Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (party)
 

This is what he sent me (and everyone else that uses him as an affiliate):

"Up.. Down.. Up.. Down.. What can I say? Party poker JUST had a meeting to discuss rakeback and whether to allow us to do it. I had a DONE DEAL this morning.. I mean it was DONE and I was creating codes for everyone.. We were ready to switch over to the new site and everything.

I then get a phone call 5 mins before sending out codes to everyone STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP dont send out codes.

I say what? Well the heads at party poker are having a meeting... we'll call you within an hour to tell you what the result was.

Phone rings 5 mins ago.. Sorry, it appears Party is reversing its course and NOT allowing rakeback of any kind. They will give the final information tomorrow, but it appears rakeback at party poker is OFFICIALLY DEAD.

If I hear anything, you'll be the first to know.. "

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (party)
 

Got the same one... wow we have the same affiliate.

damn it... no way in hell I'm playing at Party with no RB. Hopefully if enough people do this they will learn from their mistakes. Time to learn how to play turbos on Stars...

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (party)
 

That sucks..

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (party)
 

[ QUOTE ]
rakeback at party poker is OFFICIALLY DEAD.


[/ QUOTE ]

cant say i'm one bit surprised

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (part
 

I IM'd him and he said "they figure that players will switch back to them rakeback or not"

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (party)
 

I have the same affiliate, looks like RB is over

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (part
 

[ QUOTE ]
I IM'd him and he said "they figure that players will switch back to them rakeback or not"

[/ QUOTE ]

well its true, isn't it? If only one of them goons over there wouldve surfed two plus two a bit for some inventory on the matter, they would've seen everybody is just sitting on their money waiting to transfer it back to party. Only thing that has been holding players back, is to see wether there was a good deal to be made by waiting it out, not about wether they should go back to party or another site.

Hell for all we know, the naysayers swung the yaysayers with some printouts of the talk at this forum. Now if that were true, that would be some kick-in-your-balls irony wouldn't it [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

ps. this norb, is costing me, a 3/6 player, a LOT OF income. That really really sux [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (part
 

who is this affiliate out of curiosity

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (party)
 

Same affiliate also. What to do...?

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (part
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Hell for all we know, the naysayers swung the yaysayers with some printouts of the talk at this forum. Now if that were true, that would be some kick-in-your-balls irony wouldn't it [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]


[/ QUOTE ]

Doubtful. If party was interested in giving rakeback they would not have first killed it on their site then killed the skins that offer it. It is pretty obvious they never have wanted to do it and were probably gonna pull a bait and switch on us if they decided to do it, say 4 months from now. That being said I am still holding out hope.

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (part
 

Open an account on Stars.

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (part
 

Wouldn't surprise me. They seem intent on letting someone else grab the title of #1 poker room.

Here they created a perfect opportunity to scoop up a huge amount of high volume players (and they will still get some of them) by offering rakeback. Now every player will start to think about if the fish population is worth more to them than 40% rakeback on Prima, rakeback on UB, lower rake on Pokerstars (even zero rake if you have saved up a bunch of bonuses and play tournaments) etc. And if Party think their existing player population makes them guaranteed to come up on top of these calculations, they are dead wrong. It will be for many players more profitable to play on other networks.

I will take the time to do a real test of where my poker game brings me the most $/h. And it is pretty likely Party will not come on top there and they will lose thousands of dollars each months for failing to do the obvious thing.

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (party)
 

I can't really see why Party would just now be having this meeting.

It is pretty clear that Saturday's shakeup was designed to cut the MTT's receiving RB from the Party fishpool. Wouldn't they have already discussed the inevitable rush back to Party and how they would be handling it?

This just doesn't make sense. Granted, a lot of things Party does do not make sense.

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (party)
 

Play in what will still be the best games online without rakeback?

I'm not putting much stock in this until I hear from some of the more trusted and vocal affls though.

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (party)
 

[ QUOTE ]
I can't really see why Party would just now be having this meeting.

It is pretty clear that Saturday's shakeup was designed to cut the MTT's receiving RB from the Party fishpool. Wouldn't they have already discussed the inevitable rush back to Party and how they would be handling it?

This just doesn't make sense. Granted, a lot of things Party does do not make sense.

[/ QUOTE ]

Exactly. Does not make sense. They decided what they are gonna do about this before pulling the skins.

