Party Starting to Not Suck? Promising Future? What's going on?! [Archive]

tagtastic

01-27-2006, 05:04 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Coming up in February:

* The PartyPoker.com Merchandise Store: In early February, our PartyPoker.com Merchandise Store will have all kinds of great new items such as state-of-the-art gadgets from big names like Sony and Apple, branded chip sets, cards, books, clothing and even some Callaway golf clubs and other sports goods. Keep playing and we’ll update you in the next few days.**

* VIP Player Survey: This will be your opportunity to give us invaluable feedback. Your input is important, tell us your thoughts and you can play a significant part in shaping the future of PartyPoker.com.

Finally, we are making some major changes that you are sure to enjoy. Let’s just say that it will revolutionize your playing experience here on PartyPoker.com.

We've got a few surprises in store for you next week. Watch this space! In the meantime, keep playing, keep earning and keep saving your points!

[/ QUOTE ]

What gives here, I thought party was supposed to treat us like crap, charge huge rakes and laugh at us while we try and bitch about it to people who barely speak english.

Yet this month I've received >$2000 in bonuses (New Years, VIP, Reload), and just received the above e-mail saying that in early February my party points could possibly be worth something?! Not to mention wanting my feedback via a VIP survey and strong wording of promising changes in the future?

Someone pinch me.

WhiteWolf

01-27-2006, 05:13 PM

You're saying Party doesn't suck? What are you, some kind of sick troll?? /images/graemlins/grin.gif

Seriously, though, the new Party Store stuff sounds cool.

MicroBob

01-27-2006, 05:37 PM

I want the humidor.

jasonHoldEm

01-27-2006, 05:44 PM

Bonuses have been nice, but...

[ QUOTE ]
Finally, we are making some major changes that you are sure to enjoy.

[/ QUOTE ]

1. I'll believe it when I see it.
2. I'm fearful of seeing it (lest we forget, the key word is enjoy).

J

livinitup0

01-27-2006, 05:49 PM

I take it that only the VIP got this email???

jasonHoldEm

01-27-2006, 05:50 PM

yes

livinitup0

01-27-2006, 05:52 PM

Damn cool kids with your VIP club, hot dogs, and your MTV.

kiemo

01-27-2006, 06:08 PM

I havent gotten $0 in bonus money in about 4 months.
All my party points expired sometime in the past.
I am not, nor will I ever be a VIP.

If I am so inclined can I still think they suck?

cardcounter0

01-27-2006, 06:11 PM

[ QUOTE ]
If I am so inclined can I still think they suck?

[/ QUOTE ]

Hell, no! Did you miss the "Name the Table" contest here on 2+2? Imagine some day seeing a table with a name you gave it!!!

ENJOY!

NJDevils

01-27-2006, 07:00 PM

I'm hoping to get Party VIP status if possible. I searched the forums for some info and as far as I can tell I need to generate $1,000+ in rake each month and then email vip@partypoker.com about it. I'm having some trouble calculating how much rake I have generated tho. I earned 5000 party points this month as a blue member, at 4 points per 20 raked hands. This seems to indicate I played about 25,000 hands ((5000*20)/4) if I am calculating this correctly. No real idea how much rake I paid in these hands though and I played both 6max and full tables. I guess I should get PokerTracker and this would be much easier but assuming I am too stupid to get it for now, anyone think I am in the ballpark for $1000 rake? Should I just go ahead and email vip@partypoker.com and let them decide if I have played enough or should I make sure I am going to be accepted before emailing? Thanks for the help. NJ.

tisong

01-27-2006, 07:12 PM

I never mailed them, but got the vip offer in january, after playing a lot in december. I think its automatic now.

2+2 wannabe

01-27-2006, 07:40 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Damn cool kids with your VIP club, rock 'em sock 'em robots, and your moby grape, and your 90210

[/ QUOTE ]

pokergrader

01-27-2006, 07:46 PM

I'm pretty excited about this.

basco

01-27-2006, 08:11 PM

There is going to be a massive run on anything/everything remotely useful when this starts. P points have been backlogged for practically years, haven't they?

