New worse rake structure on Poker room

[Freudian]

Just want to give a heads up to those that play on Poker room. They have a new rake structure that has increased the rake, in some cases to insane 10%.

There is a discussion (another one) over at 2+2 where the players aren't particularly impressed.

I have to say it is an insane business decision when there are so many competing sites around.

[Casinomeister]

Edward from Pokerroom.com just joined the forum today. Maybe he'll give us some insight on this.

[Freudian]

Method, I took 3 "average" tables from Pokertracker and the first 60 hands of each table. I applied the 180 hands to the rake structure of both Party and Pokerroom.

The rake taken percentage on average as size of the pot is as follows:

Party Poker: 3.36%
Pokerrrom: 5.84%

Average table defined by taking average pot over 40,000 hands. Found the 3 tables closest to this that had a large enough sample size.

Pot$ Pokerroom Party
2 $0.00 $0.00
4 $0.00 $0.00
6 $0.00 $0.00
8 $0.80 $0.00
10 $0.80 $0.00
12 $0.80 $0.00
14 $0.80 $0.00
16 $0.80 $0.00
18 $0.80 $0.00
20 $0.80 $1.00
22 $0.80 $1.00
24 $2.00 $1.00
26 $2.00 $1.00
28 $2.00 $1.00
30 $2.00 $1.50
32 $2.00 $1.50
34 $2.00 $1.50
36 $2.00 $1.50
38 $2.00 $1.50
40 $2.00 $2.00
42 $2.00 $2.00
44 $2.00 $2.00
46 $2.00 $2.00
48 $3.00 $2.00
50 $3.00 $2.50
52 $3.00 $2.50
54 $3.00 $2.50
56 $3.00 $2.50
58 $3.00 $2.50
60 $3.00 $3.00
62 $3.00 $3.00

And remember that Party has far from the lowest rake around. The new rake at Pokerroom is ridiculous.

[Aindreas_Daoc]

Here is a small comparison between their old and new rake structures.

Pot $4; Old rake $0; New rake $.20

Pot $9; Old rake $0; New rake $.80

Pot $24; Old rake $1; New rake $2

Game $3 - $6

Pot $6; Old rake $0; New rake $.30

Pot $18; Old rake $0.50; New rake $1.20

Pot $36: Old rake $1.50; New rake $3

As can be seen, in some lower limit games, the rake approaches 10%. That high a rake is insane for an online room. That is B&M casino rates, and an online room doesn't have nearly the expenses of a B&M room, so there is simply no reason other than greed.

[bpb]

Party Poker raised the rake on their .5/1 and 1/2 games back in late 2003. They started taking 50 cents at $5, and 75 cents at $12. This had virtually no negative effect on their games. They currently have over 180 tables of 1/2 going at 8:00 PM on a Wednesday night ... despite having a significantly larger rake at these levels than all of their competitors (at least until now).

Your average recreational poker player doesn't understand the effect of rake, especially the effect of raking smaller pots at more frequent intervals. To them, the max rake hasn't changed. It is still $3, even though the average rake paid increases.

Frankly, I'm surprised more sites didn't follow Party's move until now.

[Freudian]

Party Poker raised the rake on their .5/1 and 1/2 games back in late 2003. They started taking 50 cents at $5, and 75 cents at $12. This had virtually no negative effect on their games. They currently have over 180 tables of 1/2 going at 8:00 PM on a Wednesday night ... despite having a significantly larger rake at these levels than all of their competitors (at least until now).

Your average recreational poker player doesn't understand the effect of rake, especially the effect of raking smaller pots at more frequent intervals. To them, the max rake hasn't changed. It is still $3, even though the average rake paid increases.

Frankly, I'm surprised more sites didn't follow Party's move until now.

There are much less high volume players at the lower limits. Besides Party is fishy enough to attract players. And for the low limit players Party have plenty of easy to clear reload bonuses which counters the high rake.

At Pokerroom a very good player will struggle to break even at 2/4 now. And just by chance the new $0.4 and $0.8 rakes makes what was a pretty tough bonus much harder to clear.

Anyway, it was just a warning to the members of this forum to stay away. They will get much more for their money elsewhere.

[realwtfsup]

This sucks. Had just moved mmy gameplay to the pokerrom skin Hollywood poker. Was playing many of there tourneys also.

This rake structure though is way to poor to continue playing there. Will move my business back to Absolute despite the tougher tables.

[PokerRoom.com]

Hi all,

Just a few clarifications regarding the recently updated PokerRoom.com rake structure.

But first of all I hope that all of you bear in mind that basing the rake on Big Blinds instead of Pot Size is an entirely new system designed to equalize the percentage of rake paid by players of various levels. We believe doing so is fair. However, as an entirely new system it may need certain adjustments not spotted in our extensive simulations.

1. The new rake structure tables have been available since yesterday.
A link to the new structure was also posted in our news section yesterday.

2. We still incorporate a No Flop No Drop policy. Naturally. The tables will be updated to clarify that.

3. The overall drop in player points received is an effect we did not anticipate, intend nor did it surface during our extensive analysis.
The Player Points system will therefore undergo an overhaul to adjust to the new structure and distribute more points.


4. Certainly certain games on certain levels will now have to pay a slightly higher rake than before, but do notice that others will pay way less. All heads-up games as well as high-stakes limit games are obvious examples of this.

5. The new, more dramatic cut-off point in paid rake can unfortunately lead to certain pots being raked around 9-10%. Do note however that these are extreme situations that only occur when a pot reaches a certain, exact size.

Examples:

Limit 5-10 players

1/2 LEVEL
Pot size $11 total rake $0.40
Pot size $12 total rake $1
Pot size $29 total rake $1

2/4 LEVEL
Pot size $23 total rake $0.80
Pot size $24 total rake $2
Pot size $48 total rake $2


Finally we do appreciate all of the feedback and comments received from all you 2+2.
Nothing beats hearing first-hand what the players themselves have to say.

C u at the tables!

PokerRoom.com
Meet Them and Beat Them

[pokeraddict]

Pokerroom.com's network just celebrated getting to 3rd place by figuring they could pull this off. I have a feeling they will see their error. They now have the highest rake by far on the internet. Funny how this was done just a couple of weeks after one of their skins was forced to stop allowing rakeback. Also werent they planning on going public soon? I am sure a sudden drop in play will look very bad.

All players can do is vote with their action. If you dont approve dont play there and as they sink maybe they will see their way. There is too much competition to play somewhere that thinks rake should be going up, not down.

[Freudian]

This sucks. Had just moved mmy gameplay to the pokerrom skin Hollywood poker. Was playing many of there tourneys also.

This rake structure though is way to poor to continue playing there. Will move my business back to Absolute despite the tougher tables.

Be sure to mail them and tell them why you are moving to another network.