PTOTW concept being reviewed - suggestions welcomed

[gamer4life27]

Originally Posted by phaul Any update?

BUZZ!
BUZZ!
BUZZ!

Dang. Lilady was right, only works for Y!Messenger. Any word Mollila? And you need to save an extra spot for you to play.

[Tuomas]

Dear rakeback-fans,
First of all, thank you for your patience.

We've been discussing and planning many variations and tweaks considering the poker Thread Of The Week. We would like to incorporate
you guys into to process more closely, but without giving the option for some people to spam and distort the results (this is the internet, you
know )

We have now come up with a plan to re-instate the forum credits and start awarding and using them a bit more than previously. You would be
awarded points for opening a good thread or replying well, there would be points awarded for people that were thanked also. We hope to create a
system where the points can be used for buy-ins for tournaments, quality playing cards, T-shirts etc.

This will take some work, because we need to make code modifications for the forum and the reast of the site. The first version of this system
will hopefully taken into use this summer. Meanwhile we'll continue for while with the existing system, but with ramped up prize pools.

Thank you for your patience with this, and apologies for the interruption.

There will be a tournament this saturday on Full Tilt Poker, we'll go through the posts posted in between this and the last tournament and invite people. The prizepool will be bigger also. Stay tuned. Mollila will post if he manages to put a pirze on his head.

See you in the tables and on the forum!

[dew12109]

An update... yay! This seems complicated, but I look forward to seeing what you guys come up with... because frankly, anything at this point seems like it would be better than what's happening around here these days.

[liladypokerpro]

It sounds an awful lot like the same pattern some other sites are following, but they seem to be pretty successful with it, so maybe it will work out. Can only hope and keep your fingers crossed...

[pokerbucket]

sounds like buckets of fun

[gamer4life27]

Thank you SO much for the update. I was almost going to go crazy thinking the PTOTW was gone forever, lost to the newbies who will forever rule this forum with their newbish responces and un-intelligable remarks. Haha.

Can't wait to see if Mollila managed to get a pirze on his head, lol. Just yanking your chain Tuomas. Hope to be invited this Saturday and play with Mollila. Good luck tho all those who are invited as well.

Edit: Bty, LOVE the new prize pool of $500!!! Yeah, you all heard me right. $500 prizepool on FTP! Check it out, tournament ID: 93838357. That's right, the prizepool is half of what the Community Freeroll Tour #100 with about 10% of the entrants!

Lilady, will you play on FTP for the PTOTW?

[dew12109]

Lol gamer... you might have stolen their thunder.... That's HUGE!

[Tuomas]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. But I kinda have to steal the thunder anyway

Sorry guys, it's not going to be 500$ for every week, at least for now. This one is to make up for the couple of weeks lost here in between. We hope to tweak the prize pool also, while retaining the exclusivity of the tournament.

We are dedicated to appreciate all the active members of the forum and players who use our services, so this is a work in progress.

[dew12109]

Oh yeah, I never imagined it would be that much all the time. But a $500 prize pool this time for a PTOTW... still HUGE. Anyway, that's still a really cool move from the rakeback staff. And dang... it's 3:30 and I need to be in bed.

[phaul]

Sick. Keep the prize split as it is now IMO

[DeadBabySoup]

Sounds interesting. I like the idea of a point system. But I'm not sure how well that'll work for PTOTW. If it's still limited to 18 players, it seems like there could be more players with enough points to play on any given week. If your changes are successful, there should be more players anyway. Personally, I wouldn't mind a 90-seat tournament at some point. But I don't think there are enough active members to fill that yet. I guess we'll have to wait and see how things shake out. Regardless, thanks for hosting them. They're a nice perk

[liladypokerpro]

Originally Posted by gamer4life27 Lilady, will you play on FTP for the PTOTW?

Yes, gamer, of course. I will go anywhere to play with good company and friends.

Thanks to the staff for working so hard, and I really do hope things pick up well. I have a good feeling that these new improvements will make a world of difference in the long run. And we all know "long runs" are not that long coming where the internet is concerned.

Best of luck!

/

[gamer4life27]

Originally Posted by liladypokerpro Yes, gamer, of course. I will go anywhere to play with good company and friends.

YEAH!!! Good luck.

Originally Posted by DeadBabySoup Sounds interesting. I like the idea of a point system. But I'm not sure how well that'll work for PTOTW. If it's still limited to 18 players, it seems like there could be more players with enough points to play on any given week. If your changes are successful, there should be more players anyway. Personally, I wouldn't mind a 90-seat tournament at some point. But I don't think there are enough active members to fill that yet. I guess we'll have to wait and see how things shake out. Regardless, thanks for hosting them. They're a nice perk

I would like to just touch on the points system part of this.

