Bill's Poker Blog

Pain for Full Tilt Players Caused by Software Update

2009-07-12T22:49:05-07:00

I haven’t been playing much recently but I went to login to the Full Tilt software on my Mac and I received the normal “Yo, we need to upgrade your software, dude” (I might be paraphrasing there) message. Nothing too much of note there since I had read that Tilt had made some major upgrades. I hit OK and went about my work since I tend to be a little ADD I eventually forgot about it.

Sometime later I remembered that I had done an upgrade and clicked on my Full Tilt icon. It tells me that I have to do an update. WTF?!? Okay, maybe something screwed up and it wasn’t installed correctly. So I go through the motions again and again no update to my software.

Okay, maybe the updater is broken. That’s happened at Tilt a few times and you eventually have to go to the site and re-download so that’s what I did. Except it wouldn’t download. WTF?!?!

I had an appointment that afternoon so I forgot about it and went on with my life.

A few days later I give it another whack and now the software downloads but my Mac is telling me it doesn’t recognize the .dmg image file.

Wash, rinse, repeat another few days later. Again, unrecognized file type.

I start looking around for information and stumble across several threads on 2+2 (somebody should really clean up those threads before someone trips and breaks their neck) and it looks like this update has been a total disaster. Everything from timeout issues to flickering and even some unconfirmed reports of 8 card flops.

Maybe being unable to download the software might be a good thing.

But rather than taking a dig at my former compatriots I just wanted to say that having been on the other side of some disaster releases I’m sure people are doing everything they can. Unfortunately, the people who are the public interface typically are as stressed and freaked out as the players. Nobody walks into the office and says “I would like the next several days of my life to turn into a living hell with people abusing me in public forums.” Except for me. I love abuse but I’m sick like that.

From the player’s perspective it all seems so easy to fix. But sometimes a major release is an even more major pain to unwind. I think someone was on one of the 2+2 threads suggesting that Tilt simply go back to the pre-broken version and that sounds like a perfectly reasonable solution.

I don’t know what happened. I haven’t spoken to anybody at Tilt regarding this. But my guess would be that they made major changes on the server side that would take just as long to unwind to a previous version as it would be to fix them. Sometimes there is a point of no return. That’s especially true when an upgrade involves any sort of change to what data is collected, how it’s stored, or a change to the data schema.

Going back means taking all of the newly collected data and porting it back to the old system. And guess who would be writing all the scripts and such to port the data back? The same guys who could be working on fixing the problem.

I’m not sure if that’s an answer anyone wants to hear but it’s not always as easy as it sounds.

Photocred to alemaxale

Thanks for reading Bill's Poker Blog. You might want to check out his other sites:

Poker Job Search is a resource for people who are looking to get started in the online poker industry.

Rakeback Report Get the best rakeback deals from the biggest online poker sites. Learn how you can make a living playing poker.

Full Tilt on the Mac Shhhhhhhhhhhh . . . don’t tell anyone but Full Tilt...
Full Contact Poker Statement to US Players Attention U.S. players: As you probably know by now,...
Full Tilt Poker Website Redesign Full Tilt Poker who hasn’t really made any material changes...

Drawing to a Pair

2009-07-12T20:13:36-07:00

Well, I haven’t had much time for writing but I thought I would give a small update before I had back to Bangkok.

Thursday evening I did my first Thai class. Pretty basic stuff. Introducing yourself and saying where you’re from.

I have three other people in my class. One guy is German and is a travel writer who was initially sent to Thailand for three months and has now been in country three years. The other two are African. One from Ghana and the other from Sierra Leone.

I think I’ll learn a lot in the class but I do find it a bit frustrating. The school seems to have concocted their own phonetics which don’t really match to how I’m used to seeing Thai.

For instance, the teacher writes “May” when I’m used to seeing the same word transliterated as “Mai.” Technically, according to the sounds they’ve assigned each letter “May” would be correct but to anybody who speaks English it is too easy to pronounce it like the month May when in actuality it is supposed to be pronounced like “Mai-Tai” with “Mai” being the standard transliteration used by most people. In fact, if I wrote “May” instead of “Mai” when chatting or texting a Thai friend they probably wouldn’t understand it. And if Thais don’t understand it and farangs misread it as the month of “May” then it seems like a pretty awkward system to use.

