As if the "bigger" was just about the name.
You realise that bigger was with 12 min blind structure from start till the end instead of 10 min week version?

i do realise that and if I'd think there's a snowballs chance in hell they bring it back i'd ask for it

I got DC too, someone else?

Amaya might have decided to switch off Pokerstars instead and ask you to play on FullTilt.

well played stars sats with no antes....whats next?

There's a new $162 Ultra Deep in the lobby and it looks like it might be the slowest MTT I've ever seen.

Lol not rly but yeah kinda slow. Nice addition

Hey all,

I'm heading on holiday for a few days but I wanted to give an update on the state of the schedule and what comes next.

First up, there will be many noticeable guarantee reductions beginning Monday. Since I know there's always comments about how guarantees never rebound, take a look at this graph showing last year's week-by-week guarantees in the main schedule from the first week after SCOOP to mid-November:



The X axis is time, and the Y axis is money. The tailing off in mid-November is due to the Daily Double Jackpot promotion technically not being a part of the main schedule even though it replaced main schedule tournaments.

I’ve been analysing performance of the new schedule, and investigating the concerns expressed in this thread.

Overall, I'm pleased with what I found but it did provide me with some context and ideas of what to work on next.

While guarantees are my top priority at this point in the year, I'll be working on the following as time permits:

• Continue to find spots for additional micro and small stakes NLHE tournaments. You can find additions by searching "New Tournament" in your text filter.
• Investigate the effectiveness of satellites. Having a light spread of satellites was planned due to the fact that SCOOP was impending. Once I have a bit of a sample, I'll see what alterations can be made in both SNG and MTT satellites.
• Alter Omania and take a look at the Omaha schedule. Omania tournaments are not performing very well and will likely be reworked. I suspect that 3/4 Stack just isn't well understood. I should add that Omaha tournaments are doing very well overall. We offer approximately the same number of tournaments as before, but the average guarantee and prize pools have increased over 20%.

Lastly, to answer some queries...

While I don't foresee the Daily $27s coming back, I'll work out a plan to make some non-NLHE tournaments more special. I do not have any specific plan at this time.

I think SCOOP is just a different animal. Everyone on the site registers for these events just to make sure they get a seat! I agree that they're fun and I too enjoyed playing them, but the reason shootouts aren’t in the main schedule is because they had ever-declining popularity to the point where we finally removed them. They just don’t do as nearly as well as an equivalent freezeout in the same slot.

I believe Zoom is a worthy format for a major, but I acknowledge that it’s not the most popular variant. Friday is a lower-traffic day, and we can have a Zoom major there without negatively impacting liquidity.

I think they provide a better playing experience. So far in the new schedule, players seem to agree!

There is a $55 at 15:00 on Monday/Wednesday/Friday to coincide with each of the majors.

Because more isn't necessarily better. I want to make the most exciting schedule for our players, and the key to that is having as many tournaments as possible with attractive guarantees. While the schedule was reduced in size, we're increasing the average guarantee in main schedule tournaments. Additionally, building up is much easier than tearing down! I agree that there is room for more tournaments, and thus we'll be adding some in the future.

I think the $162 has done well so far and a $16.50 might be well-received. This certainly isn't an overstuffed time slot. I'll give it some thought and come back to you on this.

1) I don't think we have too many.

2) For those who haven't noticed yet, we've added a 32 player $7 heads-up SNG. It is in the lobby with a "New" tag and runs pretty frequently.

3) I think this sort of defeats the purpose. If you're entering the tournament for its Zoom appeal, wouldn't you want that portion of the tournament to last as long as possible?

This is part of the balancing act. I have to manage priorities. Every task that needs doing has an amount of time assigned to it. While this could have been increased to $250K and then reduced to $100K starting next week, I chose to use that time making other changes or even making this post.

Micro Millions will tentatively return in July. I currently do not have any more details than that!

OK, that's all for now. I'll be back next week. Adios!