(assuming the points system is talking about the PTOTW tournament) I think it would work extremely well for the PTOTW. Look at the past PTOTW tournaments for a couple months. Find that the same group of people usually get invited? This is because they are the most active, and the ones who post the most thought out and experienced posts.

(assuming the points system is talking about posts here at rakeback.com) This is a great idea. I remember we all had around 1k+ in arcade chips just from posts alone. If this goes throughout the whole site, then we will be able to get exclusive rakeback gear, some cool poker stuff, and maybe more depending on what they offer. This will boost their popularity as all you need to do is posts (but here is the kicker) interesting threads/posts.

Bty, thanks rakeback for the invite, and good luck to everyone who will be playing. See you on the felt!

p.s. Was I invited for a specific thread/post or for another reason?

[dew12109]

Another suggestion for the PTOTW.

Allow registration to occur 30 minutes- 1 hour prior to the start of the tournament instead of days before. This would lower the number of sitters in these things. I've been guilty of it, and it seems everyone else has as well. It's just much less fun when there are only 4 people battling it out while another 4 people are blinding out. If the registration time were less, when something unexpected happens and we weren't able to make it, we wouldn't already be registered.

[deathcard71]

Originally Posted by dew12109 Another suggestion for the PTOTW. Allow registration to occur 30 minutes- 1 hour prior to the start of the tournament instead of days before. This would lower the number of sitters in these things. I've been guilty of it, and it seems everyone else has as well. It's just much less fun when there are only 4 people battling it out while another 4 people are blinding out. If the registration time were less, when something unexpected happens and we weren't able to make it, we wouldn't already be registered.

i agree, it becomes an unfair advantage for the player on the right of a sitter, especially if two sitters are next to each other.

is it possible to set the registration up that way?


nothing else to add atm. love the PTOTW!

[pokerbucket]

Originally Posted by dew12109 Another suggestion for the PTOTW. Allow registration to occur 30 minutes- 1 hour prior to the start of the tournament instead of days before. This would lower the number of sitters in these things. I've been guilty of it, and it seems everyone else has as well. It's just much less fun when there are only 4 people battling it out while another 4 people are blinding out. If the registration time were less, when something unexpected happens and we weren't able to make it, we wouldn't already be registered.

I hear what you are saying but I still like to register in advance... sometimes I sleep in by accident or sometimes I can show up to the table 10 mins late and I will still have chips. If you can only register right away then you can't do that.

[deathcard71]

Originally Posted by pokerbucket I hear what you are saying but I still like to register in advance... sometimes I sleep in by accident or sometimes I can show up to the table 10 mins late and I will still have chips. If you can only register right away then you can't do that.

i believe the registration stays open after it starts but i'm not sure for how many minutes.

[frob23]

Originally Posted by deathcard71 i believe the registration stays open after it starts but i'm not sure for how many minutes.

It stays open for the first level of blinds. How long that is depends on the structure. And it's typically 5-10 minutes. I've shown up 15-20 minutes late before... back when it was on Nordica. And was always happy that I still had a chance. But I do understand how annoying it can be when 3 people are sitting out in a 9 person tournament. I try not to let it bother me... and just pretend they're playing uber-tight and folding everything but AA and I can steal from them without mercy. I did play a sit and go once where that seemed to be this one player's plan. He played 2 hands the entire game (before busting on the bubble)... AA and KK. It was funny... at least to me it was.

[dew12109]

Originally Posted by pokerbucket I hear what you are saying but I still like to register in advance... sometimes I sleep in by accident or sometimes I can show up to the table 10 mins late and I will still have chips. If you can only register right away then you can't do that.

I can sleep in by accident as well, but I think in the interest of a better PTOTW (not that it's bad, but there is still room for improvement) it would benefit if this were implemented. A little dedication to show up on time (with a small grace period to register after it has started) would benefit everyone. I wouldn't mind at all if I slept in, I missed the PTOTW. I would rather miss it, then force everyone else to play against my sitting out chip stack.

[deathcard71]

when i first started posting on this forum, i did it for no other reason than to share my knowledge/opinions and to make friends. then for what ever reason i was invited to this exclusive tournament.
for the past 2 weeks i have enjoyed playing in the PTOTW tournament with everyone.

i didn't make the cut this week and now i understand how some other members may have felt. it's really strange because i have never posted on any forum expecting something in-return but on this forum i have been posting with the hope that i would be noticed again.

point is: getting invited to the PTOTW is a great reward. it makes members/me feel like an important part of the community.
the downside is when a member doesn't get an invite, it truly makes you feel like posting less.
the whole point (to my understanding) of the PTOTW is to increase the number of readers/posters and encourage intelligent, creative discussions.

imo, the PTOTW doesn't seem to work when the majority are left out.