AmayaStars

[Ironside]

Maybe rake should be pro rata and on a basis of how much you play. Professionalism is killing the game, charge the high volume people loads, the recs who barely play the least and everything else in between.

i think that already happens the more you play the more rake you pay

[Woodsey]

Sure everyone on here will agree with that

Doubt the pros/semi pros will.

Fish like me and other hobbyists, why not?

[George2Loose]

Because hobbyists are probably least price sensitive. They'll play regardless

[Woodsey]

Because hobbyists are probably least price sensitive. They'll play regardless

Ok fair enough, keep the rake for hobbyists the same (or lower it a little) and price the pro's/semi pro's out....

[cambridgealex]

Do other companies like tescos have forums with people ranting about prices increases and lobbyists organising strikes etc?

Bizarre really. You're using a product / service and making money from other users of that service. The owners have put their prices up as is their right. Quit your moaning ffs lol you ain't gonna change their mind no matter how many spreadsheets and graphs you throw at them.

[Rexas]

I think they would have a problem if Tesco decided to buy their main competitor(s), essentially destroy them, and then put up their prices.

[cambridgealex]

Must've missed the part where Amaya bought Party, 888 and iPoker.

[pleno1]

Do other companies like tescos have forums with people ranting about prices increases and lobbyists organising strikes etc?

Bizarre really. You're using a product / service and making money from other users of that service. The owners have put their prices up as is their right. Quit your moaning ffs lol you ain't gonna change their mind no matter how many spreadsheets and graphs you throw at them.

Imagine you were living in Nottingham and Rob Yong told you that as long as you play 8 hours a day 5 days a week he would give you 100,000 at the end of the year and then an extra 15k/month in the following year. In November he says sorry I'm not giving that 15k even though you met the requirements but don't worry I had it in small print.

Meanwhile there was Skallie who came out and tried to calm you all down, telling you that Rob was going to spend it on some really  stuff that he couldn't tell you about but would bring in so many people. But it should be around in March and it would really help your bottom line.

DTD then run a tournament with their most ever players making the most money they've ever made off s tournament, Robs work of making a card room in Atlantic city finally goes through on the same day as the huge tournament. The very next day Rob announces a new rule that everytime you pull up more money he's going to charge you a 10% vig meaning your games are unbeatable (many many games stars offers are completely unbeatable including now rebuys, hyper as well as micro stakes cash games)

Skallie then comes out and defends the changes and tells you how the casino in Atlantic city, despite never likely to change you will make the company a tonne of money and thus DTD will do better and thus you should be happy.

You have two options.

1) you quietly leave and start playing in Gala Nottingham, the biggest games are 1-1 but the card room manager is really nice and he's trying to make a difference, every few weeks he puts on a promotion and usually adds a bunch but in general, the tables are old, the cards are old, there's a draft coming in through the door and it's in a pretty rough area where there is history of money being stolen or disappearing and the police doing nothing

2) you protest, you strike and you try to reverse the changes. You know that previously Rob has done similar kind of tactics but when all the players came together and protested he changed these exact changes around.

[George2Loose]

The problem u have is number 2 will never happen because all the moaners will be back on there grinding within the week which is why Avaya win.

[pleno1]

The problem u have is number 2 will never happen because all the moaners will be back on there grinding within the week which is why Avaya win.

That's not really true though. I'd say previously stars had around 90% of my action, now they have around 30-40%, the more the other sites improve the more I'll take off stars tables and add other networks. Most regs now are moving tonnes of their volume over to party/888.

[George2Loose]

Well if people truly do vote with their feet they'll soon stop and/or reverse their decisions as they did before. Only way to effect them is to effect their bottom line.

[MC]

Do other companies like tescos have forums with people ranting about prices increases and lobbyists organising strikes etc?

Bizarre really. You're using a product / service and making money from other users of that service. The owners have put their prices up as is their right. Quit your moaning ffs lol you ain't gonna change their mind no matter how many spreadsheets and graphs you throw at them.

Stars start charging 30% rake on live tournaments. They post bullshit stats showing they still have lowest rake overall. Negreanu assures you it will be a good thing for poker. Reckon you might have a different opinion then.

[Rexas]

Must've missed the part where Amaya bought Party, 888 and iPoker.

Think it's pretty safe to say, in terms of software, these companies are a long way behind. Sorta like comparing Tesco to Aldi, it performs the same function but with less variety and not as well. Full Tilt was the site that could really go after the stars player base, but not anymore.

[Doobs]

Do other companies like tescos have forums with people ranting about prices increases and lobbyists organising strikes etc?

Bizarre really. You're using a product / service and making money from other users of that service. The owners have put their prices up as is their right. Quit your moaning ffs lol you ain't gonna change their mind no matter how many spreadsheets and graphs you throw at them.

Stars start charging 30% rake on live tournaments. They post bullshit stats showing they still have lowest rake overall. Negreanu assures you it will be a good thing for poker. Reckon you might have a different opinion then.

You should be able to argue with the competition commission if they were using monopoly pricing.  But isn't the issue that some of the pricing on other sites has always been terrible, so people played on stars as they were the only sensibe ones.  ipoker raked 10% on turbo/hyper STTs  years ago.  Other sites have been raking rebuys, and so on.  So whilst some of the stats may be dubious, I don't think they are pricing so badly that they are too far away from the oppostion.  So even though theoretically they are taking advantage of their position, any case seems fraught with difficulty.  

I guess we just have to avoid the games we can't beat such as hold em hyper MTTs for me.  Cash NLO8 was always near unbeatable unless you refused action vs anyone but the biggest fish.  Or you could find some smaller sites, but even then, the pricing is so bad on the other sites that as soon as a couple of solid regs show up, the game becomes unbeatable there too.

The other thing is that we tend to have a bunch of people wanting to make big profits from the game complaining about other people wanting to make big profits from the game.  

Might just have to look back at the time I made a lot of money from online poker like the time when I could get drunk without feeling bloody awful, or the time I could go out without having to check 3 people's diaries, or the time I could run hundred yards without feeling like tmy chest was about to explode Alien style. Those times were good.  

[arbboy]

Must've missed the part where Amaya bought Party, 888 and iPoker.

Think it's pretty safe to say, in terms of software, these companies are a long way behind. Sorta like comparing Tesco to Aldi, it performs the same function but with less variety and not as well. Full Tilt was the site that could really go after the stars player base, but not anymore.

Tesco charge more than Aldi for this huge range of variety in their stores.  Why shouldn't Stars do the same?