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (part
 

No, according to other sources who posted in the Zoo, Saturday's move had little to do with that. Instead, it was primarily driven by the addition of the Casino to the platform.

Although I am certainly hoping we get rakeback, I just can't see what their motivation for doing so would be.

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (party)
 

[ QUOTE ]
Play in what will still be the best games online without rakeback?


[/ QUOTE ]

The quality of Party's games as compared to other sites is overrated.

You can basically create the same thing by playing a variety of other websites. Many of which offer rakeback and other large incentives.

Perhaps for an 8-12 tabler Party is a necessity. But a 4-6 tabler who is willing to do some exploring, Not playing on Party is not a major hardship.

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (part
 

I also have the same affiliate.The screen name that transferred money to my account on Empire was El Diablo. This may or may not be it though.

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (part
 

[ QUOTE ]
I also have the same affiliate.The screen name that transferred money to my account on Empire was El Diablo. This may or may not be it though.

[/ QUOTE ]
same

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (part
 

I have the same guy, this is just so god damn depressing.

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (part
 

Heh, same affiliate..oh well

Edit: just got this:

"Party poker asked me to not say rakeback was 100% dead yet until the official word tomorrow.. There is a small glimmer of hope, so i guess dont burn down the site yet.

Will update you when i have more news"

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (part
 

[ QUOTE ]
Wouldn't surprise me. They seem intent on letting someone else grab the title of #1 poker room.


[/ QUOTE ]

I haven't commented much on any of these threads but I would say that people are vastly underestimating both the size of the multi-tabling pro tags and their importance to the party network.

I presume it is as we see them on here all day but if you looked at them in terms of Party's revenues and target market we/they are a very small group.

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (part
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Play in what will still be the best games online without rakeback?


[/ QUOTE ]

The quality of Party's games as compared to other sites is overrated.

You can basically create the same thing by playing a variety of other websites. Many of which offer rakeback and other large incentives.

Perhaps for an 8-12 tabler Party is a necessity. But a 4-6 tabler who is willing to do some exploring, Not playing on Party is not a major hardship.

[/ QUOTE ]
I've begun to notice this as well. If party thinks they have a monopoly on the fish they are mistaken.

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (part
 

Hi guys,

since the thread is mostly about our program.. I'll answer any questions you have.

I believe that rakeback is truly dead at party poker. I think thier intention is to start offering a rewards program similiar to rakeback but im not sure. You'll notice that other sites like switchtoparty.com are now not offering anymore so there is indeed something major going on.

I'll know more first thing in the morning, i had about 10 phone calls today with party and i was literally 5 mins from emailing everyone thier codes.

Good luck

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (part
 

Suckage.

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (party)
 

They probably would have done it if there was 65k people playing on their site last night without any rakeback.

I mean, what incentive could they possibly have to give it? If they had say 40k people playing, I'm pretty sure it would have happened

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (part
 

Party: 1
Everyone else: 0

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (part
 

Very very smart move..

They know people will switch back to party poker if 85% of the players are there.. Eventually you'll have almost all the players switching back and you wont even have to give the affiliates a cut.

Brilliant, now the question is, what do Empire & Eurobet do.

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (part
 

[ QUOTE ]
Very very smart move..

They know people will switch back to party poker if 85% of the players are there.. Eventually you'll have almost all the players switching back and you wont even have to give the affiliates a cut.

Brilliant, now the question is, what do Empire & Eurobet do.

[/ QUOTE ]

Send me a 100% bonus this morning that i laugh at?

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (party)
 

Man this blows, I was getting all up on the idea of returning to Party but now, I don't know.

If they would have offered even 15% they would of had me but ZERO.

They are missing a chance to really crush the competition.
Then again maybe it's better if they don't become too dominant.

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (part
 

I presume it is as we see them on here all day but if you looked at them in terms of Party's revenues and target market we/they are a very small group.

no doubt that people getting rakeback are a small percentage, maybe even statistically insignificant to the total party population.

however, the inverse is true here in the 2+2 community. i would guess the percentage of regular party players NOT getting rakeback at 2+2 is smaller than those that are.

therefore, this is a huge issue to so many people here that this panic, rush to change affiliates, sky is falling mentality is not only to be expected, but is a real issue to many posters earn.

i can't imagine going from an enormous rakeback each month to zero. this is something that many 'pros' use to pay their base bills each month. to those high volume players, this is the same as losing a full time job.

