Gaming Application

POKER

This invention also applies to poker. In accordance with the patent, a poker room operator can offer the ability to their bettors to modify the take-out rate on tournaments being offered to their customers.

For example, say a poker tournament costs $100 to enter, and 80 people enter the tournament which creates a pool of $8,000. The poker room operator takes 10% from this pool ($800) which leaves $7,200 to be distributed to the winning players in the tournament. The base prize pool will now look like this, with the percentages representing the amount of the net pool to be paid to each winner.

45% 1st place = $3,240
20% 2nd place = $1,140
15% 3rd place = $1,080
8% 4th place = $576
5% 5th place = $360
4% 6th place = $288
2% 7th place = $144
1% 8th place = $72

By utilizing this invention, a bettor can adjust the take-out rate which will increase his prize pool if he cashes in the tournament. The percentages assigned to each spot in the tournament is the same, but by lowering the casino's take-out from 10% to 5% the new modified pay table for that individual poker player would look like this.

45% 1st place = $3,420
20% 2nd place = $1,520
15% 3rd place = $1,140
8% 4th place = $608
5% 5th place = $380
4% 6th place = $304
2% 7th place = $152
1% 8th place = $76

You can see the dramatic difference in the pay scale for this particular player by reducing the base take-out rate to his new customized 5% take-out rate. Of course the player must "cash" in the tournament to realize the modified pay-out rate. If the customer spends "multiplier" points on a tournament and doesn't cash he will have wasted his multiplier points.

The poker room operator is accustomed to giving their customers comps and other rewards. This is another way for a poker room to reward their customers based on their "live" play. The operator can determine the amount of points they award based on the amount of time the customer plays in their live cash games. For example, 10 hours of live play at a 1-2 NL Hold-em game might equal 1 Multiplier point to be used in a tournament. The poker room operator can be as aggressive as they like with this promotion. If they educate the customer to see how much more value they get by lowering the take-out on tournaments, it will encourage more live play.

What is great for the poker room operator is that the customer will be playing more live cash games to accumulate more multiplier points for tournaments, which will also encourage them to buy into tournaments more often. If the customer does not cash in the tournament the reduction in his take-out is at no consequence to the casino.

The end result for poker room operators is more live play and more tournament buy ins.

Poker: Feature