TheBlainer

01-27-2006, 09:13 PM

Have multiple people confirmed receiving this email? I haven't seen anything in my account, and my friends who are VIP also haven't gotten anything?

Davey

01-27-2006, 09:17 PM

I got the email this morning. Im a low limit VIP who never plays enough.

jasonHoldEm

01-27-2006, 09:18 PM

[ QUOTE ]

There is going to be a massive run on anything/everything remotely useful when this starts. P points have been backlogged for practically years, haven't they?

[/ QUOTE ]

It'll be interesting to see what they do as I'm sure there are some players out there with hundreds of thousands of points who will be able to clean out the store in the first few days.

I expect we'll see some (massive?) "point inflation" for the big ticket items (i.e. they'll be more expensive on a $/point basis than a cheaper item like a shirt) and I wouldn't be surprised to see party put some sort of restriction on the points you can spend as well.

As I said above I'm taking a pessimistic view of the whole thing, but I'd love for party to surprise me...

J

Edited to add for the others who are asking I also got the email (and a pop-up about the VIP bonus) in case it wasn't obvious.

4thstreetpete

01-27-2006, 09:22 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Bonuses have been nice, but...

[ QUOTE ]
Finally, we are making some major changes that you are sure to enjoy.

[/ QUOTE ]

1. I'll believe it when I see it.
2. I'm fearful of seeing it (lest we forget, the key word is enjoy).

J

[/ QUOTE ]

The way I see it, there have been major changes to party the last two months. Bonuses have been fantastic and they're at least constantly adding new promos and ideas to improve party.

Frankly I could care less about the promos, I'd much rather have a consistent bonus and great items in their merchandise shop. I have less and less to complain about party as each days passes. Even my emails have been responded to in a timely manner, shocking!

Often times we're all too eager to bash party for the poor customer service we've had in the past but rarely give party credit when it's due. It appears they are trying really hard to make these improvements (most likely in reponse to Stars Vip thing and their sudden surge in numbers of players) but nonetheless I'll give party the benefit of the doubt this time.

jasonHoldEm

01-27-2006, 09:31 PM

[ QUOTE ]
The way I see it, there have been major changes to party the last two months. Bonuses have been fantastic and they're at least constantly adding new promos and ideas to improve party.

[/ QUOTE ]

You make good points and I agree with them, it has been a good month.

I expect the "major changes" they speak of will be a software upgrade, and while that could bring some nice new features (resizeable table windows like party beta, etc), my fear is that they'll continue to move closer and closer towards the casino platform they started with blackjack/sidebets...I'm betting it won't be too long before we start seeing slots/craps/roulette/etc at Party.

J

NickMPK

01-28-2006, 12:23 AM

I am a VIP an haven't gotten the email. But it says I am eligible for the reload on my bonus account page. I am still getting the original VIP bonus pop-up, since I didn't clear it until today.

sg23

01-28-2006, 12:37 AM

party bingo already has slots but yes it would suck to have more of those games cluttering the screen. nice loc.

UATrewqaz

01-28-2006, 12:44 AM

The worst part about it is the money going out of the poker economy.

The rake is bad enough but when you have people tilting they won't move up to try to win it back at poker, they'll try to double it on roulette, etc.

Some people will argue "but casino games will bring in more fish" which is true to a very small degree (it will only bring in a few retards here and there) however Party already has TONS of fish and all casino style games will do is drain their bankrolls faster, into the pocket of PP, not other poker players.

Plus, having -EV games lying around is a danger to many undisciplined good players. Look how many of the 2+2'ers you hear about throwing away money at blackjack.

Are more casino games smart for Party to do? Hell ya it is. I bet they are making a killing off of BJ and will nto be surprised when more games are added.

