PTOTW concept being reviewed - suggestions welcomed

[jcrei]

Hello everyone.

It's been over a year now that we started the poker Thread of The Week (PTOTW). It has been hugely popular among the most veteran members on our forums, and for the new ones as well. It has also contributed in bringing out some good discussions to the forums, which helps this community of players.

Keeping that in mind and moving forward, we want to make sure we keep things fresh and interesting, so we're currently rethinking the concept of the PTOTW.

We want to be able to reward our more active forum members, while at the same time promote quality discussions on our forums.

As always we're open to any suggestions you might have.

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[pajala]

I would suggest looking at the weekly freeroll being held where all players are welcome I was invited to play which was fantastic expect Poker Nordica doesnt accept Australian players maybe UB or FTP would be a better site to play it

[DeadBabySoup]

I like the general format of PTOTW. It does encourage me to be more active on the forum and give other players advice. The one problem I have with it personally is that it's on Poker Nordica. I'm a mac user, so I have to borrow a computer to play. Which can be a hassle. I've actually missed half the games I was nominated in because of this. So for me, I'd like to see it played on Full Tilt or Poker Stars. Preferably Full Tilt since that's where I have my rakeback account.

But if you're looking for more creative ideas as well, you could add some bonus features like a leader board. Maybe the player with the overall highest monthly cash winnings from PTOTW gets an extra $100. And the players with the highest winnings for the year gets an extra $1000. I'm not sure how realistic this is financially with you guys, but the top prize could even be a buy-in to a WSOP event. That would draw a ton of people to the forum I think.

You could also add little things like a bad beat jackpot or make it a knockout tournament. Personally, I'm a big fan of knockout tourneys. If you were to do that, you could add sort of a leader board/ trophy case type feature to the forum. Keep a running list of who has the most knockouts and who they knocked out.

But in general, I'm happy with PTOTW. It's a great gesture. Shows you guys are paying attention to your members. My only real problem with it is the network it's on. But that's just a computer issue for me.

[dew12109]

Is the concept being rethought because of financial issues? I honestly like how things are now except for poker nordica. I like a few things about the site, but transactions with the site are a HUGE hassle for me. So when I cash out over there, it takes like a month-two for me to see the check.

I think setting up some league thing here would be cool to. If we were to have some kind of league, it could have a small buy-in etc, but I've always thought a league would be fun. Anyway, I think a few more details about what's going on with the PTOTW would be helpful with us to be able ot give suggestions as well.

[liladypokerpro]

I think it would be helpful for Rakeback to team up with Google and get the name out there in force, while making a little money on the side at the same time. Perhaps even Twitter. There are hundreds of poker interests following eachother on Twitter... I think we need to get some more butts in the seats, so-to-speak, and not just freerollers, either. Just seems like it's mainly the same handful of people week after week, with one or two new faces popping up from time to time. Just gotta figure out what catches people's interest beyond freerolls and exploit it to really get some traffic flowing on a more regular basis. As for the PTOTW in general, as stated above already, I am happy with it as-is. I'd just like to see more people participating on a regular basis in the forums, which is why I suggested more broad advertising.

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[RiverstarsVictim]

I also like PTOTW as it is but can also understand the current want/need for change to encourage more activity in the forums. Maybe making it fortnightly or even monthly might be the way to go? Maybe the weekly $100 (although a very generous offer) just doesnt do it whereas a fortnightly $200 or monthly $400 might sound a bit more tempting.

[gamer4life27]

I like many of the concepts before me that were posted. I want to add onto what lilady touched on, and that's the concept of catching people's interests. One thing that comes to mind (besides the WSOP/WPT seats) is the chance to play with a pro. If you guys were to sign up a pro here on rakeback just so that people can play with them, can talk to them, receive feedback from them, people would go ballistic over that! (I know I would)

It would be a great addition to the PTOTW. Perhaps add this pro into the game, and people will be posting more, and be forced to make the posts better in order to have a chance to be invited.

I am sure you have already tried to sign up a pro with you guys, but if not, there is an idea.

And if you can't, then why not have one of the mods play? It would be fun to play with a mod.

Ideas that I like so far that have already been said:

Bounty Tournaments
- Maybe have it so that the winner of the last week's PTOTW has a bounty on their heads.

Leader Board Points
- Have it so that every time you are invited, you get a point. If you play, you get another point. And you get more points for what place you take, if you cash, etc.

WSOP/WPT Seats
- Enough said

Bad Beat Jackpot
- Self explanatory

Edit2: Changing the place of where it is at. I like FTP, but it can also be PS.

Love the PTOTW already as is. But if you were looking for feedback, there is mine.

