $5,000 tournament freerolls, several
times a day.

Best Regards,

Jeff
PokerStars Support Supervisor

[kemystery]

[ QUOTE ]
I could care less about the stupid million hand thing, especially since I'm not even eligilble to win anything.

[/ QUOTE ]

you should be eligble that's my point