I guess I’ll adapt.

I think the two African guys are going to have a tough time of the class. They didn’t really seem to get the whole concept. We were going through the examples and in the first part they introduce you to characters you’ll see in the rest of the book. Then the instructor asks you the same questions about yourself (name, nationality, job, etc). One of the characters is named Somchai and the two African dudes kept saying their name was Somchai. When they were told that was wrong the one said his name was Somchai Justin. The teacher gave up and we moved on.

So, class finished around 7:40pm and my friend was supposed to arrive at 7pm. I headed down to the Big Mango Bar on Soi 4 (Nana) to get something to eat and wait for his call. Around 8:30 I finally got a text from him saying that he tried calling but no luck. He and his brother were already on their way down to Pattaya.

I headed home to pick up my bag and then caught a taxi.

So an hour later we roll into Pattaya and the taxi driver stops on Soi 8 and says my hotel is down that road. Well, I’m no expert on Thai street naming conventions but I said “Soi 8, Beach Road” and there’s no beach! I mean, if I told him I wanted to go to “Out in the middle of nowhere road” then this might be the place. But with “beach” in the name and being a costal town I better see some water. It’s not like it’s the main road that runs along the beach or anything.

I tell him “No, no. Beach Road. Water. Soi 8 near the water.” We drive around some more and he finally asks a motorcycle taxi where Beach Road is. Eventually I’m safely deposited at my destination.

I hadn’t booked anything because I didn’t know where my friend was going to be staying and just assumed that this being low season and tourism being so bad this year it wouldn’t be any problem getting a room. My friend had pinged me to let me know he got a room at the Eastiny Inn. I think the rooms were 1000 baht a night (about $28). When I checked in they told me that they had arranged for a room next to the two rooms my friends were staying in. Nice customer service considering none of us had reservations.

For the most part I’d recommend the place for an inexpensive hotel with good service and facilities. The staff was always outstandingly polite and helpful. The rooms are pretty basic and there is only free internet in the lobby but if you’re just looking for a place to crash then this is the place.

Right on queue, as I’m checking in my friends stroll in. I throw my stuff in the room and head out into the night for what would quickly become a long alcohol fueled evening.

You know what kind of weekend you’re going to have when you’re nursing a hangover and your friend says, “I feel sorry for those people who don’t drink or smoke because when they wake up in the morning that’s the best they’re going to feel all day. At least I have something to look forward to.”

We stopped in this one bar one afternoon that was right up the road from a place called Kittens. My friend from kept insisting we had to go to Kittens later so I was a little surprised when I went outside for some fresh air and a smoke and the manager of the bar we were at told me that it was a transsexual bar.

Bar Manager: I wonder what they’re building over there in the tranny bar.

Me: Which one?

Bar Manager: That one. Kittens and Obsessions.

Me: Really? Ladyboy bars?

Bar Manager: Yeah.

Me: Kittens? My friend has been telling me we have to stop by that place later.

Bar Manager: Well, he’s either taking the piss out of you or he likes ladyboys.

So I go back inside and I tell my friend.

Me: Dude Kittens is a ladyboy bar.

Friend: No

Me: That’s what the manager just told me. Ladyboys.

Friend: No. I’ve been there several times. Never seen a ladyboy there.

Me: Maybe you did but you didn’t know.

So we ramble on down to Kittens and sure enough it’s packed with guys who chose to endure the cruelest of cuts. My friend was pale. Not that the site of ladyboys is overly strange in Thailand but because he knew I wasn’t going to let this one go unpunished.

Eventually we would find out that they kept the same name but changed the target market several months back. My friend claimed that this redeemed him but when you’ve got such good material to work with there’s no way that the truth is going to get in the way.

Everywhere we went I would wait for him to go to the bathroom or become distracted and then I would get the bartender or other staff girls to ask my friend if he liked ladyboys. Soon a good chunk of the staff would be in on it and girls would come up to him all night asking if liked ladyboys. He would look up and shoot daggers at me as he tried to explain that he didn’t like ladyboys to whoever asked. I would just shrug my shoulders and pretend I had nothing to do with it.

