300zx - Nobody knows. Initially it was suppsoed to be another 10% for Black and 20% extra for Black Elite. So if you make it to Black then you will get 20% cash-back daily, another 20% in points redemption, and 10% for casino bonus for a total of 50%. But to clear the 10% you have to play a -EV game so it's really more like 8-9% extra or something I guess.

Whether it stays that way...well...we're still waiting. The whole thing is incredibly slow.

pretty sure it was 20% for Black at one point, posted on the VIP page and everything

Yep. To be fair, there are many possible leaks for the pro poker player that casinos are not even remotely responsible for. Even just overspending during hot streaks is a huge leak and isn't anything related to compulsive gambling behavior. Candidly, my biggest leak was always the stock market, which is highly reputable and not in any way connected to casino gaming, but I probably had a problem. The lure of trying to turn a large sum of money into a million was something I could not resist. Its always tempting to think you can beat "the system." Even if you can, it does not mean you will.

Getting back on point, I know quite a few people with huge blackjack leaks. That's not even a bad one to have as a leak (in terms of - edge) and it still really hurt them. I just wish that Lock did not have a required play through with regard to this bonus. There are a lot of reasons this is a bad move on Lock's part.

FWIW I had a big stock market leak for a long time too. I'm smart enough to understand that certain games are unbeatable so I'm able to avoid them, but the market is supposed to be something you can make cash on.

My timing was probably incredibly bad (started doing market related stuff in 07/08) but honestly actively paying attention to the market rather than just sticking stuffs in my retirement accounts was a big leak. Even if I did have an edge my time was probably better spent elsewhere.

-Rizen

Yes, it initially was claimed to be 20% for black at the beginning. It was never mentioned on their VIP page though. It simply said "casino bonus" and nobody had any idea if that meant getting an extra 5 cents for the slot machine or extra 20% or what..until Rizen told us it would be 20...and then found out he had been misinformed and it was actually 10 (after the first payments were made and everyone was getting only 10)....and then it was taken away because Merge acted all weird about it... and we're still getting updates on what it might end up being changed to and how it might work with play-through requirements, etc...and no idea if the percentages will still the same, etc etc...like several weeks later.

The possibility of double-points sounds promising though. That would be neato.

I am not sure if they posted percentages or not, but I am pretty sure they did list the casino bonuses on the vip page as part of the "perks" for black and black elite vip

Percentages were not posted on the page, but casino bonuses were listed as 'perks' for black and black elite. I definitely DID say black and black elite both got 20%, and black did end up only getting 10%.

I'll check the status of this today. The communication and clarity on this has been horrid, and I take at least some of the responsibility for that. The whole situation is a little frustrating at times because I really like to be as complete and clear as possible.

-Rizen

That's exactly what I said..(except the beginning part that you are unsure about...I am positive about that)

Is there any time frame on when all this will get sorted out?

I honestly don't know, my best guess would be 1st of the month, but again that's just an educated guess.

Rizen, do you think you could work on the rakerace stuff in the meantime? The casino bonuses are to be retroactive so we're not missing all that much right now, but there's no way a rakerace could be retroactive. We're losing out on potential dollars there.

Thanks for listening to all our stuff and relaying it to merge/lock. We most definitely appreciate it.

Rake race will definitely be implemented August 1st, I talked to them about it late last week.

-Rizen

Awesome. I'm ready to race!

+10,000....sngs next month!

When will we get to know details?

Also, will RB players be able to participate, and if so, will they earn their RB at a slower rate?

I'm probably going to switch to VIP on August 1st, but I want to make sure that it is in my best interest to do so. Thanks

I can get the details ASAP. It will be similar to what other Merge sites offer though as we all have the same sets of rules for rake races.

If it is points based (I will find out, but all have been in the past) then RB players will be at a disadvantage earning 6.5 pts/$1 as opposed to 10 pts/$1 but they will still be able to participate. I will find out the details.

Thanks

-Rizen

Guys, the rake race is not likely to have that much value because of Merge's stipulations, etc.

RPM in July was doing a silly thing that wasn't giving much value. Top 5 players with most cash-game hands in a week and the top 5 players with most tourneys played in that week all qualify for a schedule 10 person SNG the following week with $500 prize-pool. So basically it's an extra $50 in value...although I'm sure that not all the qualifiers play the SNG. Might be worth $250 or something if only two players show up.

Last month RPM did: Top 5 most cash-game hands played for the entire month received $100 cash.

So again, not a lot of value in the races that RPM is giving. And if Lock has to stay within that range then it really isn't much to get excited about.

Better for them to add that extra value then not to add it of course. Every little bit helps. But for those thinking this might be "pretty good" but just not "Ronin good" I'm guessing there will be some disappointment.

Maybe a small chance RPM just falls way short of Merge's guidelines on the prizes they are allowed to give. In other words, maybe RPM isn't giving much just because they are stingy....not because Merge has their hands tied about it. If Lock ends up giving away a ton more in August then what RPM does then that would be great. But I'm seriously doubting that happens.

RPM is not stingy

Educated guess of rake race being 10k with prizes as follows(copied from carbon):

1 $1300
2 $1000
3 $800
4 $650
5 $500
6 $400

and so on...too lazy to copy the rest, but apparently less lazy than some to actually google 'merge rake race' before posting.

I'm not sure what they're calling this promo, but it's definitely not the 'rake race' that I'm talking about. I'll get more info ASAP. I'm going from memory here so don't hold me to it but I think the race races are limited to like 10k.

-Rizen

Okay cool. Looks like way more value than I was initially fearing. Sounds good.

Not quite up to Ronin I don't think. But definite potential there I guess.

I can't find this anywhere on Carbon's site. And my google searches trying to find it also referenced getting rakeback on there which I didn't think they were doing anymore so I thought those links were outdated.

Indeed, I found a place listing the standings for July that appears to have some of the current players i have run across a fair amount. So I think it's current. The prize structure appears to be:


I think this race is just for Lock players only hopefully (and not Merge-wide).

I'm going to assume there are some players hitting Black Elite. So basically if you get 50-70k points in a month you are getting an extra $500 to $1300 or so. 50k points at 45% (22.5 + 22.5) is worth $2250. So if that's enough to get you an extra $500 then it's a nice little boost I guess. That's an extra 10% so it would turn your 45% into 55%.

I'm guessing those who get 5k-10k points a month maybe get an extra $45-$80 per month or something? (maybe more). 10k points at 40% is $400. So an extra $80 is another 8% taking you to 48%.

So by my very rough approximations and not really having any idea how many players reach Black or Black Elite (and also not knowing if it's Lock only or across all of Merge) it might be an extra 8-10% or so for some players. But that's including some really wild guesses in there that could be way off for all I know.

I'm confused. Is Rizen suggesting that it WILL be similar to what ^Bob just posted?

zack - Rizen said it will be similar to what other Merge sites use and is limited to $10k. And this is the $10k race on Carbon that I was able to find. So I assume this is pretty much what Lock is going to have.

When is there going to be a resolution to the casino bonuses? It's absolutely ridiculous that it hasn't resolved yet two months into the vip program. And of course it's still advertised as a vip perk even though no on is receiving it right now. Players should be more interested in a resolution to the casino bonuses and long promised vip store than in rake races which may or may not materialize and which may not even be as advertised two months from now. Nothing against Rizen but Lock has handled some things well and some things atrociously.