SHARK OR FISH? iPOKER SKINS MAY HAVE TO DECIDE

25 December 2009

The drive by major online poker networks to introduce fresh blood continues

The respected online poker message board twoplustwo has been discussing the drive by several Internet poker networks to force skins to produce more losers than winners (see previous InfoPowa reports on fines levied on skins with more withdrawals than deposits), and this week the debate took a more defined turn when a particpant posted a perspective from one of the skins.

Poster Limp_J claimed to have contacted a poker manager at the Victor Chandler skin who told him that the new year could see punitive measures by some networks that would force skin operators to ratchet up the requirement for more losers by categorising players as either
"fish" or "shark" in order to meet a mandatory minimum fish/shark ratio if they wished to avoid fines.

With the old system only big winners were banned, but if the new system is implemented the indications are that even small players could be banned in order to adjust the technical deposits/withdrawals ratio.

At post 33 on http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showpost.php?p=15475728&postcount=33 Limp_J takes the discussion from speculative to a clearer picture, posting the following response from an unidentified Victor Chandler poker manager:

"The truth of the matter is that we have restricted the cash game stakes at which a number of players can play and which effectively means we will lose these players.

"The reason why we have done this is because iPoker will be implementing a new policy in the New Year which will class every player on a monthly basis as a fish or a shark, and which will penalise card rooms that have too many sharks in relation to fish.

"As it stands, we are top heavy with sharks and, despite the fact that our win/loss ratio is fine, we stand to be fined heavily by iPoker under this new scoring system, and so we have had to reduce the number of sharks that we have in order to comply and avoid penalisation.

"It really galls us to have to do this not only because of the negative feedback and the inconvenience to the players but because the fish to shark scoring system is a farce in as much as even losing players can be classed as a sharks.

"Ridiculous isn’t it – when did you ever hear of a losing player being called a shark? What’s more, if the categorisation of the players was such that only winning players were classed as sharks we wouldn’t have had to make these account restrictions in the first place and so this whole topic has been created by the absurd scoring system about to be introduced by iPoker."

Watch this space - there are bound to be ructions if/when this system is introduced.

UPDATE:

As InfoPowa Weekly went to press this week the news was coming in that the Microgaming Poker Network will on January 5th be introducing changes to its poker network aimed at increasing incentives to licensees to bring in more "fish" than "sharks".

In the poker industry fish are regarded as less experienced and looser players who are more likely to lose than more experienced and disciplined sharks, who will in general win. Major fish generators are the core strength of any network, and network owners accordingly strive to persuade operators to attract as many as possible.

The motive appears to be to adjust the balance between fish (which are generally believed to generate 20 percent more rake) and "sharks", which tend to generate 20 percent less.

It does not appear at this stage that Microgaming will go to the same draconian lengths as Boss Media's International Poker Network, which has started fining operators who present more withdrawals than deposits - a system which Playtech's iPoker network is reportedly also to implement in 2010. Boss Media distributes the fines on a pro rata basis to network operators who generate the most fish.

Instead, MPN will apparently move from a rake calculation based on the total number of players, to a weighted formula, where rake per room will depend on the amount individual players put into each pot.

Online Casino News Courtesy of Infopowa

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