A Confusing Sense Of Respect

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It's been ages since I've been here, but I noticed an incredibly smart tactic used by a poker site and very much felt the need to share my strange and unbalanced feelings about it. Obviously the people who make these sites are smart enough to recognize trends and things that are profitable. This is the second poker site at which I've taken advantage of a no deposit sign up bonus, and the first one didn't use this extra step to increase their income, though if they wish to make money they definitely should. In these online tournaments by the time the game starts there's usually a good number of people registered to play. Registration stays open for a while, allowing "late registration" which is the same as being there when it starts except some good players have gotten a head start, and others have played and lost already. Until the registration period closes if you wind up out of chips you can rebuy, and re-enter the game, and usually you can actually double rebuy, meaning you spend twice the money and get twice as many chips to lose. When the registration period ends it generally also means you will no longer be able to rebuy, but in some tournaments when this happens you can purchase an add on. rebuys can usually also be purchased before you run out as long you have less chips than you started with, but an add on doesn't require anything except enough credit in your account. In most cases an add on is the same amount of chips you started with, and costs the same as what you paid to enter the game in the first first place. This new site took it to a whole new level. In a game in which we paid $.20 to enter with 3,00 chips they made the add on offer $.30 for 27,000 chips. At this point there were 28 people still playing, and the average number of chips prior to the add on was approximately 18,000. In other words, if you didn't take the add on offer you had to be much more careful in order to survive, because everyone else would have so much more to gamble with without having to worry about running out of chips. We think we're paying $.20 to enter a fair game, and I suppose it is depending how you look at it, but the prize of making it further than half of the people who entered is actually having to pay more than you bargained for just to keep it fair, and all for what you could call a false sense of security. I consider it to be a devious move by the website, but also truly admire the brilliance of it. When you've spent nearly two hours in a tournament that costs $.20, of course you're willing to spend another $.30 to help keep the playing field even, which I'm sure makes them a lot of money. In the end, I'm just glad I don't have a credit card linked to it because I have a feeling these people would make lots of money from me if I did. Still, I can't help but think of the whole situation like an over dramatized version of chess, which they are winning and that takes a level of intelligence that I find myself unable to not respect.