I have from time to time thought about the issue of ranking. The current system is based on chips earned, a quantitative ranking. But we have not yet conceived of how to get a qualitative/quantitative ranking.
I have an idea and it is based upon the way the leaderboards are determined, not all leaderboards, just a few of them.
But first let’s deal with the professional world of live poker and the fact that the only players ranked are those who have played in recognized tournaments. Even though the players play ring games like crazy and many of the professional do play more private ring games than they play stratified tournaments. Their ring game play results have nothing to do with their ranking place, nor the money they earn in ring. Indeed they don’t even get ranked based on the money they win in the tournaments. In fact they are ranked by how they do in formal tournament play. And there are separate lists of ranks for how much money they have won.
So with these two concepts in mind, why don’t we have an annual series of high buy-in tournaments, that are dedicated to determine the qualitative rankings of players?
Then the few hundred or thousand people who play, not just win or lose chips, they are also playing for rank in a dedicated series of games, in the same way that special promotions are done every 4, 5, 6 weeks, and in the way the real poker world works.
The end result will be the few hundred players who played the annual tournament will have two rankings, the quantitative ranking based on how many chips they have, and the qualitative ranking based on how they placed in the annual ranking series.
Doesn’t Replay Poker offer enough promotions for 90%? Why in the world would you want low buy ins? How much credence would the Worlds Series of Poker have it it cost $100 to buy in?
The real issue is the new good player. If a new good player just registers tomorrow, you would argue, then he needs to prove he is good so while he waits until next year’s ranking series, he would concentrate on building his bank.
The point is at the end of say 6 or 7 weeks, and say a hundred games, the quality of the winner will have been tested and he or she will be wearing two rankings that will be the qualitative ranking and the quantitative ranking, 1/263.
Yes, players will not have a fractionalized ranking to show, but they will still have the ranking of how many chips they won. It is my belief that as people start to play each year the double ranking will tell a better story about all the players. And the over all quality of the play will necessarily increase.
If your gonna rank, rank everyone.
If the thought is only high chip stacks should get ranked, where do you draw the line?
Might as well draw it at a 50 million chip entry fee.
If your going to leave out 90% why not leave out 99.99%?
The thought is to eventually create a system that will incorporate all players. But to get there the thought is to first get a quality based ranking determination system that does not cost Replay Poker ownership an arm and a leg in development costs to initiate. And it will be directly based on established poker playing skills in a scoring system that has been tried and tested. It is a giant step up from quantity based simple system that exists now based on an amount of chips that can be achieved in various ways, like attendance, purchase, friend referral, knock-outs, and bonus chips given for an assortment of unconventional game set-ups like free rolls, Santa’s ticket hunt, 240 SNG Hunt, etc.
Even the average money poker player will not get ranked without a substantial accumulation of buy-ins. The Global Poker Index “buy-in refers to the relative amount of the event buy-in to the baseline buy-in of $1000 USD.” Their ranking period is three years with four or five events per year.
I see the qualitative ranking system starting with the 100K buy-in for the first year to get a standard started, and then adapt it so that in the second year there will still be the 100K buy-in but also lower buy-ins of say 50K, 25K, and 10K but the points achieved will be relative to the 100K mark.
The bonus in this case is to have a qualitative ranking of players at multiple levels of buy-ins.
You are right, there is a lingering frustration with the current ranking system and hence the many threads. And yes, you are also right that many people are here to enjoy themselves and participate. I doubt they are mutually exclusive.
Just a quick clarification: It’s a long-term goal to improve our ranking system, so these ideas are incredibly valuable to the team. Please keep the suggestions coming!
I like your ranking system, Scratch, because it is more like professional poker (not that their rankings matter much), and because it is based on tournament play where you have to beat opponents, rather than ring where you can come and go as you please and choose opponents. That being said, I doubt I could play any/many of these tournaments because of scheduling, so keeping both systems is also a good idea.
As far as people not caring about the ranks, of course it is just play money, but even in a game for fun, like pool or golf or trivia, I still want to win. Having a rank provides a reason to keep playing. If Replay were a video game, I would have already beaten it and given up, but the ranking tells me that there are better players on Replay and there is more to learn.
The current ranking system has value because buying $8,000 in chips wouldn’t get you into the top 70. Outside of the top 2500 it doesn’t mean much, but that provides motivation to try to get into the top 2500! It takes skill to move up, and even for those who buy chips it takes skill not to lose them.
Joe, I am wedded on the concept but not the application. I am sure my friend Big Buddha balked at the schedule I suggested. No, I agree the important part of this is the Qualitative Rank / Quantitative Rank. The schedule can be eased up and the buy-in can be eased back; I don’t care about the details because they can be adapted. Hell, maybe you have two series per years for a month. I want you and Buddha and others to be a voice on scheduling; that is very important.
Also my hope is that the high end ring players participate because if a sizable amount don’t play then the effort isn’t as strong and has less integrity. But if we can get three or four hundred people ranked that will be a start that will be worth building.
i want to change the ranking system because i’m not good enough to accumulate chips and move up the rankings that way… maybe there could be a new ranking that makes me #1 even though i can’t win at medium stakes in free-chip games
