Stars VIP Wild speculation

[NewGuy]

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If I wanted a scheduled event on the weekend, I would've gotten a [censored] job

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I'd rather there were a couple different scheduled times too.
Offered a choice between:
a) freerolls at a fixed, scheduled time worth $3,000/year
b) freerolls that were offered at a bunch of different/flexible times worth $1,500/year.
c) cash bonuses worth $800/year

I'd choose A. Most who have posted in this thread would choose B or C.

I do think it's fair to say that the 200-600 SuperNovas like me who would choose option A will be slightly to very disappointed if they are only offered option C next year. I completely agree most 2+2ers with 200,000-1M VPPs would choose B or C, and probably C. To each his own.

[MicroBob]

newguy - the number of entrants in the freeroll of around 1000 does not mean there are 1000 SN's playing the freerolls.
Many platinums and below qualify via the satellites.

Although certainly there are more and more SN's all the time and as the number of total players in the freerolls increases certainly the total number of SN's participating in them does also.

[NewGuy]

Here's a possible fix:

Cost of SuperNova freerolls are currently supplemented with Gold/Platinum FPP opt-ins.

What about charging SuperNovas FPPs a few FPPs for entry (and perhaps increasing cost in FPPs to Gold/Platinum) to continue to allow freerolls worth ~$50-$70/week without spending more.

With the savings from charging FPPs for freeroll, offer SuperNovas who do NOT play in freerolls a small cash bonus.

This would also serve to reduce the size of the SuperNova freeroll field, increasing the EV of those who like to play.

[NewGuy]

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newguy - the number of entrants in the freeroll of around 1000 does not mean there are 1000 SN's playing the freerolls.
Many platinums and below qualify via the satellites.


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Great point, Bob. You're absolutely right, I did not factor that in. So he may be right that there are closer to ~500-600 SuperNovas playing.

I'd be more than OK paying FPPs to play if that meant I could still have my EV (now in the form of an overlay not a true freeroll). This would free up Stars to spend some $s on the cash bonuses so many people want.


Out of curisoity, Bob, would you choose Option A, B, or C above?
And what's your take on the possible fix of Stars spending less $s/Nova on freerolls by charging Gold/Plat/SuperNova more FPPs and spending this savings on an optional cash bonus if you don't play?

[MicroBob]

I would be fine with a smaller SN-freeroll field and allowing them to have a cash-bonus instead if they so choose.

Let the Plats and Golds have their own freerolls too but adjust the costs to reflect that ONLY plats and golds are allowed to play them. So the SN's aren't stuck chasing after their EV by playing in every single freeroll being offered.

If the SN's aren't eligible to play in the Plat-only freeroll then the prize-pool for that doesn't have to be as high.

I would guess that Scottyy might not like the idea of smaller prize-pools for each level because part of the idea is that you get to compete for a really big prize so cutting the fields and cutting the prize-pool runs contrary to part of the excitement-element they want.

[Henry17]

Why not just use the $70 and buy into a tournament?

Assume the budget for the program is fixed. The only way you can get the $3000EV is if you are getting the extra EV from the 2/3s of SNs that don't play. Stars has made it clear that this part of the budget is about $160k a month. For some SNs to get $3000EV then other SNs have to get nothing. There is no way to give every SN $3000 in EV with a budget of $160k.

[sethypooh21]

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There is one limit player I have 25k hands with who is down a lot. Can't explain it since he plays a very good game and is always 8-12 tabling.

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Is it me? I've run horridly for my last 75k hands or so...

[1p0kerboy]

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991 played Saturday, not 400-500.
Edit: Bob correctly pointed out Gold/Platinum qualify too. I checked the tourney results and it appears that 145 Gold/Platinum earned their way in, so only 846 SuperNovas played this week.


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This is wrong.

Please note that satellites run twice a week for both Platinum Stars and Gold Stars (for a total of 4 satellites).

646 Platinum and Gold players qualified this weekend for next weekend's freeroll.

So it appears only 400 out of more than 2000 Supernovas are even playing these freerolls.

[NewGuy]

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Why not just use the $70 and buy into a tournament?


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I would be happy to get $70/week in cash bonuses for 2008.

If I have to choose between $70/week in EV from freerolls or ~$20/week in cash bonuses I will choose the freerolls.

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There is no way to give every SN $3000 in EV with a budget of $160k.

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Isn't this more or less what happened in 2007 with the current freeroll structure?


For the record, I don't disagree with what I think is the central premise of your argument - that the ~2/3 of SuperNovas who did or do not play in the freerolls essentially gave their EV to those who did.

I am not saying this is an equitable situation, I'm listening to your argument and I acknowledge there is merit in it.

Please find a way to recogize, however, that if Stars does decide it wants to keep the budget fixed and changed the SuperNova incentive to a cash bonus, SuperNovas like me will be very disappointed to receive a net reduction of ~$2,000 in the SuperNova financial value/compensation.

Stars customer focus is outstanding, I'm confident they'll find a creative solution to keep the "cash bonus" + "please give me the same $3k in EV" camps happy.

Switching blindly to a cash bonus worth 1/3 of 2007's freeroll value (on a per person basis for those who played) would be short-sighted and slight hundreds of SuperNovas who generated a mininum of ~$20-$30k in rake for 2007 each (and in some case much, much more).

[NewGuy]

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646 Platinum and Gold players qualified this weekend for next weekend's freeroll.

So it appears only 400 out of more than 2000 Supernovas are even playing these freerolls.

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Pokerboy, I think I see how you got the 646 figure but I'm pretty sure that's inaccurate.

I just checked the tourney tabs for the $50k weekly satellites:

Oct 6 14:15 Gold satellite 356 starters-> 71 $50k entries
Oct 6 14:45 Platinum satellite 91 starters-> 30 entries
Oct 7 11:15 Gold satellite 161 starters-> 32 entries
Oct 7 11:45 Platinum satellite 38 starters-> 12 entries

So I'm 99% sure there were 356+91+161+38 = 646 Gold/Plat who TRIED to get a $50k SuperNova freeroll seat, but only 71+30+32+12 = 145 succeeded and actually PLAYED in the SuperNova freeroll.

So I'm pretty sure this means it WAS over 800 Novas this Sat.