Firstly I'm not sure if changes can be made to how the tables work, so this is with the hope they can be.

These are also tournament based changes.

1st change... Players that have been inactive on the table for a period of time (15mins, 30mins, 1hour) are kicked and their current chips go to the house/table/dealer.

This change is to counter the fact that someone can win a few hands and sit to be paid out if the tourney finishes when they are in a position to be paid out. It has happened before, and other players have spoken about it.

2nd change... Pay out positions extend from top 3 (to top 5 depending on amount of people signed up to the Saturday tournament, or in general).

Some tourneys go a fair few hours, and to just miss out after sitting that long (mainly 4th and 5th) with a big group of players is a little hectic.

I just came 2nd in a two table tourney and amassed 5.1mil chips/MR monies. I'd be happy for part of this to have gone to 4th and 5th places.

Some calculations...

If 20 people sign up to the Saturday poker event, it's a total of 15mil to be won (I hope my calculations are right, if not I'd be happy to be corrected). Currently, if it's just top 3 that get paid out then 1st place of 20 would get 7.5mil (50%), 2nd place 4.5mil (30%) and 3rd place 3mil (20%).

If it slides to a top 5 pay out then it would look like this with 20 entrants: 1st = 6mil (40%), 2nd = 3.75mil (25%), 3rd = 3mil (20%), 4th = 1.5mil (10%) and 5th = 750k (5%).

So basically, 5th position get's back their buy-in fee, 4th doubles up and 3 through 1 still make a healthy profit.

With one full table (10 entrants) and a top 5-player payout structure...

Total buy-ins = 7.5mil

1st = 3mil (40%), 2nd = 1.875mil (25%), 3rd = 1.5mil (20%), 4th = 750k (10%), 5th = 375kl (5%).

With 16 entrants and a top 5-player payout structure...

Total buy-ins = 12mil

1st = 4.8mil (40%), 2nd = 3mil (25%), 3rd = 2.4mil (20%), 4th = 1.2mil (10%), 5th = 600k (5%).

In conclusion...

I propose that if the number of entrants exceeds 20, and it's possible to code this in, then the top 5 players are paid out based on the 40%, 25%, 20%, 10%, 5% payout structure.  

I'd even be happy that it extends to top 5 regardless of entrants, even if 5th place only gets back a portion of their buy-in.

Negatives:

1st change... People who are inactive for long periods of time and want to return may not like this, but who really enters a tournament laying down 750k intending to be inactive for half an hour plus of it.

2nd change... The top 3 players will get less of the total buy-ins if the payouts go to a top 5-player structure. Yet, in the spirit of the game and time played at the table I think people would understand, even if it means 5th place only get's a portion of their buy-in back. It's at least something, and the top 3 will still make a healthy profit.

Just some changes I think would make the game work a little better. All input, comments, both positive and negative encouraged :)

Cheers!

I love the first idea for the change. I have played poker a couple of times and it happens that a person would win a big hand and sit out for the rest of the game until they need to come back in.

However, I think personally that we should keep the prizes the same: the top 3. This is just a question of personal preference. 

Cheers for your input :) +1 for the first change, -1 for the 2nd.

Nice suggestions, but I believe the poker feature is provided by another company/team so I don't know if these changes could actually be implemented..?

Yeah my thoughts too, although there may be options within the tournament itself that can be altered, which I'm hoping is the case.