Edit: Forgot to add that there could be a minimum amount of quote on quote "newbies" that have to be invited. That could be anything from new comers who have joined the same month, someone who hasn't been invited that many times, etc.

[phosphorescence]

fwiw i'd love to see it moved to full tilt (or PokerStars)

for all us mac people!

[dew12109]

I'd like to see it moved to one of these two as well. It would be fantastic. Full Tilt preferably.

[allthatremains]

Unless I'm mistaken, I don't think rakeback.com is even an affiliate of Pokerstars. So I'm not sure why you would think they would hold it there.

I have been invited several times, but never showed up because I don't have an account at Nordica and I don't really want one right now. - This site seems to have as good a deal as any other so if I ever add Nordica, it will be through here.

I would hold it monthly, make the prize pool larger and invite more people. I think it could be held at different revolving sites ( kinda as a promo) but be weighted to the sites that generate the most revenue for rakeback.com.

Example: Hold it every other month at FullTilt and on the odd months hold it at UB, Absolute,
Nordica etc.

[RiverstarsVictim]

Personally I prefer it being held on the same site each time. I really dont want to be opening accounts just to play the occasional PTOTW and jeopardising future rakeback deals by failing to meet any deposit requirements within a certain timeframe. I believe FT have such a timeframe if you dont deposit within 2 months any rakeback deal is cancelled?. I simply wouldn't be wanting to risk this on sites where I dont already have an account and dont intend playing anytime soon.

[dew12109]

I still want to know what exactly is being reviewed/reasoning for review.

[GainerRakeback]

Originally Posted by RiverstarsVictim Personally I I believe FT have such a timeframe if you dont deposit within 2 months any rakeback deal is cancelled?.

That's true about Fulltilt. I signed up for FT thru Rakeback.com to play the Rakeback Community Tour a while back. I didnt deposit within the 2 months and now I cant get rakeback at FT at all. I play cash games and tourneys and cant get any rakeback. I emailed both FT and RB but FT has a policy and they wont bend on it.

[emoneypitt]

Definitely a lot of good ideas here. Something lillady said is really important. This site definitely has to get it's name out there better. It simply doesn't have enough regular users. There's more competition than ever as well. A certain other very large forum that I belong to started offering rakeback a few months ago. It seems like a vast majority of the people who sign up here only come for the freerolls then you never hear from them again. Perhaps the idea of a league with some prizes will help.

The idea of doing the PTOTW just once a month, say the last Sunday of the month, for a larger prize amount, sounds good as well. I'd also prefer it to be on Tilt but Nordica is OK I guess. I can never get used to their interface though.

[gorden71]

I personally like the way it's setup now. While its true that many times its the same group of players, there is a reason for that. They are the people who are contributing to the site the most.
If you have a minimum number of "new members", you may draw some new contributing members, but you also may just draw a group who sign up just for the opportunity to be invited and never contribute in the forum at all.
If there is to be a change, I do like the idea of a monthly game. The players invited should be the members who have been the top 10 contributors of quality posts for the previous month, although the determination of a quality post would always be in question.

[RiverstarsVictim]

If it is to be changed to monthly I think inviting just 10 people would be harsh. Even on the weekly tournaments between 10 and 20 people were being invited.

[BUILDMO]

Just wanted to point out that the opportunity to participate is awesome!
I haven't posted lately since I am moving up in the world of on-line poker thanks to Rakeback. (Playing more than posting).
The PTOTW has offered this chance and expanding upon it should generate more interest.
Taking the PTOTW to the next level is expected and can really be something special.

A revolving PTOTW site would work and generate more Rakeback for the RB crew too.

It really doesn't matter where we play, just as long as it is available to the member that has an interesting and thought provoking post, and plays to the level that we all expect.

Again, thank you

[lakedweller]

I would like to echo the comments from others that having the PTOTW tourney is great. Something for nothing is always welcome.

In addition to using other sites, I would recommend changing the day of the week/time that the games are played. The middle of a Sunday afternoon works well for some, but not for others.

[DeadBabySoup]

personally, i think rotating sites is a bad idea. some of us are on macs. which means we can only play full tilt or poker stars. but even if i had a pc, i wouldn't want to open 10 different accounts.

[pokerbucket]

I like the idea of moving it to fulltilt. I would guess that is the largest site that people get rakeback from here. I don't think the tournament should have a huge # of entrants every week (then it will just be like the fulltilt freeroll and it won't even be worth playing)

I think a lot of players on rakeback.com don't even know about the weekly tournament so maybe you guys can set something up on the homepage that is easily visible to everyone and especially new members.