One of the issues with poker these days is that everyone is so good. But that’s not exactly true. Real-money players are mostly good, but the players on sites like Zynga are truly bad as far as average skill level. A Free-Cash Knockout Tournament structure is designed to put some skill back into poker. It is a combination of freeroll players with real-money poker players in the same tournament.
The only short-term way to return a decent amount of skill to tournament poker is to set up a situation where the good players are allowed to exploit bad players with their superior skills. The Free-Cash Knockout tournament achieves this objective if done properly.
This idea really only works for online poker because you have to pay dealers in a live setting. This means that live poker really can’t have freeroll players except for the occasional freeroll tournament.
The way a free-cash tournament works is that freeroll players are allowed to join and earn points for freeroll tournaments. Real-money players join as usual by paying a buyin and competing for cash payouts. Only real-money players can earn cash, but both sets of players are randomly placed at the tables just like any other tournament. This puts good players and bad players against each other at the tables, allowing the good players to apply their skills against the comparatively bad set of freeroll players in the same tournament.
Now, the Free-Cash Knockout Tournament allows both types of players to knock out each other. As a general guideline, half of the prizepool goes to knockouts. The other half goes to the top 10% of real-money players who outlast the other 90% (like the typical tournament).
Bounty Structure:
1. At the beginning of the tournament, each player (both freeroll and real-money players) is assigned his per-capita amount as a knockout. For example, if there are 1000 players and a $4,000 prizepool, each player has a bounty on him of $2. ($4000 times 50% is $2000, and $2000 divided by 1000 players is $2 per player).
2. Whoever knocks out a player earns that $2. However, the interesting part is freeroll players do not earn cash. They are assigned that knockout, and the first real-money player to knock out that freeroll player earns ALL of the bounties accumulated by that freeroll player.
Example:
1. A freeroll player knocks out his first player. He has one bounty.
2. The same player knocks out another freeroll player. He now has 2 bounties on him.
3. He knocks out another player for a 3rd bounty.
4. He finally knocks out another freeroll player who has 2 bounties. Both of those bounties are assigned to him, so he now has 5 bounties on his head.
5. A real-money player finally comes along and eliminates the player with 5 bounties. This real-money player banks the cash equivalent of these 5 bounties for knocking out that one freeroll player.
Looking at this example, you can see that this can get very exciting. This works like a regular knockout tourney with bounties, but the difference is you can have “Super Bounty” freeroll players with more than one bounty on their head at the same time.
Note: Any time a real-money player knocks out another real-money player, that is always going to be only one bounty because real-money players instantly cash out all their bounty winnings. That means that a real-money entrant can only have his own bounty on his head. When a real-money player knocks out a freeroll player, the bounties for that one knockout can get huge because that freeroller cannot cash out any of his knockout bounties. Those juicy bounties are just waiting to go to the first real-money player who knocks out the freeroll player and are instantly converted to cash.
Note: If a freeroll player wins the whole tournament, then the cash amount of his bounties goes back into the prizepool that is going to the top 10% of real-money players.
Freeroller Benefits and Structure:
When a freeroller enters, the site can award freeroll points for placing in that tournament. The points can be based on the buyin. For example, you could award higher points for higher-buyin tournaments. Placing in the top 10% in a $5 tournament could award 5 points, while placing in the top 10% in a $150 tournament could award 150 points. The actual benefits to the freeroll players can be based on just about anything. But establishing a freeroll leaderboard would encourage participation in these real-money tournaments. Those earning a certain amount of points or placing near the top in the standings could then enter a freeroll for cash or other prizes.
This structure is infinitely more exciting to the freeroll players, who can gain experience playing against good (and bad) real-money players while not risking money. Invariably, there will be freerollers who will get confidence after knocking out some pros and deposit to try their hand at real-money games.
Caution:
You don’t really want to give away too much to the freerollers. It should not be a percentage of the prizepool of a particular tournament. Awarding too much would be great for the freeroll players, but it would discourage some people from ever depositing. The best option is probably to award only points in individual tournaments and then let the points leaders play separate freerolls a few times a week or month.
Payout Structure Notes:
There are two separate player pools in this kind of tournament. When figuring the prizepool payouts for the real-money players, you just need to disregard the freerollers. For example, a freeroller could easily get hot and place in the top 10% or even win a tournament against real-money players. However, that freeroller does not count in the payout standings. Software needs to accommodate this by having two separate in-game standings for the two separate groups of players. This will allow real-money players to track their standings and the money bubbles and freerollers to see how many more they need to outlast to earn points or cash.
Conclusion:
The Free-Cash Knockout Tournament is good for the freerollers for the excitement and experience. This leads to more deposits, which is good for the site and the overall poker economy. This structure is also good for the pros by returning some of the skill back into poker tournaments. If a site does this for every tournament (there is no real reason not to do this for most tournaments), then it also means freerollers can play more meaningful games around the clock, giving them more chances to catch the bug and decide to deposit.
Jimmy Boyd
Owner, WritingShares.com
Copyright reserved for Jimmy Boyd.