Playing Poker
Comments(23) If you want to read a good post, check COCOTHECLOWN’s comment to the previous blog entry. It’s got great insight into how PokerUnderworld looks for new players coming in, and for the type of competition we have going on right now.
Balances on PokerUnderworld got uncontrollably high when the SnG tournaments paid out 150% of the wagers. With each tourney, the amount of chips in the system climbed higher and higher. Typically, the only new chips that should come into play are the chips of new players. A very small rake it taken from the pots right now, and it has always been capped very low as well. As the core group of players have grown larger balances, they have left the smaller tables and go where they can win the most chips. This is understandable, however in order for a new player to be able to compete against PokerUnderworld’s best, they have a huge uphill battle to climb to get enough chips to compete, and without help, it’s pretty much impossible for them. For that reason, PokerUnderworld isn’t growing.
Most of you know that I want to reset chips each month, move your balance to a lifetime total so that I can build a Hall of Fame, and keep the competition high by forcing players to start even (or possibly with a bonus to the top 100) each month – the reloads are always there if you mess up after all. There has always been so much backlash against this, that I’ve been too concerned about destroying what community we already have to make the changes. This change would make each month important – a new month long competition with monthly champions, and a chance for even new players to be near the top if they are good players.
On a technical level, massive balances and huge stakes tables are just tough for the server to handle. At some point, it just gets hard to even read the balances, and the numbers get very big to store.
Monthly competitions allow us to compete for prizes – imagine an optional entry free (using the Poker Points) that would give you a chance to split a monthly pot. Not all players would have to buy into it, but the ones that wanted to could actually win something.
I’d love to see everyone starting at the low tables, and racing to get to the high stakes ones each month. It would also be possible to have Hall of Fame tables that allow you to play with your lifetime balance, so that you can still play high stakes when you want to take a break from the monthly competition.
Anyways, I’m putting this out there again to see your comments. I know that I should have made this change years ago when I first called for it. It’s the type of change that you don’t realize you’re going to like until you try it.