I said I would wait to pass judgment on Pattaya until I had finally been here so now I can.

It’s both better and worse than I expected. I think my suspicions about it attracting the worst type of farang are spot on. I’ve never seen such a diverse collection of way-past-their-prime old men walking around with their shirts off to expose their disgusting beer bellies. I think a lot of people just come down here and lose all touch with what’s acceptable behavior.

The beaches were what I expected. Lots of trash and garbage littering what otherwise might be a nice place to take in some sun and relax. And that’s just the foreigners. Heeyaa! Seriously, the beach isn’t any place I would like to spend any time. And staring out at huge cargo ships all day isn’t exactly paradise. Thailand has so many awesome beaches that to see Pattaya beach is somewhat shocking.

The thing I was positively surprised about was that the bar scene was not as aggressive as I had imagined it to be. I thought it would be like a massive city of Patpongs with touts and scammers everywhere. Some places were better than others but for the most part people were friendly and low key. The one bar we found out about the ladyboys at the manager said he forbids the staff to hassle customers for drinks. And sure enough, not a single person asked. We offered but were never asked. Same could be said about a few other places we went to. Not a single person tried to work us for free drinks.

In fact, at this beer bar across the road from the hotel I laid a wager on a dice game with the bartender. I win, she buys me a beer. If she wins I buy her a drink of her choosing. The game we played isn’t really skill based so it was a bit lucky that I won the first two times out of the gate. Usually you might play 5 or 10 rounds before someone wins but I hit both. And she paid up the beer!!! That almost never happens. Sure, they want paid when they win but when you win they always look for a way to weasel out of paying. And to top it off she wanted to pay up the second beer she owed me but I told her I didn’t want to take her money. Hell, she probably makes less than $300 a month. In fact, I tipped her enough to cover the beer she did buy for me.

When you get stiffed in Thailand it’s not about the money because we’re usually talking a couple of bucks. It’s just the whole idea that they’re being dishonest.

But like I said, some places are better than others. At one place we popped into we stayed for a few rounds and the owner asked if I could buy her a drink. I said “What the hell” and as she slipped the check into my bin I stole a glance and saw that she ordered herself a 170 baht drink while the other drinks were about 100 or 110. No need to argue about it because I did agree but that was that last drink I bought there.

And there were three of us so that’s a good 300 baht per round and we might have stayed another round or two so 600 baht total. Plus we were buying drinks for the staff so we’re looking at a loss of over 1000 baht in income to stick it to me for 60 baht. If there’s one thing I’ll never understand about Thai bars is how short-sighted they are. There’s a saying often used in poker that you can shear a sheep many times but you can only slaughter him once. A lot of places just don’t get it.

But that’s sort of Thai bar economics which work on a completely different system than any normal economics. Tourism is at an all-time low. Even though this is the slow season, normally many hotels would have 30% – 40% occupancy rates. This year some are as low as 10%. There are “For Sale” signs up on nearly every road. Less tourists and more frugal expats means everybody’s hurting. Yet, in Thailand that just means you raise your prices. If there are less customers you have to make more per customer.

I have a hard time figuring out whether that’s part of the allure of this place or one of the things that will eventually drive me insane.

So the final verdict is:

If you’re looking for a boozey holiday where it’s a party 24/7 then Pattaya might be for you. It’s cheaper than the nightlife districts in Bangkok and probably less hassle prone.

If you’re looking for a relaxing weekend on a white sand beach and tropical breezes then stay away. Go to Samed, Samui, Phuket, Hua Hin, or any of the hundreds of other spots where you can enjoy some peace and quiet with some breathtaking views.

Photocred to Roman Lashkin

Thanks for reading Bill's Poker Blog. You might want to check out his other sites:

Poker Job Search is a resource for people who are looking to get started in the online poker industry.

Rakeback Report Get the best rakeback deals from the biggest online poker sites. Learn how you can make a living playing poker.

Frenchmen Arrested for Poker Playing A friend in Thailand sent me this story from...
Kicking it Old School Last night I went out with a bunch of...
The Art of the Scam I’ve always told people that I never worried about getting...

