I never said only some of the network was segregated. Segregation by definition has to include the whole network obviously if it exists at all. I simply described the previous segregation as some as apposed to something that could have been more severe like site by site segregation.

The question is where are you going with this?

Im not sure why you are so worried with the way I answered his question when it was in effect the correct answer. I apologized to you for incorrectly using the word some what more do you want? Public lashings?

Again, I apologize. I stand corrected.

Correct, some micro SNGs reintegrated before everything else did.

You were actually correct. There was a point that segregation was 100%, but unbeknownst to some people who claim to know everything, but really just blow a lot of hot air, segregation was not 100%. There were small instances of integration that many people not in the loop weren't aware of. For example, for a number of weeks now the $5 and under SNGs were reintegrated.

However, with that said, the overwhelming majority was segregated still.


--
Kahn

http://24.*************.com/tumblr_l...ye1ho1_500.gif

http://imgur.com/ZYwzezr

Fail

This integration of player pools is fine and good but it really has had change on the site. The nightly 6max's are now a 4K gtd but the other nightlys have been lowered. Shifting money to make on prizepool bigger and another smaller is no improvement at all and could be seen more as a negative.

All of you concerned about the HR, why? It's by far the most -EV tourney on the schedule considering it's the most reg filled and it's a glorified SNG. Whether it makes the gtd or not it's just a leak on the site and does nothing but drain the BR of midstakes players that are caught up with it being a $215. Merge would be so much better off taking that 20K gtd and spreading it over there other nightly tourneys and making a few rebuys. I know, I know, rebuys don't create rake but players love them and it would attract a bigger audience if they had a nightly 3r/5r/11r. Increase the gtds on all the nightlys and try to make the other smaller tourneys such as the $11c more attractive for people to play. Why would someone play an $11c with a $1.5K gtd? You put a 3K on that and highlight it, it would create so much more traffic and get to be one of the bigger tourneys on their later schedule.

I rant because I see a player pool that just buys into these super player unfriendly tourneys and it just baffles me. FFS their nightly $60 has a 5K gtd on it, the $109 has a $6K gtd on it, and yet the $33 has a $7.5K gtd and the $11 with a $7K gtd. If you're trying to market tourneys, this isn't going to help!!!

IMHO we should all be focusing on the prizepools of the smaller buy in nightlys as that will help the site grow, whereas buying into the glimmer of a $215 with a like $4K up top. I know it's the biggest nightly prizepool and that $4K is a big bink to most. But it's most likely a reg that will win that 7/10 times and all that helps create is a drain on most other players. Just remove it imo and watch how the other nightlys would grow almost instantaneously. People spending money on $215 sattys and direct buying can now afford to play EVERY nightly. What's more attractive to the average player, an $11 nightly with a 15K gtd on it or a $215 with a $30K gtd on it, seems like a snap call to me.

Agree!! Good post! Well said.

The $11 $7K was just raised from $5K and has been almost $10K many nights. It will most likely be raised again before too long. It used to be bigger, but late registration was almost 4 hours, which was terrible. In order to make more playable tournaments they had to cut the guarantees and cut registration almost in half.

Reintegration has only been in effect for 2 weeks, the guarantees will be much larger in the coming months as players come back. The HR also is a pretty important tournament to have because the player pool playing it is more likely to play the lower stuff as well. First has been hovering around $7K too, fwiw. Sure there are a lot of regs, but most are still really bad.

The rebuys you mentioned were added to the schedule a month ago. If you want them to do well then start playing them. I agree they should have made the guarantees a little bigger for the rebuys, but it is what it is. If people play them they will grow.

Unfortunately, Merge screwed things up so bad they had to take giant leap back to fix things. Adding in the other sites was a giant leap forward, but it will take time to get back to where they were in say, 2012.

Um I'm a reg so I know the deal with the schedule. Fwiw, the $11 was a $7.5K and the $33 was a 10K and the $60 an $8K.

Regardless of what the HR pays up top you seem to be the kind of player I am talking about. You really have to look at what $215 does to the average players BR. Even if they just play sattys, they are almost all $11r's and $5r's and they pay very few seats. If we do the math the HR just become a money drain for almost all players unless they are rolled to play that high, which let's face it almost nobody on Merge is.

As for what the gtds will be, why not get in front of it all and make them bigger right away. You know why Brovada does so well, because they offer gtds that people want to play for instead of nothing gtds that become SNGs that are more than half regs.

Merge is doing very little to improve any of this but as a player you really have to think about the concept of a nightly $215 on a site where even the $109 and $60 don't get a field over 100. It makes zero sense imo but because they get $15 a pop for every entry with 4hr 5min late reg, it's a rake machine. You can't honestly believe that this is good for the overall player pool.

Bovada actually was very conservative raising their guarantees. Their $100K smashes the guarantee by $10's of thousands every week and they still don't raise it. I agree they need to raise them, but they had to cut them first. Back in October the $11 was actually like a $9K or $10K, but the registration period made it obnoxious and it caused people to leave. Bovada got so big because Merge and Lock ****ed up and they pay fast.

Don't get me wrong, I wish they were higher, but I understand why they aren't yet. If they aren't raised a month from now you'll have an argument. Considering they raised them after 1 week and are still $2K-$3K above the prize pool every night I'd guess in the next week or two it'll be raised again.

As for almost nobody on Merge being rolled for the HR, that just isn't fact at all. The site shouldn't stop offering a very popular tournament just because there will be donks who can't afford to play it. It's only a $215..... For recs who play at the casino it's close to equivalent or less cost wise than what they are used to.

