Just North of Wrigley Field

posted by James - 10:05 AM

Well... PokerStars asked me to voice my concerns, so I did. Here was my submission to them about the ails of the ongoing WBCOOP.

Very upset... finished deep but out of the money both days. Horribly upset at the format. If they were going to do this ridiculous pre-registration, they should have made the tournaments buy-ins.

Yesterday, I was crippled and then knocked out by a player who shortly thereafter said, I gotta go and didn't return and was blinded out before the bubble. That is the lowest form of disrespect you can show another poker player.

I was expecting a better run series from PokerStars. I'm not going to bother promoting them for the rest of the series, regardless of the extra value I could be giving up. I won't be seriously playing them. They're just too much time invested for not enough return.

I'm more upset at PokerStars for promising an interesting series and then getting us all to promote not only PokerStars, but their upcoming SCOOP... and then not delivering on all of our efforts.

I know this is a freeroll, but my time is not free. Every second I spent and still am spending typing, blogging, tweeting, etc., about this and playing in these is valuable time I'm giving up. My time is much, much more valuable.

Extended pre-registration ruined these events. When I promoted this series and advocated to others they play as well, I was expecting a competition worth winning for more than just tickets... which also have absolutely no value unless you can win an event against the best in the world. Even with my track record, I don't expect to be able to do that.

This should have been a fun competition, with the winner feeling like he or she accomplished something. However, currently there are too many players for too few tickets, which isn't even the biggest problem.

There are players getting handed 9x and 10x stacks to start this tournament simply because they were placed on a table with a bunch of players who pre-registered and didn't show up. How is that equitable when other players have to grind it out? This is borne completely from the longer-than-necessary registration period.

"Luck of the draw", "To each his own"... I don't buy any of that. It in no way excuses PokerStars mishandling of the execution of what could have and should have been a great idea. An idea worth the time and effort to have so many people promoting PokerStars and SCOOP without any guaranteed tangible value whatsoever in return.

You might convince the players desperate for a freeroll. Unfortunately, you've run into somebody who doesn't take kindly to having his time wasted.

If you wanted to run a great competition with the extended pre-reg, you should have included a small buy-in for the event. Adding the 153 SCOOP tickets on top of the money, while still paying at least 10% of the field. This would have kept those who played interested in actually winning the event, and cut down on players registering and not showing up.

In the first event, I had a player knock me out and several others, while knowing he wasn't going to be around to see the event even to the bubble. Now, PokerStars can't be held responsible for someone's actions, but this is the lowest form of disrespect you can show a player.

However, a buy-in might have kept that player from registering for the tournament at all, or at least compelled the player to play like he actually cared about winning. He sent me a message the next day apologizing and saying it was ok because he left to go to a casino and win money.

The other thing you could do in a freeroll format is restrict the number of tickets each player has, so the player would only have so many chances to cash in on this opportunity. Maybe cashing in each event could give a player another WBCOOP entry.

I'm very disappointed by the lost opportunity to do something great for all of poker with this event, while also getting great promotion for PokerStars and SCOOP. This is just another freeroll for me, and there are better ones out there, even if they aren't as potentially-lucrative.

I have worked very hard over the year I've spent as an internet poker player to graduate from freerolls if I so choose and play for value instead of desperation.

PokerStars obviously can't fix the problems with this series now, so I will look elsewhere for the return in the investment of my even-more-valuable time. If the series shows improvement next time, I will consider rewarding PokerStars with the effort in promoting the site and the series. Thank you for reading this and good luck.