So basically they're only offering the freeroll to <20% of people who try to qualify. But let's not get confused and assume this means the promo is only 20% as good. $1M is still $1M regardless of how they structure it. For the 20% who make it in, they'll on average get a prize 5x bigger than if everyone was allowed to play. I guess it's kinda like a phase tournament in a way. Only concern is a lot of people who don't qualify will be disappointed they don't get to play in it (but as coon74 said, they may offer more chances to qualify later on).

I agree $20k GTD for first seems strange, was expecting more like $100k GTD for 1st. Basically it's a lower variance, less "top heavy" structure which may be less enticing for a recreational player (who is typically attracted towards a high guaranteed first prize) but perhaps more enticing for the regular grinder (who likes to minimise variance). This seems a bit out of touch with what Amaya is trying to achieve in making the playing environment and ecosystem more "rec friendly". I'm interested in hearing what their reasoning behind this was.

I assume one of those qualifiers was via the deposit promo code bonus. If so there's no more chances for you.

First place is on a sliding scale from $28,814 down to $20,325 for the range 30k to 100k entrants. Those are all unique entrants [only one entry allowed per screen name] & I suspect it will be tough to achieve anywhere near 100k entrants

But... I agree with coon74 above that PokerStars will likely change the entry rules nearer the date to bump entry total numbers & offer more chances to win an entry opportunity via a 2nd deposit bonus or other means...

"According to PokerStars, prizes will be awarded to approximately 30,000-50,000 players, depending on the total number of entries."

^Quote from this article: http://www.pokernews.com/news/2016/0...roll-24245.htm

If this is right, then we can expect roughly between 30k and 60k entries to the freeroll

Yea same here, I won a sidepot vs nanonoko and still no cash. Gonna send them an email

$1M Freeroll - We think there is a good chance that the demand for a $1M freeroll exceeds the number of players that we’re comfortable having in a single tournament, so we split it up into two stages to avoid potential technical problems - the first stage is the sitngos and then the final.

We have made it a flat payout structure to award as many players as possible.

Zoom pools for Team Pro Online Week - all will be credited by end of day.

Thanks, Matthew

I know the article states: "According to PokerStars, prizes will be awarded to approximately 30,000-50,000 players, depending on the total number of entries."

But, when I pull up the lobby and look at the Award Structure for this freeroll it shows:

Entries/Places Paid
30000-36999/29997
37000-44001/36999
44002-51003/43992
51004-58005/50994
58006-65007/57996
65008-72009/64998
72010-79011/72000
79012-86013/78993
86014-93015/85995
93016-100000/92997 Shows possibly 93% of the field getting paid?


I won my seat this morning, I hope you guys get in this freeroll also.

This freeroll is essentially a double-entry phase MTT with 9-10% of all entries cashing, just the ITM phase is reached shortly after the final (Phase 2) starts, i.e. the start of the final is the bubble of the whole thing.

Make it winner take all format

This mustn't be the case for the final; but the satellites should have been made 9-man STTs awarding 1 ticket each or 18-man awarding 2 tickets - the bubbles of those 90-man sats are rather ugly.

I get that this is the idea behind it. Only the first stage probably feels more like a satellite to the actual event rather than part of the event itself.

Can you confirm if there will be any more satellite opportunities leading up to the event? I think as it stands, I'd be surprised if you got more than about 50k entries (in the final stage), but it would be nice to boost that figure closer to 100k.

Why?! Because you busted your 2 shots at taking part? Don't mind about it, taking part in this crap-donkament is not worth your time. Playing your regular game will pay off way more.

Yup. And bewere guys that for some reason the play doesn't go to hand for hand mode in the bubble.

You're right, I did bust both my shots. But that wasn't the main reason I suggested it. The main reason was that I thought it would make sense as a business decision for Pokerstars to allow as many people as possible to gain an entry to the freeroll, within what is technically possible (so no more than 100k entries). This will make more people satisfied as there will be less people walking away disappointed at not winning a satellite entry. Also the more people who gain an entry, the more the tournament will be talked about, which in turn will generate more positive PR for the business.

"We want to award as many players as possible" = "We want to collect as much rake as possible later from that 1M"

What about next time, could we have like "winner takes it all" or "only final table will be paid" -structure? I think it is much more better award as a player to "have a chance/have a dream to have a chance" to play in HU with $1M bubble or in huge FT bubble instead of actually winning few bucks.

I think there should be some way of getting a guaranteed seat to the freeroll for those who really want it, but you should make it much more difficult a challenge so people have to work for it to get in.

For instance (and this is just an example): "Win a hand with a straight flush for a guaranteed seat". You could release this challenge just a few days before the freeroll starts so players have a limited time to be able to complete their challenge.

Let's suppose 3 days before the freeroll starts there are only 30k entries to the actual event (a reasonable estimate imo). Then by making a challenge like the straight flush, it would likely generate just enough interest to boost the number of entries a little higher to a more respectable figure, but not so much interest that it will cause an overflow of entries that exceeds what is technically viable for Stars to run with regard to the tournament size.

