3Dice Tournaments- food for thought

[funeral979]

I would like to start out by saying that this is not a complaint about 3Dice, but just some observations of mine concerning a recent chain of events that I find quite unusual.

When I first started playing at 3Dice, I never really bothered with the tournaments. I never did well with the MG ones, so didn't figure these were worth it. I played a few from time to time....never really getting anywhere. After a few months I finally managed to win one of the VIP war tournaments, and let me tell you it was a great feeling. Only ten bucks, but it was like, "hey! I can win some of these things!!"

So I sort of became a tournament regular, actively participating on average about 6 or 7 a day. I didn't do well, but I managed a few here and there. I even won 2 in one day once. As the weeks went on, I started to get increasingly frustrated. The same names were consistantly (and they still are) winning. I recall a thread Skiny started last year on this subject.....I never read it at the time as I was not involved in the tournaments then. But it was a great read. I am not satisfied that it is an even playing field. Despite the numbers that were brought up in that thread, it is a certainty: The same group always wins more than others.

So one particular night a month or so ago, I decided to shoot an email to Anna, voicing my concern/frustrations. To be honest, I don't care if I win only one a month....I just don't think its fair that the same people win over and over and over. One of the perks of being a VIP is these tournaments. It is something everyone should be able to enjoy. So why do so few really benefit from it? It feels like 10% of the tournament players win 80% of the tournaments. On any given week you can scroll back and look at the previous 7 days winners and see the same names winning 5-10 tournaments a week. Maybe I just have really horrible luck? Do some players enjoy a higher tournament RTP% than others? All of these thoughts I put in my email.

Anna was on chat that night but never replied to my email. Well the next day the strangest thing happened. I won five, yes FIVE tournaments that day!!! 4 VIP tournaments and $25 in a player sponsored tournament. Unbelievable!!! What are the odds of that??? I had won 2 tournaments in a day once, maybe twice...and here it seems I was handed 5 tournaments in one day! This is not an exaggeration....Enzo can confirm this. And my email was never answered....

Anna was on the next 3 nights...still no answer. Whats funny, anytime I had ever emailed her before, I always got a quick reply. There was only one other occurence when she didn't reply to an email and that when my loyalty was not credited. Rather than reply, she simply fixed it for me the next day. So what was I to assume here? No replies to my concerns, just a nice fix....an improbable (for me) 5 tournament wins in a 24 hour period.

Maybe different players can enjoy a higher tournament RTP% ?? Maybe mine was set for 110% that day to even things out for me?? Who knows? Another interesting fact: I would say that a good 75% of my tournament wins are from not slot tourneys. Maybe this is because my slot % is set so low???.....and the table games are more an even playing field.

I have also never won a single prize in a screenshot hunt or chat trivia or any trivia for that matter. Yet you see many players time and time again getting 2 wins in the screenshot hunts so they have to sit out as it is a max 2 wins per hunt.

They had this thing going the other night called chain trivia. I didn't know how to play...as I am guessing many others didn't either...as it was just the regular few answering questions. Apparently whoever answers correctly gets to ask the next trivia question.....I mean, what is to stop them from PMing their buddies the answer to their question so they can win a prize??? One of the regular chatters even noted that it was the same group of winners as the last trivia. How odd is that?? Always 60,70,80 people in chat yet the same 5-10 always win? Of course another of the "regulars" said stop whining and spoiling it for the rest....I had to laugh as this was one of the lucky few who won, and won the last time....yes...why spoil all the free money handed down to the same people.

Again.....I really don't care if I never win....but LETS MAKE IT FAIR. Why should the same small group of people get these benefits meant for EVERYONE. Maybe just give these people who win 20 tournaments every month a free $200 comp at the end of the month and be done with it.

Or maybe use that tournament money and chat money to give players more deposit match bonuses....then EVERYONE could enjoy it.....not just a select few.

Maybe this is all in my head....maybe im incredibly unlucky....but it sure is an unlikely coincidence for me to get 5 tournament wins in a single day...right after voicing my concenrs over it.

Ok rant over.....any thoughts?

[vinylweatherman]

Where the same group keeps on winning something, it proves that there is an element of skill involved.

With trivia, you don't need buddies, just GOOGLE open in a separate window on your PC.

You can't beat them, so JOIN them, and hone your skills to beat them at their own game.

The MGS tournaments have less of an element of skill, but the SAME issue has arisen of the "same players" always seeming to win.

I know how it's done, and every so often I go out of my way to KICK THEIR ASSES to restore some sense of normality, and hopefully have then nursing a group loss in that event.

