Best way to qualify for WSOP

[M.B.E.]

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Yep, Party is a rip off. Don't understand why they can't see this in the long run. Poker Stars is pretty smart in my opinion, with the free acomodations, for sure they're having the best players.

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Sirio, you're right that for players, trying to qualify at Party is a "rip off" compared to PokerStars.

However, that does not mean Party's strategy is worse, from a business perspective, than Stars'.

PokerStars is giving away 100 WSOP seats through FPP and TLB freerolls. That's a million-dollar promotional expense. (Actually more than that, because Stars will also pay for 9 nights' hotel accommodation for those 100 players.) Will this giveaway attract a million dollars of extra business to the site? Perhaps, but I would think there are other more effective ways to spend the promotion budget.

When players win their seats in PokerStars' cash qualifiers, that's $10K going right off the site. I'm not really convinced that the advantages PokerStars gains, from publicity and so forth, will build the site enough to compensate for the cash leaving the site by way of players qualifying for the WSOP ME.

By contrast, Party is charging a bundle in rake on all its satellites, and taking the hotel costs out of the prize pool. Despite that, they still get the same promotional advantage of having players wear their clothes on ESPN. It's a terrible deal for players (compared to the alternative), but that doesn't mean it's a bad business decision by Party.