I just read about the news, sorry guys... sigh... poker just aint the same n e more in the US

Quick question... Is there an equation to figure out how much rake I've paid given how many VIP points I have?

sucks, I only accumulate ~600-800 pts/month but it was nice to feel like the rake was coming back in some way. I would use the points to enter mtt's I wouldn't normally play (variety hour, +R's, KO's).

I might be a little off but I get 2 points for every $2 SnG so I think it's 1 point for every .10¢

If you've earned 100k total points you have raked $10k lifetime IIRC

10% of your points is your rake. 50,000 points= $5K rake.

Unless you have ever played during happy hour.

Bovada has the same table caps, high rake, and no cash back. Seems like a linear jump.

What is the bovada benefit you are gaining? Bolded seems spitey.

Play in the best games, i think that is solidly between bovada and merge, I'm hanging on to merge as long as traffic is strong.

not that I'm jumping to Bovada but at least there I got my deposit bonus really fast, and again after I redeposited, this was around 6 months ago

been 4 for 100nl 6 max for a while

Merge = Honeybadger, just not @ all cool. I was hoarding VIPs hoping that maybe I could get invited to their top tier vip program. its not as though i was killing the games... even a 15% redeem was a big portion of my winnings. WPWP Merge. I might grind another month here and cash-out. I guess thats what they want or are pushing people who care about profit to do.

I just started playing on Carbon a few days ago. I just reached enough points yesterday to put me in the 15% points to cash tier. I had to wait until today for my VIP status to update and cash in those points.

LOL, Merge... you got me!

Revolution just raised it's rake. iPoker did a couple months ago. There are many ROW networks that have well over $5 a hand rake. Some get $10 a hand, others are uncapped at mid-stakes+.

I don't know if anyone noticed, but world governments are devaluing currency by keeping the printing presses on 24/7. This leads to a little thing we call inflation. Expect the costs of your goods and services to continue to rise while the Federal Reserve is engaged in this worldwide currency war.


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Kahn

Ah, yes! It's the world's currency market at work!!!! It's definitely not a greedy gambling network wanting to do this...... Top post of 2014?

How much of a pay cut did you get today, Kahn? Oh, that's right....... you didn't! Once again it was us.

Poker Table Ratings couldn't help themselves to an email blast shredding Merge and touting alternatives to Merge. Can't help but notice that they completely chunk their credibility by listing BetOnline as a recommended option, stating "cashouts are very reasonable".

The benefit I'm gaining is:

• Softer games
• More games
• Only a 50% hit on productivity if Merge suddenly becomes NOT a viable place to play versus a 100% hit on productivity
• Staying under the radar at Merge by not winning as much and hopefully not getting table capped or banned for winning or whatever misguided strategy is on deck
• Sending the appropriate signal to the management that bad decisions and treating players badly directly affects their bottom line in a negative way

I think they should just polarize their point system a bit more. Keep the current "carbon+"(?) tier and bump the points required up to 7.5k or 10k if 5k is too low. That way it'll be "harder" to be a grinder shark on merge and the stakes that can't hit that threshold reliably won't be as profitable anymore and will bloat with fish.

Then they can do whatever they want for the rec players while keeping that extra ~20% to dangle in front of their faces or put into GTD tourneys or whatever.

I'd like to say I'm confident there is some sort of replacement coming but yeah...

I got a good chuckle from this as well. Not sure the point considering Merge is the only room that can be tracked worth a damn for an entire segment of their site traffic(Americans). The other parts of the world that make up their traffic aren't spending enough time on Merge (except the bum hunters{errr bots}) from the UK to warrant a mass email lol. It has to be 9-1 or 4-1 for American's- others on Merge, right?

Tell ya the honest truth (prolly just newb rungood), I'm digging playing on Merge. Shifted from playing WPN for the moment...hadn't really played Merge much...and enjoying the tourney and SNG offerings thus far. Can't beat the software (such a breath of fresh air considering), and might be reconsidering my stance on so-loving the deepstack late reg Big10's on WPN.

The tracking is nice too. I track my own stuff, but nice to have a Sharkscope to check out extended stats. Never been a real "gotta study my hand histories" player - I know how I need to play to be successful (be patient...lol). But I'd never play enough to really care about the VIP points myself.

Well I think it will be much harder for players with restrictions to clear a decent amount of the bonus. But maybe they only target the bonus to certain players.

A FLHE player (game of the month) can rake $150 an hour four tabling (restricted). Raking 30k in 90 days like that is entirely possible.


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Kahn

If a weak US dollar was affecting the network enough to force Merge to raise the rake then obviously that weak dollar would also be a huge incentive for the network to bring in ROW players spending their Euros and perhaps even adding Euro tables to the mix. That shift hasn't happened so I seriously doubt that the US dollar is really to blame for the high rake on Merge.

Also I don't think that it is fair to compare the high Merge rake with a small number of overseas sites that need to charge a high rake due to high taxes. Merge saves a huge amount of money by not paying taxes and by paying negligable licensing fees.

So revenge jumping, ok. Or ya know, you would have been playing on both for a long time now for most of these "benefits"

Though many of us know what I'm about to say, I just wanted to throw in a thought about non-U.S.A. players playing on the sites that do still serve U.S.A. players (Merge, Bovada, Winning). I've noticed several new posters on the relevant threads and I think this may help some of them understand some of the "crazy" changes going on.

For sure people living in Europe, Canada, Asia, South America, etc. will choose PokerStars and Full Tilt for the vast majority of their poker playing (with most players spending all their poker time on those sites). It's natural. You and I living in the U.S.A. would too--those sites are great. However those sites do NOT have sportsbooks and casinos. So when a site like Merge limits the number of tables, or a site segregates winning players from losing players, it's not hard to imagine why. If a wealthy European is willing to lose 50K gambling on soccer, blackjack, and basketball, then as a site wouldn't you want to keep his time at the poker tables to a minimum?

Basically if there's a world of suckers out there ready to give away millions while gambling, then the sites/networks would rather they lose it directly to them in casino/sports wagering rather than lose it to professional poker players. The amount they make in rake once that player loses his 50K is far far less than getting the whole 50K for themselves. Just keep this in mind (and who their real priority customers are) when a site does something that makes "no sense" to you. It's all about the money, not the poker. :-(

You can call it whatever you want as I did not and do not seek out your approval regarding where I play. For me, it's a common sense approach to spreading action to protect myself against unforeseeable future bad changes. I did not see a need to play on Bovada before the recent changes. I was comfortable putting all my action on Merge because the "goods" far outweighed the "bads". Now, the "bads" have caught up and I cannot, in good conscious, keep all my action there anymore.

I'd recommend other semi-serious and certainly serious players do the same. Putting all your eggs in one basket in light of these changes seems like a big mistake to me. But, I will continue playing on Merge, just not all my hands will be played there. And, to be honest, based on some of their recent changes, this seems to be the behavior THEY want from me. I'm a winning, multi-tabling player similar to other players who were capped at 4 and 2 tables. I just hadn't yet got to some of the higher stakes games but I'm graduating to 200NL semi-soon.

Fine, then don't offer poker. Problem solved. And, while they're at it, don't offer BlackJack, as casino games go, that one has one of the smallest house edges. You can play this game all day long. Being a "business" means you should treat your customers right - not just the whales.