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So I woke up today to play the usual plethora of Sunday MTTs to find a new format has been implemented on FTP regarding tournaments. You can now register for up to 6 times for the big online tournies, its called multi-entry. At first this sounded great because you get more shots at winning, but under closer scrutiny it turns out we are getting screwed.
So if you register more than once you will be placed at 2 different tables playing the same tournament with the same prize pool. You will never be at the same table as your other self, unless two of your accounts reach the final table at which point your chip stacks will merge and one of the accounts will go out in 9th place. This is a big deal because 2 400k chipstacks have more equity than 1 800k chipstack in a tournament. The only reason this isn't considered a big deal is because its unlikely you would go deep in the same large field tournament twice on the same day (but not impossible, someone will do it soon enough).
Lets look at some pros and cons
Pro's
You get to make more +EV investments on Sunday - because you can register for a juicy tournament 6 times, you are now making 6x your ROI in theoretical internet dollars.
Thats it for the pro's
Con's
Only pro's multiregister - fish aren't going to 6 table the same tournament, so there will be a substantial increase in the pro to fish ratio, this will lower ROI by a large percent
Multitabling - Each person has a limit as to how many tables they can play well at one time, if you are playing 6 of each major tournament on Sunday combined with other tournies, you are likely stretching yourself too thin and will make more mistakes, causing your ROI to go down.
Rake - Since your average ROI is going down you are now spending more rake to make the same money. If for example you have an 80% roi and play a $100+10 tournament, you make $70 on average every time you play. Now you register 6 times for the same tournament as does every other pro. We won't know for a while what the cut is, but lets say your ROI drops to 40%. You spend 600+60 to make $180 ($40x6-60). This is why FTP is doing this, its brilliant and going to increase their profitability by a ton.
Variance - I would bet people initially think variance goes down when you get to play more juicy tournaments than you usually would on the same day, but it in fact goes up. Any time your ROI drops, your variance increases. You are losing your edge vs the field so you can expect more losing and breakeven runs. What does get better is your time variance, because you play more tournaments over a smaller period of time, it takes less actual time to see a profit, but again because variance increases this time variance is somewhat cancelled out by increase in a per tournament variance.
Overall I am pissed at FTP. I think this format insults our intelligence, works against the good of online poker (sustainability, balance between fish and pros, fairness, that kinda thing), and was only designed for them to extract more value faster from their customers. Already on 2p2 there are recreational players saying this is scaring them away from entering large buy in tournaments, knowing that there will be even more pro's facing them and decreasing there chances of striking it big. I don't think this is forever but if they even do this occasionally in the future I might stop playing all FTP majors altogether.
On a side note I was getting rather deep in the 1.5 mil gtd, 14k entries and I got like 190th after losing AQ to AJ allin preflop for 30bbs. But I ran good to get there so whatever, first woulda been nice :D
Til next time
So I woke up today to play the usual plethora of Sunday MTTs to find a new format has been implemented on FTP regarding tournaments. You can now register for up to 6 times for the big online tournies, its called multi-entry. At first this sounded great because you get more shots at winning, but under closer scrutiny it turns out we are getting screwed.
So if you register more than once you will be placed at 2 different tables playing the same tournament with the same prize pool. You will never be at the same table as your other self, unless two of your accounts reach the final table at which point your chip stacks will merge and one of the accounts will go out in 9th place. This is a big deal because 2 400k chipstacks have more equity than 1 800k chipstack in a tournament. The only reason this isn't considered a big deal is because its unlikely you would go deep in the same large field tournament twice on the same day (but not impossible, someone will do it soon enough).
Lets look at some pros and cons
Pro's
You get to make more +EV investments on Sunday - because you can register for a juicy tournament 6 times, you are now making 6x your ROI in theoretical internet dollars.
Thats it for the pro's
Con's
Only pro's multiregister - fish aren't going to 6 table the same tournament, so there will be a substantial increase in the pro to fish ratio, this will lower ROI by a large percent
Multitabling - Each person has a limit as to how many tables they can play well at one time, if you are playing 6 of each major tournament on Sunday combined with other tournies, you are likely stretching yourself too thin and will make more mistakes, causing your ROI to go down.
Rake - Since your average ROI is going down you are now spending more rake to make the same money. If for example you have an 80% roi and play a $100+10 tournament, you make $70 on average every time you play. Now you register 6 times for the same tournament as does every other pro. We won't know for a while what the cut is, but lets say your ROI drops to 40%. You spend 600+60 to make $180 ($40x6-60). This is why FTP is doing this, its brilliant and going to increase their profitability by a ton.
Variance - I would bet people initially think variance goes down when you get to play more juicy tournaments than you usually would on the same day, but it in fact goes up. Any time your ROI drops, your variance increases. You are losing your edge vs the field so you can expect more losing and breakeven runs. What does get better is your time variance, because you play more tournaments over a smaller period of time, it takes less actual time to see a profit, but again because variance increases this time variance is somewhat cancelled out by increase in a per tournament variance.
Overall I am pissed at FTP. I think this format insults our intelligence, works against the good of online poker (sustainability, balance between fish and pros, fairness, that kinda thing), and was only designed for them to extract more value faster from their customers. Already on 2p2 there are recreational players saying this is scaring them away from entering large buy in tournaments, knowing that there will be even more pro's facing them and decreasing there chances of striking it big. I don't think this is forever but if they even do this occasionally in the future I might stop playing all FTP majors altogether.
On a side note I was getting rather deep in the 1.5 mil gtd, 14k entries and I got like 190th after losing AQ to AJ allin preflop for 30bbs. But I ran good to get there so whatever, first woulda been nice :D
Til next time
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