New Full Tilt – Cash games … a very, very interesting one this indeed is. Logically speaking, FTP can not accept the whole liability for players’ losses because, quite simply, they would go bankrupt.
So what may be needed to make this work is a mechanism/technical solution whereby net withdrawers (winning players) are “penalised” for winning pots against net depositing players (losers/fish), in much the same way that online backgammon players pay the loser’s rake as a courtesy when winning a game.
The new Essence of Full Tilt
Our online Poker Consultancy team have noticed that interestingly, there is already a precedent for this in the form of Ongame’s Essence system. As you may be aware, Ongame tracks players profitbilty via what is known as an ‘Essence co-efficient’, and at the end of each hand the player(s) with the lowest Essence Coefficient, i.e the losing players, are attributed the lion’s share of the rake from the pot (regardless of contribution) and thus are awarded more Player Points than winning players.
An adaption of this, and the easiest way to implement it would be to charge the net withdrawing players, that win a cash game pot, a percentage of the total pot which would then be distributed to the net-depositing players that have lost money in the pot, proportional to their contribution, at the end of the month as a ‘losses back’ payment.
Poker Manager Pandora
Our Poker Consultancy team believe that the rakeback model is dying in the industry, as it does virtually nothing positive for the actual poker sites and networks. Players may love it but the sites do not and at the end of the day they are the ones who make the more powerful decisions. Poker sites are slowly replacing it. Rakeback went to cashback or valueback etc. PokerStars went from Dealt Method (grinders paradise) to Contribution Method (rewarding the action players) and Ongame have introduced the Essence System.
What other industry would see companies fight among themselves to give away more of their profit as their fundamental strategy?
Rakeback should never have been introduced into the industry to start with but then we were all more innocent and didn’t realise what Poker Manager Pandora was opening.
Winning the pot or the rake?
The alleged idea that the new Full Tilt are introducing will encourage players to gamble more. This means that those players who make the long term correct decisions will be rewarded with even more winnings.
Instead of the fish with the itchy trigger finger thinking about calling but realizing the odds are not good enough and folding (the last time he called he got abuse in the chat from that good player), the lossback system gives him a good reason to take the gamble. If he wins then he has won the pot. If he loses then he could have won a big pot, he was unlucky, but the Fishback system will reward him at the end of the month. This means that next month he will definitely be able to return and play.
Players will be encouraged to gamble and be the dog in multi-way pots or where they have put in a decent amount but not pot committed so could fold.
Winning players pre rakeback
Having worked in the industry since before the rakeback wars began our Poker Consultancy team members can remember the days when players at relatively low stakes would clear $20K+ in profit per month on a regular basis. It is no coincidence that the win rates for these players bottomed out when the rakeback and grinding mindset was introduced as it adversely affected the game dynamics.
Will lossback work?
This can only work if the lossback is either limited to a maximum amount per month or a small percentage, so that the figure is only appealing to fish. Set too high and it would encourage chip dumping, manipulation and possibly collusion. With that in mind the max lossback amount would still need to be enough to keep fish depositing and the cash flowing inwards and upwards at the correct rate.
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