An open letter to PokerStars on tourney scheduling

Masquerade · #1 09-17-2005, 01:08 PM

Also sent directly to them - will post the reply.

Dear PokerStars,

I was delighted to win a seat to one of the EPT London $360+20 qualifiers but very disappointed to see the time: Sunday 6pm EST.

This is 11 pm in London, midnight in most of Europe, and 1 am in Scandanavia. And strangely all the EPT $380 tourneys seem to be at a similar time. Of course not everyone playing will be in Europe but it seems a shame that a series of EPT qualifiers are being held at such an inconvenient time for the players they're targetting.

Can you provide me with an explanation as to why the EPT $380s all seem to start at midnight or later European time? Or perhaps (and maybe I'm being wildly optimistic) an admission that this was indeed a poor decision and that future such events might be held a little earlier.

I'm used to most of your big tourneys being on a US-centric time cycle and dont have the slightest problem with it - I know US-based players make up the vast majority of your clients. But in this case, for EPT events, I think a little more common-sense could have been applied. Especially as it wouldn't inconvenience any US-based players to move the events a few hours earlier.

Edge34 · #2 09-17-2005, 01:46 PM

I think you have a very reasonable point here, but the part about moving it earlier than 6 PM Eastern "not inconveniencing any US players" is bunk. Standard 9-5 workday means there would be LOTS of US players in these tournaments who would be inconvenienced if it moved, say, to 3 PM EST.

Its made to market toward US players, and I don't think that this was "a poor decision" on Pokerstars' part, just a minor inconvenience for some players.

bugstud · #3 09-17-2005, 02:15 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I think you have a very reasonable point here, but the part about moving it earlier than 6 PM Eastern "not inconveniencing any US players" is bunk. Standard 9-5 workday means there would be LOTS of US players in these tournaments who would be inconvenienced if it moved, say, to 3 PM EST.

Its made to market toward US players, and I don't think that this was "a poor decision" on Pokerstars' part, just a minor inconvenience for some players.

[/ QUOTE ]

just have some at each time.

Edge34 · #4 09-17-2005, 02:25 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I think you have a very reasonable point here, but the part about moving it earlier than 6 PM Eastern "not inconveniencing any US players" is bunk. Standard 9-5 workday means there would be LOTS of US players in these tournaments who would be inconvenienced if it moved, say, to 3 PM EST.

Its made to market toward US players, and I don't think that this was "a poor decision" on Pokerstars' part, just a minor inconvenience for some players.

[/ QUOTE ]

just have some at each time.

[/ QUOTE ]

That would certainly clear things up.

Masquerade · #5 09-17-2005, 07:00 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I think you have a very reasonable point here, but the part about moving it earlier than 6 PM Eastern "not inconveniencing any US players" is bunk. Standard 9-5 workday means there would be LOTS of US players in these tournaments who would be inconvenienced if it moved, say, to 3 PM EST.

Its made to market toward US players, and I don't think that this was "a poor decision" on Pokerstars' part, just a minor inconvenience for some players.

[/ QUOTE ]

These EPT $380 qualifiers are ONLY on Saturdays and Sundays (3rd/4th Sep, 10th/11th Sep, 17th/18th, 24th/25th). Theyre not on weekdays. Thats why its such an idiotic policy by Stars.

Nick-Zack · #6 09-17-2005, 09:43 PM

Move to the civilized world and you can play at 6PM also.

KJS · #7 09-19-2005, 07:30 PM

The proximity of the phrase "move to the civilized world" to that avatar is just too hilarious.

KJS

dogmeat · #8 09-20-2005, 11:29 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Also sent directly to them - will post the reply.

Dear PokerStars,

I was delighted to win a seat to one of the EPT London $360+20 qualifiers but very disappointed to see the time: Sunday 6pm EST.

This is 11 pm in London, midnight in most of Europe, and 1 am in Scandanavia. And strangely all the EPT $380 tourneys seem to be at a similar time. Of course not everyone playing will be in Europe but it seems a shame that a series of EPT qualifiers are being held at such an inconvenient time for the players they're targetting.

Can you provide me with an explanation as to why the EPT $380s all seem to start at midnight or later European time? Or perhaps (and maybe I'm being wildly optimistic) an admission that this was indeed a poor decision and that future such events might be held a little earlier.

I'm used to most of your big tourneys being on a US-centric time cycle and dont have the slightest problem with it - I know US-based players make up the vast majority of your clients. But in this case, for EPT events, I think a little more common-sense could have been applied. Especially as it wouldn't inconvenience any US-based players to move the events a few hours earlier.

[/ QUOTE ]

Did I read this right. Didn't you just bash Bob Ciaffone for mentioning in his article that he cashed at the WSOP with a "thinly veiled" blah, blah, blah - and you did the same here?

JEEZ

Dogmeat [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

Your Mom · #9 09-21-2005, 12:38 AM

I told Eurobet the same thing. All their special tournies were at like 4 PM central time. This makes it impossible to play for people in the US, at least the ones that have jobs anyway.

MicroBob · #10 09-21-2005, 02:26 AM

I don't understand why they all have to be at the same time all the time.

Sunday is the day when I am LEAST likely to be able to play in any of these.

Why can't they mix it up just a little bit so that those with conflicts for any reason at a given specific time (Saturday at 4 or Sunday at 7 or whatever) can still find one that works for them.

I just posted on a similar topic on my blog.
Party is running nightly satellites for their Aussie Millions tourney at 11p eastern.
It's $270 and is 1 entry per 53 entrants.
Tonight they got exactly 53 players.
Frequently they get somewhere between 30-50 so it just works as a $270 multi-table cash-game tourney.

I just don't understand the point.
At 11p eastern you can't really get any Europeans to play (I think it's 5a or 6a in much of western Europe) and I think it's 11a or so in australia so it's not ideal for them either.
11p is just such a weird time to be running their nightly satellites (although maybe they REALLY want the California crowd to play in these).
one would think that SOMEBODY over there would realize that they could get more players in these if they were running them at a different time.