Has reducing guarantees been standard before 2014? Only noticed it negatively last year. Kinda sad

Aka "friday is a low traffic day so why not just kill it completely with zoom trash".
Luke please replace zoom with some other more popular format so friday isnt completely dead, i used to love playing on friday now i have to skip it bc of the zoom garbage...

Yeh the players seem to agree that 6 max hypers provide a better experience as they have the choice of 6 max or full ring hyper mtts right?
Or is it because they want to play a hyper mtt and have no option but to play 6 max.

Im pretty sure the real reason for the schedule being so 6 max heavy is making it tougher for regs to reg a load of game fillers

Has been happening more since 2012

plaese change the 30$ ProgKo´s 180s to 90 Mans

How has he failed at every task? Are you his boss? Oh right, you don't own Pokerstars, it's not your company and it's goals aren't necessarily the same as yours. But hey, why not come in and be a dick to Luke anyway while not offering anything constructive, cause that's still not passe yet apparently.

Failing with the structures so badly at launch, taking so long to change said structures despite tons of feedback, not setting guarantees even remotely close to realistic numbers even after so long are only some of the things he failed at. No, I'm not his boss, I don't need to be in order to consider the work he's done a failure.

The structures were fixed in less than a week. Guarantees have always been low under Amaya management, it's a public company, they don't throw money around like the old days, get over it. You can consider his work a failure, but his taking a vacation or not (or implying he be fired, which was what you really meant) would be granted by his bosses and based on the company's goals, he is not failing.

For all the pissed off people rolling through here, the site isn't tanking. The numbers aren't dropping, they are shifting and changing what people play, but the traffic is still there. Because of the software... and until someone steps up, puts some real money into a real piece of software and then promotes it (not happening in a declining, incredibly divided marketplace), no substantive exodus will be occurring and Luke won't be getting fired.

make that and a 30k+ GTD and i'll be playing every day

This graph means close to nothing without the Y axis labeled, the point at EPT Barcelona could be X and Mid November 20X or those numbers could be X and 1.1X, without labeling the graph it is impossible to discern.

You do realize that O8 is fundamentally different than PLO and deserve it's own treatment? The O8 schedule is absolutely broken.


So you mess up the mixed games schedule and then tell us you don't 'have any specific plan' to fix it!??

Example:
Old: Daily $27 FLO8 1K Gtd (averaging 1.3K)
New: Saturday Special $27 FLO8 750Gtd (mostly gets canceled)

Very special Luke, and you really expect us not to get angry?

Fewer isn't necessarily better neither, and in this case is significatively worse.

Big GTD MTTs are exciting, for sure, but we need also some MTTs with fewer players that allows us to build roll in order to take shots on those big gtds.

I play ABI $7. Back on March, I used to grind 27 MTTs daily between PokerStars and Full Tilt. Today I grind 9 MTTs, and after SCOOP will be 7.

I understand Amaya's new policy, however, at least throw something to the players between amateurs and pros.

did pretty well ! give players what they want !

sick "graph" luke....is that mspaint orrr, wtf r u doing? why is the first week after scoop bigger than scoop, according to your "graph"? doesnt make much sense.

do you really disrespect us so much? putting up a "graph" that misleading is so abdurd....

why didn't you label wcoop? and you say the y axis is money, whose money?

wtf is happening, do you really think we are all stupid? im offended.

can only assumne stars makes zero dollars during ept barcelona, so brutal, hope u guys can get through that.

+1 for changing the payout, i understand it's probably better for your bottom line if more people cash. But i do think recreational players will also eventually end up being bummed out by playing for 4 hours and getting 1,5x your buy in after beating a thousand more people then the guy that finished on the first payout.

+1 pls

also bring back the old 27tkos +one more in the old h44 spot (or daily mini sonic)

I am curious if b215 is underperforming compared to the old b162, could seem like that because of the new payouts, but would be nice to compare numbers (obv not during SCOOP)