Well so after three months on the market, the future suddenly changed for Party. As a mutual fund manager I took part in the IPO with 800´000 shares, and I also met the analysts from the consortium in which Dresdner Kleinwort were the lead. As a poker player it took just seconds to understand that these analysts didn't have a clue about the industry. They simply extrapolated growth figures and profit margins to forever.

What is happening is growth slowing and competition is beginning to heat up? But guess what, things will change a lot more. The industry is just too profitable and the entry barriers fairly low. That’s why Party now expects that the cost of loyalty programs will increase for the second half of the year.

My expectation is that Poker players will see the total cost for playing decline significantly. The amount of money players today give to Party and the likes is just huge. Playing $1/2$ NL and paying up to 5% is not sustainable. At work we recently renegotiated our cost of trading Nasdaq listed stocks to 0.15%, and that require a full time trader working up to 20% of a days float.

I am still perplexed by the strange acceptance of all these semi-professional internet poker players to pay these enormous sums of money in rake. I bet you guys could use this money for something else. Some of you might be able to run a vodka tab in some of the hot Manhattan clubs like Marquee and Butter, and man you would have some hot girls by your side...

Well it will be nice to see the money leaving the corrupt poker room managers from Gibraltar and return to the pockets of those who deserve them - all you serious poker players!!!