Hey all, I'm going to be copying this into the Lock subforum as well. I was talking with a few other grinders and we've come up with this document to send in to the merge network.
I'll include links in the email I send to this thread and also to the RPM thread.
If there's anything else that is clearly missing in the bugs/fixes area, please post as I'll most likely be shipping the email Sunday night. This document is NOT meant to be something to get tournaments added/new ideas brainstormed, before we move forward, we must fix what is wrong with the system first.
If you'd like to cosign the document I send to Rizen (and hopefully it gets forwarded to the network), please PM me your real name and I'll add you, and if you're not comfortable with that, then at least your screename on Lock.
I'm hoping the Merge Network listens to us like Pokerstars has done in the past/still does.
Thanks all,
Josh
_______________________________________
To whom it may concern,
There has been a lot of speculation and complaining about the Merge Network MTT’s in general and specifically a large majority of regular players think that the payout system really needs to be changed. There are other issues/bugs which will be just simply listed at the end of this email, but we really need to talk about the payout structure!
The big issue is that most tourneys either pay out too many people, or not enough. If a tournament has 49 players in it, 5 people are paid, but if 50 are in it, then 10 are paid. This is a pretty ludicrous system to have in place, especially because a lot of the field sizes hover around this number, especially in non guaranteed tourneys and HSMTT’s. The other big problem is that the payouts are way too topheavy and also, you cannot have a mincash be for less than the buyin of the tournament which seem to happens regularly.
What should happen is each tournament should be paying out ~15% on average and the 45 man payout structure should be used for many of the small field tournaments that get 40-75 players in them, whether it’s a HSMTT or a non guaranteed prizepool. Below are a few examples of how the payout structure could work in different field sizes that is a good first step in making the payout system better.
Example A: $33 6.5k, 187 player field
Your Payouts:
11th-20th: $65, 10th: $113.75, 9th: $146.25, 8th: $195, 7th: $260, 6th: $325, 5th: $390, 4th: $520, 3rd: $650, 2nd: $1300, 1st: $1950
Proposed Payouts:
11th-18th: $110.50, 10th: $123.50, 9th: $162.50, 8th: $195, 7th: $260, 6th: $325, 5th: $390, 4th: $585, 3rd: $845, 2nd: $1105, 1st: $1625
Example B: $16.50 4k, 326 player field
Your Payouts:
41st-50th: $12.22, 31st-40th: $24.45, 21st-30th: $36.67, 11th-20th: $48.90, 10th: $73.36, 9th: $97.81, 8th: $122.26, 7th: $146.71, 6th: $195.61, 5th: $244.51, 4th: $293.41, 3rd: $391.21, 2nd: $831.31, 1st: $1271.41
Proposed Payouts:
28th-36th: $36.68, 19th-27th: $41.57, 16th-18th: $53.79, 13th-15th: $66.01, 10th-12th: $78.24, 9th: $92.91, 8th: $122.25, 7th: $171.15, 6th: $220.05, 5th: $283.62, 4th: $415.65, 3rd: $552.57, 2nd: $733.50, 1st: $1000.00
Obviously, looking at the examples, “A” is more so copying the way you pay out currently (ie 11th-20th getting $x and 10th getting $x) than “B” is, but no matter which you look at, the payouts are smoother and will definitely be a beneficial change.
The payout structures should be the highest prioritized change on Merge when looking at the tournament system as a whole, but there are also other quirks and/or bugs on the site. They will be listed below.
- PLO/PLO8 tourneys should not have antes in them. I have never seen an Omaha tourney, online or live, that has antes in it. In addition, there should be 6max PLO tourneys added to the schedule as there currently are none, and PLO is simply a 6max game online.
- Better filters for both SNG’s and MTT’s. They need to have more options by game type or at least by each icon in the legend.
- Allow notes on a player to be read from a lobby of a game, and before that even, can us tournament players and SNG players at least see icon’s we’ve left on players like the cash gamers? They click a table and can see who’s a regular if they mark players, we click a lobby and get nothing!
-SNG’s need bigger antes in them, the simple change would be to mirror MTT’s and have the ante be 10% of the BB starting at 50/100.
-The in-game hand history is awful. It needs to be completely redone to just simply be better (Pokerstars does this well).
- Auto add-on and double-rebuy buttons. There should be an easy way to rebuy so that it is easily done before the start of the next hand if I'm eligible.
- Deal making system for the FT, Pokerstars very much so needs to add this as well; Full Tilt definitely had this one right.
- When you win a SNG, please do not have that second popup telling us how much we won, we already know we won with the first popup before we close out the table.
- SNG leaderboard points need to be distributed better. The super turbo players are basically guaranteed to place every month with any sort of volume.
-Add/move more tournaments to coincide with the peak hours, which are mainly 7pm EST-12am EST.
-The $80 rebuy needs to be moved to an earlier time, it doesn’t begin til 1am EST and it goes at least 4 hours every night. Consider starting it at 8pm EST as there is no big buyin at 8pm EST and the $60 3k and $215 high roller start at 9pm EST.
- $1 Dollar Dazzler rebuys really need to have a late registration attached to them as that will make the prizepool grow by 50-75% most times. Also, the 1r that begins at 19:00 EST needs to be changed to 19:15 EST start time to mirror the starting time of every other 1r on the site (15 minutes past the hour).
- $3.30r 2k at 19:15 EST has the addon period at break (which is normal) yet late entries are allowed for 15 minutes past the addon period. The tournament either needs to start at 19:00 EST, or the addon period needs to be after the break when the hour long rebuy period is up.
- $5.50 6max at 20:50 EST is listed as a turbo in the title, yet it has 10 minute levels.
Thank you for considering this major change in the payout structure and then also looking into these other suggestions, hopefully these will be great improvements that in turn make the site grow more and keep the regular customers happy.
Joshua S Hoesel