If I'm using an affiliate for rakeback (therefore using their deposit code), will I still be able to get the $600 150%+11 top tier deposit bonus or whatever?

You can only receive one initial deposit bonus, so pick which ever you prefer. Your affiliate tracking will not be affected by entering a GR88 deposit bonus code as they do not override tracking cookies. If you like, I can check your account and confirm you're properly tracked... just PM me your player name or email me at jason@gr88.com. The step of entering the code is performed at the deposit stage. Let me know if you have any questions.

jason please tell me this is an error i'm getting i just tried to log on and its telling me the network is down for regular service and wont b back up for almost 3 more hours....and when are we going to be able to withdrawl funds by echecks and get the money put back into our checking accounts just like every major poker website....oh and the 2.50 deposit charge fee for echecks is rediculous

Hey, we sent out a bulk email to all of our players informing them of the downtime. Perhaps it landed in your junk folder. The network is doing some scheduled maintenance and it will be down for the next little while. Hopefully not too long.

Regarding the Echecks... I wish I had a more definitive answer for you. All I can say is that they are working on it. We are doing our best to try and provide some safe options for players. Safety first. I am not sure who is charging you $2.50... But it is not GR88, we are not seeing any of this. I would ask the echeck support people why you are being charged for this. I dont get Echeck where I am so I have never tried it... PM me a screen shot of your charges, I'd like to take a look and confirm where that is coming from...

Jason I'll take a screen shot next time I deposit but every time I deposit using Echeck they charge an extra $2.50 fee. It asks if it's ok to go through but it's not like u have a choice.

Ok thanks. please send it to me.

do you know by chance if pt3 HUD works with Grid Modus now too?

and: i dont see the rake chase promotion by raktracker.com for gr88.com anymore. is that cancelled?

I dont believe it has been cancelled... to my knowledge it is still running. I know we are in discussions on a new promo idea, but have not initiated anything yet ;-)

Hi Jason are there any planned changes for the VIP program? I know some other Merge skins recently changed around their VIP program. Really though I think something needs to be done to encourage players to play more on GR88. One thing that should change is to offer better point exchange rates as players move up in status. Bronze members can exchange 10k points for $100. That is the same rate offered to top tier emperor players. Using PS as an example I think their rates are 2.5k pts for $25 up to 250k points for $4,000.

Also, other Merge skins are beginning to offer high volume VIP players more and better rewards. Why, then, should I remain on GR88? I think you guys need to do more than the underwhelming GR88 chip sets and SNG coupons. Are there any skin specific promos that are available to me as a rakeback player? I like to grind it out occasionally, but I am not seeing anything on GR88 that motivates me to put in high volume.

Hey Nathan,
thanks for the input. We are always looking for ways to try and encourage our customers to play at GR88. Our first and foremost priority is to give the very best service possible, to every player, regardless of their VIP level. We truly believe that players will appreciate great service above anything else. Our VIP program is fairly young, and certainly has room to grow, and it will improve (thanks to players like yourselves making comments and suggestions). I'll certainly take a look at the program and see what we can do to improve it.

Maybe others would like to chime in with their ideas also? speak now ;-)

I do have a couple things I'd like to add though... The exchange rates are significantly different as the tiers go up. Bronze players can only exchange $100 per month, but Emperor players can exchange $750 per month. As far as the actual rate of exchange, I believe this is fixed throughout the network. The chip sets, etc are just things that we can add as little extras, and are not meant to be the focus of the VIP level. The network has many rules to make sure brands aren't cannibalizing the network.

To answer your question:
"Are there any skin specific promos that are available to me as a rakeback player? I like to grind it out occasionally, but I am not seeing anything on GR88 that motivates me to put in high volume."

At GR88, we run promos all the time that are rake driven. We are currently running the GR88 Tsunami (which ends Mar 31st), and on April 1st, a new promo will be available. This promo allows all players (including rakeback players) to increase what they get back from our site. These promos, coupled with reload and deposit bonuses, as well as VIP points exchange, adds up to a significant amount for a player, especially high volume rake driven players.

