Right now, GGPoker isn't available where I live but I'd been thinking I'd join when it was. Now, there's no way that I'd deposit money on this site.

I play microlimits PLO and the rake at my left is hard to beat as it is, much less adding to it by raking pre-flop and whatever other tricks they use to blur how much rake they're actually taking. At my stakes, they're so low and the skill level so bad (mine included), that I doubt that anyone would want to bumhunt, unless you want to sit for hours and make $10 here and there.

In regard to this thread, there's too much that I'm reading that I don't like. The bumhunting rule seems that it can be applied however they choose to apply it, to whoever they choose to apply it too, at any given time for almost any reason, to confiscate your funds. Very shady. If they plan to confiscate, at least put a cap on the amount, like 5k max or whatever.

I'll bet Howard Lederer and the Full Tilt bunch wish they'd have thought of this scheme, before black Friday.

I agree completely. Give us all clear definitions of what the rules are and then if anyone breaks the rules then it is their own fault and if they get money confiscated thats their own fault.

However if your going to have vague rules which are not clear and just gives them permission to seize your role then how can you trust that? how can you play their.

I think also it is appalling when actual staff of the site ignore or if they dont ignore outright bully anyone who asks for clarity for such things.

GG poker is not a place for pros and if they continue to succeed it could eventually kill off online poker as anything that can ever be profitable from the game.

Maybe. Just maybe .... online poker would be infinitely better without “pros” . Or at least so many . It could certainly “survive”without them lol

How would you use written words to define the behaviour of bum hunting ? That seems extremely hard. Yet bum hunting as a concept of not difficult to grasp .

ie They don’t need to define it. Don’t be a scumbag and chase weak players around the tables and you’ll be fine

no way poker would survive without pros, maybe just as an amateurish thing but it would not be the cool game that is today

If all pros stopped playing today the best recreational players would realise they could make serious money and turn into the new pros who would hunt the weaker players. Whats your solution for that scenario?

That scenario is true for a lot of things, even in nature. When the big predators are removed, the lesser powered predators move up and become the king of the jungle.

Scripting bothers me a lot - like tracking a person and using a script to know when they sit down, rather than just manually going through the tables yourself, so I wouldn't have a problem with GG Poker banning people who did used them. Still, I don't agree with taking a person's entire roll. Like I said earlier - cap it at 5k or whatever and then permaban them.

Here's what I don't get. If the poker sites are really serious about weeding out dishonorable or TOS violators, why aren't their security teams sharing information. You know, like the "black book" for Vegas blackjack hustlers? They could start by sharing offender ip's, screen names, limits and general suspicions to put people on watch. Yeah, I know that VPNs put a bit of a kink in the sharing of IP addresses but I'm sure there are security measures to help get around that too.

Essentially what I'm getting at is that if violators start getting banned at enough sites, suddenly, they'll have no pond to prey in. Soon, with the advent of more states allowed legal online play, suddenly, the sites will be under more scrutiny and have to answer to a state gaming commission. If a state AG suddenly starts getting a lot of complaints being filed with them from accusations of people being cheated, the state AGs office is the one who can pull their gaming license to do prevent them from business in that state again.

not true, fish would be lesser fish but might play longer. doesnt make them an instant winner if pros left. Its hard to beat rake these days. big fish becomes smaller fish and small fish becomes Breakevek. doesnt mean they will win.

This is where u always get this wrong. Full time poker could offer me triple what my businesses make and I still wouldn’t turn into a pro. Just because you think being a successful poker pro is the peak of your possible life accomplishments doesn’t mean others do

You are probably not the guy who would rise to the top anyways, so that point is invalid. On a poker table, there will always be a certain percentage of winners and losers, regardless of the average strength of the table.

You’d turn down a tripled income along with the freedom that poker provides just so you can continue to look down your nose at poker pros?

Methinks you’re talking pish.

Love it when people who can't make it are all like yeah I wouldn't do it for triple of the money even if I could. You know that's just like your opinion man. And your business is most likely being a janitor.

both sides are pretty funny. you have "pros" barely getting by who think they're smarter than some rich business dude because they're better at a game that he plays for fun without a care in the world. then we have "i wouldn't do it for triple the money" while on a poker forum guy.

I don't think that it was just a natural progression 10 years ago when i realised i was making a months salary at my shitty job in a day playing poker. Trust me id rather be some rich business man playing poker for fun but we play the hand we are dealt.

i think his posts are usually bad, but it's not unreasonable to think someone wouldnt want to be a poker pro just bc they could 3x their income, money isnt everyones prime motivator, so if it doesnt make you happy then why would you do it

It's almost as if money isn't the sole driving factor in some people's decision making. I wouldn't take triple the money from poker compared to my current job. For one, it's not guaranteed, and for two, it'd be much less fun

You would need to at least be making 3 times for it to be worthwhile. Poker offers no vacation days, sick days, benefits or pension. I would probably need to make 4-5x more for it to be worthwhile....

But Golf guy it is so much fun. Highly addicting. I am just recreational. The only reason I can come up with if you cannot play is life responsibilities.

This was a genius post, gave me a lot to think about. Great point.

If you are making $52k at a job, and poker offers $156k a year.... you could afford to pay yourself for sick days, $1k a month in health insurance, and take 2 weeks off, and still be well over double your $52k job.

Also pension? Rare. Vacation and sick days? Not all jobs have and mainly unpaid or 10-15 business a days a year max.

Poker as a secondary income is great, if it’s ur primary income after all these years you are doing it wrong

These thoughts have been talked about for at least 20 years, maybe 30. Unless the rake is so high as to be unbeatable by anyone, it will always be the case that if the winning players are chased off/banned/barred, a new section of players now become the winners ad infinitum.

I assumed we were talking about a hypothetical situation where if you were guaranteed to triple your income would you switch to poker?

And every non pro in this thread is bare faced lying if they said no.

some ppl enjoy their work regardless of money, you're just assuming ppl value money the same way you do, there are things more important than money. I get the argument that most ppl would prefer more free time so in theory you could just buy more free time as a trade off, but not everyone hates their job.

It's much easier to say no about stuff you can't achieve...I don't want to **** Dilleta Leotta, why would I even bother when I have my wife


I think it depends a lot on the amount of money you could make from poker/ other jobs.
If you're already making 50-100k from your regular job imo it makes sense not to transition to poker to make 150-300k, but most people working for far less, and in that case extra money improve lifestyle a lot.

1000% agree, GG poker does not owe poker pros anything, they are trying to make a different type of site where recreational players will come and play and keep the action good, just like in any private game or home game, if you are good at poker I would suggest making sure your giving action and not quitting the games when they get bad, seems like other pros are doing something to stay on the site so maybe ask them what they are doing if your worried or go play the pio filled acr tables