Farewell to Paradise

[mrbaseball]

I finally bit the bullet and cashed out the last of my money from Paradise. I love the software and made a lot of money there but the game selection is just putrid when compared to Party/Empire. Not to mention the much softer games at Party and co.

I had been playing Paradise pretty frequently over the past few weeks and doing well but the games would often break and there would be long waits to get a seat in some rock garden. I shifted most of my ring play to Party in July.

I almost kept some cash at Paradise for SnGs since they are way better than the Party format but figured screw it. I don't play many SnGs anyway and for that I always have Stars.

Paradise should be a business school case study for mismanagement of marketing. Party came outta nowhere and stole critical market share mass. Paradise had the market by the balls. They came in with outstanding software right on the heels of the Planets (then market leader) shuffle bug/hack disaster. Paradise was a zillion times better than any of the competition. But they let Party out bonus them, out advertise them and basically steamroll over them. Plus the big buzz in poker nowadays is tourneys with all of the WSoP and WPT fever being spread via television. And Paradise is maybe the only major site without multi-table tourneys.

Thay got fat, lazy and egotistical with their market position and are now sliding down. Maybe into obscurity?

[jasonHoldEm]

[ QUOTE ]
Maybe into obscurity?

[/ QUOTE ]

I doubt obscurity, but certainly "has been" status. Too bad, as I also loved Paradise (and I also cashed out the last of my money there a few weeks ago).

I would happily go back to Paradise if they would just get their act together and start attracting some fish back to the pond.

jHE

[tiltboy]

Farewell to who?

/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[squiffy]

This was a very important post. I have been wondering how Party can give away bonuses so freely. They gain by building a tremendous poker ocean filled with fish and sharks. I guess they need both to make money. Tons of fish attract tons of sharks. And though sharks don't lose money, they make the game challenging and they still pay table rakes. And who knows, maybe the challenge of being bitten by the sharks, makes the fish want to come back for more.

Hmm. The cycle of undersea life.

So by giving more, they get more. Interesting concept.

[GoBrowns]

Very good post. Paradise was once the site newbies looking for online action flocked to. However, recently, with aggressive advertising and a bonus system that would satisfy even the most egregious bonus whores (read: me), party has become the site to attract the next generation of online poker players. The games at paradise are not half as profitable.

[rusty JEDI]

Thay got fat, lazy and egotistical with their market position and are now sliding down. Maybe into obscurity?

It has been mentioned to me by other posters that paradise is losing marketshare however they are not losing players. Ever since they were overtaken they have continued to increase their numbers just not at the same rate.


rJ

[William]

Paradise has changed its adds from "the largest online" to "the premier online" so they are aware of the problem.
I too, have left paradise for better places, even if I was making a kill at the old pokersite.

[Stew]

Did it ever occur to anyone that maybe Paradise doesn't care that they are not number one in money players? Look at this way, their player base has remained stable, so they haven't lost any players. They still are raking and profiting the same amount. Sure, they could probably run some big promos and improve their player base, but that comes at an expense. Maybe they have actually studied the situation and determined that the cost is not worth the profit that they venture to gain. Furthermore, maybe they don't think they'll profit at all from increasing their player base through additional bonus opps and promos.

[mrbaseball]

"Did it ever occur to anyone that maybe Paradise doesn't care that they are not number one in money players"

Yeah. In fact it's my guess that they are satisfed with their current situation. However the situation is fluid. The situation can change fast. Before you know it Paradise could be out of players. They used to be one of the few games around. And the only quality one. Now there is much competition. And all they offer is the best software (toss up between them and Stars).

But they don't have tourneys, they have few if any bonuses, they had an ultra crappy WSoP promotion, the games are rock laden with those who haven't woken up and smelled the fish schooling at other sites.

I cashed out Saturday night at around 10pm. This is the primest of prime time and the games were few and the ones going were crappy. They can either fight fire with fire with aggressive marketing or as fade away into obscurity as I have already alluded to.

Who knows maybe the founders are ready to retire? I'm sure they are set for life and may not need or want the hassle anymore.

[CORed]

All the net kooks that used to shout, "Paradise is rigged" are now shouting, "Party is rigged".

Seriously, I switched to Party about two months ago, and was amazed at how soft the games were. At Paradise, I could barely break even at 2/4 and was losing at 3/6. The 2/4 at Party plays like .50/1 at paradise and most of the 3/6 games are loose enough that I can easily make money. The 3/6 games at Party are softer than the 2/5 spread limit live games I sometimes play in Blackhawk, CO. I like Paradise's software, but it doesn't make sense to play there when Party is much more profitable.

[Uppercut]

I agree 100%. I was a loyal Paradise player because I loved the graphics and setup. However, I gradually got sick of the super-tight games and tables that could not stay together for more than 15 minutes without breaking up. I switched over to Party 3 days ago and I am already up over 100BB because of the incredibly loose nature of the games there. I swear that I have written "plays every hand" in the notes of at least a dozen different players.