Luke,
is there a chance you can give us a sample of the Micro millions schedule on here, so us micro grinders can start planning days off depending on tourneys wanna play?

First, thanks for responding, and for responding so quickly. Those quick responses will go a long ways to lessening some (keyword: "some") of the unhappiness in this thread.

To directly answer your questions, I think there is a good number of red tournaments during this time range, but I would like to see them spread out a little better (maybe 18:00, 19:30, and 21:00) with more of a range of buy-ins ($1.10, $3.30, and $4.40).

Yes, the rest of the time frame needs to be filled out with some more regular speed, vanilla tournaments (6-max and KO are vanilla enough for me and are still wanted). Blue tournaments would work too, but I really just want something to play.

For me a perfect schedule would consist of the following (all regular speed, preferably non-re-entry, between 18:00 and 21:30 ET):

1. One tournament starting every thirty minutes on average (maybe two 15 minutes apart, then two more 30-45 minutes later).
2. My main focus would be a range of $0.55 to $4.40 (with maybe a $5.50 or slightly higher thrown in for the two months a year I am running hot).
3. One of each of the above buy-ins, with two instances of a $2.20 and $1.10.
4. Two or three red tournaments (BIGs or Bounty Builders) with the buy-ins mentioned above.
5. One, maybe two 6-max tournaments, with one starting later in the session.
6. Two KO tournaments (including Bounty Builders).
7. Late registration would be one hour or less (except the red tournaments, which I would prefer to start earlier in the session).
8. A deep-stacked tournament starting early in the session (which can have two hours of late-reg).

Note: just to be clear, the KOs, 6-max, and reds are included in the one-per-thirty-minute average, across the range of preferred buy-ins.

Where that differs the most from the current schedule is

1. With re-buys filtered out there is a 45 minute gap from 18:15 to 19:00, and a 1.5 hour gap from 19:00 to 21:30. There is also a 6-max re-entry tournament at 20:30.
2. Missing a non-re-entry $1.10, a $0.55, and the only $2.20 is at 18:15.
3. Right now the only red tournaments are $3.30 (BIG, 19:00) and $4.40 (BB @ 21:30 and BIG @ 22:00), which isn't much of a price (or time) range.

Luke,

Why did Pokerstars have to go and make the MM ME a re-entry?

The WSOP ME isn't a a re-entry and half the MM schedule will probably end up being ruined by being re-entry structures so, why ruin the only main event that micro grinders have!

Seems you have given the edge to the non-micro grinders (who have there own multiple series in which most micro players can't afford) with bigger BR's who can afford to take extra shots.

regarding the micro millions main event

to stop play for day 1 after 6 hours seems like a mistake
or maybe I am missing the point in such a short day one
why not 8-9 hours?
making day 2 should be something special

additionally

I would suggest to change the tournament to 12 min levels from the start
or maybe change it from 10 to 12 mins after the first hours (6levels)
that way you can let late registration open for 3,5 hours which would extend the number of players
Starting with day 2 I would suggest 15 min levels
I think all the players making day 2 would love to have more room to play

I really think that the main event should be something really special micro players do not often get the ooportunity to play for such an huge pricepool
There should be more special about it then the big guaranteed pricepool

You're quite a bit off here, if you stop it at 9 hours there'll be almost no day 2 left. I'm not sure why it's a 2-day, the structure is quite fast, much slower tourneys have run as single day events before. Though I suppose there's not much harm in making it 2-day, but if this one is multi-day, so should the million be.

thank you for the individual responses to more then one of my posts. I appreciate this.

Other than hots and 6max I don't see very much in the way of turbos that are not pkos.

I am alright with the new regular speed reentry games added to a few timeslots, I can think of 3 or maybe 4 new games added under 5$, but might have missed something since haven't played for a week or so and will be on hiatus a little longer yet to move.

We are lacking full ring non pko turbo NLHE games, which historically do very well on stars.

