( 9. Ring Games
In 2017, we developed the possibility to run some ring-game competitions on player’s activity (number of hands played), on profitability (winnings/losses at the tables) and on Ring Game Points (a mix of the two). We will be running more seasonal promotions featuring them in the first quarter of 2018. We intend to start offering permanent and recurrent ring game leaderboards from April. ) ( from the recent update posting )
After competeing in the 2 most recent Ring promotions I would like to start this cause I don’t remember us doing this for Ring, just MTT & SnG already…
The Santa’s one was on “hands played” and both me and " donnienme "(playername) thought it was pretty dumb by weeks end. All it was about was who could play the most tables, at the same time, for the most hours each day… It wasn’t even on “Flops Seen or Hands Won” that would require some skill…
The Thanksgiving one I did already comment on, and yeah basically who could rathor the most chips the fastest for a week was 1 of those leaderboards.
Ring games are tricky to promo, and its even harder to have a “casual” format for ring games, but the worst are the ones 4-5 ppl play 3-4 tables @ once 10+ hrs/day for “activity leaderboards” that everyone else looks @ and says, no way I can catch that, why bother playing… if they come in even on day 2, or casually play day 1 and end up wayyyyy behind, and think oooooooo’k why bother.
The other thing is, certain formats for Ring, lend themselves to explotation. So I’ll try and list some and we’ll see where this takes us.
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Activity ( hands played ) - Many players, even seasoned players have a hard time playing more than 1 table @ a time. When they see other ppl playing 3-4 tables @ same time, they instantly know they cannot compete even if they play twice as many hours each day. It ends up being 4-6 players that are willing to give up a real life to play thier hearts out, and everyone else is basically chump chg.
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Chips Earned - This is basically Rathor your heart out, while rotating tables consistantly. You want a quick score ( 2-3x up ) then move tables.
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Return On Investment (roi) - This is the “both sides of the coin” version of #2. Instead of just “chips earned”, you also have “chips lost” add’d into the equation.
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Hands Won - While this exploitable to a point, like hands played can be… You can’t just sit @ tables and log hands. You have to actually win them, so playing more than 1 table doesn’t increase your odds that much… like it will if its on activity only. Much better option to hands played.
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Profit per Hand - As long as its “ROI / Hands played” globally, so not just per table, then this format seems viable. If its per table then you might still see Hit&Run Tactics to get your percentages up artificially.
I’ll have to think more on #6 thru #10 … hehehe
What I do see in Ring (cash) games that is much more prevelant… are ppl playing outside of thier level. In SnG or MTT ( either no rebuy ) this difference between different bankroll levels is mostly solved because there is no rebuy… Where-as Ring games have unlimited rebuys as long as your bankroll can take it.
So, 1 avenue Replay might seriously consider is Bankroll restricted, Ring table, promotions… I’ll lay out 1 senario for everyone… and for this lets say it runs weekly.
25x (max buyin) max bankroll… so lets take the 5,000 - 20,000 buyin tables… as of the beginning of the week, a player’s bankroll would need to be between 125k & 500k. Then for that week they could play on this level table. As long as you can cover all bankroll possibilities ( no overlap or dead zones ) then what you do is 1) stop ppl from playing on tables way above or way below thier level and 2) you increase the realism/risk so that ppl can’t just rebuy till hell freezes over, thus adding back in the real threat an All-In really means.
I think as a community we can put out heads togehter just like we did for MTT and SnG… and give Replay staff some really great formats for Ring Promotions that won’t be exploitable or just play 24/7 and win. Since up till now there aren’t any permanant Ring Promos, lets all help Replay… shall we ? ( we have till March, lolol )
Sassy
