Please see the previous post (should be 2-3 above this one) regarding this but I'd like to throw out the following:

1. if there is no more rb accounts given out after June 1st, and if all rake back related promotions (rakeraces/chases) are then handled by the network, and Hero was to opt in, would you consider this to significantly level the playing field in terms of RB return competitiveness.

2. I'm honestly not focused on competing on a price/cost basis, but rather proactive value basis. Now as a starting site, we have yet to really display this and it is a long term strategy related to building brand momentum and player loyalty (as a rb player will go where the better rb is provided they can freely move their roll around). I just am not part of that camp and as a business professional I want to build value into the company itself instead of being a seller of commodities.

But definitely, right now pre-June 1st, there will be much better sites out there with much better deals on a cost basis, but come this time next year, I think that will be the measure and moment I would be considering as if Hero does grow we will be able to constantly offer more to the player in value outside of just rake while a site with a razor thin margin will just have to hope that their existing players stay loyal, but I'm sure that they will, after all, if you can feed off the network with the better deal, I say go for it. But that isn't what Hero is and will be about. I want to have international tournaments, workshops and party always like it's 1999 with my players. But lets see if that comes to fruition and right now, it is just empty words- but then again, I did start two card rooms in Macau, did the poker legislation for Macau and set up the contracts for APPT during its initial years and founded the biggest regional tournament in Asia.. but again, another time and place.

All I can say is, if you want to be part of a poker company, then Hero is as good or better choice as any. You want to just grind, you can still even find better deals than at best rb value skin at Merge on another network.

Hi Dave Jung,

Interesting OP

This I find particularly interesting and good to hear.

However, I am always concerned when I see another skin set up on a network which doesn't have any clear way of attracting new players that otherwise wouldn't have joined that network.

There must be a huge duplication of work by sites on a network.

For example, let's say there are 10 skins on Merge, each with an affiliate manager, each with some support staff, each with a CEO, each with a website developer etc.

Why is it that the rake needs to be spent to pay all of these different people?

Wouldn't it be far better to all consolidate the backend staff, and then spend the rake saved instead going into advertising?

For example, how will Hero Poker provide more fish to the Merge network than if it never existed? Or will it just spread the existing rake across more staff, reducing other skins advertising budgets?

This is nothing personal at all towards Hero Poker, it's just I've been thinking this for ages and feel it's an inherent problem in the network system that really needs addressing. As it's the first time I've seen the CEO of a new skin making the OP (as well as a fellow former PwC employee ) and you have made a lot of interesting replies I thought it was worth asking

Derek

I have forwarded this on for discussion with Merge, I can't comment on it at the moment as is because this type of question requires discussion. That being said, we all work in conjunction to assist the network to be better, but FutureInsight's suggestion is also a good one as when Merge gets the same information from multiple sources they will take it with more urgency/consideration.

In terms of influence of bigger rooms and sway; if there was a truly urgent issue that needs in depth consideration, I can ring up the CEO of Merge directly or fly over to meet him to discuss, as could any CEO of the other network's site.

ㄳ^^

you can get rb directly from the link in the OP, unfortunately I don't have very many affiliates and the ones that I do have are more media/community oriented rather than affiliate rake driven. While I sincerely did try to figure out the entire rakeback affiliate industry aspect, it just hasn't made sense to me for the long term as Hero is not looking for cash flow but rather intrinsic value/equity in our company as a long term entity.

That being said, I think many of the site, which did first inform their affiliates about the ending of new RB accounts, have been extremely selective in what they have leaked about the memo. Had they leaked everything instead, you may have a very different angel to your question, but after June 1st, Hero will opt into whatever the network promotion does in regards to rake related promotions.

Cheers and thanks,
Dave

Greetings David,

1. If I send the verification form and a copy of my id in, Is it possible to transfer my existing bankroll from a different merge account to my new Hero Poker account?

I would feel more comfortable doing this instead of having to pay another western union fee.

2. Also, how do you feel about account to account transfers for staking purposes?

The reason I ask is that based on responses from your support team, you would need to make a real money deposit in order to initiate money transfers. However, many U.S. poker players are hesitant to deposit and are looking for backers to fund their play. I understand the need for verification, but having to verify and make a real money deposit makes it much more difficult to stake.

