Gaming Club unlurks, wondering why $100k HE guarant'd isn't filling up

[Gaming Club]

First off, let’s pre-empt some flaming: yes, us Johnny-come-lately casinos turned poker rooms come with a lot of baggage and a mindset that needs to change.

In particular, as noted in this forum and elsewhere, after years of battling with credit card / identity thieves from all over the world we have a tendency to assume the worst of people. We expect that you’d all be amazed at how tenacious and devious some of these guys are, but that’s no excuse for trying to apply casino fraud control processes to poker rooms without thinking first (and yes, we’re aware that even if there is good reason for suspecting fraud there are better ways of dealing with it than some of the methods that we currently use).

Hopefully admitting that you have a problem is the first step to fixing it. The skeptics among you will no doubt only believe it when you see it, so we aim to surprise some of you in the very near future.

In the meantime, we’re somewhat puzzled as to why our $100k guaranteed hold ‘em tourney isn’t filling up. So far about 80 people have signed up with just over a day to go, which means that at $200+$20 the EV is currently better than 5 to 1.

Clearly the issues outlined above are going to make some people reluctant to sign up, but poor customer support at other larger online poker rooms that shall remain nameless doesn’t seem to make all that much difference to most of the members of this board. Obviously beyond a certain point the number of players at a site (and by implication the number of fish) makes enduring poor service worthwhile, but this only partially holds for non-tournament play since it’s only at smaller sites like ours that an outsize EV such as this might present itself. This leaves us thinking that poor service is not the only reason.

We would expect as much as 50%+ of sign-ups to happen just before registration ends, and there is still one more qualifying satellite tonight which some players might be waiting for before paying full price, but we would nonetheless have thought that for an EV like this there would be a bit more interest at this stage.

So we thought we’d use this as an opportunity to solicit some feedback as to what other reasons might be behind why the turn-out has been so low so far. So here goes:


If you chose one of the answers that implies that a $100k guaranteed prize pool with a very positive EV isn’t enough to get you excited, then please let us know what you would find attractive. Any other relevant responses regarding anything we might not have considered would also be appreciated.

Thanks in advance. We'll go back to lurking now

[squiffy]

I don't seem many adds for Gaming Club or Prima Poker, but I see plenty for Party, Empire, etc. And a bonus, that I know I can get by playing hands, is worth a lot more to me than a shot at a large prize that I am much less likely to be able to get. Plus, I have to risk, what was it again, $200? If you want large numbers of low limit players, a jackpot, a bonus, or somekind of rebate of rake per hand played would be much much much more effective.

Honestly, $200 + $20 is a lot of money. That is a completely different market than the low limit fish market.

I think once you build the low limit fish market and attract sharks, then the more talented fish and sharks, might start sampling higher end tourneys.

I think if you want higher end tourneys to grow, you first have to grow the number of low limit ring games and low limit tourneys. Then gradually as newbies have some success and learn a bit at $1, $5, and $10, they may eventually work their way up to $200 tourneys.

[hehateme]

Agreed, make it a 25k Guarantee for a 50$ buyin. Good luck, thanks for your post.

[Cyndie]

Post deleted by Cyndie...never mind...thanks, cup!

[Inthacup]

A quote from the original post: [ QUOTE ]
and there is still one more qualifying satellite tonight which some players might be waiting for before paying full price

[/ QUOTE ]

[joeypoker789]

Make $25K would be smart IMO. Maybe even smaller. It is worth looking at GoldenPalace and VictorChandler and how they building their tournament site. I remember that GoldenPalace and VCI spent a lot of time with freeroll and much smaller tournaments. I doubt that they have tried anything as large as $100K yet but I believe that they have much more tournament traffic than the PrimaPoker network.

Just my casual observations but I sure agree with the suggestion of going up with smaller steps....

Good luck growing your business!!

P.S. I loved the $10 free promo a while back.

[goodguy_1]

posting relevant information on this forum is like pissing in the wind.
I've been playing the guaranteed 7K $25+$2 Tourney all month and have done well.How can you NOT play these fuggin tournies?
3k-4k added on a regular basis.Yes Prima has had huge +ev oppurtunities for 2 months now..but lets see hhmm what can we bitch and moan about?
Cashouts involve personal details but so fuggin what.These guys have been giving out huge cash for 2 months now.
But dont talk about +ev situations or relevant topics like how to be a better player...we want to talk our profile pics or how to earn a $25-50 referrme bonus..BRAHAHA.

[daryn]

what a clever gentleman

[goodguy_1]

joey :
I am always playing 1-2 freerolls while playing ring games.VC/GP and Prima have the best on the net right now.

VictorChandler and its first skin where US players could play Grand Palace and its 20 skins like FishPond offer huge +ev "freerolls" for the active player.You need to accumulate ActionPoints.Six months ago I came to the site and played 1-2/ 2-4 NLHE for around 3 weeks-..tallied 120K in these babies.
Whiners are going to bitch and moan about cashout policies but I have had good experiences with GP management. Yes they still have focked up Neteller cashout policies but they are working on that.and now they will EFT funds to your bank for no fee.

Here's just todays..a weekday's list of decent sized freerolls, not including the weekend $1000 added $20+$2 NL/PLHE on fri/sat evening:

12:30 pm est 800 AP's $200 NLHE

5:00 pm est 800 AP's $200 NLHE

7:30 pm 2400 AP's$600 NLHE

On fridays the evening tourney is 4000 AP's $1200 freeroll.

Now these are tiny prize pools I know but they are +ev.They also have a bunch of even smaller tournies not worth playing.
One annoying thing about VC/GP is over the summer they kept on increasing the AP's required to enter the same prize pool.They havent done this in a 2-3 months thu.

[Wake up CALL]

Question

How much have I won in a 100K tourney if I am unable to cash out my winnings?

Answer

A negative $220 for my entry fee.