I'm just a casual poker grinder. I used the game to get through University with zero debt and I've never really put a serious consistent effort into being particularly good at it. However time and time again I find myself wondering why online poker players are so unconcerned with the rake that they pay. Since mid 2007 I've only played about 155k hands. That's roughly 310 hours of poker at 500 hands per hour. Almost entirely at .25/.50 PLO. I've made a pithy $1377.00 which isn't really anything. I play almost exclusively on P****Stars. Most of the time I've been a Gold Star. I've never been higher than Platinum Star. I've paid $13,687.00 in rake.

That is $44.15 in rake per hour/500 hands. That is roughly 9pt/bb in rake. If P****Stars allowed me a choice of 100% rakeback but $50.00 per month up front for access to the service I would be playing 1/2 PLO with a sizable roll. What this means is that the games would be considerably softer. I'm not even very good and I play about two hours of poker a week. Instead what's really going on is that P****Stars, FTP, and others are scooping most of the money. The games are thinning out mostly because people are being raked to death. They come up with flashy things like Supernova Elite to convince you they reward their players. It's all just a clever rouse to get people to grind more. People become obsessed with earning their next bonus rather than playing well or learning the game.

I don't play World of Warcraft. I do however know that millions of people do. These people do so for $20.00 per month or less. Imagine if 310 hours of access to something like WoW cost you $13,687.00. That's $44.00 per hour for your video game. Does that sound like something that makes any sense to you? Fast secure service for a reliable video game doesn't cost that much. Poker is an exceptionally simple game.

So there are maybe three realities of what might happen going forward:

1. People will continue to say and do nothing. Regulars at 1/2, 2/4, 5/10+ will make far less money than if the fish were being raked for less and managing to grind their way up to the higher stakes.

2. Someone will create a poker site similar to 100's of start-ups out there with one key difference. Rake will have two options. Option one will be the system and rates that currently exist everywhere. Option two will be a $50.00 payment up front for 30 days of access to the software. The person who creates this software will become a multi-millionaire and probably be credited with starting the 2nd "Poker Boom" after Moneymaker. P****Stars, FTP, and others will quickly add the change to their software as well. The other site will probably die as regulars migrate back to the main sites but not without having collected a couple million dollars worth of up front fees for its original backers. The dust will settle and the major sites will now have an option to pay $50.00 up front for 30 days access and receive 100% Rakeback.

3. Players all over the world will publicly campaign for this option forcing one of the major sites to seize the opportunity to corner the market by making this change.

Do you players at 1/2+ want your win-rate to increase by 3pt/bb instantly?
Do you players at 1/2+ want more fish to work their way into your games instead of being raked to death at micros?

If you answered yes to both of those questions then start talking about this issue. The long term health of the games especially at higher levels depends on weak players being able to advance through the levels in order to donate money higher up. I'd be a fish donating at 1/2 instead of making P****Stars 13k richer. Do you want P****Stars to take all my winnings with 9pt/bb rake or do you want a piece of that pie?

If we can come together on this issue we will change the landscape of the online poker world as we know it. This is a change that benefits everyone. I urge people on this site and others to come up with a plan to strike on the major sites similar to the P****Stars.fr sitting out strike until this change is implemented. There is no definable reason why players should pay over $50.00 USD per month for access to an internet video game. These websites are charging insane prices because nobody is protecting the consumer and the consumers are too lazy to stand up for themselves. Lets start standing up for ourselves!

Za tento príspevok od trikoza poďakovali :

___Mortylen___

WolfiKxx napísal:hlavne na micro/low stakes by mohol byt nizsi rake...ale to asi nebude lebo to je najlepsie pre herne kedze na micro/low stakes je najviac hracov

ale to asi nebude lebo to je najlepsie pre herne kedze na micro/low stakes je najviac hracov

marjan556 napísal:cakat ze sa rake znizi nejakou inou cestou je ako cakat ze si poslanci znizia platy (lolol)