Robot Reward Tournament

[Manastorm]

The price pool distribution changed drastically. Now the winner takes the most and the rest get pennies. This is not good for the newcomers, they have no idea what to do now. The situation was challenging even before, since the tournament doesn't resemble bridge that much, now wrong strategy costs even more. My best streak is something like 12 top 1-2 spots (mostly wins) in a row, so I have a pretty good idea what to do, I am not even a good player. Back then I didn't even play, if the tournament didn't have 8+ players, which was already a very small field. How does one collect 5000 points in a small field or 6500 in a big. Well not playing narrow games or slams. You need ironclad contracts, which you can claim at tricks 1-4, if possible. The late phase of the tournament has become a poker sitout game. The chips need to fly, when winning is 10 times more valuable than fighting for a penny spot.

[Manastorm]

I continue a bit. I would aim to make the tournament more luck based than skill. I suggest changes: no claims, GIB is slower while declaring for human side, maximum number of deal you can play (maybe less than 25), no penny rewards and give the fee back and some extra. You should hire streamers to promote your revenue games, it feels obvious that you have, but I don't know. Give tips how to play the game: maybe a video, which shows how good players play it. Robot reward is very exciting form of bridge, since it is a race. Try to find aspects, which promote its unique form. Maybe robot reward knocukout tournament during a special weekend. Join a small tournament and if you win it you proceed to the next round. The final could a be 30 minute race with 32 players or so.

[400 Volt]

I stop playing robot rewards now. Yesterday 3 players 5$. First wins 5,7? $, 2nd 4,7? $. So I need to win 8 Times when I am one time 3rd. Great.

[Mcauley]

I have been playing rewards for almost 17years and i have been in casinos all around the world, i have never seen a 30% house cut. 5$ games makes no sense anymore which i preffered.now playing the 1$ for fun

[Manastorm]

A nine player 1$ robot reward tournament indeed has 30% rake and the price distribution is skewed towards the winner. 55% of the price pool went to the winner, it is really unfortunate. (corrected numbers)

[nxw0016]

I am really sickened by the recent changes of the prize pools in reward tournaments.

As a long time BBO member, I used to play lots of reward tourneys, the $1 robot, 5$ robot, Bingo reward (remember those?) you name it. I always thought BBO was a well run platform, with players interested and their enjoyment of the game in mind. I even remembered the time when they raised the prize pool of $5 robot reward from 80% to 90%. (Indeed, a 90% prize pool of a $5 game still brings in more revenue than a 80% pool $1 game, per table. And they run on identical software, requires little extra cost either $5 or $1.) Even though the entry fees for most of the tournaments increase over time, it's kept in a reasonable range. And just like the raise of entry fees of ACBL tournaments, we don't like it but it's understandable.

But the recent drastic reduction of the prize pools of the reward tournaments is a totally different monster. It basically changed those games, those games which have been successful for decades, now killed. I am not sure what their reason is for such changes, but it makes BBO looks greedy and, more importantly, dumb and incompetent. If the purpose of the prize pool reduction is to increase the profit, then I would rather they increase the entry fee (just like they did with all other tournaments) but keep the prize pools intact. Changing the prize pool is not the same as changing the entry fee. The former changes the structure of the game and makes it a different game for players while as the latter simply asks the player to pay a little more for the same enjoyment (just like inflation in all other products, we don't like it but we can live with it as long as is kept in a low degree.) This is such a simple concept that every bridge player can see. But whoever made this decision apparently could not. We need bridge players to manage this platform ( as it was to begin with), not just a greedy American corporate CEO who sees financial chart but can't see a simple squeeze.

 

This has been a very sad month for BBO. I hope more players voice their concern, so collectively we can defend against corporate greed and keep BBO a nice place for all bridge players.

 

*If the reason for such prize pool reduction has nothing to do with profits, I would like to hear from the officials.