More Online Poker Sites Try to Balance the Playing Field

What started with an all out ban on data-mining techniques by the MicroGaming Poker Network is turning into an all out poker zeitgeist, in what seems to be an effort to bring Online Poker back to its roots; where skill and hard work win the day.

The latest poker rooms to join the movement are Chili Poker and VC Poker of the iPoker Network. Although, the methods employed by the iPoker network sites may be a bit extreme. With news that iPoker is penalizing sites that exceed a certain percentage of “good” players, the sites have decided to tell some of their winning players their money is no longer good on their site.

Some have suggested the new rules and guidelines are an attempt to punish winning players, but in my view it’s a realization by the Online Poker sites that third party software, or simply having a large proportion of winning players, is having a negative impact on their bottom line, and is driving new players away from Online Poker.

A poker site operates on the same general principles as a bookmaker. For a bookie, they are guaranteed a win when the action is perfectly balanced -because of the vig collected on losing bets. For poker rooms the same principle holds true; the closer the skill level of all its players, the more hands of poker will be played; which means more rake collected for the poker site.

For instance, if two players sit down with $1,000 each, and player A is winning $10 per hand over player B, it won’t be long before player B is broke and out of action -statistically it will take about 100 hands. However, if player A is only winning $1 per hand from player B it will take 1,000 hands before he goes broke. And for Online Poker sites this means more rake collected-900 hands more rake! Of course this means less profit for player A as well.

Tracking software increases a player’s edge over their opponents, and in the case of solid, winning, players vs. casual players it can tip the scales so far that the casual players are no longer sheared, but utterly skinned; which means casual players are more likely to be one-and-done in their attempt at Online Poker.

In previous years the poker sites fought hard to bring in high-volume players which paid immediate short-term results. However, it now seems these poker sites forgot the cardinal rule of poker: Think Long-Term! With tables overpopulated by grinders the average pot size has shrunk, and the casual poker player has moved on to softer sites with more players like themselves.

The manner in which VC Poker is dealing with the issue is in my opinion the definition of over the line, and seems to be one of the worst ways to tackle the issue. The methods used by the Merge Poker Network -disallowing tracking software-is a much better approach, and seeks to solve the problem, instead of creating a new one!