My post wasn't meant to slam a particular individual, maybe I should have been a little more careful in the exact language used. Maybe English needs a way to distinguish between the singular "you" and the generic, plural "you".
Over the last few years I have seen many, many posts on this site, slamming casinos for running negative ev tourneys, not adding money to tourneys, wanting too much in rake, etc etc etc; also posts whining that the prize pool has to be huge compared to buyin or people shouldn't play, etc. I have seen posts advising that no one should play in any tourney that is not positive ev, etc. Over and over again.
The same people always seem to also want tournaments that emphasize skillful play, and are open to all players, not just high roller invitees; and also, please, comp everything.
This attitude, that BJT should be some big give away by the casino, that skilled players can then come in and cream the giant money added prize pools and suck up the great comps, and that anything else is somehow unfair, is exactly why we don't have good, skill based, open tournaments.
Casinos will run open to all BJT using a format that emphases skillful play,when they can do so and make a profit at it, just like they make on poker, or any other game. The statement about poker tournaments having money added? Well, some, a very few, do, but the vast majority of poker tournaments have a very high rake. Rakes of 10% to as much as 25% in poker tournaments are quite common, much, much more common than tourneys with money added. Even the WSOP has an 8% rake. Harrah's doesn't run the WSOP as a promotion or for the publicity, they run it because they make millions off of it. The PR is just a bonus for them, that and the spin off merchandising; but, the tournaments themselves are very, very big money makers for Harrah's, and that is why they put them on.
The size of the prize pool compared to the buyin is not really an issue, or shouldn't be. If the rake is fair, then the payoffs will be proportionate to prize pool and buyin. If you have an edge through skills, that edge will still be there.
If we want big prize pools, then the way to get them is to get a lot of people to play, then the buyins will add up to a big prize pool .. duh ...
The only way to get a big prize pool to buyin ratio without a lot of players is for the house to add money and create an overlay. Once the house does that, it is running a promotion, not a competitive tournament, and that is the very last thing we want to see in TBJ. When a casino or web site runs a promotion, they want payback, and that means catering to their high value high roller customers, banning skillful players, screwing up the rules and format to make it as much a lottery as possible, and generally doing everything that makes TBJ as unplayable and worthless as possible. The ultimate goal for any casino that runs TBJ as a promotion is to turn it into a giant high roller only slot tournament, because that's what pays off for them.
Poker players accept raked tournaments, prize pools determined by entries, and +ev edge created by skillful play, not overlays; that's why casinos and web sites can make money off poker. Since they can make money off of poker, they have poker. When we can create an environment where they make money off of TBJ, they will give us good TBJ. Until they can make money off of it, they won't.
When we accept a reasonable rake, are willing to let prize pools come from entry fees and be sized by the number of players entering, and until we are confident that our edge comes from play, not casino give aways, and let play decide the ev, then we will see TBJ start growing and get good tournaments, because the casinos will benefit from doing that.
Advocating for anything else, or complaining about negative ev, rake, smaller prize pools because the casino won't add money to the pot, guarantees that don't generate overlays through being overly generous, etc. just hurts TBJ, and fosters exactly the attitudes that convince casinos not to offer decent TBJ.
Simple recipe for encouraging casinos and web sites to offer an expansive line up of skill based TBJ tournaments: be willing to put up your money on an equal basis with every other player, be willing to pay a fair rake so the casino can cover their costs and make a profit, and be willing to let the outcome be determined by comparative skill, and be willing to let your profit/loss be determined by comparative skill. That's how poker works, and it has been successful.
After all, the URL now goes to the Department of Justice!