So hard to fill a table

[Scatterplot]

I come on at various different times, and pay for the premium, but it is still so hard to fill a table. Often, after trying and waiting for so long that I have to keep preventing my phone from locking, I give up and go to a different game. When are people playing? It's really hard to advance in ranking when it's so difficult to even fill a table for a game.

[xoxoirene]

Agree

[boenthoe]

I think the player pools are partly segregated, because once you reach the elite league, you don't want to play against players from the other leagues.

Does anybody have an idea how the hidden "payout structure" is calculated in arena matches? It's not "winner takes all" as the game suggests, as you're trying to earn Arena points. Mostly it's about surviving, not getting 1st, but if you don't know the payout structure, you can't make the right ICM-decisions (independent chip model).

To make it truly winner takes all would make things much simpler. 2nd 3rd and 4th position would give the same ranking penalty in points.

[Jellby]

once you reach the elite league, you don't want to play against players from the other leagues.

Maybe, but that's wrong. Once you reach elite, the leagues don't matter, only the EAS (elite arena score) matters, and there's no guarantee that it will be higher for elite players than for other leagues.

Does anybody have an idea how the hidden "payout structure" is calculated in arena matches?

Yes: https://boardgamearena.com/faq?anchor=f ... sarenawork

[Semprini72]

Obviously the OP is not talking about arena games. Arena tables are only 4 players and fill quite quickly. Sometimes in the middle of the night it might take more than 10 minutes but rare to wait more than 5 minutes.

If you are having trouble filling a table, you probably are trying to get an 8 player table or you have some weird setting like max stack sizes or non-winner-take-all or something.

6 players is a good size and will fill at high traffic time of day within 10-15 minutes, especially if you have friends online to invite a couple. Keep your starting stacks at 200 or 500 chips, or just 200 chips with gradual blinds increase. That's a good normal game. If filling the table quickly for some quick action is your main goal, stick to 4 players and 200 or 100 chips stacks.