Some "higher" STEPs math.

[valenzuela]

the rake....

[REL18]

19k

[Shanemex]

If they're just saying how much rake they'd pay that doesn't make any sense either. A step 5 itself costs $500 in rake. Even if you won every step you'd still pay $863 in rake to play one step 5.

Step 4s charge $300 in rake per preson, and only advance one player. That means the average player would need to play ten step 4s to get to a step 5. That's a minimum of $3000 right there.

[valenzuela]

70 minutes left for the results! oh my!, oh my!.

[buddybudrow]

~ 100K

[CHCWSin05]

~75k

[wickss]

$33 if you never play a hand (including aces) until you are past the drop off point in each level.

[buddybudrow]

Probably true, but it would most likely take thousands of games and months, maybe years, of play before you actually reached level 5.

[tomdemaine]

But think of the rakeback!

[Apathy]

There were some very surprising guesses, as I expected. I was really shocked that it did not immediatly occur to everyone that the answer HAD to be above $15,500. This solution is thanks to mannika from the probabilty forum.

Whats the point?

I wanted to show how much people are confused by the rake structure and also show HOW MUCH you need to beat the games by. If you wanted to find out the answer starting at step 2 or 3 just use the formula below.


On average, it will take you 723 shots at buying in on Step 1 in order to make it to Step 5. This equals 723*33 = $23,859.


I solved this just by using some algebra:

First, I found equivalent terms for the value of each step in terms of the other steps.

S4 = (1/4)S5+(1/2)S3+(1/4)S2
S3 = (1/7)S4+(5/7)S2+(1/7)S1
S2 = (1/7)S3+(3/7)S1
S1 = (1/5)S2


Then I substituted those equations into one another to get:
S2 = (5)S1
S3 = (32)S1
S4 = (198)S1
S5 = (723)S1

Giving the Step 5 tournament the equivalent value of 723 Step 1 tournaments, and therefore $23,859.