I looked up your account however, and see that due to the affiliate that you signed up under, you are actually automatically entered into a $20,000 monthly rake chase, that is offered exclusively through your affiliate. (also rake driven ;-)). You aren't seeing the Tsunami bonuses in your account because players are not eligible for BOTH promotions simultaneously. We do extend our players the option to request to be opted into the one that ends up paying the most, so it's win win for you. Which ever promo payout is larger, is the one that we will honor. (Another GR88 reason to play at GR88 ;-))

We always try to do everything we can to encourage volume, and if you take a look at the promos we are offering, I think you may find there is more there than you realize. Let me know if you have any questions.

Jason

Sorry, I made a mistake above... Bronze players can only exchange $100 per month, but Emperor players can exchange $1500 per month!

You are right, there is a bit more than I thought. But I will give some more thoughts and suggestions that appeal to me as a potential medium volume player. I figure that a challenging, yet somewhat reasonable goal is $2500 rake/month, which coincidentally is now what it takes to reach top tier on a rival skin. I have played a few days at this pace on GR88, but, as mentioned, it is hard for me to keep up the motivation. Here are some things that could help.

$60/5000 points, I don't think the exchange rate is fixed because that rate is what another skin is advertising

Concierge program

Special monthly/quarterly tournaments for higher tier players

I don't know if GR88 has a large enough player pool to support it, but live event vip rewards would be very appealing. PS offers suite upgrades and party invitations for certain vip levels at live events. apparently carbon is going to offer something similar with their 'junket' benefits

also wondered if merge was going to observe european daylight saving time or just not observe daylight saving time at all

Merge doesn't change time...

Hello there,

I would just like to say something regarding this. I started playing on GR88 in mid-October 2010. I reached emperor at the start of March. So it took me around 4 and a half months to create 250,000 points. Right before I was reaching Emperor (2nd person on GR88 to achieve it if I'm not wrong), I sent them a letter asking to get sponsored to one of the EPT or EMOP events in the buyin range of 1500E - 2500$. I got denied. Jason sent me an email back with some numbers:

Clearly using simple math you can see that I left around $14,300 to GR88. Long story short I was told that I only brought profit of around $100 after they had to pay all of their costs, and politely denied.

Then I started thinking, so they would rather send some fish that plays a few thousand hands every month, and has no rakeback then their 2nd emperor. I think I even offered them to return the buyin if I cash in the event, and still got denied. How will this site ever grow is beyond me when they do very very little about any kind of advertisement, other than the rakeraces every month which are impossible to beat if you want to win the max prize.

Merge is a good network, very fishy, software is good, there is enough traffic and I really enjoy it. But if there are skins that offer something better for their emperors, why would I still want to play on GR88.

Thats my $0.02.

Ivan

$60/5000 points, I don't think the exchange rate is fixed because that rate is what another skin is advertising

Yeah, I actually looked at a couple of other skins, and you are correct that the top level of their VIP program awards 1.2 cents per point in exchange... HOWEVER.... if you look at their entire VIP program you can see that all the lower levels are getting considerably LESS rewards...
Level 1
500 points = $3.00 (rate of 0.006)
Level 2
1000 points = $7.00 ( rate of 0.007)
Level 3
2000 = $15 ( rate of 0.0075)
Level 4
2500 = $25 ( rate of 0.01)
Level 5
5000 = $60.00 ( rate of 0.012)

GR88 VIP levels are ALL paid out at a rate of 1 cent per point... in an effort to show all of our players that we care about them... that is not to say that higher raking players don't deserve something, but we just don't believe in taking it away from the lower raking players...

I don't know if GR88 has a large enough player pool to support it, but live event vip rewards would be very appealing. PS offers suite upgrades and party invitations for certain vip levels at live events. apparently carbon is going to offer something similar with their 'junket' benefits

Our growth has been substantial in the last year for sure and this is something we will need to look at...

Concierge program
Can you elaborate?

Concierge is a very successful program that PS has that allows players to buy items with their points at some fixed rate. A player can buy nearly any item, send ps a copy of the receipt, and the player is provided the cash equivalent after the appropriate amount of points are deducted. An alternative for higher level players to the likely poor exchange rates that will be offered in the store.

what do you mean you only brought a profit of 100 dollars?

