Monday, October 10, 2005

Party Disconnect

Party Poker and all of its skins (Empire Poker, MultiPoker, Eurobet, Intertops) were shut down most of the day on Saturday, and there were big changes when they came back online.

Party Poker had divorced itself from its skins. That means that only Party Poker players can play at Party Poker tables, and the sister sites could no longer play on Party Poker's tables. Party Poker also changed its system to put blackjack on the main screen and to allow 10-tabling. The main 2+2 thread on the situation can be read here.

So I logged on to Eurobet to see what the effect of the move was. It was drastic. The number of players had dropped from a normal of about 60,000 to 7,000 yesterday. Right now, there are only 5,300 players on Eurobet. Party Poker still has tens of thousands of players.

When I searched my fish list on Eurobet, only one name popped up.

Obviously, most all of the fish play on Party Poker. Most all of the sharks play on the Party Poker skins so they can get rakeback.

Of course, fishy games are much more important than rakeback. Rakeback is a nice few hundred dollars a month, but without fishy games, poker is much less profitable.

I withdrew all of my money from Eurobet. I deposited $600 into PokerStars to take advantage of their new 25 percent up to $150 bonus. If they created that bonus to attract people who were pissed off at the Party Poker network, their plan worked!

The outcome of all this is that I'll have to find a new site for rakeback. I hope I can find an affiliate that will give me rakeback at Party, where all of my favorite fish are still hanging out.

There's a bigger picture here, too. This move by Party Poker protects its fish by separating them from the sharks who play on the skins. The fish will last longer before busting out, and that's always good for the poker economy. Long live the fish!

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