Poker Affiliate University

2009-07-12T19:27:07-07:00

I just wanted to give a quick shout-out to Jeremy Enke and give people a heads-up about his new site Poker Affiliate University. It’s a really great resource that tries to educate affiliates on how to get in the business or improve their results if they’re already in the game.

I haven’t made it through all of the articles as of yet but the content is pretty solid and aimed at the right level. I think the more advanced affiliates already know all the ins and outs of SEO or measuring conversions so a lot of the content seems to have a slant intended on helping someone who needs to get up to speed quickly.

I know a lot of poker bloggers read my blog so you might want to give the site a read even if you don’t consider yourself a hard-core affiliate. If you can land one or two more players a month that starts to add up over time. So anything that you pick up from the Poker Affiliate University that helps even a little bit is worthwhile.

Thanks for reading Bill's Poker Blog. You might want to check out his other sites:

Poker Job Search is a resource for people who are looking to get started in the online poker industry.

Rakeback Report Get the best rakeback deals from the biggest online poker sites. Learn how you can make a living playing poker.

How to Become a Rakback Affiliate At the meta level there are really two major...
The Futility of Affiliate Programs for Poker Bloggers I’ve had more than a few conversations about affiliate programs...
The Online Poker Industry’s Love Hate Relationship With Rakeback There’s probably no single topic that divides the online...

Learning Thai and Doing What I Was Hoping Never to Do

2009-07-08T22:34:54-07:00

Later on today I start my first actual Thai lessons. I get the informal lessons from Thais who introduce certain words to me or try to explain to me why Ratchadamri spelled in Thai has a mystery “M” (ราชดำร = R-ah-cha-d-ah-ri as far as I can tell). And I’ve listened to tapes and have a few phrase books but I’ve never had any sort of formal training.

Last week I went up and signed up for two two-hour classes a week for the next year. Before people think I’ve gone off the deep end, I also will basically get a visa to stay in Thailand for a year. I say basically because it’s actually a bit more complicated with trips to the immigration office every 90 days for renewals but for the most part it’s a one year visa to study in Thailand.

After that I can continue a second or third year of study basically doing the same thing. It’s a tad more convenient than having to leave the country every 90 days and waiting around for another tourist visa which may or may not be granted.

Well, wouldn’t you know it, the same day I sign up and set the dates for my classes a friend from Gibraltar sends me a text saying he’s going to be arriving Thursday night which also happens to be my first class.

He’s on his way down to Pattaya for a bit of a holiday so assuming the red shirts, yellow shirts or some other color shirts don’t close the airports (again) or do something else stupid I’ll probably try to leave straight from class and either get a taxi with him down to Pattaya or grab my own taxi and meet him down there.

In the 5 or 6 years I’ve been frequenting Thailand I’ve never had a desire to go to Pattaya. To me it represents the worst parts of Thailand. I know some people are saying “But Bill, it’s and endless party down there,” and you would be right but to me it just seems to attract the worst types of people – both farang and Thai. But then again, I’ve never been so perhaps I shouldn’t be so quick to judge.

Either way, I’ll be hanging out with a good friend I haven’t seen since I left Gib back in Oct and that alone should make it an interesting few days.

I’m bringing my laptop as I have a half-dozen or so half-written posts that I might try to finish up and get them up during the morning coffee ritual. If not, expect to be inundated when I get back.

Photocred to Roman Lashkin

Thanks for reading Bill's Poker Blog. You might want to check out his other sites:

Poker Job Search is a resource for people who are looking to get started in the online poker industry.

Rakeback Report Get the best rakeback deals from the biggest online poker sites. Learn how you can make a living playing poker.

The Eagle Has Landed It’s been awhile since my last post here so...
How to Stage a Coup 101 As I mentioned in a previous post, Thailand had their...
Christmas in Phuket Caught the Air Asia flight from BKK to Phuket on...

eGaming Review Aug Edition

2009-07-08T22:26:17-07:00

If you’ve gone over to the eGaming Review site to check out the stories I’ve linked to concerning William Hill’s stance on rakeback and affiliates you might have noticed the following footer on the articles:

Marcus’ comments will be published in full in the eGaming Review August edition’s special rakeback feature, which also includes views from Rake the Rake chief executive Karim Wilkins, Entraction chief executive Peter Astrom, poker affiliate Bill Rini and Keith Freeman, founder of PokerStrategy.org, the industry’s first affiliate to offer a ‘rake rebate’.