But it is NOT a good thing for pure +EV poker players.

sourbeaver

01-28-2006, 01:15 AM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Damn cool kids with your VIP club, rock 'em sock 'em robots, and your moby grape, and your 90210

[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]

awesome /images/graemlins/grin.gif

AA Suited

01-28-2006, 01:24 AM

new stuff in the party store..

i wonder how party will handle all those deposit whores? ($10k deposit gets you 20k points) rinse + repeat every 8 days and you can get ~80k points/month!

Pog0

01-28-2006, 04:18 AM

[ QUOTE ]
The worst part about it is the money going out of the poker economy.

The rake is bad enough but when you have people tilting they won't move up to try to win it back at poker, they'll try to double it on roulette, etc.

Some people will argue "but casino games will bring in more fish" which is true to a very small degree (it will only bring in a few retards here and there) however Party already has TONS of fish and all casino style games will do is drain their bankrolls faster, into the pocket of PP, not other poker players.

Plus, having -EV games lying around is a danger to many undisciplined good players. Look how many of the 2+2'ers you hear about throwing away money at blackjack.

Are more casino games smart for Party to do? Hell ya it is. I bet they are making a killing off of BJ and will nto be surprised when more games are added.

But it is NOT a good thing for pure +EV poker players.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was going to make an argument that a losing poker player would have a bigger "edge" in blackjack than in poker. And that they'll inevitably lose their money either way. And that if they play blackjack, their chance of increasing their role to take on the bigger games is larger than if they play poker where their edge is smaller. But I guess this is more a matter of standard deviation, and I don't know anything about variance in blackjack. And afterall, the reason they're on party is to play poker in the first place. No one gets sucked into party by blackjack, so if they hit a heater there, they'll take it to higher stakes.

Then I realized that if a player sucks at poker, they'll also suck at blackjack and lose it in a heartbeat. Boo.

I wonder how long of no VIP offer party thinks this "super fun happy possibly double deposit bonus funnerific awesome wicked cool bonus" is supposed to keep us happy for.

Spy Dog

01-28-2006, 07:41 AM

I am less than excited about major changes and points for merchandise. All of this reminds me of the Poker Stars model, which means cash incentives may be a thing of the past. I really doubt Party will keep giving VIP cash bonuses and then also decide to let us use our points for cool merchandise. I have a feeling many people are going to be very very disappointed.

ohead

01-28-2006, 09:27 AM

I havent gotten the mail yet but i hope im getting one since im a VIP, but this really looks nice, but hey... everyone knows how much PP is gonna be neeeded for the nice items, ive got about 50K right now and that feels very low.

n00dl3

01-28-2006, 10:36 AM

I haven't gotten anything yet from party... they musta hate me..

Jbrochu

01-28-2006, 12:55 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Party Starting to Not Suck? Promising Future? What's going on?!

[/ QUOTE ]

I hope you're correct. The best thing that can happen for us players is for Party and Stars to really have to fight over our business. If Party is finally waking up and seeing that Stars is a real threat to take their high volume players away, it can only be good for us.

Worst case for us is that nasty rumour about Party possibly buying Stars.

RikaKazak

01-28-2006, 04:36 PM

personally, I hope all good poker players get addicted to blackjack, go broke, and leave only me and the fish.

TWINUNO

01-30-2006, 11:44 AM

Has anybody seen a sneak peek at exactly what we are hoping to get from this party store and when?

Nick-Zack

01-30-2006, 11:56 AM

I just checked and they now have golf balls available. Only 2 million points and it doesn't say if you are getting one or a dozen.

Linky (https://secure.partypoker.com/my_account/pc/get_all_merchandise.htm?CATEGORY=56)

FCBLComish

01-30-2006, 12:14 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I just checked and they now have golf balls available. Only 2 million points and it doesn't say if you are getting one or a dozen.

[/ QUOTE ]

Darn, It looks like they are all gone. I had 6 million points to spare and I could always use a few golf balls.

tisong

01-30-2006, 12:35 PM

SONY BRAVIA 26INCH LCD

2 million points

No_Skillz_

01-30-2006, 12:37 PM

SONY BRAVIA 26INCH LCD

brand: Sony

deliverys: Us & