Poker Sites Take Notice: The Bankroll Builder

It's been a while since I dropped a Poker Sites Take Notice here, so I figured I would put one together. First, let me throw a few words of warning. I haven't really put a ton of thought into this one, just slapped it together all quick like, so if you see a better way to make it work, by all means let me know. These ideas I try to come up with are building blocks and often need adjusting. Also, I'm not inventing the wheel here, just finding a different way to roll it. With that said, I give you The Bankroll Builder.

The concept behind TBB is simple. Use a Steps platform to allow anyone with a small bankroll a chance to build it fast with a very small up-front investment. I've created a couple of examples, but let's go with the cheapest one first.

The starting point is buying into a Step 1, 10-Player SNG for $1 + $.10. Once 7 players are eliminated, the top 3 advance to Step 2, regardless of their chip counts. They can buy into the Step 2 whenever they would like, using the "Step Token" they earned from winning Step 1. Step 2 is a $3 + $.30 SNG and follows the same path as Step 1. At every Step, the prize pool is split among the top 3 finishers accordingly such that their buy-in for the next Step is paid for in Step Tokens. Any excess amounts above and beyond the buy-in and fee is split accordingly between the 3 winners as readily available funds. I'll go into more detail on that in a minute.

The goal with the TBB is to make it to Step 5 and place in the top 3 to earn a large payoff in real money (not "Step Tokens"). Lets take a look at a nifty little graph that might explain the whole system a bit better.

So the concept is pretty simple and is nothing too groundbreaking or original, but as far as I can tell, no sites are offering something like this for newbies or play money players ready to take a chance in the money games. For a $1.10 investment, you get the chance to earn $250, just by staying in the top 30% of 5 SNG's. Yeah, that's a 25,000 % increase on investment.

And as you can see from the graph above, at each of the levels, except Step 4, you earn a small amount of readily available funds. This is just the money that was left over after the buy-in and fee were paid out. Thus, if you make it to Level 4, but do not advance, you have earned $3.13 towards at least 2 more Step 1 entries.

The Pros

-A chance to win $250 with little up-front cost.
-As long as you finish in the Top 3, regardless of chip count, you advance.
-If you make it to level 4, but do not advance, you earn enough to try again at least twice.
-Using the Step/Token system allows players to take shots at higher buy-ins, which they might not do at that point in time on their own. This allows them to give it a try on a $1.10 budget.

The Cons

You have to place "In The Money" in 5 straight SNG's, which is not the easiest task.
You are unable to collect any actual winnings until you place ITM on Step 5.

Final Thoughts

At any given moment, a site like PokerStars has thousands of play money players that may never make the transition to real money games. And how about the many, many players who have only a few dollars left in their account. Even still, there are players who just want a chance to make a huge profit on a small investment. Offering something like this might give players the drive to make the move to money games.

Even better, if the poker site could somehow offer a program where they offer the $1.10 buy-in to play money players that meet certain criteria then it would entice even more players to their real money games. The more people they offer the $1.10 to, the more money they will make in rake/fee from those players that advance at each level. Lots of fees to be collected, and even better that it is a step program with a very cheap entry fee that feeds into higher buy-in events.

So there you have it. I've probably left some pretty gaping holes in my idea or totally forgotten how one little change would make it better/easier, but it is a start. Let's face it, you could do this for any buy-in and it would work, but other sites already offer comparable step programs at those level buy-ins (Party comes to mind). Think of this as baby steps.