If you happen to get the print version it might be worth a read. Then again, it might not. I haven’t seen it yet. :-)

Thanks for reading Bill's Poker Blog. You might want to check out his other sites:

Poker Job Search is a resource for people who are looking to get started in the online poker industry.

Rakeback Report Get the best rakeback deals from the biggest online poker sites. Learn how you can make a living playing poker.

Foot, Meet Mouth. Mouth, Meet Foot. – Or Mr. Marcus Backpeddles Well, no sooner had I finished posting about William...
William Hill Sounds Off On Rakeback There was a recent article in eGaming Review quoting...
WSEX Goes From No Rake to 25% Rake WSEX, the site that promoted itself almost entirely on the...

888 and Party Gaming Agree With Me on Legalized Gaming in the US

2009-07-08T18:58:51-07:00

Last month I posted an article about what would really happen if online gaming was legalized in the US. I’ll spare you reading the entire boring post and just pluck out the most important part:

Any legalization of online gaming will come with a regulatory body who will determine who can and cannot offer gaming to US citizens. One of the big assumptions at the moment is that because Party Poker paid a fine that they are clean. Actually, part of the settlement was an admission of guilt. That admission may come back to haunt them if companies like Harrah’s lobby for licensing requirements that state that any company allowed to offer gaming cannot have illegally offered gaming previously. It’s a perfectly logical requirement and one that many people would agree with so I don’t think it would be too difficult for a land based casino to attempt to get it inserted into any licensing requirements.

In reality, I would be very surprised if any of the current top online poker rooms ever get a license to operate in the US. If I was Mitch Garber running Harrah’s online division I would pump as much lobbying money as it took to make sure that the licensing requirements were sufficiently stringent that all existing online poker sites would be disqualified.

Well news is coming out of the Gaming Executive Summit in Madrid that I may be right on the mark about this. First, 888 CEO, Gigi Levy, was quoted as saying:

“The US will be protectionist even if it regulates, and its withdrawal from its GATS commitments means it doesn’t have to conform to any WTO regulation on internet gambling.

“There are five other states [with California] we know of that are considering regulating online poker, and we know the licences will go to US companies.”

Sitting on the same panel as Levy, Jim Ryan, CEO of Party Gaming, said:

“The [egaming] world is changing as regulation takes different shape in different markets. But upcoming regulation means new entrants and competition in the market, and I worry less about direct competitors such as those sitting on this panel than I do about government-licensed operators and major media firms targeting their power markets in the future.”

So it does sound like both 888 and Party Gaming are starting to worry that they may find the doors closed to them in the US if and when online gaming becomes legal.

I also think that Ryan is on the mark when he mentions major media firms. Although they’re not technically a media firm, but what if Google decided to get into the online poker business once it was legalized? How long would it take them to capture a major piece of the market and effectively shut out competitors? They would own the fish market and the sharks go where the fish are.

Photocred to emilywjones

Thanks for reading Bill's Poker Blog. You might want to check out his other sites:

Poker Job Search is a resource for people who are looking to get started in the online poker industry.

Rakeback Report Get the best rakeback deals from the biggest online poker sites. Learn how you can make a living playing poker.

Viva Las Vegas – Legalized Online Poker in the US Several weeks ago in Amsterdam Jeremy Enke and I...
Neteller, Party and 888 – Let’s Make A Deal! Some folks have been asking me to give my take...
Can You Hear Me Now? US Gaming Probe Rocks Top Banks I’m not totally sure what to make of this other...

Karim Wilkins Speaks Out on Mr. Marcus’ Comments

2009-07-08T18:42:16-07:00

Kudos to Karim for calling it like it is.

Wilkins said: “These days networks like iPoker, Entraction, Boss and Microgaming will seemingly give an online skin to anyone with a few hundred dollars and a small database of players. And it’s a majority of these skins that are cannibalising existing network traffic, by contacting players through player chat at the tables and so forth in order to poach them across for higher rakeback”.

