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BGonline.org Forums
Side Events --about the money
Posted By: Phil Simborg In Response To: Side Events --about the money (AdamStocks)
Date: Wednesday, 11 February 2015, at 11:37 p.m.
Your points are well-taken and I believe valid relative to the Championship division. I do not believe there is enough prize money and cash flow below that division to make that the reason that intermediates and novices come to tournaments. The motivation for the serious, seasoned, higher level players is partially for the chance to win decent money, and I am not talking about making significant changes at that level....just shifting some to offer optional levels of side pools so that those who really aren't big risk takers or who don't feel they have much of a chance to cash can enter for less than those who opt for the side pools.
Of course the rake affects everyone's expectations, but at least half or more of the field doesn't enter the tournament with very high expectations of winning anyway. The lower half of the Open division, which is where the money is, generally is not basing his decision to enter on his expected return. I know, I've been there for years, and I know that my odds of cashing when I am in the lower half are crap. Just look at the odds sheet for San Antonio where I put my money where my mouth is: in a 65 player field I was willing to pay 100 to 1 for much of the bottom half of the field, and at those odds, I had very few bets and almost none of those players put a bet on himself. He didn't even think 100 to 1 was decent odds.
The players who weigh the risk/reward are the ones in the top half of the field, and even most of those, with the exception of the Mochy's and a few others that have a fairly reasonable chance of cashing, also know that after all hotel and travel expenses there is a very low return on investment (again, except for a very few players that might make a profit going to tournaments).
And then what happens when they do get in the money? Many hedge, knowing that they are willing to give away a little because most of us know that the prize money is too top heavy given the luck factor by the time you get to the quarters and semis. Don't believe in the luck factor? How come no Giant made it to the quarterfinals in San Antonio and only one was knocked out by another Giant? Luck factor.
And then when they win, they happily do what Chuck and I and all the other winners did...we tipped the staff handsomely. We, in effect, increased the rake tremendously, proving my point that the winners, when they win, don't mind giving some back because they are so happy to win and they collected more than enough money to be happy.
Now I will not get into how much each person tipped, but I know that Ray, and Carter, and I and several others give several hundred dollars to the staff when they win or come in second...well over the amount a 15 percent rake would have taken. And really, it's more fair to institutionalize it because once in a while some guy wins and "forgets" to tip or thinks $100 is a nice tip after winning $5,000.00. And who is to say they did anything wrong? There is no rule that says you must tip. And since we don't have one, for the higher division, I say simply raise the rake to 15 percent instead of 10 and guarantee the staff and TD make more so they don't have to scramble to make sure they make ends meet and don't have to run 20 side events that clog up the works in order to generate some income.
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