I do wish they would throw out a $60 $20K like the Mid Week Monster they used to have. Even doing a daily $15K would be awesome and would have no problem filling, imo.

Grinder,

I'm confused why you think getting rid of the high roller would help the site. I think it'd actually do the opposite. It's been their flag ship nightly tournament since at least 2011 when I started playing here. Shockingly enough most people who play poker do so for fun, not as a job, and couldn't care less about BR management. With that said, if I had to guess I'd say over half the field if not more is sufficiently rolled to play it. Not to mention "professionals" are often backed.

Good points Grindmentality but I still think its a little bit early in the process, I assume they're trying to gather a significant sample on the tourneys before they decide what the final guarantees will be on everything. I agree though I hope they're on top of things so that we can get the most optimal schedule ASAP. This site has a lot of potential once again!

+1

I was surprised they even raised them at all last week. I think that is a positive sign that they are monitoring them and willing to adjust accordingly.

It's been a long time since I've been excited about Merge as well. Trying not to get my hopes up though because as we all know, 'Merge gonna Merge' from time to time.

There is no way more than half the field is properly rolled for a $215.

Just because it's been around forever doesn't make it a flagship tourney, it makes it the most profitable, hence why they keep and promote it. They cap players such as myself at 4 tables because we have won too much, yet keep running a tourney like this that is well beyond the ABI of almost their entire prizepool.

To say that over half the field is rolled for it is a massive overstatement. A proper roll to run even a $90 ABI would be about $10K. Considering most players can barely get $5K off in a timely fashion why on earth would any player keep twice as much in their account? As for backing, there might be a couple dozen players on Merge backed and even if they are, they aren't playing that tourney by looking at player pool size.

By removing this tourney you remove ability for the average player to empty their bankrolls which in turn allows them to play longer and more often. These players you're talking about that play for fun are not signing on to dump $215 into a tourney. It's most likely someone that deposited a couple hundred into their account and is looking to get some value for their dollar. Make it a weekly tourney on like a Friday night and put a $50K gtd on it, then it has some glimmer and will draw a far bigger player pool.

If Merge is going to put a table cap on their top winning players because they want the money to be spread around more, removing the HR is a logical step. They worry about the top 1% of players taking away all the money so why not remove the tourney that gets played by the average player the least and use the same funds to add equity to tourneys the average player is much more likely to play. Good nightly MTTs>>>>>>>>>>>rake heavy, high buy in SNGs. Take the next highest prizepool, the nightly $11, the buy in is less than the rake ($15) they take for the HR. If the focus is to bring in more novice players, then why keep the one tourney that is so reg heavy and is almost always won by a said reg? All that does is allow the top 1% to keep winning the biggest prizepool on the site.

You sure?

I consider properly rolled 100 buy ins, so $21K. In a field that is 100-150 you could probably get away with 50 buy ins so let's say $11K. You don't think more than half the field (which is mostly regs) has a 10 or 20K BR or is staked?

Grinder, you're argument doesn't make much sense. Regs playing $215's aren't going to just start playing $11 donkaments, they are going to play elsewhere. Though a lot of them play all the MTTs. You mentioned Bovada earlier, they run how many $215's a day? Has to be at least 5+.

Obviously a $200 by in will have more regs, but tons of recs still play it and like said above, it's no different than going to their local casino and playing a tournament. Well, except it has a far superior structure than your average nightly live MTT.

Also, $215 regs not only play the $215, but they play the $109's, $60's, $11's, etc. Where as a guy with a BR to play $11 MTTs just plays $11 or under MTTs.

Not being able to get huge amounts of money off at once also creates bigger bankrolls and plenty of people win very large sums of money on Merge. Look at SS or pokertableratings. Lots of people making $50K plus a year.

If you want to play more tables go to a different skin, they don't all cap you and some cap you higher.

How many legitimate backers are backing players on the Merge network? Very few. And yes I doubt that half the regs in the tournament have an actual 10k+ bankroll. This is speculation of course, but it seems highly unlikely. If you throw in recreational players and consider the ones using their non poker funds as "rolled" then you are getting closer, but it's still an overstatement.

Considering there is no P2P would it not be the more legitimate backers/players staking on Merge since there has to be a much higher level of trust?

$10K is a pretty small bankroll to play poker with. I think you're underestimating the amount of money on Merge.

But you said half the people who play poker, not half the field in your earlier post.

Don't be a nit, cruz, you know what I meant!

Edit: Now I'm being a nit, I did say half the field in my earlier post.

You're delusional sir, every single reg that's playing the HR is playing the $11 nightly as well. Clearly you are not a grinder and your view is that of a novice player that wants the chance to win THE NIGHTLY HIGH ROLLER, oooooooo. My argument is pretty solid and makes a ton of sense for any site trying to bring more novice players in and push more regs out.

Your argument of players making $50K+ a year, maybe last year but this year it's a joke. There are probably a handful of cash players making that but there is no rakebake or bonus system so I don't think there is much cash traffic over say $5/$10 which is what most regs play. If you're talking about MTT players, again your view is a bit tainted. OPR/SS do not count re-entries on an individual basis, just averages out the buy ins over all entrants. True ROI's of most regs is half of what most tracking sites show and they are only fooling themselves if they think any different.

You talk of slow cashouts creating bigger bankrolls? You encourage this? That is exactly what the site wants and you're just playing into their hand. This idea that you have of a lot of players having $11K BR's on a site like Merge is laughable to me, sorry but it just is. The reality is closer to the regular grinders trying to run out 50% ROI's, if that, esp if they are playing the HR on a regular basis.

Partially desegragated, what!?!?!?