In this week’s Calling The Clock PokerStars aims to reduce Rakeback by as much as 85%, Benjamin Zamani becomes the World Poker Tour (WPT) Player of the Year, and more.
We begin this week’s collection of tales from the poker industry by delving into the online poker market.
PokerStars continued to drip-feed information about the new loyalty program on the corporate blog. The online behemoth advised customers that a revised system would roll out in Denmark sometime mid-May, and the rest of the world would follow.
They are still secretive about the nitty-gritty, but the high volume grinders will suffer the most. The new scheme seeks to reward players on a moment-by-moment basis in a much more gamified way. Rewarding players for putting in the effort is as Vogue as Madonna’s Vogue. Rakeback is reducing as much as 85%, and that’s not good news if poker income pays your water bill.
PokerStars insist the ecosystem will benefit from the changes. Those heavily hit will disagree. Earlier this week, Alex Dreyfus and his team at The Hendon Mob released survey results from the three million people who visit his site on an annual basis. The results showed over half of those polled were PokerStars customers. And yet 30% have a poor perception of the brand.
It would be unfair to single out PokerStars as a brand with a bad rep. The Hendon Mob survey results showed that poker players have a poor perception of all online poker brands.
Partypoker News
The news that poker players were sticking their noses up in the air at the sight of online poker rooms surprised me. There is a lot of love for partypoker on my social media channels. And with good reason. The hire of John Duthie to spearhead the partypoker LIVE was well received. This week Duthie and his team announced a $5m Guaranteed partypoker Sochi MILLIONS in September with the winner guaranteed a million dollar pay day.
Moving from the live realm to the virtual world and partypoker has switched to 8-Handed tables in the majority of MTTS after feedback from their customers. And former PokerStars employees Johnny Lodden and Thomas Udness were hired to guide players in the Nordic market to the partypoker tables.
888Poker News
Sandwiched in between PokerStars and partypoker like a piece of fillet steak is 888Poker. This week, the second largest online poker room this side of Pluto continued to elevate their brand perception by rolling out another gem of an online poker festival. The XL Championships features buy-ins ranging from $5 to $5,200, and there will be three of them starting with Inferno in May, Eclipse in September, and Blizzard in the new year.
And 888Poker has also partnered with the effective altruist movement Raising For Effective Giving (REG). The fees from three of the XL Championship Inferno events, including a $5,200 buy-in Super High Roller, will go towards effective charities. It’s an interesting move with two of the REG board members (Liv Boeree & Igor Kurganov) on the PokerStars payroll.
RunItOnce Poker News
With the Hendon Mob survey results showing player dissatisfaction with the online poker rooms on offer, Phil Galfond’s RunItOnce Poker will receive more attention than a shot of Kate Wright’s cleavage when it opens.
But when is that exactly?
The mild-mannered poker king planned to launch his online poker room by the end of Q1, 2017. But there has been a delay. Galfond wants to make sure the development team get the software spot on and is currently in Malta overseeing things.
There is no due date for the opening of the new site, but Galfond insists that it will still happen, one day.
Live Poker News
Back to that Hendon Mob survey and a brand that did come out shining like a teenage kid covered in his mother’s spit was the World Poker Tour (WPT). This week, the WPT ventured into the Seminole Hard Rock in Florida to bring Season XV to an orgasmic climax, and Benjamin Zamani was crowned the new Player of the Year despite a late charge by Sam Panzica and Pat Lyons.
I have a strong feeling the WPT brand recognition comes from many years of terrestrial TV exposure, and there was another poker company looking to follow in those footsteps this week.
Content created by Poker Central will appear on NBC Sports, NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports App. The deal includes coverage of the $300,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) taking place at The Aria at the end of May.
One player who expressed an initial interest in competing in the SHRB before withdrawing after the live lottery cock up was Charlie Carrel. This week the UK born Pro was also on TV when he appeared on Channel 4’s How’d You Get so Rich, sending teenagers all over Britain into a manic frenzy to open an online poker account after recanting the tale of turning £10 into £3m sitting on his arse playing cards.
Moving from the TV screens to the live poker tables and Griffin Benger continued to show that he isn’t a one-trick online shark by winning the Irish Open. The Canadian defeated a record 1,029 entrants to earn €200,000.
Time Ladies & Gentlemen, please.
Someone has just called the clock.
