Yes, I did put a capital letter in front of each word to make this look more awesome than it probably is.

Initially the idea behind the survey was to get enough good ideas to send to Pokerstars in the hopes of "improving" the HU games. Some people don't agree that action is dry, but that doesn't really matter. I think if there are ways to inject more energy into the HU scene it might be a catalyst for more action from both fish and regulars, and that can only benefit everyone.

I don't know if I am the only one but i've always felt like the HU tables are a favor given to us by the sites. In the end, the other game formats are MUCH more profitable for them. There's more rake generated, more fish lasting longer, more tables being played, etc...

I think it would be time that we also get something interesting ala Rush? In comes the HU Challenge.

Goals:
- Increase volume through incentives (more rake)
- Increase the ease of getting action from other regulars (more rake)
- Reduce waiting/wasted time trying to get action (more rake)
- Increase incentive for all players to improve so they can beat higher rated players consistently
- Inject some exciting new feature into the HU community... for once!

How this could work:

Challenging Other Players
1. I can at any time right-click a player in the HU lobby and issue him a "Challenge".
2. My potential opponent will get a popup window asking him if he would like to accept. This popup would also include the stake, number of tables and time or hands played.
3. If he clicks Yes we are both seated at the tables automatically and the match begins.

Another way to get challenges? On each table, in the chat window, there's an option to "Broadcast" yourself to everyone else sitting at your limit saying that you would like to Challenge anyone who is currently around. On their side they get a notification (subtle or not) with a prompt asking if they would like to accept.

Why would all this change anything? Because on top of this easy system to use to get action quickly there's also a bunch of rewards that would entice players of all levels to use it.

Rewards and Ladders
Each month Pokerstars should run HU Challenge competitions/races with a ladder system that tracks each player's performance/volume during the month. So for example whoever won the most money at 2/4 using Challenges would get $1000, 2nd would get $650, etc..

Other examples of "races":
- Most volume
- Highest amount of money won across all stakes
- Ratings based rewards*
- etc, etc...

On top of these they could also offer more VPPs for Challenging and also increase the bonus relative to how many tables you're playing. This creates more rake for them and more volume for us because now we have more reasons to play more tables. The system would also include a ratings system (similar to what games like Heroes of Newerth uses), so if you challenged someone of a higher rating, you would get more rewards for it.

Player Ratings
This would probably the hardest part to create but also the most interesting. If sites were to treat HU as a competitive sport, as I think it is, then this would be the next step to take.

The Player Rating would encompass the totality of what the player has done in the Challenge games... this means:
- Winnings or BB/100
- BB/hour,
- A BB:tables played:hours played rating
- Amount of challenges to individual players offered/refused
- Total volume

This rating would be used in the ladders for skill-based statistics/rankings. Everyone would start at a set PSR (Player Skill Rating) and then either go below this number by losing/not performing or higher if they're crushing.

It's possible it might be best to keep these ratings secret to the players and from ladders completely but still keep a rewards structured based on PSR. This way we won't have a situation where the "1700 rating" player will never get action from anyone at 1600 just because they saw in number that they're "outmatched".

This brings an interesting point about how to handle displaying the rating publically. If everyone knows your PSR then it will be shameful for those who have a low rating and/or the very high rating players might not get action at all. On the other hand if they don't know your PSR, then the system wouldn't really spark people to want to play better players through better rewards.

So in the end, it's possible that not having a rating at all might be the best approach, as it does add a certain complexity to this. But I think it would be a really refreshing approach to the HU games and also poker in general.

Other rewards
I know some people are going to find this super corny (and it is), but offering other things like badges/unique avatars has always captured the hearts and minds of nerds worldwide. This would work for poker and especially HU because of its highly competitive nature.

Pokerstars could also give some exclusive avatars/colored name for monthly winners/etc... so these people would become marks as the benefits their opponents will get are higher. The extra rewards for playing someone of a higher rating should be capped and also minimal.

The time frame could be extended to 3-6 months to avoid having situations where someone runs hot and becomes a huge mark and then the next month gets destroyed all over the place. Basically use "Seasons" to split up the skill-based competitions/rewards instead of monthly like the volume/winnings based rewards.

Other formats of Challenge
Based on the Challenge format, they could run 1 or 2-3 day long competitions with money going to the winners in various categories. They could use a signup form on their site and then create a tree based off the signups. Each player would have to pony up $X to create a prize pool.

How this is different from MTTs and SNGHUs is that in this case you can play as much volume and challenge as many people as you feel like. So if you put in the work and the effort you'll have a better chance to win anything. This will create more incentive to play more and thus give more action.

