Images courtesy of World Poker Tour
The game of poker is constantly changing. There are new rules introduced for tournaments, the mixed game crowd comes up with new variations, and online poker sites try to mix things up with new reward programs and loyalty schemes.
On the surface, this sounds great. After all, innovation is always good. It drives positive changes, brings more people to the table, and keeps things from going stale, right?
While it’s hard to argue with that general sentiment, sometimes, too much innovation can be confusing and leave a large part of the community feeling overwhelmed. And that’s not the feeling you want to associate with something you observe as a fun hobby, which poker is for many people.
The inspiration to tackle this topic came from recent developments over at Phenom Poker, a poker site that set out to change the game. Combining elements of poker, crypto, and long-term investing, they offered rakeback paid in their own tokens.
By owning the token, players also became part-owners of the site, with the value of the token directly correlating with the performance of the company.
The model didn’t quite work, and, just recently, the team behind Phenom decided to go back to a normal model, where rakeback would be paid in USDT (a stable coin), which caused quite a bit of stir. Those still holding Phenom tokens are afraid that the value of the token will plummet, which is a real concern.
I’m Sorry, What Are You Talking About?
If this is your reaction to reading the above, you’re not alone. I am certainly not a crypto expert; I’m not looking for investment opportunities, but I’ve been playing poker, in its many formats and variations, for about two decades now.
Despite reading a lot about the whole situation, I’m still not quite certain what’s going on at Phenom Poker, but I’m fairly convinced that it has very little (if anything) to do with poker itself. And that may be a bit of a problem.
This is not an attempt to put a shade on Phenom. They have quite a formidable team over there, including some of the best and most-respected poker players carrying their banner and working behind the scenes. I even understand the whole concept of the poker revolution that gets players more involved and invested in the site.
The issue is, I don’t think that’s what a majority of people who love poker care about. Your average Joe wants to fire up a cash game session or play a few tournaments, potentially get some rakeback to do it all over again, and that’s it. Investments, tokens, crypto trading – it just feels too much.
Are there plenty of people who love the idea? Sure. However, it’s a safe assumption that people who understand and care about all of that are largely professionals or semi-professionals. Recreational players may well be turned off by all these complexities and drama.
And let’s face it. Without a solid pool of recs, no poker site can survive. We’ve seen this before. You can have the best platform, even the best rakeback out there, but if your site isn’t able to cater to recreational players and get them to stick around, the future doesn’t look bright.
A Never-Ending Stream of “Innovation”
Online poker used to be simple. You’d sign up for an account, deposit with your card or e-wallet, and you’re all set. Rakeback was often paid weekly, in cash, straight back to your account. Some sites had more elaborate reward programs, but at least, there were great rewards waiting at the end of that rainbow (i.e., Supernova and Supernova Elite).
Over the years, things have changed. We have sweepstakes poker sites like ClubWPT Gold operating in the US. There are many crypto sites where you can’t deposit via traditional methods, and the list goes on.
To be fair, a lot of this came to pass due to changing regulations and operators looking for ways to continue offering games. These workarounds are better than the alternative, which is not being able to play online poker at all.
But, at some point, it has to be enough. Innovation is great, but players want to feel reassured. They want to be able to log in, play poker, hopefully win, and cash out. And, of course, get some meaningful and straightforward rewards for the time they put in.
We went from good, old cash rakeback to complex systems involving chests and surprise boxes that are supposed to capture your preferences (or something like that) to your rewards being semi-tied to the value of the company – only for it to be changed again.
It is supposed to be revolutionary and exactly “what players want” based on “research,” but every time we see one of these new systems, there is a lot of negative feedback and confusion. To make matters worse, it often happens that, just as players get used to the new scheme, it gets “revamped” again.
Not to mention that, these days, the rake you pay isn’t a straightforward calculation. Your results, types of games you play, and many other factors enter the equation, to the point where you might pay $100 in rake and only see 50% of that actually assigned to your rakeback.
Going Back to the Roots
The online poker ecosystem is a complex beast. It needs to balance between pros and recs, keep everyone happy, and still bring money for whoever is running the show. Achieving all these things is no easy task.
We’ve certainly seen many interesting and valiant attempts over the years, some working better than others, but, at the end of the day, making things too complicated can only be a deterrent for those who see poker as a hobby.
They don’t have the time or the energy to do complicated calculations on how many hours they need to play to get something back. They don’t want to be stock owners. These people want to play good, old Texas Hold’em, have fun, and not stress about it beyond what happens at actual tables.
It may be time to jump off the hype train and for operators to go back to the roots. One thing that made the game so attractive in the first place was its inclusivity and openness to everyone. Adding a layer upon layer of complexity and intricacy to it takes away from that appeal.
I’m not saying that I have a solution, but this is a problem that deserves more attention, at the very least.