That’s almost exactly what I was saying in my previous post.

Rakeback [what is rakeback?] isn’t a big problem for a stand-alone room because they can decide whether or not to offer it. If they choose wrong then it’s on them.

But when you get into a network scenario, things get more complicated. Wilkins is right. Anybody with some cash can open up a poker room on a network even if his name is IPlan OnOffering Rakeback.” And as Wilkins implies, within the industry we all know who is doing shady deals under the table. The players tend to send in the emails and ask for their current room to match the deal being offered before they leave.

The fact that the networks aren’t cracking down on rouge licensees shouldn’t be a rallying call for the industry to reject rakeback. It has very little to do with rakeback. It’s about stealing players unfairly. It’s about all the licensees on a network agreeing to a set of rules put forth by the network operator and then some licensees going off and violating the rules while the network operator looks the other way.

Rakeback is really no different than a loyalty program that allows players to take cash for points. Even Party Poker announced that that their new loyalty program was equivalent to 40% rakeback. And that’s a H-U-G-E change for Party where even saying the word rakeback would get you dirty looks in the office.

Instead of Mr. Marcus calling for the banning of rakeback he should be calling for network operators and network licensees to come up with a viable plan. For instance, why don’t they do split rev sharing on a player who moves from Room A to Room B? If Room B steals the player from Room A but has to split the earnings from the player 50/50 he won’t be able to make a profit. But if the player migrated there himself, 50% is better than nothing.

Network operators and licensees really need to get their act together because if they keep blaming rakeback and ignoring the real problems then they’re going to lose focus of where the industry is going and will soon find themselves unable to compete.

Thanks for reading Bill's Poker Blog. You might want to check out his other sites:

Poker Job Search is a resource for people who are looking to get started in the online poker industry.

Rakeback Report Get the best rakeback deals from the biggest online poker sites. Learn how you can make a living playing poker.

William Hill Sounds Off On Rakeback There was a recent article in eGaming Review quoting...
Foot, Meet Mouth. Mouth, Meet Foot. – Or Mr. Marcus Backpeddles Well, no sooner had I finished posting about William...
More Troubles In Online Poker Land Looks like the folks who cut paper checks for PokerStars,...

Foot, Meet Mouth. Mouth, Meet Foot. – Or Mr. Marcus Backpeddles

2009-07-07T22:25:37-07:00

Well, no sooner had I finished posting about William Hill’s stance on rakeback when I go back over to eGaming Review’s site and see that Mr. Marcus got pwned by affiliates who pointed out that William Hill basically offered rakeback when they were moving from the Cryptologic network to iPoker.

Awwwkwaaaaard.

In response this is what he had to say:

Marcus said: “This was only available to selected existing players and for a very limited period of time. This is a clear and targeted retention bonus and was not aimed at, and nor did it, move players from other affiliates or operators”.

But I think he ended up sticking his foot in his mouth again when he was quoted as saying:

However Marcus continued that there was a need for the separation of responsibilities between affiliates and operators. “The role or retention and player life value is the responsibility of the operators, whilst the role of the affiliate is acquisition of players, he said.

That is part of the problem with the current system! Why are you paying an affiliate a lifetime of revenue when his role stops at player acquisition? If his role stops once the player signs up then simply offer a CPA deal and be done with it.

I’m not sure many rakeback affiliates who run ongoing rake races, rake chases, and other retention incentives think that their job ends at the point of acquisition. And I don’t think that many traditional affiliates like to think that they have such a narrow scope. Many run rake races and other promotions out of their own pocket because the increased play helps their MGR numbers.

Yes, the primary job of an affiliate is to help the poker room acquire customers but if Mr. Marcus thinks that they provide no value in retention then his view of the online gaming world seems rather narrow. If the role of the room is player lifetime value and Mr. Marcus doesn’t feel affiliates play a role in retention then he’s likely not maximizing the player lifetime value and thus not doing his end of the deal.

