[Closed] Rank Upgrades for Long-Time, Low-Frequency players

Im not sure about aggregate based access to the top end content, but definantly aggegrate based access to Silver should be considered.

The silver content is really what takes a break even micro grinder and turns them into a winner ready to escalate up limits. It would probably make business sense to make it accessible to players who arnt able to escalate their game up limits based on bronze content alone.

Instead of 100 pts / mo to maintain silver I would personally slightly re-assess article distribution between silver-gold-plat then make silver 100 pts aggegrate, permenant.

But then, its not my business Im sure someone somewhere has argued this out before at length.

i agree in a way with ramble... i mean the silver content is very effective for the microlimits and thus could help boost a lot of players...

my own experience is i don't get why you lose access to the articles if you are downgraded from gold to silver for example... i mean you could download them in the time you have the status, right?

there is still a lot of content that pokerstrategy could withdraw like videos and coachings and hand sample forums

but the articles should still be open, because they are the way back to the player and status you were... i realize that the poker business works this way to set a lot of goals to players that they can achieve, but some changes might be useful to generate more value

Hello Ramble and thank you for the feedback,

I'm glad that you are learning from our content and taking your time to enjoy the game. You are of course correct in saying that leisure & low volume players also make up a large part of our playerbase and that they are also a valuable part of the overall community.

Setting "permanent" ranks is always a problem though - especially for anything higher than bronze / silver since it can take away a lot of the initiative to keep playing on tracked sites if one has permanent access to all the needed content anyway.

In order to help low volume players gain access to some of the higher level content we have in the past therefore had various give-aways for temporary level increases as well as double strategy point days on various platforms. Another option to increase the amount of points without putting in more play time is to learn how to play a few more tables at the same time. Especially for SNGs where one is usually busy folding - achieving 3-4 tables should not pose much of a problem (although I can also understand leisure players preferring single tables).

Perhaps more temporary status upgrade promotions - or temporary upgrades to silver after a certain amount of points as e.g. bronze member could be a solution. At least for the articles such a temporary boost for a month would give you plenty of time to get acquainted with some of the advanced concepts connected to this higher level.

Best regards
SoyCD

Thanks for the feedback.

I guess I should narrow the focus a bit and concentrate on how to make the silver-ranked strategy material more accessible to low volume / long-time players. Maybe the gold and platinum articles are too valuable to discuss at this point and should be reserved for the elite among us.

I agree with thebigheizung85 that once you unlock the material, you should keep access to it.

SoyCD - I think it's great that there are double point sessions (though I haven't noticed any in the 6 months I've been a member). I just don't think they would be of any real benefit to the type of player I'm referring to, because over that 4-week period he's only generating 25-40 points anyways. Doubling for a few days or a week isn't going to make any difference. Now if it was for the whole month, I'd be tempted to put a push on and see if I could make it.

I still think that lifetime strategy points (aka aggregate) is the way to go. It benefits both the members and PS. The low volume members now have a goal that keeps them interested and playing, and will benefit from the silver-ranked material. PS benefits from developing their members into better/more profitable players, and the more successful a player becomes, the more likely he is to increase the volume of his play, which directly benefits PS...

Ramble, Im sure you could make friends with a silver who could in turn easily help you in this matter.

I guess the material is sort of copy-righted and that you are allowed to download it for your own use but not to distribute it around?

Originally posted by Termi8r
I guess the material is sort of copy-righted and that you are allowed to download it for your own use but not to distribute it around?

Very true.

Originally posted by TheBrood
Ramble, Im sure you could make friends with a silver who could in turn easily help you in this matter.

Thanks TheBrood - wanna be my friend?

Actually, I'm a bit of an ethical-nut and would have a problem getting material that people have worked so hard on, in a method they don't endorse...

I see you're Silver - just curious (if you don't mind) how long it took you to reach? What did you play to get there? What are your thoughts about earning access at a certain lifetime strategy point level?

Anyone else?

I was Silver in April, and knowing my personal time constraints for the April and May, I knew I had to get as much of that Silver level info as I could, knowing I wouldn't have a lot of time over the next two months to retain that level, especially at the limits I was playing. And, um, I have NO personal ethical boundaries when it comes to self improvement

Multi tabling helps, but you still have to put in a hell of a lot of hours to acquire higher status at .01/02 NL and .02/.04 NL FR games. My biggest jump personally was when I started playing 6man max NL at those limits, I ended up jumping up quickly in both bankroll AND status points.

I'm confident I can regain Silver again for June and now that I'm playing .05/.1 NL, I'm sure I can put in enough hours at those limits to maintain my status.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is what has already been spouting by others (Gold members now I see, nice work Jassica!), and I also see the benefit of some other kind of point structure from Bronze to Silver, albeit a temporary one. The articles in Silver are much more beneficial and educational than those at the basic Bronze level, and I think many members would benefit 10fold by the content much sooner.

Still, not my site, not my rules. Just a personal observation.

Originally posted by Ramble

Originally posted by TheBrood
Ramble, Im sure you could make friends with a silver who could in turn easily help you in this matter.

Thanks TheBrood - wanna be my friend?

Actually, I'm a bit of an ethical-nut and would have a problem getting material that people have worked so hard on, in a method they don't endorse...

I see you're Silver - just curious (if you don't mind) how long it took you to reach? What did you play to get there? What are your thoughts about earning access at a certain lifetime strategy point level?

Anyone else?

I think I got silver by playing quite a bit of NL10.

By giving people access at lifetime point level, players are not obligated to play at PS.com tracked sites, so PS could lose money by doing this. I think its only fair that we earn our right to read certain articles.

Possibly something along the lines of if you've earned x strategy points every month for say 3 consecutive months you can get a one off one month access to Silver articles perhaps?

Otherwise, I guess its just a case of you can't please all of the people all of the time.

Bronze material is all you need to beat the micro limits - silver/gold material isnt needed until you hit middle limits, if anything it may damage your game at the micros by making it too complex. Simple, ABC poker as taught to bronze members is the best way to beat the fish on micro limits.

Maybe people who achieve silver/gold status could hold their rank a little longer though, eg earning 800 points in 4 weeks could guarantee you gold status for 3 months or something then you drop to silver, then bronze after a while. This would make it rather difficult for ps staff though.

It doesn't sound like there's a lot of SnG players here... One 9-player tourney probably averages about 45+ minutes and only generates me 0.50 strategy points...

I haven't read the cash game strategies or tried to play those games... starting out with basic starting capital, good BRM, and sticking to strategies - would you guys say easier or harder to accumulate strategy points vs SnG?

i got to silver relatively easilt by just playing NL10, usu. for 2hours a day (sometimes less) for around 5 days..so its not that hard to maintain a silver status.. but i understand the concept of 'part-time' players moving uo.

But then u gotta think what it makes the long time players feel when they obv. have put the time in and they are ranked as equals with some1 that, say, has played NL10 for 5 years and got the PS points that way.

Originally posted by Ramble
It doesn't sound like there's a lot of SnG players here... One 9-player tourney probably averages about 45+ minutes and only generates me 0.25 strategy points...

You could always start playing "sets". I started with four at a time, starting up a new one if I busted out early. Easy way to quadruple your SPs without adding any time.

It only takes a little work to make multitabling work for you. If you felt this was daunting you could always start with 2-3 at a time. If you felt ambitious I think boku87 hit 50+ at a time..

I've just tried doing 2 tables at once... (finished 1st and 4th) went ok for most part, but a couple of times felt rushed... I guess it'll take some practice.

I think I'll have to work my way up to 3-4 tables in order to reach silver...

Baby steps

Like everything new it can take some getting used too. I'm sure it won't be long till you're a multitabling fool. Best of luck!

Originally posted by Ramble
I've just tried doing 2 tables at once... (finished 1st and 4th) went ok for most part, but a couple of times felt rushed... I guess it'll take some practice.

I think I'll have to work my way up to 3-4 tables in order to reach silver...

Yes, it takes practice! Slowly you will recognize similar situations repeating themselves and you will know what to do without thinking about it too much. This in turn allows you to add another table.
I started with 1 table and now Im doing 5 BSS, and with crappy ipoker software too

Silver rank is pretty easy to reach. If you 4-table or 6-table an hour a day for 4 weeks you should be able to reach silver rank. As soon as you have reached silver rank, save all the articles to your webpages and you're still be able to read them after you dropped back to bronze. I think I'm going to do the same now I'm finally gold.