Re: Pacific Poker increased the rake to $5.
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A high rake harms the ability of a card room to attract and maintain a base of players regardless of skill level.
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Pacific, or 888, runs a massive advertising programme all the time in the UK. They sponsor TV programmes and televised sporting events, and they advertise in magazines and newspapers. They specialise in getting newbies to play there, and their marketing department is very successful in this regard.
I just downloaded the new software, (by the way, their Support is so bad they don't auto-update and nor do they tell you when new software is available - you simply have to find out for yourself, somehow or other), and while it downloads there is onscreen spiel to tell you what excitement lies ahead of you. It is very good spiel, in fact. (Unfortunately, most of it is not true - for instance, they boast about how their Support Staff are there for you 24 hours per day. They might well be there, but they don't answer your e-mails for at least a day or two, in my experience.)
They seem to be an anomaly, to me. Their aggressive marketing brings in thousands of punters through the front door, while their useless Support lets almost as many out the back door to go and find better places, (and that means, anywhere else), to play, after a few weeks of hell drives even a newbie insane.
I would bet if there was a survey done of all players on the site at any time you would find that virtually all of them could be classed as newbies playing on their first site.
If ever one day the Marketing Team meets the Support and Development Teams they could very quickly turn the site into an absolutely awesome moneymaking machine, simply by spending a few dollars on upgrading the archaic software. They are making big money at the moment, but there doesn't seem to be a thinking head behind the sleeping monster to realise that they are good at the hardest part - bringing the new punters in - but totally crap at the easy part - looking after people by providing a pleasant playing experience once they have taken that first big step of becoming their customers.
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