It is an interesting dynamic as long as there is no chip-dumping between tiers.

I see no reason why this would happen, difference between buy in to P1 and P3 eg P1 is £25 and P3 is £50, the fact the player invests £100 is not relevant as it is spread over 3 prizepools and P3 is only double the value of P1, and the more players in P1 the bigger the prizepool over P3 making it even less attractive to chip dump.

ACES

This is a fair point and I really hope I'm wrong. I trust DTD > all to police this sort of thing. Glad you're on top of it.

theres gonna be so much tomfoolery and shenanigans, stalling, chip dumping, collusion i can't ever see it running smoothly.

Agreed, I'm all for innovations but I don't see this as worth the hassle. The semi-shady angleshooting types you see in most low buy-in tourneys will have a field day. Imagine 5 people agreeing to split all profits 4 £25 entries and 1 £100er who gets dumped to whenever convenient (a big 3 bet fold pre here and there or a 3 barrel "bluff") You're potentially getting 5 £100 entries for £200. Or simply a £100 player buys chips off a £25 guy with 20 left on a smoke break to guarantee a top finish.

Every losing session you post 2+ paragraphs about blonde members donate £X, That way you're happier when you lose because you're raising money for a good cause.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoners_dilema

In a one shot game raise raise raise.

Or maybe bubble insurance insurance insurance, better safe than sorry.

But if you take bubble insurance then the bubble just moves a few places down the ladder for you. What if you bust before your bubble insurance position? You should take bubble insurance insurance just in case...

Click to see full-size image.

http://pocho.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/holyshit.png

The amount of people publically selling their action for DTD tournaments is pretty pretty small you know...

Currently yes but it's a market you have to create. You need the dedicated poker stakers to get the site off the ground and that's where alexs rep comes in but ultimately you want to embrace the punter stakee. Be like betfair, they are loved by the sharps because they have great lines but those lines are so great because it's the punters who pay the price. The guys who don't mind taking the worst of it for a few % and for small figures if it gives them one more guy to rail another sweat to get them excited. The idea will only succeed above basically covering it's costs if it creates a new type of stakee someone who plays poker occasionally and finds one more way to get some good action. They're just looking for a reason to stick around after they bust and what better way than by having a piece of someone on a deep run. I really don't think that's out of the realms of possibility. Once you have that pool of money it'll create it's own demand even if it's people looking for a simple 1:1 (after fees) stake. Getting sellers is no problems at all the problem is finding enough people willing to take a punt for a bit of a sweat and where better to look than an established casino?  

Edit: It's actually better than the betfair model because betfair is by definition a negative sum environment it's every penny they take in fees has to come from a depositor so they have to drum up a continual stream of losing players. In a staking site potentially there could be more money being paid out than is deposited and still room for profit, there should be in fact if the horses are worth more than 1:1. The shortfall is made up by the extra prize money won.

A few more thoughts,

People were against this because it felt impersonal, people like to stake others so that they have something to sweat and can help out having it DTD centric brings back that personal element you can go to the club and see your stakee in action, you know when and where he'll be, similarly if you roll it out then john doe in Leicester or Birmingham or whatever can watch his stakee in gala. It's local but scalable.

Another problem people had was why go through you when we can just stake on blonde without a fee. The service you are providing is the guarantee that the money will be held at the cage, you can stake without any fear of your money going walkies. Also because your overheads are lower due to DTD integration you can make a profit on a much lower set of fees.

Alex,

I think you're close and with a few tweaks the basic idea could work. I have a fair amount of money sitting around from the poker glory days and would actually be interested in a joint venture, two heads are better than one and all that. Obviously you don't really know me from adam so I'll just put the idea out there and see what you (and other forumites) think. If you see the potential maybe you'll think working together is a good idea too.

You want a business to grow organically and preferably be at least break even pretty quickly. I don't think going for the home run is a great idea. Start out just at DTD where you have a great reputation and a lot of goodwill. Offer the idea to Rob and give him a free small stake in the company so that he has in incentive for it to succeed.