After they paid all their costs, like network fees and other costs that they have, it left them with $100 of net profit from me. Yeah, I know its hard to believe.

we are actually negotiating with a company now to provide this service :-)

Thanks for your comments Ivan. I won't get into a debate on this thread, but I will respond since you have brought it up on here. We denied your request for many reasons. Firstly, because the level of rewards that we already give our players, and their affiliates is substantial (a huge portion of the GGR pie), therefore there isn’t enough pie left to send players to live events. GR88 has put it’s focus into rewarding ALL of our players and treating them all like VIP’s. But we are not in a position to lose money to send one player to a live event.
Secondly, because currently our marketing efforts are all focused on how to provide the best experience online for all of our players, we are not finding the same value with live events. We have sponsored higher profile players in the past to WSOP, etc..., and it ended up being a complete waste of money in our opinion. It's not what we are about.

But please show me where another Merge room is including live event sponsorship as part of their VIP program... Where does it say on Carbon that they will send you to a pokerstars event if you reach Ether status? They offer coupons to live event satellites to WSOP etc, just like everyone else on the network. I am not trying to argue, but just pointing out that we are not withholding anything that you are getting somewhere else, nor are we going back on anything we offered. We are always looking for input from our players so we can give them what will make them happy, but frankly, you are asking for the moon in this case.

But lets also not be unclear about what you asked for... You asked for a $4000E package. (although it would have made no difference), and you didn't "ask". You sent us an ultimatum saying that we would sponsor you or you'd be moving to another site. Fair enough. I know a player like yourself can get staked anywhere, which is why you have been playing at GR88 up until now.

I also noticed you didn't include the other costs that I sent you and only included the numbers that suit your purpose. We pay your affiliate a large% of your GGR, you receive rakeback and participate in all the sites promotions, and we pay a substantial amount of network fees to provide our share of these fish you get to play against. I am not trying to sound unappreciative. We value you as a customer... but if we have to PAY someone to play at GR88 then that is a no longer a customer, but a sponsored pro... and we'd do this if we felt there would be some substantial marketing value. If GR88 was okay to lose money on all players then that wouldn’t be a business model that would last very long. You are obviously a great poker player, and I am sure you will do great, but we stand behind our decision to not sponsor you at a live event at this time.

In regard to the promotions, I find it amazing that you say they are unbeatable when you have cashed in $6000 on top of your VIP rewards and rakeback. The promotions are set up to reward players at ALL levels.

Jason

this cant be true? i actually feel sorry now for them?

Fair enough, I understand the position you are in. It never hurts to ask for a sponsorship though, right? I didn't have either high or low expectations, I just wanted to ask, and I did.

I do not know what other sites offer, but i will come into the contact with them soon and find out. Thats why I said 'if' and not 'other skins do offer better'.

As I told you in the email, the reason why I didnt include other numbers is because GR88 doesn't care about my costs, so why would I care about yours.

As far as the promotions go, I will correct myself and say that its almost impossible to win maximum prize, unless you plan to play like 18 tables for 16 hours per day or something. I said that they are unbeatable if you want to win the maximum prize.

I understand GR88's mission to value all their players the same way. But you have to know that there will be some players who play 100K+ hands per month, that do not wanna be treated the same like some random recreational player who deposits once in a blue moon.

Ivan

Thats like a profit margin of 0.3%. I actually wonder what would happen if i just played a little bit more and got a few more bonuses that would make GR88 actually lose money by having me on their site?

It is true in some cases, the margins can be really slim. There are a lot of moving parts that make up the profit margins, like affiliate commissions (which vary a lot), reload bonuses, etc... the bonuses are set up to attract volume... and even though we make much less percentage on some players, we do better on others. It's easy enough to calculate what you make on an individual player, but overall it is much more complex. Volume is certainly key for the poker business... and THIS is the essence of our approach to customer service. We are after longevity and loyalty, and believe that giving our players the best service will give us our best chance of success.

As far as the bonuses go, it's the same thing. We may end up losing a bit of our slim profit margin on a guy that achieves that "next" level, but profit a bit more on those that fall short. Ultimately, this is why some promotions will restrict the number of prizes available for each tier. This allows a site to offer more to the top guys, because they do a little better on the lower tier players... but, we try not to do this as we like to cater to all levels of player.

We are always growing as a company and ultimately want our players to love us for the experience we provide them at our site. They come to know us, like us and trust us. The guy that moves on because he can get 2% more at another site, will always find that other offer, and will always jump around from site to site... but he will realize the value of good service at some point :-).