There are waaaaay too many micro 6max hypers. Turn a few of them into 6max turbos and full ring turbos.

there is a distinctive gap in the schedule during the big4 and bounty builder4 in the evening, we simply need 4 or more games added in the preceding 2 hours. There are two women's tournaments here, which is fine- but I can't play them. This timeslot kills a lot of micro grinder's sessions. I would often have 1 more round of registering in me if I didn't have to wait so long between games starting.

Timebombs do not count as turbos. We could do with way less of those and could do with a few more turbos or pretty much anything else!

I have suggested some ideas for games in the past, like a psko turbos with 75% kos and FT only paid, which I believe would please recs and add a lot of value in the eyes of regs.

Might not be a bad idea for Saturday bounty builders, IMO either, as the payouts are essentially meaningless right to 1st place as it is in those.

If you are gonna push timebombs so hard, make the longer ones play a little deeper stacked. Even a 5-10BB increase in stacks off the start- depending on length of tourney, could make them a lot more enjoyable all around. The 15 minute ones are fine with 15bb starting stack, IMO.

Wasn't exactly thinking I would be asked, finally, to explain something I posted.

Will be posting more as it comes to mind, please keep responding; let's have some progress on all sides.

Keep in mind I am talking about micros 100% here as that is what I grind.

I agree with most of this.

so people have a reason to log in on day 2. A lot of peeps will play an extra session because of this.

not saying it's a terrible idea, just only reason I can think of.

Hey Luke,

thanks for the progress on the schedule and other stuff first of all!

However, it feels like too many promotions/adjustments are done without proper analysis and evalution still. As an outsider its obv somewhat rough to tell, but it seems like the tournament department is lacking structure/man power and possibly experience.

E.g. the upcoming MM, People have been asking for dates and tourney schedule for some time and all communication is basically done in little-info-responses with very short notice to the event. I imagine there are a lot of rec people for which MM is a highlight. With the short notice you are lowering their chances of scheduling or possibly taking a couple days off for it and thus lowering your own numbers. just as an example this seems so obvious that its hard to understand why this series is treated so much different than the big ones where it might be the one where people need advanced notice the most. For xCOOPs all regs/semi-regs will free their schedule regardless, but MM is way more of a "i would play if i could" series where the nature of the buyins doesnt make them must-plays (which would give stars the luxury of ppl even playing if stars had bad communication for those) but rather would-plays and therefore stars should have even better communication for MM

I think the banner on the tourney tab looks kinda bad. Not so much what it says, just the fonts and stuff. Looks tabloid-y/lower quality than the rest of the client. JMO.

so, 7.5k gtd on the 14.15 1$R 3x-Turbo now, which was 60k gtd not long ago?

And the rebuy rake is still considered a good idea?

[QUOTE=PokerStars Luke;50354846]Hey, nice suggestion. I don't see any micro PLO or PLO8 from 12:35 to 19:05 ET. There's several $11, but nothing smaller. What buy-in do you think would do best? $3.30? Any additions in this game/buy-in combination will likely be re-entry. I haven't seen anything aside from a couple complaints here that indicates re-entry is hurting the non-NLHE games.



Luke I agree the re-entry format doesnt seem to be an issue in the omaha formats, but as has been mentioned many times before, making them all 6-max has definitely upset many of the plo8/nlo8 community and I cant see any reason why there shouldn't be at least a 50/50 mix of 6-max and FR.

I think I read (can't find it now) that you were going to change some back after Euro's...Is that correct??? And if so, do you have an idea of how many (%) will go back to FR or even 8-max?

Cheers

In Micros:

IMO filter out hypers, rebuys and timebombs and anywhere you see a gap where there is more then 20 mins between the starts of tourneys needs a game added. I would love to see more regular 8 max, and even some 8 max turbos. Like a .55c turbo, and a 2.20 regular.

I get it if these would have to be reentry, fine, let's just add some games.

We have like the perfect amount of ante up games, so please don't add anymore of those.

