GGPoker, Elky and Fedor: HS Regs' Perspective

Surely he doesn't get to keep all of it?

As Ralph said, what would be the point of stopping players like Linus and Barak from winning 5bb/100 just to have misha win like 40bb/100?

The accusation seems to be that GG insiders are getting pieces of the action

Which my understanding is this is in-line with IRL private games where the host takes action on the winners

Gives some back @ PLO 200/400

Whether you like it or not the meritocracy includes the skills to get the whales to play not just the skills that allow you to fleece them when others bring you the marks.

Those aren’t necessarily two separate skills. How many millions of players did guys like Ivey/Dwan bring to the game on shows like PAD/HSP while fleecing the whales?

And you do not give the credit to those that broadcast the games? BTW they brought virtually no whales to their games albeit they brought some players to poker but compared to Moneymaker they were insignificant. I agree in the days before computers allowed you to fleece the whales while having the personality of a turnip most HS players both got the marks and fleeced them. BTW the fact that players can have both skills in no way means they are not separate skills.

Who are you? Are you a winning poker player? Host of a game? Or someone that is currently looking to be sponsored pro by a poker site?

What I meant by "separate skills" is that the best players always inspire the players at the bottom to become better, to chase that dream of one day becoming them. The same way someone like Federer or Nadal inspired people to play tennis, Ivey/Dwan inspired youngsters to start playing poker. Of course they were insignificant compared to Moneymaker lol, everything is, but I'd bet the prime FTP days with Dwan/Isildur/Ivey are definitely up there at the top in terms of how many players were drawn to poker from it.

poker is just going back to prehistoric time, game for gangstas thinking they’re really cool because big money swinging around

the only meritocracy now are MTTs

They are separate skills. Some people just have both and the make they most money in the long run.

Oh I totally agree. I certainly do NOT like it but it is a fact of the current state of the games.

The Misha guy is sponsored by GG and shills their product to his fans. Watching the guy blow money at midstakes probably wasn’t encouraging new players to deposit.

The bolded part is true. But it also just goes to show why sites are doing things like this and why games are going private.

MTT's let anyone play. This has caused them to be pretty terrible to watch and play. Something will likely need to be done about them in the future. Nothing is too imminent since the numbers are still good. This is mainly due to pent up demand from Covid imo. I understand the pandemic has been over for a while, but the last thing to come back is MTT's , hence the pent up demand. Especially on the east coast, Parx and Borgata just now starting to get back into MTT's and at a much smaller level the pre covid.

Problem is they let anyone play. With players being self serving and terrible for the game makes it a pretty terrible experience for many. Among the many problems ...

tanking- both on long decisions, and players feeling the need to take the same about of time to act preflop, for example even if they know they are folding a bad hand, they need to sit there for 30 seconds before folding to be consistent.

assistance- both digital and real life. whether it's running simulations or even going to get advice and info from their rail (who are often studying the situation, etc)

That stuff is terrible for someone who just wants to play a poker tourney and not make it their life. Who wants to sit there and watch people tank for 80% of the tourney.

In the future I could certainly see some "amateur only" type MTT's popping up. Obviously logistics would have to be ironed out.

In the

Older, retired, win at poker(measured by year more than 10 times as many winning years as losing years, measured by dollars overall net positive) but meaningless money compared to my net worth as I never play at a level where I could win or lose meaningful money. Do not host a game as you mean it; have hosted games that were nickel-dime-quarter with a $5 buy in with friends that are all now worth 7 digits + so the limited buy in is by choice not mandated by financial circumstances. Started the game in high school in the 1960s and still play roughly 4 times a year for nostalgia and an excuse to get together. Do not play or desire to play online as have enough knowledge to know how easily a site can cheat that you could not catch.. I just find the idea that some think HS regs have the right to expect an online site find the marks but whine when the site then expects the lions share from the marks amusing.

The problem with Cash Games online imo is that the results are artificialy created through many sites using multiple player platforms. Basically matching you with players with similair skill levels. This doesn't happen in tournaments online, so basically cash game players have an extremely difficult climate to start with. Then there's RTA, Collusion and sites like GG offering obsurd games with extremley high rake structures. Maybe they see the furture that eventually online cash games will become less and less so want to maximise profits while there are still games to be raked.

Most ambassadors online are essentially puppets because they are collecting a wage at the end of the day. Unfortunatley doing the right thing doesn't make people money. That's the bottom line.

Unless someone wants to make a poker site that is for the community and operates at break even after costs then nothing will change and things continue to get wore until there is nothing left to rake.

We need one global player pool that different poker clients opt in to; with various sites competing for who can give hero the best GUI customer experience, best rake and best customer support whilst protecting recs, and booting villains. Release the hand histories 48 hours after they are played and let us - the poker community determine if there is cheating going on. Via a PTR like site.

Ring fencing the deposited funds would be a pipe dream though.

All they have to do is cover their running costs, depositing, withdrawing fees and its license to print money at high stakes, but organisations (as do cheating hs weak ass regs that aren't good enough to beat the best so they have to cheat) like this always get greedy. Online poker has soo much potential for mathematical excitement and greatness. The poker rooms should be talking to each other and sharing their player pools above a certain stake as the traffic reduces. The higher the steak tastes. More players will join, better sample sizes, more fun for the rec high stakers. But it comes with the game. Never trust anyone when it comes to money. There's always another rbumhunting scumbag around the corner.

Also if you poker rooms really cared about us, there would be 11handed plo games to reduce the rake at these levels. With public HH for us to tail and rail in NVG.

Poker sites care about you and your profit as much as your suggestions show you care about them and their profit.

I don't think poker sites should care about anything besides their interests. I was never under any illusion over this.

We as poker players just need to adjust to market conditions.

Would suck if some poker site just managed to do something like miscalculate their moves and make the pie smaller for everyone, themselves included, which might or might not be happening here with GG.

I think that you are likely correct that GGs recent move will decrease the size of the pie. I think their likely requirement that those pros they give access to the high stakes games give them a cut of their winnings makes the profit to GG bigger. Long term I think they needed to go this route as the number of sharks at HS has increased more quickly than the number of whales so they are trying to limit the predators while increasing the share of the whales money that ends up in their pockets. Sharks are easy to find; whales are hard to find so why let random sharks feast on the whales when it is GG with their advertising, marketing, and willingness to ignore the law in certain countries with the attendant risk that provide the whales?

Poker sites care about their bottom line and so do i. but hs regs care about something else. image.

Not for long, MTT is next. It's already not very profitable with their structures, shallow stack sizes. But i think they'll find a way to exclude some portion of player pool.

Triton does an invitational tournament.

The Triton Poker Series was created by Paul Phua and Richard Yong,the same guys who are behind GG poker

Is this really true? Yong is behind GG?