Basic math

[StellarWind]

A lot of comments have been made that high-volume players aren't important because we only withdraw money from the system. I've been thinking about this.

We all know from painful experience that almost all pre-split ring tables had several high-volume players seated. No one can question that we are a big percentage of total volume regardless of how small a portion of the customer base we represent.

Past study of large PokerTracker databases taught me something very important. A comparative handful of extremely bad players lose almost all the money. These 65%+ VP$IP players lose over 10 BB/100. Ordinary bad players lose maybe 2 BB/100. I emphasize this because it refutes the argument that eliminating TAGs would somehow balance the games and allow the money to circle until it all flows down the rake drain. No matter how many TAGs you eliminate there will always be a huge disparity in player skill. The super-donators can't hold their own against nine sock puppets.

What would happen if the high-volume players all left?

1. Table count will drop sharply.

2. A new class of winners will emerge from the best of the rest. Because the disparity between awful players and decent players will remain huge, the new winners will win approximately as much per hand as the old winners did.

3. The total income of Party will be reduced in proportion to the reduced table count. The total income of winning players will also be reduced in proportion to the table account.

Conclusion: That's a lot of money for Party to lose. High-volume players are important to Party and every other site. The real issues are 1) what do they need to pay us to get us to stay and 2) are we demanding more than we are worth? 25% of revenue is a lot of money. It's the money that pays for the affiliate marketing program that supports the whole business.

I think Party needs to do something because otherwise they are the most expensive site in the industry. That isn't going to cut it with a mobile workforce that is only motivated by money.

Did you notice the W-word in the previous paragraph? That's right, we are not customers of Party. Despite appearance we actually work for them. We staff the big machine that entertains the real customers and extracts their money. In exchange we get to keep some of that money as our "salary".

This rakeback issue is actually a labor dispute about how much we should be paid.