I would like to see another 3-stack as there is only one that I am aware of, and it's very early in the morning. How about one in the late afternoon or evening? maybe a $2.20..

Ideally it should be no more then 15 minutes between the start of games.

There should be at least 4 games an hour, and for much of the schedule in the evening it averages out to only 2.5 to 3 games per hour

Luke, you meantioned about the last man standing for the Micro millions. Is there going to be a leaderboard with prizes at all, eg wcoop ticket for first? This was the most interesting part of the other series's trying to grind working your way up the leaderboard

About micros :

I would love to see some more Deepstack mtts.
now you have the 2.2 & 5.5 Deepstack , lets make a 1.1 , 2.2 , 3.3 , 4.4 , 5.5 , 7.5$ version of those like the big/hot/bountybuilder series.
Also : more blue micro tournies like a micro version of the Weekender , a micro Thursday Thrill , a micro Supersized Sunday with buyins from 3$ to 7.5$.

thanks Luke for your efforts .

Which parts do you disagree with, and how would you improve it?

In your other posts you talk a bit about timebombs and turbos. I hate playing turbos (personal preference), so I didn't include any. Obviously I am not saying to remove all turbos, just that I would not include them in my session. Because of that, I cannot offer much of an opinion on adding/moving turbo tournaments.

With regards to timebombs, I enjoy playing the slower ones. There used to be a 60 minute version with 6*10 minute levels which I enjoyed playing. I would like to see those come back (even if they only get 30-50 people, that's good enough for me). I am not a fan of the 15 minute ones, or the 30 minute versions with 6*5 minute levels. Similar to the turbos, I cannot comment about that part of the schedule.

You mentioned 8-max tournaments. I would be okay if one or more of the tournaments in my session were 8-max.

You also mentioned having four tournaments an hour, with roughly one every 15 minutes. I usually 4-table, so for me, that's too much. If some were turbos it wouldn't affect me as I would have them filtered out, but if they were all regular speed, I would register whatever started the soonest to fill my table count. As a result some nights I would register one tournament but not the other, but it wouldn't always be the same every night (depending on when I bust and need to refill a table).

That's just my personal preference based on my own play, and I'm not saying that's the way it must be or else I'm leaving. We're just two people with similar but still different playing preferences. I would hate to try to come up with something to satisfy thousands (i.e. I would hate to have to create the schedule).

+1 to both suggestions

With that in mind I agree with what u are saying. Turbos are mostly what I am talking about, I guess.

I would like to see a few more regular and/or deepstacks games also.

8max is one of my favorite formats, and never gets much attention.

Slower levels in some timebombs would be more appealing, but still to replace a few of them with real turbos would be awesome.

More 3-stacks would be nice also. I think they'd do very well.

6-max NLO8s are main reason why I am not playing them. I don't see a single reason why you made O8s 6-max all the way, most of non-hypers should really be 8-max or 9-max.

50c spin n go for Micro Millions tickets

I just want to point out there is a massive difference between a 1.75x payout and a 2.25x payout in the minds of most recreational players: If someone plays a tournament that min-cashes for over 2x, then they get to play TWO more tournaments for free! 2x+ payouts present the illusion that one can make money by min-cashing as long as they can cash more than once for every three tournaments played. Throw in a score every now and then and it feels like progress.

Compared to cashing for under the buy-in though...I guess 1.75x is pretty sick. I just fear it won't have the psychological impact that a 2x+ cash would. I'd like to get that feeling of fun back that I used to have when making the cash and, at least, doubling my investment. If I have 3 tournaments up and get in to the money on 1, then I am free-rolling the others. That is cool.

fwiw if you have three $11 tournaments up and cash one for $25 you are still down money. This does highlight how important perception is, even if it doesn't quite logically make sense.

Seriously? The late registration period in some games definitely needs to be reevaluated.

Too afraid of overlays that they just set every mtt to 2h30 of late regs.
Mtts are barely enjoyable anymore