The site idea is basically the same (whether an auction format or a buy it now type deal) but specifically for DTD tournaments. You could possibly then integrate it with the DTD online site and settle payments through their infrastructure (this may be a regulatory issue however). you could even have a computer set up in the building to help people set up their accounts and maybe even use the DTD mailing list for super targeted super cheap advertising.

Obviously a lot of this idea is contingent on Rob you have a great reputation and a lot of clout and Rob should go for it because he'd have more people buying in to his tournaments and his % ownership plus it creates great atmosphere when multiplle people have a financial stake and are railing every final table, hell you could potentially even let people cash out their pokerbay accounts at DTD and then there's more money for table games and what have you. The best part is that it gets around the grimming issue because DTD has the ability to withhold the money at the cage and allocate it to the correct people and you can buy people into events directly they don't ever need to touch the money.

You simply have a flag in the DTD computer system that says player X was bought in via pokerbay (not sure I love the name) an what % of their winnings they should get and what % should go into your account to then be instantly paid to the stakers.

If it takes off then you have a success story to show to other casino groups (dtd prize pools went up by X% and here's the figures to show we drove that traffic to them) and get them to buy into the idea for their clubs and that's how you get your organic growth.

Like I say I think working with you on this would be awesome so let me know what you think, and if others on here think this is an even worse idea than the original let me know also.

If something like this makes you feel better (and as such play better) then I guess it's useful but in the long run I think it could lead to counterproductive ways of thinking about the game not least that a few hundred hands means anything whatsoever in the grand scheme of things. Also you're not taking into account equity in particular hands. If you lose 3 55/45 flips in a row as favourite and then win with KK vs AA twice your log would show you being unlucky when equity wise you got super lucky.

I tried Google translate but it didn't recognise the language.

Here it is:

"3b btn call a cold4 w/AKhh peel 995 w/bdfd turn chk/chk river I c/r get called by JJ. 38k "

Any help appreciated.

The night was warm and sultry, my battle had been long and arduous, with casualties on all sides. My opponent sat across from me his pallid hulking battle scarred figure casting a deep dark shadow on the opposing wall. The first shot in however was not fired by him. A 3rd participant, neutral in the ongoing struggle and hoping to claim riches from both of us fired a salvo across our boughs. I was ready. My weaponry was top notch, an ace and a king both strong of heart, I fired back returning his impudent stroke with a shot of my own. That was when my opponent sprung in action. A 3rd shot, (fourth if you count the blind firings that began this sortie) rang out cold from across the battlefield. My weapons were strong but my opponent was claiming his own stronger still. I marshalled my forces and made a defensive move.

Seemingly inconsequential happenings on the battlefield below nevertheless caused my opponent to fire again. The strength of my defences were mightily tested but they held firm. Perhaps there would be chance for a counter-attack later in the battle.

I rallied, strong, as a glimmer of hope was provided by an opportune moment on the field of battle. A moment to hearten my spirits. My opponent seemed cowed and humbled and refused to fire another shot. The opportunity stalled my counter attack as I waited for the decisive moment to spring forth.

Then it was there. The true king had arrived and with him my moment. Finally I felt that I had the strength to compete. My opponent fired his final shot. My response? A devastating blast across the field seemingly from nowhere, stunning him and making him question his own weaponry. He believed they could weather the attack but he was wrong. His defeat was my victory, much was accomplished on the field that day. My reserves have risen as high as 38,000 and I am preparing for inevitable future battles.  

Lol at all the blackjack pro's. Let's start  a blackjack hand analysis section. If you wanna beat the game count, if you wanna slow painful death play basic stratedgy.

fyp

Topping is getting pretty popular again in the casinos up here. Yet to see it at Dtd but it's unbelievable the way some guys get away with it

Is that another word for past posting?

Lol at all the blackjack pro's. Let's start  a blackjack hand analysis section. If you wanna beat the game count, if you wanna slow painful death play basic stratedgy.

fyp

Looks like Morgan finally moved up enough that they respect his raises.