Let's work together to improve the Gauntlet

I love the Gauntlet but think that it is flawed in certain areas. Here's a few idea for discussion.....

Problems with the Gauntlet

1. The specialty games have too few players.

Those that want to play these, or those that feel compelled to play these (to get their quota of games in) suffer as the positions they finish in are worth fewer points. It is also possible that others may avoid these in order to improve their chances of increasing their end of season points total. They may not feel good enough to play and do well but they will also know that a low turnout for these is likely.

2. The games towards the end of the season have too few players.

This benefits those who played more at the start of the season as the positions they finish are worth more points. They also have more opportunity to get their quota of games in.

3. Not enough people complete their quota of games - the league could be more competitive.

Possible Solutions

1. Create seperate side tournaments for the specialty games (like the Heads-Up Championship) and keep the Gauntlet
to NLHE with the occasional 6-max and maybe one HU. Ultimately, the majority are more interested in NLHE so this should keep numbers up.

2. Have just 12 dates, one each Sunday. E.g. One on Sunday afternoon and that's it - no early and late game. This should concentrate the number of participants every week and everyone will know when it is. I would also be in favour of scrapping the best x scores idea though this isn't strictly in relation to the problems listed above.

3. Having more people completing their quota may be tackled in part by the above points but something that could run in conjunction with the email reminders is a weekly recurring commune/STT/MTT thread highlighting that a gauntlet game is coming up.

What do people think? Any other thoughts? These are just some ideas that I've had - I don't pretend to have all the answers. Comments are very welcome from all but especially from Gauntlet regs.

The admins need to spend more time participating and promoting. Simple as that. Until that happens, the Gauntlet will remain mediocre with few participants.

I agree with all of Kev's points.

I wasn't a big fan of the "play 12, top 10 count" rule, and I think that alone killed fair amount of the participation. The fact of the matter was, since I was in the running for winning, and wasn't just playing for fun, I wasn't going to participate in any game that I didn't feel I was somewhat strong in. I played only NLHE games (6m and FR, didn't play the HU event), with the exception of one PLO tourney because I thought i was way out in front (lol). If the rules would have been different, and we were allowed to play all the tournies, with say the top 10-12 going towards your score, I would have made all of them.

I think this is a problem of advertisement. I am pretty sure that there are many people out there that would really want to participate in such a league but they can't because they are not aware of it. I don't know if there is any advertisement on the other sites but that would both increase the participation on Gauntlet and memberships to FTR itself. Poker payers are competitive and they would love to participate in such an event.

turn out for non HE events wasn't really much different if you account for your points 2 & 3. if there were only HE events I would likely not play at all. And we usually see a couple people in those who don't play the other gauntlets.

I don't really think we'll ever see a change in 2 or 3, those are just human nature. Focus should be just over all getting attendance up.

TBH I think it's just a tough sell and the site overall would need to be much bigger for the gauntlet to get bigger. There are a lot of different reasons to play poker, but not really a lot to play the gauntlet. It's either too cheap or too expensive or too tough for players to play it for profit. It's not much for ego unless you don't really get poker. And it's often not much fun depending on who is playing or how many other tables you have going.

I think the best bets for a small bump:

experimenting with different days/times hoping to find a magic one people don't have much else to do - Sundays are really busy days for players and sports.

allowing people to gain from playing more events.

listen to the hawt asian chick, she's right

I've always considered gauntlet very -ev for me, even though its only $10 entry. Usually once its obvious I'm not in the running to place overall I just stop playing. Not sure what would change that, but I guess anything that makes me (and others) more likely to play even if we're not in the running for tournament champion.

1. Courtie's point is very important, the admins should be more involved in it and play in more games.
2. Balancing between letting people play in more games and keeping the league competitive for those who participate in only some of the games is complicated, I think players should be allowed to participate in all the games but the final score should be calculated based on some balance between the best scores count and the average of points or something along this line

There's some good stuff here guys.

I'm interested in Bjsaust's post, talking about not turning out if there's no chance of winning it. A possible remedy for this and other problems could be what drmc said about more incentives being needed.

I'm going to see if we can get a few more posts ITT from others who have only played a handful of games each season.

$10 buy-in is too much for those playing lower stakes. Maybe there can be another Gauntlet with $3-$5 BI. Two Gauntlets per year with different names (maybe GSOP). You won't have to wait for 1 whole year to play the next one.

I have often wondered what would happen if we had a few different BI options, maybe a few $1-5s and a few $20-100s or like a 10 RB if you can make private ones. It's worth a shot.

I thin its defop a money thing mainly.

The BC players won't and shouldn't be playing in $10 tourneys, and the BC is where most players are. And Bc'ers are also the most likely to want to get involved and participate in FTR things

I want to play in these, but I find being a Euro a prob with late times and Sundays are just a no no for me.

Yea, I originally thought two on Sundays was awesome, but it turned out to not be such a great idea. I do think we need multiple days though to accomodate the various timezones and work/life schedules.

Just a thought: What if instead of making it spread out over 12 weeks or so, have a couple tournaments every day for two weeks? Like the WCOOP

ooh I like that, keep the momentum going and it would make it easier to have different BI levels.

Bigger fields are better, so lowering the buyin to $5 and only having 1 game each Sunday should help.

Mix in a couple rebuys, they are fun. $1 rebuy seems reasonable

I didn't play in any mixed games or HU gauntlets because on Sundays theres a lot of other tournaments to play so it would be too much of a hassle trying to play a game I'm not used to

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Let's work together to improve the Gauntlet

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