[MicroBob]

I agree with much that has been said in this very interesting thread...and I am now here to pick a nit.


[ QUOTE ]
pokerstars is dumping money on their fpp tournaments

[/ QUOTE ]


I don't think so.

Their pay-outs for the $215-entry satellites seem pretty much in line with the books and what-not they sell in the store.

It's more akin to a small-scale rake-back plan or bonus.
If each point is worth a half-penny to a penny then the rewards given out stay roughly in line.


Plus....it gives them the ILLUSION of giving out stuff for free....when it's really just a semi-glorified comp or rake-back system.


Also - in the EPT and WCOOP FPP satellites they are actually making an FPP profit most of the time.


Take, for example, the typical 500FPP tourney with 'Top 9 seats advancing to round 2' which is a 5000 FPP buy-in (and you can unregister and keep the FPP's if you like).

PokerStars needs 90 players in that tourney to break-even.
Many of these get more around 120-180 players.
That's a lot of FPP's getting thrown down the tubes by the players and eaten up by Stars.


They also do well on the smaller ones that cost 50FPP to enter for a seat worth 5k FPP for the top 2 finishers.
When they need 200 players to break-even they often get 300-400 players.

It's like a 33%-50% FPP 'rake' for them in many of these.


All those FPP 'half-pennies' that they're taking back in via their FPP satellites really add up.

Additionally, they serve the purpose of whetting their customers' appetites for these tourneys and to keep them dreaming of 'hitting the big one' (thus potentially more likely to spend REAL money instead of FPP's the next time around).