I wonder if there will be a follow up to his follow up to explain this one to the affiliates :-)

Photocred to benjamin_mercadier

Thanks for reading Bill's Poker Blog. You might want to check out his other sites:

Poker Job Search is a resource for people who are looking to get started in the online poker industry.

Rakeback Report Get the best rakeback deals from the biggest online poker sites. Learn how you can make a living playing poker.

Karim Wilkins Speaks Out on Mr. Marcus’ Comments Kudos to Karim for calling it like it is....
eGaming Review Aug Edition If you’ve gone over to the eGaming Review site to...
Rake Races on Cake and Full Tilt Poker If you have some time on your hands next week...

William Hill Sounds Off On Rakeback

2009-07-07T22:04:17-07:00

There was a recent article in eGaming Review quoting William Hill Online COO Peter Marcus making an appeal to the industry to reject rakeback [what is rakeback?]. He pleaded with the industry to “get together and be strict.”

I think Marcus seems rather unrealistic.

Interviewed for a special feature on rakeback in eGaming Review’s August edition, Marcus continued that rakeback in its present form “has a limited shelf life” and that “licensees who just want to give rakeback and not spend money on marketing will find it’s not going to work, because someone coming up behind working on smaller margins will just steal their customers.”

“It’s the wrong way of building a sustainable industry – you do this by brand marketing, giving great customer service and rewarding customer loyalty,” he added.

I do agree that rakeback has a limited shelf life. Sooner or later online poker sites are going to have to realize they can’t pay out 40% or more of net revenues to affiliates for life. Customers simply aren’t going to support that model.

The existing rake model is simply a tax on the ignorant. It’s basically saying that if you’re too dumb to know about rakeback then we’re going to charge you full price until you figure it out and leave and go to another site that offers you rakeback. The longer they can keep you in the dark the higher their profit.

So instead of trying to artificially keep rates high, operators would be better off lowering the cost of their services. Players wouldn’t need rakeback if the industry priced itself correctly. Rakeback is basically an industry created ill based on the failure of the industry to adapt to changing customer expectations and increased knowledge of how the industry works.

There’s also the problem that many sites operate on a network model. And there I will agree with Mr. Marcus that licensees that cheat the system do the entire network great harm. If there are three sites on a network and two of them are spending their money going out and acquiring new players and the third simply steals the customers away from the other two by offering rakeback or under the table deals then they are benefitting off of the hard work being done by the other two rooms. And if the other two rooms decide to copy the rakeback room and put all their efforts into stealing the customers of their competitors then it just becomes a vicious dogfight nobody can win.

But I think Mr. Marcus is barking up the wrong tree. It’s the networks that need to crack down on this. You don’t have to rely on the rooms doing the right thing if the network operator is willing to shut down licensees who continuously violate the terms of service of the network. But most don’t because shutting down a licensee cost the network operator revenue.

It’s funny how a network’s fraud department can catch two players colluding or chip dumping based on IP address blocks, previous playing history, etc but no alarms are sounded when one poker room on a network starts being the net recipient of players being lost to other licensees on the same network. They don’t catch it because they don’t want to catch it.

Rakeback is here to stay. Because it’s not just a network or industry problem; the players are part of the equation. Unfortunately, between affiliates, licensees, operators, and networks few people seem willing to concede that players have a choice and can vote with their wallets.

Photocred to timparkinson

Thanks for reading Bill's Poker Blog. You might want to check out his other sites:

Poker Job Search is a resource for people who are looking to get started in the online poker industry.

Rakeback Report Get the best rakeback deals from the biggest online poker sites. Learn how you can make a living playing poker.

Karim Wilkins Speaks Out on Mr. Marcus’ Comments Kudos to Karim for calling it like it is....
The Online Poker Industry’s Love Hate Relationship With Rakeback There’s probably no single topic that divides the online...
Foot, Meet Mouth. Mouth, Meet Foot. – Or Mr. Marcus Backpeddles Well, no sooner had I finished posting about William...

The Week That Was June 29 – July 6

2009-07-05T22:40:09-07:00

Last week I made some comments about celebrities dropping like flies. Shortly after I wrote that post I was having a conversation with a Thai friend and she mentioned the deaths. When I brought up the recent death here in Bangkok of David Carradine she replied “That doesn’t make any sense to me. He’s staying in a four star hotel and there’s no security footage?”

