In this model each person must recruit two others, but the ease of achieving this is offset because the depth required to recoup any money also increases.

The model defines four tiers using terms such as "captain", "co-pilot", "crew", and "passenger" to denote a person's level. The scheme requires a person to recruit two others, who must each recruit two others, who must each recruit two others. Other euphemisms may be used such as the "Dinner Club" variant which refers to the tiers as "dessert", "main course", "side salad", and "entree". A person on the "dessert" course is the one at the top of the tree.

Whichever euphemism is used, there are 15 people total in the scheme - the person at the top of this tree is the "captain", the two below are "co-pilots", the four below are "crew" and the bottom eight joiners are the "passengers".

The eight passengers must each pay a sum (e.g. $1000) to join the scheme. This sum (e.g. $8000) goes to the captain who leaves, with everyone remaining moving up one tier. There are now two new captains so the group splits in two with each group requiring eight new passengers. A person who joins the scheme as a passenger will not see a return until they exit the scheme as a captain. This requires that 14 others have been persuaded to join underneath them.

As such, the bottom 3 tiers of the pyramid always lose their money when the scheme finally collapses. Consider a pyramid consisting of tiers with 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 members. The highlighted section corresponds to the previous diagram.

If the scheme collapses at this point, only those in the 1, 2, 4 and 8 got out with a return. The remainder in the 16, 32, and 64 tier lose everything. 112 out of the total 127 members or 88% lost all of their money.

The figures also hide the fact that the confidence trickster would make the lion's share of the money. They would do this by filling the first 3 tiers (with 1, 2, & 4 people) using phony names ensuring they get the first 7 payouts at 8 times the buy-in sum without paying a single penny themselves. So if the buy-in were $1000, they would receive $56,000, paid for by the first 56 investors. They would continue to buy in underneath the real investors, and promote and prolong the scheme for as long as possible to allow them to skim even more from it before the collapse.