I received an email from Empire Poker today that offered me the chance to play in a $10,000 Freeroll. But when you read the email it says that you must exchange 2000 EPoints to buy a ticket into the freeroll (they say “redeem” but you’re really buying a ticket). Since Empire’s own VIP Points site states that the points can be used to purchase from their gift shop or even redeemed for cash, those 2000 points certainly have monetary value, which would indicate that this isn’t really a freeroll at all.
So how much is this freeroll costing you?
Empire offers to let you cash out your EPoints at the rate of $1 for every 100 EPoints so, in non-marketing land, this freeroll costs you $20. And the beauty is that they break even at 500 players. Every player over that is -EV for you since no extra money is going into the prize pool.
Nice!