Pokermountain makes a rotten marketing decison

[Jstyal]

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The freeroll is actually a true 'freeroll', no dollar to enter, no need to be a cash money player to enter (play money accounts can register too).

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Are you sure about this? I have a play money account there and the system won't let me register for the FreeRoll. It gives me a pop-up that says "This tournament only accepts real money players. Please use the My account dialog to upgrade to real money."

[greatbrit]

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The freeroll is actually a true 'freeroll', no dollar to enter, no need to be a cash money player to enter (play money accounts can register too).

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Are you sure about this? I have a play money account there and the system won't let me register for the FreeRoll. It gives me a pop-up that says "This tournament only accepts real money players. Please use the My account dialog to upgrade to real money."

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Sorry, I was half right. Just go to 'My Account' and choose 'real money with no funding source'. All it will ask for is a street address (and that's not verified unless you later add something like Neteller). We need that in case you win as we need a place to put the prize money.

Sorry for the confusion. Good luck!

Paul
http://www.pokermountain.com

[Jstyal]

Thanks Brit for clearing this up. I'll be there!

[Pokeraddict]

Here is another issue with the software. The small blind in 3/6 is $2. This makes it very hard to get a 3/6 game started and hard to maintain as it makes no sense at all. Heads up its just about like playing 2 big blinds and no other room on the net has a 3/6 blind structure like this.

The rake is another good point, Party can get away with it with all the games, its hard to justify a new room charging the highest rake on the internet.

[naschburger2]

pokeraddict that is exactly my point. I played 100 raked hands to get the free entry into the bellagio one table satellite and got my first $10 bonus but haven't played ring games their since. An 100% bonus is great but only if games are available. I got a 100% bonus on pokerdreams but when the network went belly up I still hadn't earn my bonus because of the lack of games. They had a fairer rake structure but the catch22 there is that with a fair rake structure and short games it was difficult at smaller games to make enough of a rake to earn bonus points. Now to be fair they didnt release in $10 increments but would have special bonus tables and still couldnt get enough players. I don't know what the answer is for pokermountain but this direct feedback from management can't hurt.

[StellarWind]

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I don't know the answer to the rake question, I know they had many discussions before they decided on using the Party rake, a lot of that decision is probably related to the current match play bonus promotion. But I don't think anything about our site is cast in stone, and they definitely read all of the customer mail, so enough emails to support might change things in the long run. Still, I'll bring the rake question up again on the next conference call.


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Party can get away with having the highest price structure in the industry because they are Party. Unfortunate but apparently true.

I consider the Paradise rake structure to be "standard" and would not consider playing at any smaller site that charged more.

That's just my two cents. It's your business and you should do what you want.

[Randy_Refeld]

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Here is another issue with the software. The small blind in 3/6 is $2. This makes it very hard to get a 3/6 game started and hard to maintain as it makes no sense at all

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Why wouldn't this encourage action and make the game more attractive?

[playersare]

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Party can get away with having the highest price structure in the industry because they are Party. Unfortunate but apparently true.

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Party is a rip for low limit LHE players who are not playing under a bonus, but once you calculate the 5x/7x signup and reload offers, you should come out ahead in the end. For a 50c minimum rake ($5 LHE pot), each player is attributed a minimum 5c and receives back 14-20c in bonus (280-400% return). on Poker Mountain, the same structure pays back 10c (200%) - still good, but not as good as the site whose rake structure they copied.

Party skins' bonus return is even higher playing the micro NL tables. Even a $2 pot which rakes 10c still qualifies as "any" raked hand towards the Party bonus, whereas Poker Mountain still has the 50c minimum rake criteria ($10 pot in NL). so any criticism of the excessive party bonus structure has to take into account the high generosity of the bonus payouts in return. the poker mountain rake is favorably good when playing under a bonus (and that $500 match should last quite a while)...but it's not overwhelmingly dominating vs. established competition.

does this mean that party isn't making a killing off the majority of players who are not bonus conscious? of course not. but doesn't mean everyone on there can't get more than their money's worth either if they work the system.

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I consider the Paradise rake structure to be "standard" and would not consider playing at any smaller site that charged more.

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this "standard" structure is unfortunately limited to just Paradise and Poker Stars nowadays, two of the stingier sites when it comes to bonus offers, plus no chance for rakeback either. As long as the "give" is worth more than the "take", I'll accept the combination of both. I hear arguments for lowering rake across the board, but this doesn't necessarily account for the net results after bonuses. It's the player's prerogative to give their business to where it has the most value, even if it means bouncing around a little.

[Pokeraddict]

this "standard" structure is unfortunately limited to just Paradise and Poker Stars nowadays, two of the stingier sites when it comes to bonus offers, plus no chance for rakeback either

I think many will agree these go hand in hand. Many people have stated their Party rake rebate deal simply made up for the extra halves they started raking a year and a half or so ago and brought them back to this "standard" rake.

Why wouldn't this encourage action and make the game more attractive?

No this has several issues IMO. Are you going to play someone heads up with blinds of 2 and 3. I wouldnt. I doubt most will either and without anyone playing heads up game will not get off ground.

Also if game does get off the ground when it gets short it will break easier as it will cost $1 more per orbit. Most tighter players will leave this type of game and it will break quicker.

Yet another reason is that this extra $1 will end up in the rake several times an hour. At PM the first rake in 3/6 is taken at $20. In 3/6 the small blind will often fold preflop often creating a $19 unraked pot if the small blind is $1. This is a 3 big bet pot plus the folded SB. At PM the small blind is $2 so if they fold preflop and the pot is 3 big bets plus this blind it is raked and this extra $1 goes in the rake leaving $19 in the pot, the same size the pot would be with a $1 small blind. The only difference is PM made $1 more off the hand. Short handed will happen enough to cost each player a couple of dollars an hour as it is not uncommon to have a 3 big bet pot 3-6 handed in 3/6. Doesnt sound like much but pay it if you do not have to? It adds up.

One may argue that it will cause more players coming into a flop. Possibly but when your trash SB gets raised its just another $1 you lost or if you limp in with your mediocre small blind it is $2 more you have lost, maybe more if you get stuck on a sucker hand because it was only $1 more to flop.