Potential Issues
- Displaying the ratings might hinder the games in some ways
- The higher stakes players would need serious rewards to use this system and I don't think Pokerstars would want to shell out $30k to someone who rakes almost as much as a MSNL player.
- Variance, in regards to the rewards/rating, might cause problems in the short-term.. but in the end the players are freerolling the whole way, run bad or good.

---------------------------

So that about outlines the idea. There's a whole lot of other things I didn't spend time writing that would improve this further. I am really high right now so it's possible this might sound really silly or something.. but, at this time, I think it's a great idea to breathe some life into the game and at the same time make it more profitable for both site and players.

I'd like to know what people think of this.. is it silly? would you use it/be interested? If you don't already play regulars what kind of rewards would make it now a profitable situation for you or at least entice you to do it more often?


cliffs:
- suggestion to Pokerstars
- new feature that allows you to Challenge other HU players
- rewards/bonuses from races/competitions/playing more tables/etc
- everyone benefits
- Stake Monster should really shut up about the HU games what a jackass LOL

The "Challenging other players" with a lobby system seems cool. It'd be a much easier way to find regs who will play you rather than joining tables to find people sitting out.

The rest is redundant. Nobody plays HU for gimmicky 'rewards'.

And who cares about ratings? We want da monies.

So if Pokerstars were to offer you 5k to beat up a couple of regs at 2/4 during the month you wouldn't be interested AT ALL? This really depends on how big the rewards could be. Pokerstars would have to do their maths there. But they're basically freerolling as well because if after a month it does nothing to their bottomline they can just remove the rewards and keep the challenging system.

Agreed on gimmicky rewards (avatars, etc) but please don't tell me you never get a nerd tingle when you get a new badge on PTR or on your xbox? It's stupid and childish but it's just the basic action/reward concept you see in labs with the mice and cheese..

The ratings are a somewhat optional feature and could easily be left out. I think it's cool but I can see why it might seem too difficult to implement.

i could write a long post but i'm going with

Like the "right-click challenge" lobby idea.

I generally like the idea BUT i think there is no way that pokerstars would implement this system to keep some HU players happy.
There has to be some serious programming and software changes to be done until a system like this would work properly.
Unfortunately our player base is too small and unimportant to make changes like this profitable for PS.

+1

Have you emailed stars SM or waiting to see what kind of reception you get from the hu community?

No, I want to see what people think first. I do think, in retrospect, that the rating idea is a bit too far and probably too much work. I wish i could edit that part out. I think it would be way too much of a hassle.

I do think that the basic "Challenge" idea would be great, tho. It could just be an EASIER way to get action/induce more. If we could setup HU games easier and let people know you wanna play, more easily, it would help the games right away and it would not change anything else negatively. I tried to get action earlier and I think I sat with 40 different ppl before I got one to play.. with my idea you just click on "Broadcast", set your # of tables/time played and if someone out there does want to play, you won't miss out on any possible action. And if you know someone who might play, you right click their name in the lobby and challenge them. Bam, you're playing 4 tables right away and not having to spend an hour to get action/set the tables up..

There could be some SIMPLE rewards/incentives to play in Challenge games and IMO it could be as simple as offering more VPPs.. perhaps the difference between 20% RB and 45% would be enough for some ppl to play more regulars? But then it doesn't really matter to fish if they get more of it....

If they could find a way to reward both the casual and professional players who play Challenge games, it would be much more effective. A monthly ladder/volume race with prizes would be pretty simple and if the rewards are decent, who knows... It certainly wouldn't hurt.

challenge system sounds like a good idea as long as fish are not constantly hassled by popups and maybe discovering that they are a fish. for example it shouldn't be a direct challenge to one player but more of a subtle notice under your screen name at the tables and/or in the lobbys somewhere that people can choose to accept if they want to. rather than set a number of tables before hand (basically announcing how good you are almost if you say a high number) it might be better to have an option to clone a table once everyone that is sitting on it agrees. this has the advantage of helping other games start more tables as well as heads up, like if all 6 players at a 6 max game agree an identical table is created etc. what is stopping people bumhunting this challenge system though? wouldn't another part of the lobby fill with requests from regs waiting to be accepted?

yeah thinking about it more if it's some option tucked away that just makes reg on reg action easier it could be in sites' best interest to give it a bit of rewards with rakeback or w/e. i don't think it will entice many more people to play (as ssnl where rake is a big concern action isn't as scarce, at msnl+ people won't care so much about a bit of extra rb, and the rewards can't be big at all if sites still have to show a profit implementing it). it will probably fail imo, but there might be no downside to try it if it's tucked far away - be wary of problems though like what to do if someone has to quit? penalties? gl getting people to join that if they have to keep playing a reg at 2/4 when a fish sits at 10/20 or w/e

i really don't want the fish involved in any of this though, seems like it would backfire massively. fish that don't care that they can't get up and leave go play sngs imo, and the fishregs that do want to battle just join someone and start battling iyam

What HU needs is to get rid of this sit at empty tables and still be able to refuse to play when someone sits with you mechanic.

