You are being data-mined! =)

Thank you all for the feedback in my opening post. Many players requested that PT be able to work with our new site. I'm wondering, are folks at all concerned that there are players who are data-mining your own play, gaining knowledge over your habits as you risk money hand after hand?

Don't want to sound like a conspiricy nut, but I see PT's features and it's the first question that popped into my head. Do you play with this tool solely, and if so, what if Party made it so that the data was worthless overnight (by changing some feature on their site)?

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but as a site creator, I need to know pro's and con's when it comes to these types of tools.

Douglas

[smartalecc5]

I missed your first post- whats going on now?

[trainslayer]

Whatever you do, don't click on search. Bad things could happen.

Maybe I could be known as smartalecc6. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[baronzeus]

You ---MUST--- have PokerTracker compatibility. It's largely for reviewing your own play, and if Party stopped providing hand Histories, pros and otherwise good players (those that generate a lot of revenue) would leave. As long as you provide a real-time hand history for users, PokerTracker will be compatible with your website.

[mosquito]

Hand history for players is a must, whether or not
they use PT.

Data mining by non players should not be available
IMO.

[TylerD]

you don't have to allow data mining to be PokerTracker compatible. only allow players seated at a table to retrieve hand histories. problem solved.

[scott2130]

I am one of the few on here that don't have poker tracker and I still like hand histories. The play can move fast in an all in situation (etc.) and reviewing the hand histories answers alot of questions.

In general, they allow a player to slow the action to their pace during a game, without slowing the game. And yes we do review our own play with them.

Data mining is taking it to extremes, but I like the suggestion that you have to be in the game to get the hand histories.

[StellarWind]

Hand histories are a must and the save-on-disk-drive approach used by Party and some others is a big convenience. You don't need to make it easy for players to get hand histories for large numbers of hands they don't play. Allowing a player to request a few hands that he didn't play is probably good.

If you're serious about this venture you should establish a relationship with Pat, the PokerTracker developer. Getting him to support you from the day you open could make a big difference in the success or failure of your site. He's only one person and he doesn't have resources to support every tiny site with a separate format.

[MMMMMM]

I would consider playing Hold'em at your site if it is NOT compatible with datamining. And I do play a lot.

Dataming compatibility will greatly hurt the fish who make the games. Unless you plan on doing MEGA-ADVERTISING, you won't have much of a site if it consists primarily of multi-tabling tight-aggressive-dataminers who are just bonus hunting and fish hunting--and finding only each other.

Party overcomes it because of huge advertising and exposure. Pokerstars overcomes it because of the same things, plus great software and tournaments.

It'll probably be hard for you to get your site off the ground and growing well. That goes for any new poker site nowadays.

You have to decide if you want to attract mostly sharks or mostly fish, and how to go about doing it.

Remember, multitablers make rake for now BUT if the fish are in too short supply your action will soon die down quite a lot. A very high multitabling-pro to fish ratio could be bad for your site's future.

Not sure what to suggest except lots of advertising and referral deals. As far as dataming compatibility, you have some choices to make. I know where I think hold'em games are good, and that generally ISN'T where datamining is very compatible.

[pudley4]

[ QUOTE ]
you don't have to allow data mining to be PokerTracker compatible. only allow players seated at a table to retrieve hand histories. problem solved.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is the correct answer.