The one thing about the Poker Business which is like no other business

Cactus Cactus · #1 09-03-2005, 09:47 PM

I was walking in a remote part of Arizona. I had to go to the bathroom and stopped somewhere. The lady at the door who told me that there was a charge of 25 cents. I paid, did my business and upon walking out I saw the lady tell this one couple that is was 25 cents. They were furious that the lady told them that they had to pay 25 cents. She explained that there are no pipes to bring the water to the bathroom and they have to pay people to bring the water. The couple replied that this should be illegal because they never ever have had to pay for a bathroom in their life. After the scenerio passed all of us walked away, me... with a smile on my face with the other 2 looked like they were in pain while grabbing their crotches.

But Poker is totally different. Poker is the one type of business where the management can increase the cost of playing for absoultely no reason, yet the people still pay. If you play on Poker Plex or any of its skins it is possible to pay 3 pounds($6) for each hand playing heads up. But people sill pay. In fact i bet most people don't even know what the rake is. You'd think with all this competition for poker sites that the competition would drive rake prices down, but it is as is because people just don't care.

I used to work as a fin. advisor. It would be nice to say to you customer, oh instead of taking 2%, I'll go ahead and take 5% and have them say "Sure, go ahead"

mattw · #2 09-03-2005, 10:04 PM

good point but i think its true only to an extent. if the rake got exceedingly high at a site or two, even the fish and donks would figure it out eventually. they would move to the cheaper sites. the cheap sites would notice this; the high rent sites would say we effed up. capitalism is a good thing.

if you were in a remote locale, why did you need to use a bathroom? [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

BTW, i have stopped playing the crypto's due to their outrageous raked hand requirements and do their casinos instead.

TM1212 · #3 09-03-2005, 10:20 PM

[ QUOTE ]
good point but i think its true only to an extent. if the rake got exceedingly high at a site or two, even the fish and donks would figure it out eventually. they would move to the cheaper sites. the cheap sites would notice this; the high rent sites would say we effed up. capitalism is a good thing.

if you were in a remote locale, why did you need to use a bathroom? [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

BTW, i have stopped playing the crypto's due to their outrageous raked hand requirements and do their casinos instead.

[/ QUOTE ]

Many ring games especially the higher limits have been killed by the rake, the sharks, or competition. Your clearly just looking at the short term. The cryptos will pay for this higher rake, the higher the rake the less winning players, the less players that return. Simple facts!

TM1212 · #4 09-03-2005, 10:23 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
good point but i think its true only to an extent. if the rake got exceedingly high at a site or two, even the fish and donks would figure it out eventually. they would move to the cheaper sites. the cheap sites would notice this; the high rent sites would say we effed up. capitalism is a good thing.

if you were in a remote locale, why did you need to use a bathroom? [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

BTW, i have stopped playing the crypto's due to their outrageous raked hand requirements and do their casinos instead.

[/ QUOTE ]

Many ring games especially the higher limits have been killed by the rake, the sharks, or competition. Your clearly just looking at the short term. The cryptos will pay for this higher rake, the higher the rake the less winning players, the less players that return. Simple facts!

[/ QUOTE ]

also check out poker essays 3 for a deep incite into the death of 5 card draw ring games, high skill level, high rake, too many loseing players, and competition from other games with more luck involved.

#5 09-03-2005, 10:31 PM

Pay toilets used to be quite common.

One business where people pay despite massive increases for little or no reason: oil.

Then again, poker is voluntary, which is probably your real point.

Shoe · #6 09-03-2005, 11:19 PM

The reason sites can get away with increasing the rake is that it's hard to notice. If everytime you left the table there was a pop-up box that said "YOu paid $109.50 in rake this session" then yes, I think a lot more people would complain. However, some sites don't even show the rake being taken on the table (Party atleast shows a picture of the rake by the dealer), so it is very hard for some people to even realize how much they are really paying in rake.

SwordFish · #7 09-04-2005, 03:21 AM

[ QUOTE ]
The reason sites can get away with increasing the rake is that it's hard to notice.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree.

I was in Vegas a couple of weeks ago and was playing in a NL game at Bally's. About an hour into the session, the dealer pulled the lever back to drop the rake and it sprang back and shot one of the chips across the table. He retrieved the chip and properly dropped it. The guy sitting to my left (who was obviously new to live play) asked me why the dealer was dropping the chips into the table. I told him it was the rake, and ending up having to explain to him why they take it, how much etc....

If a guy can sit at a live table for an hour and not notice the dealer raking the pot until a chip shoots across the table, there is no chance he would have any idea that online pots are being raked, let alone how much they are taking.

SF

Synergistic Explosions · #8 09-04-2005, 05:00 AM

[ QUOTE ]
I was walking in a remote part of Arizona. I had to go to the bathroom and stopped somewhere.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey, I live in Arizona. When I'm walking in romote areas I don't stop somewhere to relieve myself. Just whip it out and piss or find a stump and let it go.

It's rake free that way.

AcmeSalesRep · #9 09-04-2005, 09:33 AM

[ QUOTE ]
BTW, i have stopped playing the crypto's due to their outrageous raked hand requirements and do their casinos instead.

[/ QUOTE ]

Instead?

The only site where you have to choose is InterPoker/InterCasino. For all of the others, you can do both the casino and the poker bonuses. And most of them have not changed their poker bonus requirements in months. The only site that has a raked hand requirement is InterPoker.

Poker Plex -- 300 dealt hands -- $50
Littlewoods -- 250 dealt hands -- 25GBP
William Hill -- 5 table hours -- 25GBP
UK Betting -- 5 table hours -- 25GBP
TotalBet -- 5 table hours -- 25GBP
Carib Sun -- 500 dealt hands -- $40

Where are the so-called "outrageous raked hand requirements" at these sites?

Acme

Phill S · #10 09-04-2005, 11:04 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Pay toilets used to be quite common.

One business where people pay despite massive increases for little or no reason: oil.

Then again, poker is voluntary, which is probably your real point.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is because supply will never meet demand and so the oil cartels can change production output to manipulate prices on the open market.

The 'litte or no reasons' behind the increase include, amongst many other things, the difficulties of finding oil and the volatility of the middle east, especially from the war in Iraq. Good job the Iraq war had nothing to do with oil, otherwise Dubya would be feeling really stupid now [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Phill