PokerStars Freeroll - Who are any of the Winners ?

[snowfish]

Thank god I was not around this week and I do not play at Pokerstars....

Most I hate, that this disturbs the league system. As mentioned above it happens mostly in the free roll games that are nevertheless for us league games. This brings up two thoughts to me:

1. Should we stop the free roll league games with added 50$ and only offer the buy in games with added 50$ to keep the pw sharing low? Think this would help but how many good members do we loose with that?

2. Should we separate each league again in to a buy in and a separate free roll league as we had before? This would at least not really destroy our buy in league ranking.

Bob, the first action with sending out the info on short notice or having only two hours registering time, will most probably help tho reduce the amount of non member players even if it was bad for me yesterday at PKR, as I only arrived 3 min. after game start (could have easily registered in early afternoon if it would have been possible.

this are just a few thoughts.
cu at the tables
snowfish

[kingjames07]

me personally in the freerolls i couldn't care less about the couple bucks i might win.as i said b4 im in it for the league points not the $...we could just make it a points tourney and do away with the money in the freerolls all together...not sure what the site that the game is on would do or think about it...but it is an idea

[GypsyTea]

Originally Posted by kingjames07

but it is an idea

Yes its an Idea and a GOOD Idea as well IMHO

GT

[scrawnybob]

hi all

just to say in the first instance that I am listening / reading everyones thoughts and concerns - so even if you dont see any action - dont think I'm not giving this alot of thought

as always theyre are alot of other considerations as issues for us at the admin end and also working with the sites

I'll address a few points as they have come up - nothing is fixed but obviously there will be things that would seem a good idea but arent that practical - but that doesnt mean I've been turning a blind eye to it - its just means that in alot of cases as we close one door another two open etc

suggestion ... paying out prize money directly

this in principle is possible at some sites - but practically not really as there are minimum transfers on most of these sites - so the random odd amounts would be tricky + it is a hell of alot easier for us to know that the whole series of games is fixed up at all the sites, otherwise we have last minute schduling problems with missed games etc - which I really want to avoid, there is an awful lot of room for hickups even when tightly co-ordinated

suggestion ... separating out the freerolls from the buy-ins again

merging the buy-ins and freerolls into one league was done for a couple of reasons

a) to get more players to deposit (even if they're not signed up via our links) as the poker rooms who do fund our games appreciate that we are making the effort to encourage long term players

b) to avoid the possibility of a complete sham freeroll league with the password whores taking over

with a combined league although they ARE stealing some points in the freerolls its makes it far more likely the real members will do better in a mixed league rather than separate

c) to reduce the admin and total length of leagues but getting twice the number of games in over 12 weeks rather than 2 league of 24 weeks

d) having a simplified two league structure to make it easier to understand - trust me alot of members DONT get the hang of alot of the things which I might think are pretty simple

e) enable me to transfer funding 4 leagues overall prizes into other non league games (which we are trying to run more of in addition)

suggestion ... stop the freeroll league games

I personally dont play freeroll's I've made my thoughts pretty well known but I also appreciate that for whatever reasons there are alot of players who play in freeroll's so I try to keep them in the loop rather than running buy-ins only

possible solutions ...

I will be sending the password for Thursdays & Sundays games later ... around 2 hours before the 1st freeroll ... this will at least make it less effective for getting the passwords via the forums who have a freeroll password section

I will continue to follow up any leads any members give me on password posting sites and also dig around myself

We are working on a screen name list in profiles so I can cross ref - but again this is only as effective as the members filling them in ... but that could be a big (and not cheap) white elephant

I'm looking into suggestions from the poker rooms themselves with these issues in terms of banning players accounts / recovering prize money and also list options

if they and us can run them effectively - we do this with pacific and to be honest its a nightmare - too many members dont read information sent to them and block up the PM's etc or PM me well after the last list has gone trying to get in ... given the realities of this spending 3 days running up to those games on a weekly basis is ... simply not something I will do

Personally I think with some of the changes that are easy to implement will have the greatest positive effect

cheers scrawnybob

[DarkRalph]

Bob this is a method I've seen used by another forum to address this problem. I don't know if you have the means to do this but here goes.
All members have to post their usernames for any site they wish to play at. Admin then creates a group for those players and passwords are only emailed to those members in a particular group. At least you then have the usernames for all the legit players in any tourny ie if not in the group even if a member of the forum you would not receive the password.
It would then be down to the individual sites to take whatever action they think is appropriate.

