Pokerstars TLB Points

[Grivan]

There is a major thing no one has mentioned yet. You are limited in the number of tournaments you can use for the leader board, playing a bunch of tournaments that give you under 100 points does not help.

You only get to count your 10 best per week, 20 best per month, and 100 best per year. This is the reason why it looks like the numbers are going to be way higher then last year at the moment, but once people hit the point where wins are just replacing other wins, and not adding to the list the point scores will raise much slower.

In order to have a yearly score of 20,000 you need to have averaged 200 points in your 100 best tournaments for the year, that is still a hard task 200 points is 1-5th place maybe. If you are averaging 5 tournaments a day thats 1825 tournaments a year, in order to get 20,000 points you would need to have a GOOD final table win about one in eighteen times which is still not easy to do.

[Poker Jon]

Cfere,

So if you are 7th this week with just two wins, does that suggest that you could finish high up the leaderboard with selected tournaments and high place finishes (obviously I know that you will go for a few tourney's without placing!) as opposed to large numbers of tourney's with lower place finishes?

Just using your example of a good player (I think), who could make good progress in fewer tournaments and still be there or thereabouts on the leaderboard.


Definately be interested in your report (if its not up yet).
Jon

[M.B.E.]

Thanks, Curmudgeon. That makes it easier to understand.

[M.B.E.]

[ QUOTE ]

You only get to count your 10 best per week, 20 best per month, and 100 best per year. This is the reason why it looks like the numbers are going to be way higher then last year at the moment, but once people hit the point where wins are just replacing other wins, and not adding to the list the point scores will raise much slower.

[/ QUOTE ]
Good point, Grivan. I had overlooked that when I read the pertinent web page at pokerstars.com.

Obviously this is the real explanation for why last year's winner, Riverloser, achieved "only" 18,000 points or so.

[Bozeman]

The times I have played against riverloser, I did not find his play exceptional, though it was good. I was, however, very surprised that riverloser went over the top in berating a fish after a not particularly bad beat. To me this is usually a sign of someone who thinks they are better than they are, or at least without much mathematical understanding of the swings or odds in poker.

Craig

[M.B.E.]

Yes, I've seen him berate fish before; other times he is quite friendly. Currently his chat is revoked, I don't know for how long. He still is playing on Stars, however. I guess Stars had several complaints for them to revoke his chat.

[ QUOTE ]
I was, however, very surprised that riverloser went over the top in berating a fish after a not particularly bad beat. To me this is usually a sign of someone who thinks they are better than they are, or at least without much mathematical understanding of the swings or odds in poker.

[/ QUOTE ]
You're right that frequently this conduct betrays a lack of knowledge, but a lot of the time it's just someone who can't control his anger, even though he knows full well that it's bad business to insult the fish. What I can't figure out is why it happens so much online. If you're in a b&m cardroom and can't control your anger, well the people around you will notice. But if you're in your own living room you can yell obscenities as loud as you want, punch the wall, whatever -- what drives the need to express your anger by typing an insulting message? That, I just don't get. But this post probably belongs on the Psychology forum, not Tournaments.

[Bozeman]

Yes, you are right, but I think even knowledge but lack of control are big warning signs against playing poker for a living, which I assume is the case for TLB leaders.

[Zing Zing]

Just wanted to make a couple quick comments. The point about the 10 scores for a week, top 20 for a month, and top 100 for the year is very important. Pokerstars implemented this sometime last year around May, this was done because of exactly what the first posts accused the TLB players of doing, simply playing every single tourney and racking up the points. With this system in place it makes it a lot tougher, and it favors the consistent winners rather than people who play nonstop. As the year neared its end in December/January I was "only" behind riverloser by about 1000 points , but I knew it would be an uphill and almost undoable battle, I managed to catch up roughly 300-400 points and come in second, but just to gain any points that late in the year I had to get at least 170 points in a tourney, which is normally tough to do.

Quick comment about RL, personally I think he's a very solid player, and plays very well when not on tilt. As you guys mentioned he does have a problem sometimes berating the fish, however from chatting with him in the past, he seems to do it only in tournies, and only when beat by a fish/idiot, he doesn't mind getting bad beat by a good player. I, admittedly, am pretty much the same way, and that's probably why both of our chats are gone. I never really did it as much anymore, but once in a great while there is just this one moron who gets under your skin and you can't help to throw an f u or two out to him.
-Premier

[cferejohn]

Well, I don't even play 10 tournaments/week period right now, let alone get in the money in 10. Just too busy right now. I'll be less busy after mid-march, so maybe I'll play more then. Of course then I'll probably just lose everything... [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]