The numbers don't lie in poker vs BJ
Last night the Poker Cruise tour, bearing in mind Fridays is usually a quiet night online(going by UB in the past) still had 173 entrys compared to 80 odd on last saturdays Cruise equivlent.
Mace, until you, Joe, and the people running the show at ClubUBlackjackT understand everything I bring up below, the club will never succeed as a place to play quality blackjack tournaments:
As you said, last night’s poker cruise tournament had 173 players – with 100 players getting paid. That’s 58%.
If this had been a blackjack cruise tournament with 173 players, guess what percentage of players would be paid?
50%?...not even close
40%?...still not close
30%?...still not getting warm
20%?...nope
15%?...nope
How about fewer than 14%?!?! -- just 24 players!
Here’s how I attained this percentage:
Round 1: 173 players, 25 tables, 2 per table advance
Round 2: 50 players, 8 tables, 3 per table advance
Round 3: 24 players, 4 tables, 3 per table advance <<<quarter-finals, so 24 players get paid
Round 4: 12 players, 2 tables, 3 per table advance <<<semi-finals so 12 players get paid a little bit more
Round 5: 6 players, 1 table, 1 player wins cruise, the other 5 players get paid a little bit more
So why do more than 4 times as many poker players retain their 750 chips than blackjack players? And this is even more difficult to understand since it’s so much harder for bj players to attain TPs in the first place.
Compare the TP breakdown in the poker tournament last night with a similar BJ tournament:
Poker:
173 players
129,750 TPs paid by players to enter
79,500 TPs won back by players
50,250 TPs net loss by players (average loss of 290 per player)
Blackjack:
173 players
129,750 paid by players to enter
21,400 TPs won back by players
108,350 TPs net loss by players (average loss of 626 per player)
Need I say more?
A more equitable solution would be to give back the 750TP entry fee to those who advance in round 1. In the above scenario, that would be 50 players. Even better, how about having 3 per table advance in round 1 above, and pay 75 players. Or better yet, have 4 per table advance in round 1, and pay 100 players! Can’t do that? Why not? It’s being done in poker! And guess what? The tournament can still be completed in 5 rounds with 4 per table advancing in round 1!!!
One last thing to remember, Mace, since you’ve shared this with us. When you play a big poker tournament, you basically sit out the first half-hour to hour of play. You do this, because with the blinds being so low during that time, you’ll still have about 750 chips left by not betting a single hand. In the interim, enough players have lost all their chips, putting you in the top 100, guaranteeing that, at the very minimum, you get your initial 750 TP buy-in back. So, this is a no-risk tournament for an advantage player like yourself. Try doing this in a blackjack tournament! Oh, you can’t! So why reward a non-player in the poker scenario above, but penalize a decent blackjack player who advances in round 1, but loses his 750 TPs because they didn’t advance any further? They showed more skill than you do in the initial play at poker, yet they lose 750TPs!
Nothing you nor anyone else will say will change my mind about the above numbers and facts.
There is simply NO EXCUSE to reward four times as many poker players as blackjack players in a cruise tournament. There is simply NO EXCUSE to remove 626 TPs for the average blackjack player in a cruise tournament, when the club only takes out 290 TPs for the privilege of playing on the poker side of the cruise tournament. The “satellite” tournament argument doesn’t hold water in this situation since they’re equally run for both poker and bj tournaments. The past excuses that there are more poker players on the site right now is not an excuse in this situation. In fact, the above numbers and facts prove that there will always be more poker players, because even bj players like ourselves realize that the only value at the site is poker. What a shame!