Card Club Rake-Back

Kendriver

Hi all,

Can I start a thread on rake-back as a means to assertaining what players think in general of the following offer and possibly point out any issues that I have not seen.I want to offer cash game players a rake-back similar to what the online poker sites are currently offering.The main reason for this is two fold a.to hold onto those cash players we do have and b.to entice new cash players.A players hours at the cash table are recorded and for each hour they spend the player receives €2.These hours are totalled up and posted on a notice board showing total hours and value earned.The value is then claimed within 7 days from month end and received in cash chips.The reason for the 7 day rule is to reward those players who consistently play rather than those who might just visit once or twice within the month.

Any feedback is greatfully appreciated.

Ken

pgodkin

would the player have to complete a min number of hours?

AdMMM

While its great for the players, you are saying goodbye to €20 profit per hour. It may also attract the wrong kind of cash player, i.e the rakeback nit, who wouldn't contribute much to the table and perhaps make the game unenjoyable for some of your regular players.

NickyOD

Poker Rooms are hard enough to keep profitable already without giving more money back to the punters. Seriously, Irish players have no idea how good they have it in terms of low rake.

Bad beat Jackpots, high hand bonuses and Cash leagues are all better forms of live RB for the poker room anyway.

coillcam

While I would like this idea in principle given the fact that the "cost" of live poker is far greater than online: Rake, tips, time-consuming, transport, unsociable hours, smaller player pool, less spread of games, etc..... Of course I'd like to trim some of these outgoings with regard live play to make it more profitable for myself.

From a poker room point of view I align myself with Nicky here, Card Rooms at present are struggling from what I've seen and heard, CHL's shut down, the SE soon.... well possibly according to rumours but it's numbers are definitely down. Dublin has 500,000 people in the city itself, so on population alone it should support plenty of card rooms. Mullingar and it's environs has no more than 20,000 realistically to draw from and supports one card room/casino. At present there are not enough punters or new blood coming into the game to make this idea worthwhile.

Think of it like this. If the club rewards there regular players and misses out on that potential profit. Just to balance the books so to speak, how many new regulars or even infrequent punters are required to cover the deficit. I suppose though to attract and retain new customers card rooms/casinos are going to have to think outside of the box with regard promotional activities and rewards. Easier said than done. In Mullingar tonight there is a €50 rebuy. Several nights over the last few months in the local casino, they offered a Chinese buffet from one of the local take-aways, other nights they added prize money, then other nights there was no-reg at all. That and group texts to the regular players is just about keeping the tourneys going.

Instantaneously and personally this may be great for me in terms of the "cost", but ultimately it puts even more strain on the club/casino in the long term to remain profitable.

I was chatting to a croupier there the other night back home and he was of the opinion that poker is dying a death, which we all knew was the case anyway. Just over a year ago there was a table each of 1/3NL and 5/5NL and sometimes 5/10NL as the game got bigger, going every Saturday in Mullingar. The potential Omaha boom never materialized and probably should have long ago if it was to to happen at all. Most of the regulars from last year are now playing a lot more online too at present. Last Saturday/Sunday morning there were 3 people only to start a table and this was at 2.30am. Now if this place didn't offer table games I don't know if it would still be standing at this present time. So take what you wish from that I suppose.

Kendriver

Thanks lads for that excellent feedback and I agree fully with all you have said.Card rooms are not immune from recession and like most we too are suffering,as we are small our costs compared to others are low and I suppose I was willing to take a hit in the shorter term in an effort to gain full tables.We operate a cash league but I felt the club needed something new and fresh.My fear for the future of live poker is that eventually most or all of the smaller rooms will close and those live players will be left with little or no choice and in the end it will be the player who suffers.
Thanks again to all who posted,
Ken

luckylucky

The one thing that I find strange is that unlike other countries i've played poker in, when I come back to Ireland is you can't drink Alcohol in cardrooms. I would have thought this would bring badly needed extra income. I'm guessing this is due to legal reasons?

jbravado

Cash leagues to my mind are a great way of rewarding regs and essentially keep a lot of games in Dublin alive with the old 3-4k bonus at the end of every few months.

Duff Man Jr.

Something like the vip player system they have in the poker room in tallaght is the way to go imo.

robinblinds

Duff Man Jr. wrote: »

Something like the vip player system they have in the poker room in tallaght is the way to go imo.

seconded

Wreck

NickyOD wrote: »

Bad beat Jackpots, high hand bonuses and Cash leagues are all better forms of live RB for the poker room anyway.

Cash leagues are an excellent way of rewarding regular players, bad beat jackpots and high hand bonuses are just gimmicks that annoy the fcuk out of me.

Macspower

Kendriver wrote: »

Hi all,

Can I start a thread on rake-back as a means to assertaining what players think in general of the following offer and possibly point out any issues that I have not seen.I want to offer cash game players a rake-back similar to what the online poker sites are currently offering.The main reason for this is two fold a.to hold onto those cash players we do have and b.to entice new cash players.A players hours at the cash table are recorded and for each hour they spend the player receives €2.These hours are totalled up and posted on a notice board showing total hours and value earned.The value is then claimed within 7 days from month end and received in cash chips.The reason for the 7 day rule is to reward those players who consistently play rather than those who might just visit once or twice within the month.

Any feedback is greatfully appreciated.

Ken

while this is a nice gesture Ken, I'm not sure of how it would work in reality. comparing it to online... for example I know if I multitable x number of tables I earn x per hour in rakeback on average... this can often be as high as 25 dollars an hour for me and prob more some high stakes players. So it's worth my while sitting there treading water...

however live the big thing that is missing is multitabling and getting back 2euro an hour wouldn't exactly excite me or entice me to play any more..

gl with it and the willingness to think outside the box will pay off in the long term I believe... the clubs with the willingness to help players will survive

Mellor

Cash League > Bad Beat > Rakeback

The reason cash leagues are best, is that every player who ever plays in the club contributes to the fund, but only regs benefit. This helps sustain the game alone, there is also the fact that as a league final approaches, people make a push to get the hours up, this is obviously good for the club, example, the jackpot has been pretty full every tuesday the last few weeks. Double hours on a midweek night is a good thing for the club.

The major flaw with Bad beat jackpots is that every player contributes to the fund, and a blown in may win the loot, thus removing a chunk of the cash in play in the local live scene. For a small casino, this is even worse. While, obviously a reg is more likely to win on an individual basis, the chance is there and a bad beat lacks the inherent dead money a cash league provides.

Rather than making up a RB scheme, maybe consider revising the structure and workings behind the cash league.