Guys. If you want to play regulars... post on here and find a regular that wants to play you. It is the simplest solution and you almost certainly can get a match.

Yeah the climate is extremely tough right now and that is why all of these crazy ideas are being proposed. But in reality nothing is going to help your bottom line much, if at all, unless something drastic changes in the online poker world. Countries keep banning online poker, there are less fish and the percent of players that are regulars is increasing at a startling rate. *That* is our problem.

That's King of the Hill then. The whole idea behind KOTH is just that. Party has something like this going. I do think it increases action a bit but it also increases the annoyances of having to deal with grimmers/etc who want to "fight for their table" aka hit and run.

Kardnel: I don't disagree with you but I don't see how my idea would hurt the games in any way. Making it easier and more convenient to play people on multiple tables just by adding the option to challenge people can only help.

kaby: I agree, a bit more rb won't really entice that many people. I think it's up to Pokerstars to find some sort of reward system/races that might be worth the work and effort. Think of something like Supernova Elite.. it's really really hard to get but people will still dedicate their whole year in reaching it.

I am not saying the rewards should be anywhere close to that, but the point is there are tons of near breakeven players who will play the whole year just to reach it. I don't see why there can't be HU rewards that could be worth it for some people.


Also, I want to add that I don't think any of this would magically make action plentiful all of a sudden.. I do think it's a freeroll though and if it adds even 1000 hands a week to most player's total, it will be worth the time spent on developing the feature for PS.

The challenge idea sounds like a brilliant way to scare off the fish to me.

seems like a cool idea

as long as fish could block the requests the same way they can hide from search, i'm all for the idea. just make it very transparent so that anyone who doesn't want to deal with requests will turn it off before they get swarmed by 100s of 'challenges'. broadcasting a challenge to x limit is also a pretty sweet idea since its a lot of work to find a match among 80 empty tables.

i don't want a pop-up coming up while i am playing. that is super annoying.

yeah i think it should be more discrete than this, maybe a drop down option in the requests tab that shows pending challenges and allows you to challenge people, or notifications like skype or facebook that just show a number of pending requests you need to check.

yeah, wateva u do, dont suggest pop-ups!!!

I think this is a really cool idea! Dunno about the Player ratings stuff though, don´t really think there´s a need for this. Everyone should just be able to challenge anyone they want.

About the pop-up, I agree that this would be annoying while playing, so there should just be a notification at a table where you sit alone and don´t have action at the time...

Good idea Barewire.. I think people should be able to opt out from the feature completely.

What about if notifications were displayed to you in red in your chat window if you're sitting down at a table? or if you're not they could always have a Challenges window with things like:

- Challenges Pending (incoming or outgoing)
- Previous challenges results/time played/hands
- Option to opt out of the feature
- etc.. (?)

Also if you just have the lobby open you could receive a notification here: http://i56.tinypic.com/o6brrk.png and it could look something like this:

Dingbat69 has challenged you to 4 tables of 200NL Heads-Up for a duration of 1 hour. Accept - Ask Again Later - No Thanks

Also, someone brought this up before.. what if someone accepts a 1 hr challenge but then has to go after 30 mins? What happens then? I don't think sites will ever penalize someone for this.. So I suggest that if someone quits a challenge X amount of times they are not able to use the feature again (and get any related rewards if any) until a certain amount of time has passed.

I don't know if it's worth putting such a thing in practice or not.. I am guessing most ppl who would use this feature would not be the kind to just run off after a short time, but there would need to be something to prevent obvious trolling/abuse of it. example: Dingbat69 likes to challenge people to 4 tables, 3bet/steal button on all of them and then leave.

It might seem far fetched for many ppl to do this but, on Party with KOTH these sort of things happen a LOT, and it's quite annoying.

i think it's really hard to implement some kind of system that punishes hit n running, and honestly i wouldn't even bother trying to prevent it. one thing that they could do to prevent grimming is to change the autopost mechanism so that when you start with the sb you're forced to leave on the bb and don't have the option to leave on the sb. i'm not sure how hard that is to code but honestly it should be in place at every table anyways...

I think so too.. although, in the end, grimming/etc is just a minor nuisance you kinda need to get use to if you play HU often.

I love it!