Playing Bigger?

[detroitpro]

I've recently come back into the game after a 8-10 year layoff. I'm out of school, have a career, a family and a nice house. What incentive do I have to play an event with a 20$ buy-in?

By the way, I'm an avid poker player but I don't play extremely large stakes (300$ buy-in no-limit at the casino).

The "pro" tour has been around for 13 years...with the same qualifying structure and the same payout. I know that pro's exist...but I find it hard to believe that a pro can truly live comfortably, raise a family and be generally well off....unless they play poker too :smile:

Even the "larger" events (SSC and others) have the same low low price of ~20$.

No matter what format you play a competitive deck is not cheap. Why are we so scared to spend money on events but not cards? I'm sure hasbro is happy with that setup and anyone 15-in college is too but is there anyone playing "bigger"?

Are there any 50$ or 100$ buy in events? Hell could I pay 500$ to walk into a pro tour?

Side note: I loved playing for ante "back in the day" I won 3 moxes 2 juzam and a set of duals.

[Jaynel]

What incentive do I have to play an event with a 20$ buy-in?


To have fun playing cards with friends for a few hours? Win some duals? Bragging rights?

[DeathwingZERO]

Magic is not and never has been for the big kids. Poker is that game. I'm pretty certain if anybody put together a $50-100 entry fee, the prizes would have to be staggeringly huge. Seeing that poker events don't need to worry about overheads, and their cost is pretty much only what they choose to pay out, they have much better reasons to pull off that kind of tournament that Magic players can't.

If you honestly expect the average tournament player to pull off spending hundreds on a deck THEN spending hundreds in tournament fees for a few select tournaments, you'd basically be playing against a bunch of pro-tour gone poker players anyways. Nobody else could afford that kind of setup.

And honestly, why would you bother with trying to get more expensive tournaments anyways? At that point you may as well just start trading, you'll get better turnarounds. Big money tournaments like Power 9 and DLDs/DFDs are cheap because they want more people in the game. Higher entry fees will do nothing for the game.

Basically, dont' compare poker to Magic. Poker doesn't have an economy riding on it's success, and Magic doesn't have people willing to shell out $50-100 every few months to scrub out for nothing.

And as for the PT players, I'd say they live quite comfortably. Entry fees, flights, hotels, etc comped or discounted, as well as cash payouts and more tournaments to enter in around the world. The downside to this is that they wouldn't be around for any family they could support, as they'd be on the road just as often as any band.

[Nihil Credo]

If you want the thrill of betting a lot of cash on your Magic skills, the best way to do so is scour the spoilers of each new set and look for sleeper rares to buy a few hundred copies of. Though it's a game you only get to play every three months.

[jazzykat]

An interesting an idea. Get X amount of people together with Y buy in. Everyone can either play the same deck, or bring their creation to the table. Round robin...best record takes all.

I personally enjoy messing about and the math aspect, I don't care about money.

[frogboy]

If you're playing Magic and thinking about hourly rate, you're doing it wrong.

Elaboration: I used to draft most Fridays, because it was an excuse to hang out with my friends. Now, when I'm in town, I rarely draft, because I don't really know any of the guys at the shop and wouldn't particularly enjoy the experience, even though I'm pretty sure my EV is very high.

Paradoxically, I'm a lot more willing to draft in Seattle, despite having lower EV because the regulars at my local store are really good; they're fun to hang out with.

And cubing is superior to any of these.

[Nemcon]

I think people tend to not want to buy cards and put so much in because a lot of people just want better investments. Not wanting to go and shell a few hundred dollars for a deck to use it once and suck with it. Not everyone wants to go and drop 300 dollars every-every other month to pretty much gamble like that. But Legacy at least usually doesn't have as many new cards ...as long as you pick up what goes fast quickly.