sux bad...

1. for people talking about rb being a gift... look at it this way. You do a job, you pay income tax, and get a net salary of X. You can then apply to get tax deductions and increase your salary by Y amount. So you end up earning X+Y. Suddenly "the man" says, no more tax deductions! and instead of seeing that as a reduction of salaries, you go "well... tax deductions were a gift anyways..." Wrong logic, imo.

2. regarding the new system, although we do not have all the info, it is clearly worse, and the fact that they try to make it look good doesnt change the fact that it is worse. No amount of spin will change the numbers, just need to wait and do some calculations, but first sight is clearly for the worse

3. long term users are being left behind. My 3+ years of iron man count for nothing now. My black card counts for nothing now (they say they MAY reintroduce it later, or maybe not) since it will be discontinued

Finally, just want to say, no hate on them, i'm glad to get my roll back, but besides the mid-year bonus, i dont see yet any incentives for a full time grinder like me to stay on ftp, which is fine, i'll just move my roll somewhere else

your are missing iron man; remember your IM calendar? remember the rewards you got for it? as far as we know now that reward is just gone...

More like wrong example IMO.

1. You should actually think of it like earning X as salary and Y as a bonus and then having the company you work for being bought out by the biggest major competitor securing all of your existing benefits but changing the bonus structure from the day they take over.

Before hand Y was worth 27% of the fees you paid less anything you bought in the store or used for tickets.

Now Y is worth a MAX of 25% but you don't take a the store purchase hit.

For the guy who says he got $10-20 per day in rakeback before BF, I'd say you'll hit the top level pretty quick.



Also, for every one complaining about being ripped off or bitching about what they are owed. The new FTP owes you nothing except your account balances. Anything they offer you over and above that is only to entice you to stay and they will freely admit that.

This is not the old company paying you back and trying to make up for mistakes, this is a new owner that already owns the best provider in the business. You won't get ripped off by this new owner.

2. Clear as mud that it is worse. will be case by case and majorly dependant on traffic and how much you choose to play at the new site IMO.

3. Refer to the bit where I said the new owners owe you nothing but your balance.


I was lucky enough to get rakeback about 12 months before BF but I really didn't earn that much anyway. Rakeback was a way of making players feel like they were important, but really the more people who get rakeback means that rake increases are much closer.

I'd much prefer a lower rake structure and no rakeback, but then after a while more player would bitch that they deserve something more than the other guys.

Do you really think that if you are one of the guys pulling massive amounts of cash out of the company that you are helping them earn money? It would be better if the casual player had a win every now and then to keep them redepositing and paying rake(without rakeback)

in a home game, poker is a zero sum game and avg winrate is 0

playing at a casino or poker site, they take a cut from everyone's winrate making avg winrate < 0

if they give you back some of that cut, it is hardly a bonus, it is a deduction of the amount they take

i see no logic to regard it as a bonus, it is not as if avg winrate stayed the same and they gave u something on top, then yes, it would be a bonus. They give you back a small portion of what was yours to begin with.

Not to say we dont agree to it so we can play under XYZ conditions, but if suddenly they give back less, it is a worse deal, and in no way can be considered just worse gifts.

About Mid year end bonus ?? is it suppose to be 1 lump sum at the beginning or increments over time and grind ?

Will the mid/end-year bonus stay? So will we receive another bonus beginning of 2013?

lol, i have understood it the same first, but it really says UP TO.. and up to is a big lol. your explained system is quite cool and im perfectly fine with it, but now the lowvolume grinder are supposed to get less than bronzestar on stars and the highvolume grinders would get goldstar-rb fair system ITT
-------
My plan was to go back into grinding-mode at november, which should be fit quite well with my work but with 15-20% rb its stupid...

Extremely bad for high volume players. Compared to sne stars its really bad. But maybe this fact is really good for the quality of the games...

yeah, for them especially but as I understand the new system, its probably bad for literally every player except the ones, who didnt have RB before

Don't be shy to say rake is a gift.

Q: when does ftp support begin answering emails?

I love people who moan about getting there whole balance back yes going to a pain to get it off the DOJ, but it's the whole balance! You should be grateful not ungrateful

and rakeback isn't money somehow? if i get a $100 rakeback payment, it's worth less than if i stack someone at 100nl?

Hi Shyam, i have a quick question for you


If im an Estonian who has relocated, can i somehow send the proof of my address before the site opens, so the real money games would be available?

I will wait for final rewards system scheme, but so far 25+5% from the shop looks really bad compared to about 50% with Supernova on PS or Palladium on PP.

FTP has has historically been bad for "high level" grinders. I remember the plan being:

1) Start off on FTP to build a decent BR with RB + other bonuses

2) Move to Stars when you can put in enough volume to achieve SN+

3) ???

4) PROFIT!

I can tell you now, that will be no, for obvious reasons... :/

Apologies if this question is already posted,


Question: Will our accounts on PS and FTP be linked in the VIP Progam? So if we earn FTP points on FTP poker, will they give me VPP's simulatanously ?

G'day Shyam,
I know this might be penny-pinching but I'll ask anyway.
For those players that were at the highest tier of Ironman (36 mths+), will that come into consideration with the new system ie automatically start at the highest level?
3 years straight is a loooooong time...albeit a fun one
FTP

Cheers mate

this.

guy says it all.

besides, if you're not doing low-mid stakes this shouldnt be a problem for you. yes, rake at micros is stupid, but 2 less cheeseburgers from rakeback aren't gonna help you much.

for me this is a bonus since i had profits without any rb deal
i understand the point of some of the players who had high rb but this is the price of todays ftps software
if things get worse due to monopoly stuff i would think bout leaving ftp/ps but for now i cant wait until it relaunches

this... although i would say 200kSN but same difference; ftp was the place to be for people below SN, why did PS buy FTP to beginn with if they want to change that? Maybe they just wanted to finally win the forum war "which reward program is better..."

Gutted and a bit surprised that they're doing away with Ironman, was 24months+ into it, and it was always an incentive to play to maintain and advance my status, even when I wasn't playing much poker; I suspect this was the same for many people.

Stars must realise that different rewards suit different players; the VIP system on Pokerstars itself is no incentive to play unless you are chasing SN or SNE. However, something like Ironman, especially considering the mid and end of year bonuses, was a distinct plus for those playing at lower levels/recreationally; it served as a genuine incentive to play and the bonuses were significant compared to the amount of play required to earn and release them. This made FTP a much better option for players that wouldn't make SN or above, and unless something similar is introduced at FTP2, there will be less incentive to play there regularly.

It's true that we don't, as yet, know all the details of all the rewards and bonuses FTP2 will offer, but shafting the loyalty of long term customers by stopping Ironman and Blackcard seems a strange way to go about encouraging your customers, who've undeniably had a rough ride the last 18 months, to stick with you.

Am alo interested to hear the answer to winwin's question. Are we gonna have to jump through FTP hoops prior to playing if we've already verified our relocation with PS and can link our accounts?

has ftp support starting answering emails yet? pre black friday they locked my account 2-3 times, (following emails back and forth they opened, then locked, then re-opened before locking account again)

Ironically sometime between them re-opening my account and closing it again i actually made deposits of around $6-700.

It was taking ridiculous amounts of time (2-3 days) to receive an email from the security department as to why i didn't have access to my account. I had roughly $100-150 owed to me (mainly through rakeback) but like everyone else, i basically wrote it off as a lesson "learned" (not to play on sites which aren't called pokerstars, as in my experience's your treated like utter ****) when black friday hit.

i'm also 99% sure i've not received an email from FTP in the last few days, there is a small chance i've forgotten which email address was linked to my FTP account though