No worries, I'm not going to 'retag' anyone who is already with another Merge partner site, I'm just happy people are playing on Merge.

I'm just going to comment, that due to the previous competitive situation, Merge did what they needed to do be exist in that situation. And I agree with you, if we want to experience continued growth the goal needs to be the forest, but the rate of changes that are happening at Merge are relatively rapid considering from where we were. Had we implemented these changes 1 month ago, would it have made any competitive difference? Likely not. But now as you point out, it obviously does.

I don't think that any company in this situation has any roadmap for it, except for really putting their ear to the ground and listening and twoplustwo is where a majority of information, recommendations and advise is being taken from and heeded. But realistically, everything is done in progress and every change has other changes related to it. Again, not an excuse, but the reality of the situation in that, we could simply change everything as they come in, but we'd also be irresponsible in that we wouldn't know what has affected what and we'd be simply reacting rather than growing step-by-step as what is good for one group may upset another.

Now you may counter that somethings are quite obvious, and I won't disagree, but the things that are even quite obvious which are being changed and also numerous as well! So if you're not happy with Merge now, don't deposit, simply wait until the network can meet your expectations but as a former senior executive and senior management consultant I can 100% say that the rate of internal changes and responsiveness of Merge is very exceptional considering the circumstances AND you'd be hard press to see any other company instill these many changes in such a short period of time. Again, you as the players are worth it and there isn't any excuse, but please do not think the network isn't working like dogs or aren't listen. They are and they have my full confidence that we will sort it all out in due course, and hopefully that will be sooner than later.

This is going to make a lot of limit game players very happy. If you fix it they will come.

Thanks!!!!!!

They certainly will!

Dave, thank you for your response, please keep up the good work!! It's truly appreciated.

Hi Hero Poker CEO,

Just wondering if there is an ETA on when you will accept Australiain players?

Thanks

At this point, earliest by end of next week- but likely by mid-last week of May. Obviously I've been working on this for a bit and I want to open things up before June 1st so the Aussie regs can get RB. so I will keep things posted and as soon as it happens it will be announces via pokernews Aus, and here.

But since I have Grant Levy playing in the Melbourne Champs right now and 2 Aussie omaha cash game pros and adverts in PokernewsAus mag, if I don't get this thing sorted sooner than later, I'm shooting myself in the foot, every single day lol. So trust me when I say, I'm working on it like a dog.

Cheers,
Dave.

Good to hear.

First I sign up for Carbon, nearly deposited, then saw the RPM sub-forum, saw the great service being offered there, then I see this thread and am on the fence of signing up!

It's tough picking a merge skin. I don't like the 60 day inactive rakeback rule. I wish that after June 1st sites would just institute there own rewards program ala Stars.

Can you please explaine this rule.

Once you have rakeback on a merge skin, you can't get it on another skin unless the skin with rakeback has been inactive for 60 days

Oh ok I was worried it ment if you have rakeback and you do not play for 60 days you lose it, all good then.

I don't quite understand your reference to Washington. Is Merge planning on changing policy on WA, are you saying you don't recommend individual players from WA to do online poker, Hero Poker will change their specific policy, or what?

As a WA resident and pro-player who can't move yet, it is extremely important to me to play on Merge. I also love the network, regardless

Not sure what's going on in NY but online poker is illegal in WA.

I'm sure I'm not telling you anything new, but with growing popularity I'd bet on Merge avoiding illegal territories.

Like we saw with BF, defending poker as a game of skill is one thing, but there's no defense in deliberately serving customers who aren't legal to play.

edit: Former WA resident who moved to OR just to be blacked out again.

Did OR pass a law also?

No. I think he's just referring to BF in general and all of America being blacked out to the 3 big sites.

State law doesn't have jurisdiction over international law

It is likely that all sites will move to some type of rewards program, but it is hard to say what final form they will look like. What people don't realize is that the rewards system really evolved with its membership base at Stars, and for the rewards program to be really useful as a retention tool, it needs to really take care of the needs of its player base. I'm spending the weekend working this out as I have a few models in my head, but the one that we have currently was to focus on new tournament players. But from the start it was my intent to create such a rewards program for the site, thus our 300 level etc, because it is one of the way to create a loyal player base.

