PromotionsAs I'm beginning to get back into the swing of things, I'm beginning to revisit the promotions that my favorite sites have. I've always been a sucker for something unique, different and something that takes time to build up to earn. I've always been the type to outwork my peers so when Full Tilt Poker's Iron Man Challenge was announced, I thought I'd be all over it. It got me playing more, which I appreciated.
When FTP's Doubleas came out, it was unique (play in two tournaments at the same time and you benefit for best combined finish). I actually had some luck in that and I'm still in the hall of fame on their website.
I don't really care about playing against the pros, weekend tournaments or happy hours that are when I'm either at work, with my family or sleeping.
This got me thinking about promotions in general, the poker marketing for these sites and
Negreanu's HORSE tournament post. Negreanu had a great point that you need some dead money in order to attract the grinders. The sites typically market to the average joe, but the promotions don't seem to match that approach. The promotions are to get you to play more of course, but what about the people who don't have the time to dedicate three hours a night? What about those that have families and don't want to play all day Sunday in their big tournaments?
Here's a promotion idea for you site marketing teams: Only players that play a small amount of time (debatable how you measure that) are allowed to play in turbo satellites to get into a bigger turbo. Everyone is allowed in the larger turbo (grinders welcome to feed on fishies). The turbo format reduces the grinders' advantage and gets the family/professional people to be able to play for a short time and compete against non-grinders.
One of the biggest fears for the average person to play online is the feeling that they have a disadvantage. Whether it be a feeling of being cheated or playing against 18 year olds with nothing better to do with their life except master low limit games and take my $5.
Poker sites need to provide a comfortable feeling for the average home game player. A feeling that they're on the same level as everyone else they're playing with and that there isn't some low limit poker pro 18-tabling with statistical tools supporting every decision.