Thanks for your time.

We need to put this into a context because I think some American players who chose to inquire about playing are still thinking as though nothing has changed when in fact there are some considerations before I answer.

1. You know 1 month ago, literally 3 weeks ago, Merge was #24 in the world, now they are #9. Obviously the infrastructure is strained and pushed to its limits and while things have been ramped up, it's been in a constant state of ramping up/catching up. To make an absolute judgement on the ability to withdraw in a timely and organized manner right now is the same line of understanding in expecting a timely withdraw of funds from PS/FPT on the day of Black Friday. Of course it isn't to that magnitude, but I'm sure you get my point.

2. I'm sure you'll note that it has been done, 'usemywallet' and cheques have been issued. So yes, its not like its a black hole, I'm sure if it was, Merge would have been dead right now.

3. I can only say this, on behalf of Hero. We are a boutique site, that hasn't changed, we haven't experience a huge surge of sign ups because we launched during the Aussie millions and were more considered with developing our company's position and standards. So its not like I'm so overwhelmed that I can't function, and my main role is to assist the player in whatever way or options I can. So I'll say this. If you need assistance, the CEO of Hero will assist you directly and if I need to use my resources to expedite things, I will where appropriate. But as you know, most network sites including Hero use Merge to process payments, so if things are going through Carbon, well they will go through Hero, (I don't know about the other sites).

But again, I'd recommend if you are uber concerned about this, simply wait and see how long the checks take etc. Eventually things will settle down and then you can make a decision at that point. Now even if the checks work and it takes 3 weeks or 7 weeks, you may even wish to rethink it its worth to wait for check for some random period over just using a different and available method. But I hope you can understand what I'm saying here that, I will do treat you like only a CEO can treat a VIP.

http://www.pocketfives.com/f10017/me...shouts-636806/

But from p5s - I directly assisted one such player with a cash out recently from our 15k freeroll winner last week.

It's actually not animal based humour, it's regional, but maybe you knew that and you just wanted to share =)

But personally, just personally, I don't take offense to this as there are a lot of Koreans who eat dog (not as most nowadays) and if someone does own a dog, they very rarely would eat dog and most campaign against dog eaters nowadays. I try not get involved in this issue as it's pretty indefensible, but no offense taken =)

Right now, we've just tried it, Aussie players can just register without their details and I can apply the rb to the account, but until its official, it won't be automatic, but yes, I will provide an automatic link for it for Aussie Players.

Cheers,
Dave

Rakeback will always make a huge difference because at 35% it starts off either at the top or exceeding that most top tier rewards you would get, after grinding like a nut to get there, add some VIP points on top of that, and its like gold dust on a $150 sundae.

But that is why even my rewards system set players up at the 25%-35% average range over certain stretches of earnings, as no rewards system can inherently compete with rakeback as a pure acquisition tool.

As the rakeback is used to draw players in, while the VIP system is supposed to keep them playing. If a VIP system was to draw players in, it wouldn't be designed to start off low then go high after achievement are reached, it would just start as high as it could and go go as high as it could while still maintaining some type of margin.

Cowin Mackey is his name
and 'Mig.com' is his nick.

Sorry if there was any confusion.

#1. RB yes, if your old account was completely inactive for 60 days.
No agreements with training sites and just the standard $600 @ 100% but again pm if you'd like to break it up into multiple deposits to get the full bonus.
#2 We have 3 other main markets where we will engage in magazine, internet video promotions, give away a car, sponsored pros, additionally we are making partnerships with land based casino outside the US to host events after Sept.
Here is a sample of one of our promotional videos with Gavin Griffin and Terrence Chan & myself as the cannon fodder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M39GiPwsZPQ

We will be launching a cash game specialist 300 vip as well based that players can opt into. It should be finished by next week and launched on the site as option.

While this was already addressed, when I think of LAN I do think of internet cafe,playing together in the same room even if through BNET's invite party system for SC2-to me anyway-same difference for social play, sucks for live tournament play with the actual lan function in the software, but that is Blizzard post Activision...or so they say...

But I was the 2001 WCG nation vs nation tournament organizer for Starcraft BW and have been involved with e-sports in Korea since 2002. Giyom..., Elky, Rekrul & Smuft are all my closest friends and I am minor shareholder in a top SC2 Korean pro team. And if are a part of teamliquid.net you'd know me already. But I get what you're saying about the LAN and little things, but if I had posted on TL, I still would have said LAN cause everyone already knows that SC2 doesn't have that as a given. ie. the rock vs Bnet SC2 comparison.

I hope that this clarifies things, cause I'd really hate to go through all this and be call out on my e-sports background as if I was some chobo.

Thanks.

I actually already do this for our players when they request it exactly as you've mentioned it and it's mentioned on our site =), but I am thinking of creating the cash game one with a slightly different structure, and still working on it.

Because with the tourney one, I was constrained by the actual value of the tournament tickets, whereas with a cash game one, I wouldn't be, so I could be very very exact to the cents in what I would like to convey through the VIP cash game system or else correspond it to expected buy-ins/limits etc.

Again, do I feel that are a majority of my player will be regs moving forward or new players? Even the tournament VIP system needs a significant amount of tweaking at this point as we start to engage more mature markets, but yes, you're right on the same lines of thinking I have.
Cheers.

It's under web-development now as we are going to add in another frame for 'news and promotions' that will go between the current top frame under the top menu and the upcoming tournament display. But basically the website is being upgraded now and so it will basically deal with all promotions moving forward after June 1st which will be an interest post period for Merge.

Honestly, people can, but it take a lot of manual table tweaking, so the set up time will be far longer than you are normally use to, also I recommend you hide the 'all in button' under game settings. But its 18 tournament tables max, plus cash (I assume up to 18 as well, but I was told unlimited by a Merge staff I believe, but I could be wrong, but I'll err to say, 18 +18).

Cheers,
David

1. Check Fees
I think that is an excellent point, mainly because this is one area I haven't put as much thought into as part of something systematic because I was just resigned to assist personally, but one thing was that through the VIP system we would like to simply provide certain VIP gifts/merchandise for free for making to certain divisions and I think that can be also extended to: if you are a level 100 centurion then you get 2 free checks per month etc. And I know that other sites currently do this, but I failed to consider that point as well for our own VIP, so thank you for that.

2.Security, Advertising and Deposits/Cashouts
Merge does have its own security team that monitors the entire network; I know that Lock has their vault functionality, but I think that with the new client upgrade that password token will also be an option for players.

I think only a handful of the sites will do mass market advertising, but since my background is in Stars, its what I'm experienced in more than this type of rb promotional focus; and I'm fine to do it because while other sites may be reg heavy, I'm sure I'll see the dividends later for us as well, as the network still is relatively small.

Deposits/Cashouts: again done by Merge, merge is swamped right now for obvious reasons, I will assist where I can, but a true measure of Merge's capability will come in a couple of months, I'm sure.

3.Multi; when the upgrade comes up, then, hopefully the functionality will improve significantly, until then, unfortunately you'll be reminded it is not stars every time you get assaulted with a pop up or get timed out, but I know that people do successful grind on Merge to some extent, again, I think its really a matter of going old school and manually tweaking the windows and getting into a new set-up process.

I think you guys are doing a fine job with the other 2 sections, I was merely listing the 3 that we talked about being what rake went towards, the deposits and cashouts are the only spot I think needs fine-tuning and I like what you said in this post on the subject.

I have a ton of faith in Merge making some significant upgrades and I look forward to the increased tables (and thus increased rake) this will make possible.

I think imma give it a try, i need some more mtt's in my life

Too bad I've been on Carbon for awhile even before Black Friday so I guess Hero isn't an option for me! Love the look and your efforts.

Several of the Merge skins have Money Gram or Western Union as withdrawal options. Adding one or both of these methods for withdrawal would go a long way to people choosing this skin.

There wasnt

Im saying "Mig.com" is the stupidest nickname ever

This is a very good question and thank you for it because it is something, for us that is still in development.

INITIAL OBJECTIVE:
I think first is that we need to be close enough with our players that they will have the ability to contribute to a discussion for what kinds of special group/division promotions they want. So even if you're not a 'Gladiator Class-200 plus lvl' yet, but a 'Barbarian-50plus lvl' we still want each group to have its own voice/identity/consciousness.

