PKO Tourneys are ruinging the game

Came back a few months ago after finding other things to do only to find the format changed with the PKO tournaments. There was a time in the past where a 50 K buy in would allow for a chance to get away from the kids and new players so that you could play a game of poker where some knowledge and statergy was with the majority of the players and it made a difference. Now I find that this new PKO has taken Bingo poker to new heights where almost every 2nd hand is someone going all in with questionable hands in the hopes of hitting and collecting the bounty. And more often then not one of the multiple players doing this being rewarded by the odds of one or them hitting a winner against far superior hands. And this garbage poker is repeated over and over until even the better players are forced to do the same or fall out of the game. Just not worth wasting the time to bother playing anymore.

It takes time for us all to accept change, however if you prefer, there are still 50K non PKOā€™s avaialable. GL at the tables

The problem: Replay changed the 50k and 100k buy in MTTs / SnGs to freerolls. Players get now every week free streak tickets for playing there. Players, years on the site, 0 chips on account, rank > 600k play now there. They can only bluff and bet players out of the hand, but can not play, need every day extra free chips for playing on 1 / 2 stake. They can now win >> 1M chips for playing 2 hours on this mega freerolls. I saw this. Winning a bounty is a very big win for them. The Marathons are the same.
I like this not, stopped my playing there. My free tickets go not played the river down.
Nice: The last 2 years made Replay 2x higher rake on ring games. Because chip inflation, and for having the chips for the payouts of this mega freerolls and other promos. Some of the worst bingo players have now millions of chips on account. But no chip inflation.

Nice too: In moment of the last rake change on ring, because chip inflation and for paying out the promos, stopped Replay all the ring promos. Paying for promos, but get no promos. Very nice. Last 2 weeks was a ring promo again, the first after 8 month. Free MTT marathons, very high payouts, are on 24 weeks in the year. And only ring players pay for the pay outs.

3 Likes

I disagree, and I have to say that Iā€™ve not heard anything quite as preposterous as that incredible piece of silly youā€™ve unveiled for us, here.

I played 5 100k PKO tournaments this month. I got 1st place twice, 8th place once, and twice I finished outside the top 40.

ĀÆ_(惄)_/ĀÆ

1 Like

Yeah, I think the problem is more likely to be with influx of beginner players to 50K/100K stakes due to streak tickets, as @Poki65 says, rather than PKO itself. PKO does encourage playing more hands and getting stacks in more often, so I could see that combination being quite extreme.
If the streak tickets are getting used for PKO though, then they canā€™t be used in MTTā€™s, so if PKO is attracting all the bingo players, that should actually be a good thing for the rest of the games.

Further 100k PKO results: 1, 5, 27, 6, 72, 13. About 50% In The Money so far at this level, since reading this post.

I am just playing a very tight preflop range in early position, widening to almost any 2 cards on the button or to complete the SB, and playing mostly fit-or-fold post flop. Real ABC stuff, nothing fancy.

So far, I have indeed noticed quite a few ā€œdonksā€ in the field, but mostly they are helping my results, not hurting them. I am shoving 99+/AQ+ and even sometimes AJ over most limps, and coming out way ahead on both EQ and results.

FWIW

As a new comer, what I see is exactly what I see in real games as well. There are all levels of players and some of them really do not know how to play poker. Further more, it is silly to actually fall for the players who dunk all the time. I have exploited them many times in the game. He was chip leader and dunked almost every hands and I called him twice and won both. He was out of the game in less than 9 hands. Everyone has their styles and we must learn and see what they do. Once you do, it will be much easier for you to read their evil intensions. Good Luck and may the best win!!!

1 Like