[oblivious23]

Hi Bob,

I understand your problem and I saw some good idea's to get rid of this.
And I think the only way to stop it is to take some action. I posted it before but there are sites who only have freeroll passwords. On this site members can get points by posting private freeroll passwords. These points can be reedemed for cash. So it's big business when you have some good passwords. What I'm trying to say is that you can't stop it if you go on like this. The passwords will be on the net even if you post them 5 minutes before the tourny.

So here are some idea's to block it. (I just took all idea's from all members and some from myself)
- Make agreements with the pokerrooms. Like sending a list with members that are allowed to join the freeroll.
- PM to get the password. There is software I believe that can send automatic messages
to users that are allowed to get the pw. (but then we still have the problem of members
who share them on other forums).
- Don't pay prices in cash, but pay in kingpoker points. The points can be changed directly
in the forum for cash, but only for members that are allowed too.
- Last but not least. Winners have to pm you to get their cash. I think this is the safest
way because you can see who wants the cash.

I hope you can do something with these idea's.
Regards,
Oblivious23

[jctm1988]

Originally Posted by oblivious23

Hi Bob,

I understand your problem and I saw some good idea's to get rid of this.
And I think the only way to stop it is to take some action. I posted it before but there are sites who only have freeroll passwords. On this site members can get points by posting private freeroll passwords. These points can be reedemed for cash. So it's big business when you have some good passwords. What I'm trying to say is that you can't stop it if you go on like this. The passwords will be on the net even if you post them 5 minutes before the tourny.

So here are some idea's to block it. (I just took all idea's from all members and some from myself)
- Make agreements with the pokerrooms. Like sending a list with members that are allowed to join the freeroll.
- PM to get the password. There is software I believe that can send automatic messages
to users that are allowed to get the pw. (but then we still have the problem of members
who share them on other forums).
- Don't pay prices in cash, but pay in kingpoker points. The points can be changed directly
in the forum for cash, but only for members that are allowed too.
- Last but not least. Winners have to pm you to get their cash. I think this is the safest
way because you can see who wants the cash.

I hope you can do something with these idea's.
Regards,
Oblivious23

Some of these id's are pretty good , hope bob will look into your post , sure he will , lets see i was going to say something about your personal message aswell, im from holland and i know luske and noah , and they are truly good sportsmen , and gentlemen , they are funny , and they are good poker players, and i love that you put in , give a little bit , give a little bit of your chips to me , that is awesome !



JCTM1988

[dak76]

Hi Bob

First, my solidarity on your frustration and on this common goal.
I'd like to express some toughts and one doubt / question.

Doubt : I've been on vacation for almost 2 weeks, and returned on Sunday. Checked my email, saw Bob's PM. Since I don't have PKR, and was in time for PokerStars 1$, I registered in 4kp US league, instead of non-US league that I started playing recently.
My intention was to play again after 2 weeks out of poker in a pleasant field, but I was a sitter, as lots of things came up. When I got home my self-sitter ended in 14th.
Now the question, is it wrong what I did? I mean, should I have registered in the US league, knowing I could spoil points if I made it to the FT?
I really would like some ethical insights on this matter.

Some points / thoughts

* screen name List - like bob said, it can be a pain in the ass to admins, and looking at last 888 events FR / WPC / BI tourneys, not so useful. There were +-70 FRollers, but only 14 members paid 1$ (btw, any news from Pacific added money?)
To help administration building lists, the profile screen names do work. I have that experience from another forum.
Opening a thread for members to sign up is another solution, but admins will again have a bit of work to do.

* Paying out directly, separating FR and BI leagues, stopping FR leagues, I agree with Bob's thoughts entirely.

* suspicious freeroll sites - yes, let's turn them to authorities (aka bob), let's google for 4kp pw whoring sites, let's start a revolution

* later PM's - unfortunately you will have to do it. I mean unfortunately, because there are members who can´t check pw later ' cause are still driving home, member that can only do registration 4h prior because they can only sit 15m after the tourney starts... but yes, you'll have to do it to restring pw whores.

You could "improve" FR league if you pick each event top members, and give them an entry to a final FR (monthly or not). You could choose to: give a small prize in the regular FR league events and the rest of the money for the "final" FR, or you could get all FR prizepools and only give it in those special final events. At least some pw whores would go away.

Sorry for my lack of english to put my thoughts on, anyway I believe in a better and shinny day...

[pokerkeith]

I don't know if this is possible, but can you restrict the tournament to only certain usernames?

My username is tarponkeith!

PS, the WYSIWYG editor isn't working on my firefox for this forum anymore!?!?! And I didn't add that thumbs-down thing... weird...

[scrawnybob]

hi Keith

we've just upgraded the forum software - noticed a few things doesnt seem to be particularly better or worse -

didnt know about the wisiwig prob - will get that looked into asap

cheers scrawnybob