MPN has announced an overhaul of its sit and go offering, including removing lower performing games, tweaking the buy-ins and even adding an entirely new format.
Perhaps the most interesting is “Ten Minute Heads Up,” a new heads up sit and go format which, as the name would imply, lasts a maximum of ten minutes. If after this time period both players still have chips, they are forced all in every hand until there is an eventual winner.
According to MPN, which announced the changes on its corporate blog, the idea came “from feedback from players who only had limited time to play but wanted to play with deeper stacks.” Along with the clock countdown, the games have shorter time banks to make decisions. The blinds are fixed at 25/50 for the duration of the game.
The new games are currently spread only at the 11c buy-in level, but if they prove popular, they will be deployed to other stake levels.
It is thought to be the first time this has been tried in a heads up sit and go, though a similar dynamic of forcing players all in after a set time can be observed on 888’s BLAST game, its interpretation of the lottery sit and go formula.
“All in shootout” tournaments, popularized on PokerStars but available on many other sites, use a similar dynamic. However in these, players are forced all in from the start, and the games are basically skill-free ways of distributing prizes randomly.
Cleaning House
Other changes announced by MPN include scrapping many low-performing sit and gos, including all full ring tables.
“For lovers of full ring SNGs, this may sound like a drastic measure, but luckily there are almost no lovers of full ring anymore,” says MPN’s Poker Room Manager, Jonathon Kelly,
Others on the chopping block include some multi-table SNGs and high buy-in non-Hold’em games, which rarely go off, the company stated.
The network is also taking the opportunity to standardize its buy-ins. Currently, every €10 tournament for example, has rake added on top. As this varies based on the speed and structure, it makes for a cluttered lobby of games—with prices of €10.40, €10.60, €10.80 etc.
Instead, the network will set all games to a standardized amount of buy-in and fee: €11, €22, €55, etc and then work back from there. The percentage of rake charged will be the same or less than before across the board, MPN assures.
The network has been consistently improving its online poker offering over the last two years and communicating the changes directly to players and its clients on its new corporate blog. It revamped its weekly tournament schedule last October,and it announced a significant reduction in the effective rake of its lottery sit and go games by slicing the progressive jackpot contribution just before the end of last year.
Just under a year ago, the site revamped its sit and go offerings, reducing rake in many areas and trialing new games.
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