iPoker network killing mid-high stakes fixed limit games, increasing rake

[Dan Druff]

This isn't necessarily a scam or scandal, or but I'm putting it here because they are changing things and not really being honest about the reasons behind it.

The iPoker network has existed for a long time, and has been relatively scandal-free. I played there in 2006 prior to the passage of the UIGEA, at which point they left the US market. The games there were great back then, but I'm not sure how they are now.

They also quietly own the site pokerstrategy.com. To show how much affiliate sites can be worth, iPoker's parent company Playtech spent $50 million acquiring pokerstrategy in July this year.

Anyway, here is the announcement about the changes to iPoker, via the pokerstrategy site:

http://www.pokerstrategy.com/news/wo...-detail_78962/

If this is difficult to understand, here's a quick summary of the article:

- Games in dollars are being removed. At first glance, this would make sense, as US players cannot play there. However, the US dollar is very much used as a "world" currency, and most sites offer games in dollars, even if US players can't play there. So why remove the US dollar games? I'll explain shortly.

- Limit Holdem (also known as "fixed limit") games of 50/100 and above have been removed. Highest remaining will be 25-50 (Euro).

- All Limit Holdem full-ring games have been removed.

- NL Holdem Heads Up tables of 10/20 and above have been removed. Highest remaining HU NL tables will be 5-10 (Euro).

- All NL Holdem nosebleed limits have been removed, with the exception of 50/100 (Euro) 6-Max and 200/400 (Euro) full ring.

- All Omaha games of 50/100 and higher have been removed. Highest remaining Omaha games will be 25-50 (Euro).


The statement by Pokerstrategy to explain the table removals is this:

On December 02, iPoker will remove several of the unpopular and less cost-effective stakes currently offered.

They do not bother to explain why the US dollar games are being removed.

So let's break this down.

First, why remove the US dollar games? There can only be one reason for this, and that's a hidden rake increase.

What do I mean by a hidden rake increase? The max rake at each table will remain the same in number of units, but the currencies will be changing.

For example, the high limit US dollar games currently have a max rake of $3, which is standard. Now the max rake will be 3 euros. The euro is worth $1.35 at the time of this post, making the rake increase by 35%!

However, they hope the player simply won't notice this, as they will still see "3" raked from their pot, just as before. Dirty. They have a right to raise rake, but they should be honest about it. Rather than simply boosting the rake by 35% (and showing $4 taken from those pots, instead of $3), they are eliminating the cheapest currency so it can be done without many noticing.

Now, what about the removal of the tables?

They claim that the stakes being removed are "less cost-effective" to the company. This is nonsense. It costs almost zero to keep empty tables running on a server.

In reality, they are likely removing many of the higher stakes games for two reasons:

1) Remove "clutter" from the lobby, to where fewer empty tables appear, thus making the site look more busy.

2) Avoid the situation where amateurs dump their bankroll off too quickly at higher stakes. The site doesn't like this, because they make a lot less rake on that money.

#2 is likely especially because they are killing a lot of HU NL tables (all the way down to 10/20), where amateurs have the least chance to win. They are probably removing the upper fixed limit tables for the same reason, as amateurs in those games typically don't understand the difference in strategy at limit versus no limit, and get crushed by the experienced pros very quickly. I am guessing the same applies to Omaha, which is a tough game to succeed in if you don't understand it well.

#1 is also likely, as they are removing a number of high and mid-limit full ring tables. These are never popular, as pros prefer 6-max or less (because their edge is greater). The site probably just doesn't want lobby clutter, as these games probably hardly go.

My overall feeling: This isn't terrible, but the backdoor rake increase is really dirty, and the removal of the tables is yet another assault on the online poker grinder.

[Steve-O]

the removal of the USD tables was to consolidate the games and traffic at specific stakes. There were a lot (well not a lot but enough) USD tables with a couple of players sitting out. and the same was happening on Euro and GBP tables, so the thinking is by dropping USD tables those players will move into the other player currency tables and increase the number of tables running and producing rake. Obv, with zero US players the USD tables were the least trafficked.

Same with the high stakes tables, they'd rather consolidate the player pools at the mid-limits than have 20 high-stakes tables open (with four players all sitting out) with nobody playing. Do away with the tables and the high stakes players either move down to the available limits and produce rake or leave the network.