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They plan on introducing the new format, which is going to pay 50% of the field, at the PokerStars Caribbean Aventure in 2015.
Lee Jones shared the details of the idea in the PokerStars blog, where he reminds us that the trend that 10% of the players in the field get paid is already a big jump from the early WSOP events, which were played in a winner take all format.
He brings up an example where the top prize of the PCA is $1.5 million. If they used $300,000 from the top prize to pay 15 more people an extra $20,000, and give the winner $1.2 million, the winner would probably feel just as lucky as they would feel if they shipped the tournament for $1.5 million, but the 15 extra players who were paid would get a great memory and experience too, motivating them to take part in more events and create bigger fields.
The Double Bubble format would pay back the buy-in to half of the field once 50% of entrants have busted, and would have an 8% structure payout instead of the usual 10%.
Jones states that these kind of tournaments are unlikely to come with huge first place prizes, but it might invite in players who are just looking to have some fun, have a realistic chance at making the money, and still have the thrill of the final table and getting a nice score.
The tournament format is going to be tested at next year's PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, then PokerStars will decide how to progress with these kinds of events.