Minimum Required Hands and Modified King of the Hill Ideas Up for Debate
PokerStars last week decided to start an open discussion on the twoplustwo heads up nl forums about potential changes to the heads up cash lobbies. The two ideas being debated are a minimum amount of hands required to play if you are sat at a heads up cash table (or you would have to pay a small penalty) and a modified king of the hill format, where players compete for a limited amount of visible tables.
The main problem with the current heads up cash lobby system is that many players sit down at a table, but very few players will play when another non recreational player sits them. Therefore, the lobby is left with many players looking for games only against the very weakest players. This becomes a major problem when players that would not ordinarily be able to play as high of stakes in a competitive environment, simply move up stakes in heads up cash to prey upon the weakest players. In better designed formats such as heads up sit and go, a player always has to play at least one game against the player who decides to join them. This creates some natural competition and is generally considered to be a pretty good bar to entry into the games. When games are plentiful, the best regulars will avoid weaker regulars. When there are less recreational players around, the best players will more often decide to play against weaker regulars. In heads up cash, when less recreational players are around, very few games are played. This is bad for the efficiency of the poker room, and also discourages competition among strong players.
Full information about these two proposals can be found in the twoplustwo thread and users are encouraged to post their own comments and preferences.
I may not have come up with this idea (and even if I was the first, which isn't even terribly likely, it's one of those common solutions in my mind), but I've been advocating publicly for the first solution (minimum # hands) for several years now. I really think it's a great solution that solves a lot of the main problems with the lobby system without restricting the amount of tables (king of the hill) or separating players into restrictive skill based categories and tiers (other poker rooms).
This is an excerpt from an e-mail I sent to BCP about the HU cash lobby 10/20-25/50 a few weeks ago.
"However, more needs to be done. Guys like XY and ZY sit every table type and when I join a short table, they play ONE hand if they got the button first and 2 hands if I got the button first. Thus, I am always at a disadvantage if I try to play them. These guys sit all day waiting for a fish and otherwise refuse action. If there was some way to force the player who made the table to play more, we'd generate more rake and make the site more desirable due to more HU action instead of just guys bumhunting.
Here are some of my proposed solution:
1. software enforced BUTTON EQUALIZER
This means if I sit someone and I am not on the button, he can't just sit out immediately after playing his button. Instead, sitting out would ONLY BE ALLOWED once EACH player has had an EQUAL NUMBER OF BUTTONS for that table. I think this is a very elegant solution that would stop giving the first player such a massive advantage. However, it would also be more fair for both players. If I was randomly dealt the button first after sitting one of them, I also can't sit-out immediately after playing the button. Another hand would need to be played for fairness.
I am amazed that this isn't implemented on any sites as it would so cleverly stop giving bumhunters a huge advantage and make the game more enjoyable while also generating more rake. It's also not intrusive or that surprising and easy to understand.
Regardless of any other suggestions, I think this should be implemented and has no downsides.
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2. An expansion of #1 is to have a minimum of 10 hands etc. required once a heads-up match starts. Sitting out would only be allowed once the minimum hands are reached and each player has had an equal number of buttons.
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