Micha's Poll Results
After reading the posts in this thread I reviewed the posts following Micha's original "Secret Bet" comment (poll question?), there was one by a fairly new member of this forum stating "a secret bet would be fun" and one by an Executive Member saying they were against it. Micha, the nay's equaled the yea's.
I have not played a single 1 on 1 duel since the secret bet was implemented and refuse to do so in the future, the final hand strategy/bet should require skill, grey matter use and techniques learned from prior play (taking the low, surrender etc.) not just blindly making max bets.
As far as a secret bet in the UBT comparing to this secret bet, in the UBT it is played in a hand of each player's discretion/timing not mandatory in the final hand for all players.
I recall someone from Global stating when the prize money was reduced from 3 players to 2 it was done to help players gain strategy experience for land based tournaments where 2 players advance to the next round. This final hand secret bet can only help players learn to make max bets.
My vote is SMASH the secret bet.