Tho maybe it is "teh dream"

In theory? Nothing

In practice? When a large % of players are trying to "grind out" a living at 50 NL, the games tend to become less enjoyable for recreational players... No banter in the chat, players timing out constantly because they are multitabling, seeing the opponent who owns your soul sitting at every single cash table or SNG you want to join, etc.

I don't know exactly how to strike the right balance between recs and pros, but I do think that having poker site be a job site for too many players can alienate the group of players who see poker as entertainment.

Because when a dude who has played poker only a few times and who like limping offsuit aces in mp sits at 5 nl he should have more than a 5% chance of winning over 1k hands.

Ya I get what you're saying

I think 2 bb/100 is a good win rate at 100 NL. Remember your paying 10 bb/100 in rake, so your true win rate is 12.

Sure they're are beasts out there who are killing it, but they are few and far between

Just putting this out there. since chasing the poker dream is one of his goals. What about the idea of having zero rake or very small rake, at 10NL/PLO and lower. where the players also get zero loyalty rewards, add also a table cap of 4 tables at a time. Would this help keep Rec in the game longer and help players build a BR to move upwards through the stakes. Even at zero rake would anyone be a pro at 4 tabling 10nl/plo.

Would this idea help feed the 25+ NL/PLO games

You could also add in a fee to withdrawal to players that on play the non raked 10NL/PLO and under.

Fair enough.

Imo 5-7 is achievable w/ some effort and 'bumhunting' and anything above is good.

seems great on paper and everyone buzzing about it, hope it takes off for various reasons. i worry that not having enough regs and it being full of absolute beasts being the only meh point

Will there be HU? Strict KOTH is fine.

Obviously I'm excited as well. Competition is good for the consumer. Having someone like Phil behind the project makes it much more exciting and I hope that it succeeds.

Is there any info out about who else is behind the site or if it's a standalone or a skin etc?

phil should consult with me. seriously.

What direction or strategy should the site take in your opinion?

I completely believe PG is coming from the right place and is a very smart guy but as some people have stated, this is a monumental task which nears on impossible to pull off.

1. Marketing to new players. For any site to be a success in this day and age, it has to attract new people to the game who have never played online poker before. For all the money Stars have spent on campaigns with Ronaldo and Neymar, the games are still tough and actives and revenue are still declining. 888 are 2nd behind Stars in marketing spend and the games on there aren't much better. Poker revenue at 888 is also down 8% year on year. I can't see how this proposed new site solves that, even if we assume that PG has mega-rich backers and is willing to at least match 888's spend.

2. The first point is so fundamental that I'll refer to it again for point 2.

3. Regulation and liquidity. The safest assumption is that the new site won't have a license in most (if any regulated markets). That means you can rule out players for the shared player pool from UK, Denmark, Romania, Estonia, etc.

4. The platform. Bags of money could partially solve this issue, assuming Stars would never sell FTP software to a rival and joining a network completely negates all of PG's mission statement. Even then, it is a huge task building a client from scratch which would take a lot of talented people on all sides of the company. Unless this has been quietly worked on for the past two years, a launch date of Q1 2017 isn't confidence-inspiring. Assuming two years work has gone into it, you're looking at another 18 months of teething problems, ironing out bugs and re-designing the client again based on feedback from players who are using your site.

why should they, if they actually believe recs would dechiffer the numbers on a basic hud into any meaningful context they are deluded, regs are way off that have been using huds for years when they use it in practice alot of the times

I think the most likely scenario is that he has bought/is going to buy an existing site.

Tremendous news. I can only imagine what kind of overwhelming social media support PG will receive from most of the 2p2ers for this project.

Godspeed Phil.

One other thing I should have added, as a potential hurdle to overcome. Most regs are going to look after themselves - as at least one player has stated in this thread 'hope it works, I'll support it and will play there if it gets enough liquidity'. Point being, although the support from the online poker community will be good, a lot of existing players will only play there if it it suits them.

Well most of the skins from ongame are leaving so theres that..

Brilliant news !

Sounds really exciting, can't wait.

might be a good place to finish that durrrr challenge

Phil Galfond is one of my fav players and always seemed a very smart mind. Don't really know how his team will manage to compete against the heavyweights in the market but I wish him all the best luck in his business.

He can count me as a future customer yet and it's news of the year, obv !

Go go, Phil !


PS: f*** PS

How good would this be for the opening promotion!

Strike a deal with the Triads and make it so.

Great news! Hoping to see a site which works not only for profit but for long therm well beeing of poker players. whether they're regs or recs. The reason Amaya can rake so high is they basically are in monopolium! Would love to see that changing, and online poker beeing a competetive market again!

Good luck Phil Galfond with that!

Should set up a crowdfund to support this project, Im sure you'd get plenty of donations from here.