Party Poker ends relationship with skins

[paul1]

Once upon a time, in Los Angeles, there was only draw poker, high and lowball. The fishiest games were lowball. That's where the action players played. When they introduced/legalized Pai Gow Poker, the whole LA scene changed. Action players switched to Pai Gow. Also, frequently when the livest players would get stuck bad in the regular poker games, they would leave their seats and wander over to the Pai Gow section trying to get even. It changed the whole scene.

[schnozzy]

For investment comparison purposes, it's hard to know how many of those 70k players are actually individual customers. Could be 4,000 "ten-tablers" and 30k individual players for a total of 34k individuals!

PartyPoker has stated that they get 70% of their rake/fees from 10% of their players.

Played PP multi table torunament last night. I thought the number of players on line was about the same as I always see.

The multi-table tournaments were never shared between skins. Only the cash games were shared, and those are near dead on the other sites, despite enormous bonus offers.

Party has also been making personalized kickback offers to high-volume players. I was offered $1500/mo if I matched the level of play I had there, before I got fed up with their customer service and switched to PokerStars.

[spearmaster]

Once upon a time, in Los Angeles, there was only draw poker, high and lowball. The fishiest games were lowball. That's where the action players played. When they introduced/legalized Pai Gow Poker, the whole LA scene changed. Action players switched to Pai Gow. Also, frequently when the livest players would get stuck bad in the regular poker games, they would leave their seats and wander over to the Pai Gow section trying to get even. It changed the whole scene.

I wouldn't go so far as to call the games fishy. I used to play lowball in Gardena - hit three jackpots in a month, only playing a few hours a week.

I also played in one of the first Pai Gow poker tournaments ever held (at the Bicycle, and actually I think it was the first one) - and won.

I miss that whole scene - and I really miss playing Lowball. Your description of the "scene" is pretty damn accurate

[paul1]

I miss that whole scene - and I really miss playing Lowball. Your description of the "scene" is pretty damn accurate

There's still a small amount of lowball in the state. A couple places in LA (Gardena and Commerce), a couple near Sacramento, and, of course, over at the Oaks in Emeryville.

I'm sure you've probably heard the old joke. What do they call a 70-year old lowball player? ...... "Junior".

[pokeraddict]

Completely OT......

Is Stud H/L still around out there? I could not find any in LV except the WSOP tourneys.

[paul1]

Completely OT......

Is Stud H/L still around out there? I could not find any in LV except the WSOP tourneys.

I can't think of any. It was never my interest, however. Before 1987, the whole state of California was all forms of draw poker. And there were some 600 small cardrooms throughout the state. Seems like every town had one. Now I believe there are about 80, not counting the Indian casinos. I'd say that high draw is totally extinct, and as can be seen lowball is on its death bed.

Not hard to figure out why. Of course, the popularity of holdem is the biggest factor. But there's no incentive for a cardroom to spread draw or lowball. The collection was about $24 per hour from the whole table of 8 players. In the smallest holdem games they rake close to $100 an hour.

[solring]

And there were some 600 small cardrooms throughout the state. Seems like every town had one. Now I believe there are about 80, not counting the Indian casinos.

Poker California lists 138 different cardrooms.

I'm proud to say that I've played at 15 of them...

[paul1]

Poker California lists 138 different cardrooms.

I'm proud to say that I've played at 15 of them...

I clicked that link and I think that is a pretty up-to-date list, off the top of my head. Many of those are Indian casinos and I suspect that if you deduct those it will be close to what I said for small card rooms. There are maybe four or five on that list I would question, which is pretty good because most lists I've seen are way outdated. But that's a pretty good list.

I think the difference is that somehow the state started regulating them in the late 80s, and before that it was generally up to the local governments, so you had literally close to 600 cardrooms here once. That was the good old days. But many "rooms" were just one table in a bar. And many were in some pretty rough parts of towns, not a place where you'd take your wife or girlfriend. Not exactly the Bellagio.

[dominique]

I read the press put out by analysts on the financial side of things, and I'm not sure that all the money people understand how skins and online gaming work. I think they may have been double-counting players and are in for a bit of a shock.

I just read yesteday of a survey in the UK that had the result that 93% (!) of the respondents had gambled online. That looks like market saturation right there, there may not be much room for growth in the UK market.

I can see why Party would want to market the casinos side to their poker base, casino customers are 8X more profitable per head than poker customers. Why let those players go play on Playtech or Microgaming sites? I haven't looked at Iglobalmedia's casino software in years, is it any good with respect to interface and game selection?

Note to studio audience: Mary will never play at an Iglobalmedia site. They ripped off casino players for years without apology with gaffed games and that's how they funded their poker side. They did not see anything wrong with that; the distinction being that they considered their casino games to be fair because they were random. I consider them to be a scam because they did not follow the math of the casino games they protrayed--they were essentially slot machines looking like table games such as roulette. They made no disclosure at any time to players that this was the case.

Iglobal, now Party Gaming, will release a new casino with lots of new games etc. I think in February. The entire company product is going to change dramatically. This move by Party Poker was only one small part of the puzzle.

[kavaman]

Yep, but who the heck would like to play casino games at the same time as playing poker . Answer:The fishies

So it will mean less money for better players... because the fishies play their money to casino games..

-kavaman