DIVISIONAL GUIDE/LEADER/REP
But before then, each division will have its own dedicated divisional Hero staff who will manage both the communication and execution of the promotions: ie. the leader of the Farmers, Recruits, Barbarians etc. And it will be there job to ensure that the players in those divisions both have the guidance and the voice to participate as well as ensure that the promotions are truly relevant to the players.

COMMUNICATION
The first key points is that it can be done via social media, such as a dedicated facebook page whereby members join after approval with their username, or via twitter for the actual announcements of dates, times, passwords, promotional nature.
We also may simply get a dedicated sub-forum in each of major poker communities that we are active in and manage it from there or launch our divisional community forums where players would get email notifications.

STRUCTURE OF PROMOTIONS
Nothing would be random, there will be guidelines that certain promotions must be inclusive to x% of the active players of the respective division in relation to the prize/reward of the promotion. And that would also include lead time, but if we are doing our job then a player's participate in the forums would be regular as these forums/discussions would not be there to act as a general poker community but to specifically discuss what promotions should be on the table. To that end, likely due to the global nature of the business the promotion should be held on the same day at 3 different time zones: Asia Pacific, European, Americas.

THE PROMOTIONS & CONTEXT OF BEING BOUTIQUE
Eventually promotions will be more systematic in the initial divisional levels, but I could also see them more unique in the higher levels such as going to see a rock concert as a group and Hero buying the tickets or going on a 'drink the town dry' event during the Aussie Millions or WSOP as the group will be more smaller in numbers etc. But I want to make a point that the promotions wouldn't be just limited to online tournaments or prizes; people say the want custom shirts for the group, then we get a design done, get a vote, make it, mail it out etc.

Also, we will simply staff up to as many as needed to provide the same level of interaction and if we can't we will limit player numbers on our site until we can catch up. I know that sounds like BS or nuts, but I mean, if your business is based on a premise like luxury and then to keep up with demand you start producing all your products with cheaper materials and inferior labour, then you are basically betraying your current consumer base. I'd like to think that we are building Hero to be around indefinitely as it is still a relatively young industry and for us to be around is to be true to our core business and service. Of course it is easy for me to say that now because we are not suffering from that, but I wanted to put it out there here and now.

Lastly, beyond a static VIP rewards system, I would think it is wrong to assume that we know what players want. Or to wait until it is on a forum like twoplustwo, rather to actually have that consistent and regular interaction would be a key part of including all our players as part of our company on a level to define and shape it. Of course this is in the context of me doing my job and keep things focused and managing our competitive issues/forces.

Again, thanks for the question, it actually allowed me to take a breather and articulate what has been on my mind for a few months now.
Cheers.

Hey very interesting point, and I think that can be a consideration after I understand more about our player behavior as well as establishing the final two VIP frameworks as a foundation.

If a player when they hit that level do have an option: cash bonus or tournament, then they could determine what suits them for the particular moment, if they liked the tournament ticket and thought there was value there or wanted to just take the cash bonus because they were intending to grind for the next 5 hours and though they could clear the bonus now.

Practically, it will have to wait until I fully finalize and tweak both the tournament and cash VIP systems first, but then we can determine if we need to create a hybrid VIP system of the tournament/cash and have 3 options with the tournament and cash giving more specialized rewards or simply mash the two together as a single VIP system that gives you the option for either or.

I would give that a timeline by Jan 2012 as I really do need more player data on how the players use the current VIP systems, before I make such a VIP system. As right now both the touranment and cash VIP systems will be based more on my experience and speculation rather than actual play.

Cheers.

Mr. Jung,

I have been to your home page and see no list of game play features. Does Merge share the same features skin to skin? Carbon and RPM lists these features. Also, I tried to view a table shot of Hero Poker and could not find one online. I have seen shots of Carbon and RPM's table graphics. Again, do Merge tables all have the same basic look with minor skin to skin variations?

I have read "Artificial Intelligence and Tracking Software" contained in your T&C. Can you be more specific about what programs are allowed? Specifically, Sharkscope HUD please. Thank you.