I chuckled to myself and told her what many farangs think happened. I don’t think anybody thinks Carradine was murdered. That’s highly unlikely. But it’s also just as unlikely he tied himself up. He probably had a little help. But when things got out of hand the gal probably freaked out and didn’t know what to do.

Now, if you’re David Carradine, chances are it wouldn’t be difficult to hire the company of a famous Thai television film star or cover model to show you around the city and make sure you have a good time. Because she’s famous she probably has friends in a lot of high places. So when Carradine accidentally choked himself to death – wanting to save her career from scandal – she picked up the phone and called someone high up in the police or military and they came and erased all evidence of her being there and left the body for someone to find.

My friend looked at me for a few moments with a confused look on her face and I began to wonder if something might have been lost in the translation or whether she was having trouble imagining that corruption was so rampant in her country. Finally she smiled and said “Yes, that makes a lot more sense than what they said in the news. Amazing Thailand!”

“Amazing Thailand” is the tourism board slogan but it’s also used jokingly as a way of explaining the inexplicable. A good example is the other night I’m getting out of a taxi with a friend and another taxi driver comes up to me while I’m still paying the first driver and asks if I need a taxi. I’m absolutely floored at what logic (or lack thereof) prompted this guy to ask me if I need a taxi when I’m still settling up with the first. But before I could say anything my friend just looks at me and says “Amazing Thailand!”

Lots of good content last week.

We had a misleading headline from Bluff Europe suggesting that Obama might be playing in the WSOP , tales of a DIY circumcision (ouch), suggestions on how to increase your rakeback profits, Las Vegas safety tips, video of a kid on uber-tilt, and information on how you can become a rakeback affiliate.

Over at Rakeback Report we had advice on whether you should move up in limits or increase the number of tables you play in order to maximize your rakeback, info about Full Tilt’s Face the Ace promotion, and a list of rake races and rake chases being offered by Rakeback Report.

If you’re looking for a job in the online poker industry, Poker Job Search has some new listings.

Country Manager – France – Online Poker
Polish Speaking CSR – Online Casino/Poker
German Speaking CSR – Online Casino/Poker
SAS Developer – Online Poker

For those of you who read my post a few months back on the dumbing down of affiliate managers, the saga continues as I just received another spam invite to become a Noxwin affiliate.

Dear Webmaster,

We are looking for new opportunities to expand our Affiliate network. Therefore
I would like to propose you a cooperation between your site and www.noxwin.com ,
where both will benefit.

A partnership with noxwin.com has many advantages for you:

* Excellent commission: We pay to our partners a lifetime commission of up to
35%!
* Great Conversion Rates:
-250% Sign up bonus for your users up to 2.500 EUR
-VIP Rake Back Program
-Sponsoring of Exclusive Free Rolls and Poker Leagues
* Reliability: Noxwin is operated by Entraction Operation Ltd (former 24hPAY
Ltd)

How can I become a Noxwin Partner?

To become a Noxwin partner, please open a user account at noxwin.com and send
me your username. Iâ€™m going to set up your affiliate account and
contact you back.

Should you have any further questions or in case you need more information
donâ€™t hesitate to contact me. Iâ€™m looking forward to establish
a long-term relationship with you.

Best regards,

Ivan Dyankov
Affiliate Account Manager

You know what’s sad is that if you type “noxwin” into Google the 7th result is someone writing about their spam. How could anyone ever want to promote a room that you get complaints about their indiscriminate spamming on the first page of the search results?

Hope all of my American friends had a happy and safe July 4th weekend. Now get back to the tables! :-)

Thanks for reading Bill's Poker Blog. You might want to check out his other sites:

Poker Job Search is a resource for people who are looking to get started in the online poker industry.

Rakeback Report Get the best rakeback deals from the biggest online poker sites. Learn how you can make a living playing poker.

The Week That Was June 21 – 28 It hasn’t been an especially good time to be a...
How to Become a Rakback Affiliate At the meta level there are really two major...
Sunday House Cleaning Quick shout out to Bonus Whores who are the...