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Jonas Odman, VP of Bodog Network and Anonymous Tables
Zynga Ready for Real Money Gaming or Trying to Hide Failures?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!
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Hi, my name is Bill Rini and this is my poker blog. I've been blogging about poker and the poker industry since around 2003-ish. Like most people I started out playing poker as entertainment in home games whenever we wanted to sit around and smoke cigars, drink beer, and eat pizza, and needed a good excuse. I started playing online shortly after the first online card rooms opened and it wasn't long before I was playing 20, 30, or even 40 hours a week or more. One day I received a phone call about a program manager position at Tiltware which was the company that consulted to Full Tilt Poker on software development and marketing. After Tiltware I spent about 2.5 years working at Party Poker where I was the poker room manager.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Yeah, that is a crock of shite. Just another in the line of crap ass deals Party and or Empire throw at you.
Hey regarding the comment you left on my post…
Agreed…definitely not for everyone. Just another idea I had in my mind that I had to get out.
For the grinder, like most of us, this may not be the game you want to normally play, but it could be an occasional option. It would definitely be an option for the gamboolers and casual player looking for a big 1st place payout.
Again, thanks for your input. I appreciate it as these ideas would suck and/or never improve without the input…
Stars and FT get my horrible play. Empire can keep my 21 million play chips.
Since Empire GAVE you the EPoints, I think they can still call it a freeroll if you redeem them for entry in a $10,000 tourney. It’s like Green Stamps, or those coupons on Betty Crocker cake mixes. They aren’t worth much, but if you are collecting them anyway, you can’t complain too much about the crap you can exchange them for.
Craig,
You do realize that they didn’t “give” me anything, don’t you? I had to play and pay rake to get those points. Nothing was “given” away.
Bill
Very funny with sun glasses