At Party: January 2005 sign-ups, less than 30% still play there(+more

[Kablooie]

urgh - i have to disagree with MicroBob on something? That's just wrong.

Sorry, but to repick the nit a little - they changed the WCOOP FPP tournaments so they are actually proportional - if 100 people enter the 500 FPP tournie, they're giving out 10 places. You're right that they have gone back to the fixed number for the EPT tournaments, but about half of those, especially the early morning ones, are going off with considerably less than 90 entrants. They seem to be managing to hold the FPP value fairly steady - which makes sense, since if they introduced any considerable inflation in value it would hit their store, and if they deflated them it would hit their tournament numbers.

I guess because i've grown used to using these tournaments as FPP generators, i tend not to think about the original source of the FPP's anymore - and yes, viewed as a substitute for rakeback they're not that great a deal.

On the other hand, viewed as freerolls or as the equivalent of party player points/empire points etc., then they're extremely attractive compared to anything else that i know of out there - and i would respectfully suggest that that is how the non-shark/2+2 part of the poker population regards them.

I've seen people in star's chat talk about how they're saving up for the leather jacket - & i somehow don't think Party's flip flops are gathering quite the same kind of player loyalty. And as you say, they also act as a way to suck in players for the real money tournaments, once they've gotten their feet wet.

Rakeback is certainly nice to have, but given the choice, i'd far rather the site spent its marketing time/money on ensuring a nice, steady supply of unskilled opponents.