however, IMHO, when party seperated from the skins, this was their way of guaranteeing that the future revenues will not be stolen by the skins they licensed.

party has a responsibility to shareholders only now. this will hurt them short term, but the party marketing machine will now get to keep all the rewards of their labor. gone are the days that party spends millions on advertisement just to lose the player to a skin once the player becomes "informed". this is a self-preservation move on their part.

there are lots of BIG affiliates these days and this ensuing panic of these mega-affiliates calling them is likely the reason the policy seems to be bending, shifting, and bending back by the hour.

the best thing to do is show restraint and WAIT. 3 days of playing elsewhere or playing without rakeback is not the end of the world. be smart and don't panic.

everyone knows i've never really offered rakeback, so i can use myself as an example. the example is that "if i decided to offer rakeback to my sign-ups tomorrow, there is no way party would ever need to know."

find a reward program, or find someone trustworthy. but, wait till all the facts are clear.

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (part
 

They woulda had me at 25%... [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (part
 

[ QUOTE ]
They probably would have done it if there was 65k people playing on their site last night without any rakeback.

I mean, what incentive could they possibly have to give it? If they had say 40k people playing, I'm pretty sure it would have happened

[/ QUOTE ]

The incentive being that they get more high volume players playing at their site.

Let's look at one extreme. Every single multitabling TAG previously on rakeback on Empire, Multipoker, Eurobet decide to play on Party (the "follow the fish" school of thought) wihtout rakeback. But wait. Now we have the old network drained of TAGs. And I have rakeback there. I better go back and thereby increase the money I earn. And I will not be the only one. And some of the non-rakeback Party players will figure out they earn much more with rakeback on Prima, Crypto, UB, Fulltilt etc, or perhaps doing bonuses on other smaller networks. So they will also dump the rakeback-free Party. Eventually we will reach an equilibrium, and it will not be reached at the highest player volume for PartyPoker.

Party breaking free from the other sites that stole their customers and then not try to secure the play of high volume players would utterly stupid of them. But since the jury is still out on the sanity and business sense of Partypoker, I guess anything is possible.

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (party)
 

I wouldn't be surprised if Party offered an alternative to rakeback through some sort of internal offer.

Cup

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (part
 

I am already playing fewer tables at the Party network. I am not doing this to punish Party. Its just that there are better games on other sites and those sites are offering bonuses or rakeback, so I will earn more.

My decision to play at a site is based on the value of playing that game (expectation plus incentives) Party has just taken away an incentive to play on their site.

They have a right to do what they want and I have the choice as to whether I will play on the site.

Whether this proves to be a good move for Party remains to be seen. It depends on what other poker sites do in reaction to this and whether Party offers a good Comp system for high volume customers.

In the short term it will help revenues. Still seperating the skins has nothing to change Party's basic problem right now - acquiring new customers. What they did over the weekend will temporalily help them create more revenue out of existing customers, but customer growth is still a problem for them.

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (party)
 

Guess I am same affiliate too but received another email saying there is a glimmer of hope.

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (party)
 

[ QUOTE ]
Party breaking free from the other sites that stole their customers and then not try to secure the play of high volume players would utterly stupid of them.

[/ QUOTE ]

I honestly think we(multitabling tags) are overestimating our value to party right now. They are putting in blackjack and sidebets, and soon there might be more casino games. They are catering to fish and gamblers. Tags just take money out of a system that if we werent involved, would just end up going into party's hands.

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (part
 

[ QUOTE ]
They had me at hello ... [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ] Come on, where else can you play 10 tables at any limit you want? (30/60 and below)

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (part
 

[ QUOTE ]
They are missing a chance to really crush the competition.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's funny how many people actually believe this.

When Barry Switzer was winning National Championships at Oklahoma, he would tell a prospective 5-star recruit, "Son, if you come to Oklahoma, you can help us win a National Championship. If you don't come to Oklahoma, you can watch us win a National Championship."

Re: Just got the following e-mail from my affiliate... bad news. (part
 

This is a stupid self-serving idea...But it would seem to solve the problem from here on in:

Rakeback Amenesty week: Any player with an existing account can convert, with the provision that they meet a cetain MGR per month. But after that it is done.

This would seem like it would solve Party's problem, by allowing the rakeback refugees to come home. But also permanently wean PArty away from a rakeback driven form of Marketing.

It would aslo work wonderful, for everyone here. (Except of course for the non-rakeback affiliates who would lose their "smart" customers.)