What am I missing on the vig at Pokerstars

I have finally "won" my way to higher limits at online poker. Part of the reason is I do fairly well at the new "double up" format, but all that doesn't matter.

Pokerstars has the following buyins and vig:

$5 + .20

$10 + .40

$15 + $1.00

so at the lower levels you are paying 4% but at the higher level it is 6.7%, or over 50% more.

Am I missing something or is maybe Pokerstars trying to get the math-challenged demo??

You aren't missing anything. They just start using round numbers the higher you go.

I gotta assume that online poker rooms charge with a similar logic as real poker rooms.

It's got little to do with the size of the portion going into the prize pool, and lots to do with the cost of running the tourney.

The fee portion of a tourney buy in is related more to the expected duration and staff requirements to run it.

So the higher the fee, the longer the blind levels, the less they increase each level, the more the starting chips, etc.

Also factored into it, is once they get your fee, you're not playing in a regular raked game for as long as you're in the tourney.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

I gotta assume that online poker rooms charge with a similar logic as real poker rooms.

It's got little to do with the size of the portion going into the prize pool, and lots to do with the cost of running the tourney.

The fee portion of a tourney buy in is related more to the expected duration and staff requirements to run it.

So the higher the fee, the longer the blind levels, the less they increase each level, the more the starting chips, etc.

Also factored into it, is once they get your fee, you're not playing in a regular raked game for as long as you're in the tourney.

None of that really factors into online fees. Theoretically, a single $5500+$200 9-man tourney takes the same server resources as a single $2+25¢ 9-man tourney, whereas live, the high roller tourneys would require better dealers, better floor, etc., which would have a higher cost. Alternatively, some of the largest (and therefore resource intensive) daily tourneys on Full Tilt (my site of choice) are $1+0 (basically loss leaders). Also, there's nothing stopping you from playing ring and tourneys at the same time online; lots of players do exactly that. I think the logic behind fees is "We can get 3.6% entry fee for this tourney, so that's what we'll charge."

Quote: wildqat

None of that really factors into online fees.

Of course, you're right. But the online poker rooms would at least model their fee structure based upon real card rooms, on the assumption that poker players are used to paying fees in that range. I.E. The real poker rooms determine what is reasonable, the online poker sites follow.

Generally the fee will go down, but you will find some outliers due to rounding.

I don't play the Double Or Nothings(I stick to 180mans/45mans), but my advice would be to play the $10.40s and then skip the $16 level for the next level(assuming the fee is lower as a %).

The fees are a huge thing in SNGs, particularly in a format like the DONs where your ROI is extremely low.