Not only that, but it also has the benefit of generating extra rake for Stars in the process from those who take part in the challenge. So really it's a win-win for both sides: it gives players an additional chance to play in the freeroll, whilst generating more interest and talk about the event and creating more income through the rake from those who take part in the challenge, which will help cover the cost of running the freeroll.

you ran a guiness award tournament. how much players do you expect in this 1M tournament ? it grow up by 2000 players per day. 10% tickets to the 1M is an awful structure. juste better gave everybody 100% chance to play in a way that only 10% of players will achieve (other dont cuz lazyness), like by playing a 5000 hands challenge.

i dont see any problem with all players awarded you already have to win a 90 players sitgo.

20K is a lucrative day for everybody, Richard.

if there are 30k qualifiers to the freeroll, they'll each have around $30 equity. I doubt those guys would be thrilled to see Stars open it back up to more people!

Actually what you propose doesn't help players on average in the least. What it does is spread the cheese to more mice. The cheese is the same. What you propose and what Pstars has elected to do is force people to play a cash/mtt to even get a chance to play this freeroll. When all is said and done I wouldn't be shocked if this promo might even make money for Pstars.

What once was 1 million given to players is 1 million given to players provided they pay $xxxxxxx give or take an x. In the end this is another 4 million removed from the VIP program.

I think you're missing the point with this analogy. If there are more players in the freeroll, then this will mean there will be more mice who get to take a bite out of this cheese - so more mice are happy.

I've got a better analogy to share. Think of "feeding the multitude", from the bible. Let's suppose you have 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. Jesus argued this would be enough to feed 5000 people. So do you give the food to one upper-class family, or do you share it all out to the masses (to help support lots and lots of working class families)?

Basically, the more people who get to take part and participate in this freeroll, the better. It would be much better publicity for Pokerstars if 100k players show up to this freeroll, than if only 30k players did. I know from speaking to quite a few individuals that there a lot of people who really want to take part in this freeroll and will do practically anything to get in (even if it means playing a lot more volume at the tables). And yes, it might make more money for the site in the process, but that's not to say the freeroll isn't "free" anymore - there are other free ways of getting into the tournament via the satellites. But it just gives players the option of "paying rake" to get into the freeroll and it's up to the player whether they wish to take that option or not. But at least then the option's there for them if they need it.

yea exactly

Well in that case what you are advocating for is a hidden raked freeroll.

Why not just make it free to all users then via a phase format to not crush the servers? That was what it was advertised as.

Or return it to a VIP based freeroll? I couldn't care which one they elect. What I don't like is 4 million leaving the VIP system and pretending that this isn't the motivation.

7G, you're making the common mistake of offering a serious reply to a known troll/imbecile.

The format for the new $1m freeroll is fine. Everyone gets a shot, everyone has to rake something or deposit something to get that shot, and most if not all of the 10% of the field who qualify will get some token amount of cash.

Rather than offering lucrative rewards to the top players, Stars have a new policy of rewarding tiny amounts of money to as many people as possible. This encourages the people at the bottom of the food chain and annoys some of those at the top, which is exactly the point. Most of us don't like it, and they're fine with that because we're not the target market any more.

Well that's hardly the case. I think what you're forgetting is that the supernova and SNE players had to generate considerably more than $4 million in the first place in rake to play in the freeroll, so it had essentially always been a "hidden raked" freeroll. It's not like they're "gaining" $4 million from this change.

Right now, they're basically giving away the first $1M freeroll entries for free (or for as little as playing one hand at 2nl = 2 cents per person). This is fine, but the problem is if someone busts the satellites, they're not going to say "I played in the $1M freeroll, but busted in phase 1", but instead "I tried to get into the $1M freeroll, but didn't qualify".

This is going to create a lot of disappointment for the 80% of players who "didn't get in" to the $1M freeroll, as the satellites are considered by most people as qualifiers for the event as opposed to being part of the event itself.

By giving players at least the option of getting a guaranteed seat in the freeroll, it enables the people who were most disappointed at not getting a seat to have the option of redeeming themselves. Many people won't bother with this third challenge, so for them, the whole event was essentially free. But for those who are really motivated by the $1M freeroll, they can do the third challenge if they want to. It's a win-win situation basically, as it minimises the disappointment and gives hope to the majority of players who didn't get in, whilst simultaneously generating a bit of extra rake for Stars.

Like if your suppernova you get in

I know it's "just an example" Mr. Ducks, but you don't help your credibility with such a poor example from the range of possible ones you could have chosen

A straight flush in 3 days at NLHE? Do you know how unlikely a straight flush is in normal play when one allows for the sensible pre-flop folding of potential straight flush hole cards [e.g. 26s, 6Ts etc]?

Assuming your hypothetical player only enters pots with the usual range of hands s/he would need to play an absolute minimum 20k hands per day for your hypothetical 3 days to have a reasonable chance of achieving a straight flush - a huge win for the PokerStars rake machine - not so much of a win for the hopeful bright eyed freeroller