Promotions. Just how bad are they?

Firstly not all of the promotions are bad but the type of promos like the Four Card Tango are.
It’s a cinch to win top spot each day. All you need to do is to play two tables for at least 16 hours and check or fold every hand.

There is no real incentive for playing well and winning because of the points that you build up for just being dealt in a hand.

It was a similar format for the Stairway to One Million Ticket promo. Some people were playing two tables, 15 hours a day and winning 50 tickets - literally.

Making players stay online for most of their day is a little…unhealthy?

Unless you are unemployed or retired (no disrespect to those demographics) then it is pretty pointless trying to get anywhere with these type of “whoever plays the longest wins” promos.

The working person who comes home and fancies a couple of hours of poker has got no chance.

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I played one of these promotions and actually won one of them. let me tell you, it got tiring playing literally non stop. this was a 1 day event. I honestly don’t know how people do it day after day after day.

you’re right, you just get dealt a hand and fold. only strategy is to find a table that plays really fastand not many players at those tables, so you can be dealt hands faster.

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Promotions reward volume. The best players are the few that have the most time to waste…

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Very good point @Rabbit230 . I try to participate in the ring game promos as much as possible & am semi-retired, but wil never win a spot in the LB’s. Just not enough time. The only way, I see it being fair to everyone, would be a revamping of the entire point system. ex:) 0 points for call or fold. 1 to see the flop 2 for turn, 4 for river, 10 for hand won. Somehow by a consectutive 60 minutes of play for the first seven & best seven. I doubt anything, regarding such a drastic change would happen anytime soon.

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As I suggested in the Halloween Harvest promotion I’d like to see promotions where it’s a sng tourney and you are capped at how many times you can play a day so you would reward the best players for sure not just who can play all day and night.

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Most promos are great if you have lots of time. I have much more
important things to do than play poker for 3456 hours a day. My wife told me so!

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Agree-saw you at the 4-card tango–i played a lot first 2 days (came in 2nd and 6th) and was BURNED out n wife told me “Get off of their n get back to work” so i was done:)

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My suggestion would be offer alternative promotions running simultaneously that might suit a competitive player that reward skill more than volume.

Is in a dream… u cant create a system or promotions that are fair to everyone!

The promotions reward players willing to put in volume & play lots. These players help fill tables & RP needs these players - this is why they get rewarded!

Is it fair player x can play 8 hours per day when player “me” can play on average 1-3 hours daily?

Is it fair i can only play 1 table on a mobile phone while player x plays 4 or more tables simultaneously on a pc?

I agree the system currently too heavily rewards volume, and doesn’t reward skill enough. I think alternative promotions would be better than drastically overhauling the system points however, I do agree @Litenin on rewarding skill more generally in promotions.

Rewarding volume on RP is starnard on a poker site!

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Agree, that is why I participate in them but have no expectations, to place in any leaderboards. :wink:

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The prize structure is a joke too.
10,000 chips for coming 20th for example.
100/200 games you can wager that in one hand!

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Thats why the marathons are a much better promotion. 2 million chips added during week two, win a ticket to the grande finals with 20 million added. 8 games a day only need to play one to win a ton of chips.

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yeah… Replay runs promos to encourage volume. It’s doing what it’s supposed to do.

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I have brought this topic up to Replay multiple times. Most of promotion games are structured for the players who can spend their entire day, or a large portion of it playing. Those of us who can only be on a few hours each day the expectation of placing on a leaderboard or winning any decent amount of chips is extremely small. That is why you always see the same players getting the chips, not always because they are good players, but spend a large amount of time. There are exceptions, the marathon has a level playing field as do the few SnG’s where they only count 7 games played for each day. Then skill counts and not length of time. The ring game promotions are the worst with the formula they use where they count 1 point per hand and only 1/5 point per blind won. There one can play lights out fantastic for like 4 hours and be up 3000+ blinds and not even place in the top ten. The winners can (and have) play 4000 hands all day and break even on the amount of big blinds won and they will be at the top. That rewards, not the good players, but the ones who just play hands and win enough to break even. All we can ask is that Replay will look at making games fair to all, whether you play for 4 hours or 16. Make them so you don’t have to play all day to collect a prize.

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One place players can compete for free chip for MTT’s is in the Gemstone leagues, where they give out chips to the top 10 with their first 7 results, thus you need to play just 7 T’s per week that fit in the category. They also pay out to Best 7, those are tough for me since I’d usually need to play a lot, like you say most promotions are for those that play an awfully lot.

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@replayadmins

First day of another “Ticket to 1 million” promo yesterday. Got home after work, logged on to see that players already had 20+ tickets.
Instantly realised the promo had not been changed since the last time that it ran and didn’t bother joining in.
After all…what’s the point???

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Please consider the Marathon promotions, which bring all players on this site together whatever their rankings, as they are great fun and you can gain entry to all the final games without having to spend any of your precious chips!!
I have met many great people who play this regular promotion and made friends through it. ~Give it a go, you have nothing to lose in the first week and much to gain in friendship and experience.

The promotions are a joke…completely reward the folks who " live " on the site, not those who play just a handful of hrs a day maybe… and the ranking system is awful…needs a revamp to at least try to measure a skill level…some of the best players i been against have a mid 12k-15k ranking…I agree on the monthly marathon being a tourn where u tend to get some of the better players without alot of bingo going on…

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Hi @pup61 @Rabbit230 @justlook

The essence of a competition or a league is that the competitor with the most points or goals or whatever scores the most and wins a league or a leaderboard. Somebody who takes the field for the kick off and then leaves scores less because they have less participation, by default.

So the question is

What sort of promotion would reward players who only have an hour or two each day to play?

Running a ring game promotion for a short period of time?

Running a promotion based on just an hours worth of MTT or SnG is basically increasing the prize for a one off tournament or two.

What format is ‘fairer’?

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Here’s the problem, IMHO:

  • For each hand you are dealt in which is at least 3 handed, you earn 1 ring game point.
  • You score 1 point for every 5 Big Blinds won or lost in the session

If you play for 100 hands (~1hr) and win at 10bb/100, that nets you:
10 / 5 + 100 = 102 points

The points awarded for winning is basically 2 orders of magnitude less than the points awarded for just playing.

How about just bb won over the promotion period, with no award for hands played at all.

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Don’t really have a good answer for u, but maybe just using your monthly marathon as a example…maybe limit a player to playing just 2 of those a day instead of those who play almost all of them…I agree with a couple of other posters who talk about the amount of time someone plays here probably discourages others from even trying knowing its a losing situation unless u are going to camp on the site…like another said by the time u look at a leader board for any promotion its already off to the races…I don’t play the ring games, gave it a try a couple of times but its a bingo fest so stopped and play just tourns now…not that they can’t be…lol…i guess whatever promotion u can come up with will be complicated by the folks who live on the site…not sure how u can account for them without doing restrictions…The ranking system is another matter… gets tricky figuring rank and what are u basing things on…make the distinction between ring and tourn play?..should reward skill abit more but the question is how…

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