Hey, poker playas!

Lately, we have been trying some poker apps and poker sites. one site did catch our attention this particular time.

Imagine there is a free-entry tournament going on, and it was not just a few hundred dollars. but it was actually more than 1,000 USD GTD.

You would expect many players would be attracted by this thing. however, something very odd really caught our attention. 

Seated on a table. we notice a lot of players were sitting out except 1 player. that would be nice right? But there was 1 active player only.

You would assume the active player would try to gobble all the chips as soon as possible. after all. all you needed to do was to raise and everyone would muck.

but nope, he was folding too. that was odd.

And yet every time there is a new player. he would only attack the active player. He would actually fold if the active player was not calling.

As we check the other table. we found more than 1 table having such a scenario. 

We would avoid discussing the hands he use to beat out the active player. although we found it odd as well. 

It does look really fishy. 

Why?

Of course, we can not say for certain there was something fishy going on. We need to look more into the sites and find out more. 

Although there could be valid reasons why somehow such a thing was happening. but we would like to share with you some incidents in the past and why such action could be deliberate.

Going after the guarantee.

There are actually reasons why sites could actually potentially do it. We know some incidence in the past why there are poker rooms that did it live.

One such incident was held in a poker room in Malate. due to the big guarantee and not enough players. The room started staking players with a deal. No matter how much they win. they are only entitled to a lesser percent.

This way if the top 10 is a stake by the house. the house can only lose let say 40% plus the real buy-in. cushioning the loss. 

It was also done in a cash game!

Can it be done in cash game? actually Yes. one poker site hired a bunch of players and made them play with each other. As there is make-up. Ironically if one player wins. the amount is actually coming from the rakeback. Although it was quite cunning the way he did it. It was still a bad practice. 

Fake it till you make it.

Why would a club or poker site actually do it? The truth is we had a disagreement with poker sites before and such practices do exist. 

By selling the illusion you are already big and growing. more people would of course want to jump on the bandwagon.  

Overload on empty promises.

The truth is, for so long now. most online companies have been promoting you could get rich. “Who knows, you might get lucky.” That has always been the tagline.

Like a free-entry tournament. Yeah, it is cheap if you get busted out. You can re-buy. There is a big pot. but the truth is winning it will not be easy.

Hence player shifted to Axie. it more that players can earn from playing axie. 

When the one thing you can promote is no longer effective.

The only things poker sites promote is the same thing over and over. People are just not into it anymore.

People taste changes and its normal.

They want something new. something better. something to make poker exciting again. 

And some poker sites do heavily put into that. but the truth is. Some of the things that poker sites can promote are not the things that will make poker exciting.

Will things change, who knows?