The MPN network, until recently running as Microgaming, has officially announced a radical restructuring of its Bad Beat Jackpot (BBJ) system. The new, licensed structure allows players of any €0.10/€0.20 tables and above to decide if they want to participate in the promotion and can opt in or out anytime they wish. In case a player opts in, their contribution to the BBJ promotion is a humble €0.02 per hand.
Minimum requirements of taking down the jackpot have been lowered: now, a four of fours or a better hand is enough to lose with in order to win the jackpot, while players are still required to use both cards in the hand to be eligible for the win. Earlier, the weakest hand to win with was a four of eights.
From now on, every player who participates in the promotion and plays the given stake receives a small reward, once the jackpot is hit. The administration fee of 10% has been removed. The aim of the restructuring was to clear any misunderstandings and problems around the Bad Beat Jackpot, without having to withdraw the promotion altogether.
Major problems arose from the fact players were forced to choose between BBJ and non-BBJ tables, which split the pool and decreased liquidity. Another issue was the very small percent of players actually winning the huge jackpots. With the lowering of the “loosing hand requirement”, however, the number of winners can significantly grow.
The MPN jackpot will soon reach €800,000, the second biggest jackpot of this kind ever, right after the €1.25 million BBJ of Boss Media that was hit in July, 2011 by a lucky player. This can mean increased opt-in willingness from players in the period leading up to the big win.
Due to the problems listed above, the popularity of the BBJ has dropped dramatically in the recent period. Several rooms and networks, including PartyPoker, have closed their BBJ tables; in fact, they remain available only at MPN, Boss Media and smaller networks, including Winning Poker and Dollaro.
The changes implemented by Microgaming seem to offer a solution to these problems, which can assure the presence of the BBJ in the network even in the long run in a less harmful way, as far as the gaming experience is concerned.
“The trend in the industry has been to remove jackpots altogether, which is a shame. Poker is a skill game, but even poker players like a shot at a jackpot prize every now and then,” Microgaming head of network games, Lydia Melton commented.
Minimum requirements of taking down the jackpot have been lowered: now, a four of fours or a better hand is enough to lose with in order to win the jackpot, while players are still required to use both cards in the hand to be eligible for the win. Earlier, the weakest hand to win with was a four of eights.
From now on, every player who participates in the promotion and plays the given stake receives a small reward, once the jackpot is hit. The administration fee of 10% has been removed. The aim of the restructuring was to clear any misunderstandings and problems around the Bad Beat Jackpot, without having to withdraw the promotion altogether.
Major problems arose from the fact players were forced to choose between BBJ and non-BBJ tables, which split the pool and decreased liquidity. Another issue was the very small percent of players actually winning the huge jackpots. With the lowering of the “loosing hand requirement”, however, the number of winners can significantly grow.
The MPN jackpot will soon reach €800,000, the second biggest jackpot of this kind ever, right after the €1.25 million BBJ of Boss Media that was hit in July, 2011 by a lucky player. This can mean increased opt-in willingness from players in the period leading up to the big win.
Due to the problems listed above, the popularity of the BBJ has dropped dramatically in the recent period. Several rooms and networks, including PartyPoker, have closed their BBJ tables; in fact, they remain available only at MPN, Boss Media and smaller networks, including Winning Poker and Dollaro.
The changes implemented by Microgaming seem to offer a solution to these problems, which can assure the presence of the BBJ in the network even in the long run in a less harmful way, as far as the gaming experience is concerned.
“The trend in the industry has been to remove jackpots altogether, which is a shame. Poker is a skill game, but even poker players like a shot at a jackpot prize every now and then,” Microgaming head of network games, Lydia Melton commented.
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