I have little experience of 3Dice tournaments other than to know that they offer MORE scope for strategy than MGS.

With trivia, and other chat contests, it is almost ALL speed and skill, and this grows with experience. The elite group that keep on winning probably play a great deal in these contests, improving both their speed and their skill.

You winning 5 that day was probably no more than coincidence, although maybe the elites eased off because they thought that if a big fuss was made, the contests would be redesigned to be "fairer".

When it comes to trivia, we have these "Trivia quiz machines" in pubs, and often a group plays them to win money, and they have a mix of specialist subjects that together gives them such a level of "skill" that they have been known to "empty" these machines of money

When I was at university, they had just come out, and students would wander the town in groups, supplementing their meagre incomes by winning money from such machines.

[Nifty29]

I know how it's done, and every so often I go out of my way to KICK THEIR ASSES to restore some sense of normality, and hopefully have then nursing a group loss in that event.

Why not share it?

Everyone could do it which would negate their method completely, or alternately MG could be informed and make any necessary changes. Either way those 'manipulators' lose.

Surely you don't use it to your advantage Vinyl......

[3mptyseat]

@OP, do u play there in real funds as well?

[funeral979]

@OP, do u play there in real funds as well?

Yes I play there for real, though I have eased off depositing quite a bit as of late. If these tourneys and chat games and hunts can be manipulated, who is to say that real play can't be as well?

And as far as skill goes....I don't think so. As was mentioned before in Skiny's thread....there is no skill in playing max bet for one hour. Maybe the table game tournaments have a small element of skill, but I seem to do ok in those....its the slot tournaments I hardly ever win. Sure, on half of them the highest balance wins, not highest peak balance...so you have to know when to stop. But anyone with half a brain who has played a few tournaments has a pretty good idea of when a good time to stop is.

I really think that capping wins on a weekly or monthly basis would be the fair thing to do. I am a frequent depositor (and frequent loser), and should be able to enjoy the same benefits as everyone else (and so should the other 80% who don't win 5+ tourneys a week).

[Jasminebed]

I missed the particular trivia game funeral is talking about, but I usually do well at them. I've been playing trivia for decades, and most of the time google won't help you, someone knows or guesses it before you can search.

With the hunts and the chat trivia, as well as the peak tournaments, a faster machine and graphics card is a real plus. I'm not one to win these often as I've got a pokey machine.

A lot of the same players play a lot. The biggest trick to winning a lot of tourneys is to play a lot of tourneys.

I enjoy the competition and the chat, win or lose.

[funeral979]

I do play alot of tournaments.....probably around 50 or so a week. And I don't think I have a fast computer...maybe middle of the road....but I still manage more spins than almost everyone in the top 10 on peak tourneys.

I wonder if anyone else has won 5 tournaments in a single 24 hour period? I would have chalked it down to unusually good luck.....had it not started literally hours after shooting off my email.

Obviously things went back to normal after that.

[denamoutz]

i for one would also like to know if the casino can set each individuals rtp. I play alot of 3 dice tournaments and lately i haven't been able to win any. Anyone out there know if the casino can do this? Maybe since i don't deposit that much, maybe they lower my rtp?

[chayton]

Ever play a tourney at GoWild? It's the same bloody person winning all of them. Seriously it's ridiculous. I dunno about 3Dice tourneys, I've won a couple and lost a bunch, but I don't play them all. A lot of the people who win all the time are there all the time, so maybe that's it.

I've never had the experience of winning right after complaining about not winning - I wish! Remember that happened to someone who was complaining about not winning a Random Jackpot and then they won one...? Who was it, I can't remember.

But it's probably coincidence - I complain a LOT and I still can't win diddly.

[zap987]

I don't remember if I've won 5 in the same day but I do remember winning 4 vip tournaments in a row at least twice.

While the element of skill in slot tournaments isn't that big, there is still quite a lot of room for mistakes in choice of which slot to play, getting as many spins in as possible and what balance to stop playing at. Table games have even more room for mistakes which gives the smarter players a bigger edge. They already removed gamble from 99% of tournaments because a lot of people didn't understand that you had to use it to win, how far should they go?

There really isn't anything rigged or fishy going in the normal tournaments, it's just some people understand them better and will win a higher % of tournaments entered. Can't speak for chat tournaments but can imagine there is more room for cheating there but I barely join those anymore.

It does make me sad that the first reaction a lot of people have when they lose is to blame the game instead of look at what they can improve to win more but it's the same in every competitive game so not like that is anything specific to casino tournaments.