It is a joke. Yet the NLHE would fill up to 12000 no matter what time of day. Now, perhaps, because they 1) lowered the max players from 12000 to 9000, and 2) have more frequent freerolls - the other games will see more action. You have to imagine that is their intent, and probably marketing genius. Offer games that hardly anyone or nobody else does - 8 game, badugi, 2-7 draw, and hope they find it a challenging and fun change from the usual. Then people deposit $$$ to play them for real. I guess when you're #1, you can afford to be stingy with the freerolls.
Not a 'joke', imo. OTOH, smart move. I'm a night owl, the really late NLHE FR's never filled. Sometimes only 6-7k players. There has been an increasing trend in getting away from nlhe games. The Stars VIP FR on Sundays has made HORSE a permanent last Sunday of the month game. They replaced another nlhe game with Omaha which is to repeat periodically.
Maybe there is a real message here. Are too many people tired of depositing to play nlhe online and losing? Are actual 'deposits' falling off? Stars has a superior marketing team that leads the industry in forethought and innovations, imo.
Is this a result of the trend to make HORSE 'the' premier game in poker with a
wsop buy-in of $50,000??
I wouldn't say increasing available freerolls is 'stingy'. Adding more games while reducing tickets per game probably equals the same number of Round 2 tickets awarded each week and actually requires a player to play more of the game than donking into a huge nlhe chip stack and sitting out to make the ticket at 99 (or 88).
I don't like it much. I'm only interested in the Omaha, 2-7, and badugi, and with the exception of PL Omaha, those hardly ever came close to filling up. So I'm not saving an hour. If anything, the game will take longer, since they've reduced the 'payouts' by (and I believe it's) 25% - 40%. This 8-game I'm in right now gives out just 48 round 2 tix. To me, it's at least an extra 1/2 hour of battle for a far greater chance I won't even make it. BTW, I kinda like the 2-7, but I think the FR all by itself is the single draw. In the 8-game, it's triple draw. You have to adjust to needing a way lower hand.
On reducing players and tickets awarded, maybe you don't recall when a Round 2 ticket only went to the top 27 of 10,000 players and only 24 tickets at an 8 seat game.
The 2-7 single draw is a NL game. The triple draw 2-7 in the 8-game is a limit game instead of NL. Strategies are different for each type. BTW - note that the Badugi's are scattered far away from the 16:30 game on Tilt that we discussed in another thread.
Carefully look over the new schedule and you'll find the prevailing difference is the HUGE quantity of limit and Pot Limit games being offered. I don't pretend to have all the answers, but 'someone' has a reason for reducing the nlhe FR offerings.
Personally, I like the changes. Instead of having 2 or 3 Round 2 tickets in 'the bank', maybe I can increase that ...