Just an aside, with a loyal player base, you're actually able to have margin to do marketing to bring in more players as well as give out random prizes when you hit your 10 billionth hand etc...

I've actually had a recent PM about this, my personal understanding and stance obviously shares much with PS as my work experience and exposure through the industry is from that lens. So I've been told otherwise about WA, but the first rule of thumb I learned from Isai himself was, never put the players in harms way first, if there is a possibility of enforcement against a player, it isn't something that can be managed; it was the first question he would always ask me when I was presenting new markets or changes in a market.

As a network skin, I can also just sit back and tow the party line or I can make my recommendations and allow or disallow players to sign up from an area and right now I haven't acted separately. I'm likely to do so in the near future, but right now I'm still looking into a couple more issues.

FWIW, the affiliate RaketheRake is saying in the affiliate forum here on 2+2 that you can do this.

In other words: I currently have rakeback on Lock. If I sign up for Hero or RPM or whatever BEFORE June 1st then I can still get my rakeback switched over to the site in December or whatever should I choose to sit out for 60 days on Lock.

That all sounds very strange to me and my instincts tell me it might not be correct. I appreciate your cautious approach on this and informing your players not to lose their rakeback on their current skin until you absolutely confirm. Thanks for looking into it.


In other news: I'm based out of NY so I might not be able to sign up for any new sites anyway. But I have a bank account with an address in Florida and also was planning on just getting checks sent to me in the mail. My drivers license is in NY though. I have no idea if I can use my Florida address to legitimately sign up for Hero or other skins. Your insight would be appreciated.

And similar to what a zillion others have said already: I am extremely impressed with your presence in this thread. Thanks for everything you are trying to do. I can only hope that your efforts here can help raise the bar for other sites also.

I am too. Thanks.

+1 zillion.

David, I may be wrong but it sounds like you are mainly focusing on creating a rewards program focusing on tournament players. Don't forget about the tons of cash players when rolling out your rewards program ideas, thanks.

Does Nordstrom offer the cheapest clothing?
Does Zappos offer the best rewards program?

No, but what they do offer in unparalleled customer service, and I think that's the brand David is going for, my biggest concern is scalability.

Eventually your business will come to a point where you can't answer every question in a thread. I'm sure you've anticipated this; what's your plan for this scenario, and overall continued growth and scalability of Hero Poker?

I like that you're willing to credit users the $12 WU fee, and $15 checks fee, but how long are you willing to extend those gratuities?

Online Poker sites, like banks, and gyms, etc., they do two things particularly well, they'll say anything to get you in, and prevent you from leaving. My question is, what are you going to do for us "in between" per se?

Like I mentioned a few posts ago, I've signed up for Carbon, then RPM, and then I see this thread, am WOW'd by your responses thus far and despite RPM having the better promotions, I'm very interested in signing up and depositing at Hero. That's because customer service goes a long way with me, and a ton of other poker players as well.

Positioning your brand w/ CS is tough, and a ton of companies fail to execute. I LOVE what you're doing so far -but scalability is my biggest concern. What's your response to that?

PS. I mentioned Zappos earlier, just based on your responses (and not because your Asian ) you remind me a lot of Tony Hsieh, Zappos' CEO. If you haven't read his book, I'd check it out, it's called Delivering Happiness.

These are good questions, and pretty much mirror my transitions through the skins. RPM seemed like the best choice, but Hero Poker, if it can continue to be this personal, will give them a run for their money.

I will say I really like the reward system, it's very fun and I think it will motivate a lot of casual players to play more since some of the early levels are very attainable.

I'm a bit confused about the rewards. Is it a monthly re-set on the levels? For example am I gettting this amount of instant cash, cash rebate reward and tournament entry reward...weekly, monthly or just once? How many of those Spartan $200 MTT's are we talking about? One or many?

Put a different way am I looking at a chart that is like a monthly rake chase or am I looking at a chart that is yearly?