Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Where have all the cowboys gone?

BBT4 started with all the excitement and anticipation you would expect, with dozens of poker players/bloggers eager to battle in competition against one another for fantastic bonus prizes. Now, slightly more than halfway through, attendance numbers have dwindled...dramatically. The Mookie is still getting close to 70 players (although down from 100 or more before) while the other three weekly events generally get less than 50 and often less than 40.

I'm perplexed, if not really complaining. You would think with the freebies one could win for a small investment (weekly buy-ins in non-Big Game weeks total less than $55) folks would be flocking to BBT events. Instead they are disappearing. Of course, that just makes the going easier for us vying for the prizes. Your chances of winning a monthly leaderboard $2,000 bonus dramatically increases if there are 30 regulars rather than 60.

Granted, not everyone has the free time I've got so I can understand the time constraints. This can be especially stressful on a marriage. I know Amy felt I didn't focus enough on her last year, but a combination of me trying better time allocation in the evenings and the realization of the potential pot of gold at the end of the rainbow (remember I scooped up $3,750 in bonuses in BBT3) is making BBT4 easier for us as a couple.

There have also been a lot of people who have captured their TOC seat and gone into hibernation until June. Again, if you don't have the time to dedicate to 60 events over three months I can understand your position.

But I would think more people would be competing for the monthly prizes. Thoughts on why they are not? Where have the cowboys gone?

2 comments:

1Queens Up1 said...

Heh, I was thinking about writing a similar post for the last 2 weeks. When the Mookie is only drawing 60 people during the BBT there is a glaring problem.
The first week of the BBT4 was packed, and the second week was filled, albeit noticbly less so.

The one glaring difference between previous years and this year is that a lot of popular & succesful bloggers arent playing this time around for a variety of different reasons, time consumption being one of them. I guarantee you if my gf was not the understand and loving person who likes to see me play, I would not have the success I have had so far.

Some other problems I can see are:
The start times for East Coasters (specifically the Big Game, RC and Mook) mean that if I hit the final table I can guarantee I'm not logging off until 1-1:30am. And who can go to sleep after making a final table right away (win or lose)?
The Brit Blogger 4pm is a perfect start for me because I do squadoosh on non-nfl Sundays sans go to the casino, however, the bloggers with families can find this a little contentious.
Skillz, usually being a limit game, is an ok start time but again a trip to the final table usually results in a 12:30-1am finish for us East Coasters.

The other thing is Full Tilt is only promoting this series via Poker On The Rail which if I didn't know all you bloggers already, I probably wouldn't find. I dont really fault Al or FT for this at all, just stating the obvious. The real lion's share of the promotion comes from blogger word of mouth or the blogs themselves.

The BBT has been great to me so this is far far far from a complaint, but I can guarantee you that I have during the last 2 months needed a few red bulls just to get going would not be a stretch.

So combine old standbys doing other ventures and no new donkey blood coming to play, you have the lower turn out.

smokkee said...

some bloggers have finally come to the realization they suck at poker and are bored with it. because, well they keep losing. take a look at the BBT4 TOC and it's the same fucking donkeys that get in there everytime.

why? cuz they have some clue about poker. cry about bad beats and coolers all you want but in the end, you don't really have a shot.

we luv blonkeys anyway tho, like all the other fishees in the sea. its was makes the poker world go round and round.

gg and gl