Winning Poker Network has followed the other major online poker rooms by switching their rake/rakeback method from ‘Dealt Hand’ rake to ‘Weighted Contribution,’ and Ronnie Bardah severs ties with the Poker Player’s Championship after payout row escalates.
It took a whole year before Simon suggested we paid Ray a few quid for allowing us to play poker in his pub until the blackbirds started to sing.
Every few hours we would take £5 out of our stack and flick it in the middle. Most of the time we would forget. Ray didn’t care. He would give most of it back to us during a random river bluff.
Like Ray, as a recreational player, I never cared about the rake. It was the cost of doing business. It was a necessity. I couldn’t tell you whether £5 every few hours is a lot. I don’t know how much I paid online. I don’t care.
I think I am in the minority.
This week, the Winning Poker Network (WPN) decided to change their rake method, moving away from the prehistoric “Dealt Hand” system and into the shinier new “Weighted Contributed” method.
Full Tilt and the iPoker network made a similar switch in 2010. Partypoker switched in 2011. PokerStars followed suit in 2012.
For the Ray’s of the world here is an ant-like synopsis of the two methods:
Dealt Hand
Everyone dealt cards pays rake or receive rakeback (including those sitting out).
Weighted Contributed
Only players who are involved in the action either directly (bet/raise) or indirectly (blinds) pay rake, or receive rakeback.
The changes mean players who have a very friendly relationship with the fold button will lose out, and those rewarded are the I play any two cards type of players who happen to be the recreational players.
It also goes without saying that the online poker room will also benefit. If players do care about rake/rakeback, then they should loosen up meaning more action and more money for the site owners hence the reason that more and more online poker rooms switch to this model.
The changes will be in effect by the time you have read this article.
Thanks to Dan Katz of Poker News Daily for the scoop.
Ronnie Bardah Severs Ties With Poker Player’s Championships After Payout Row
World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Ronnie Bardah has distanced himself from the Poker Player’s Championship (PPC) after a payout row has escalated to the court room.
While we were all enjoying our Christmas Pud, a 2+2 thread was building a head of steam after it was revealed that the top 7 finishers in the recent $2,400 buy-in Poker PPC Aruba Championship had only received $10,000 of their payout.
According to Chad Holloway at CardsChat the row has now escalated into a full blown legal row with poker lawyer Maurice VerStandig representing a plethora of affected poker players including the winner of the event, Stephen Deutsch. The legal complaint contains 13 different issues ranging from racketeering, fraud and running a Ponzi scheme.
Deutsch won the event for $133,687.
Ronnie Bardah, who was an ambassador for the poker tour, had this to say on his Twitter feed.
Ppc statement/update pic.twitter.com/7tERsywFYG
— Ronnie Bardah (@RonnieBardah) December 29, 2016
The PPC tour operators Bryan Oulton and Thomas ‘Sandy’ Swartzbaugh, who, according to all reports are really nice chaps, have gone to ground since members of the final table went public.
Players searching for an Aruba Hendon Mob flag will be mightily pissed to here of these recent developments.
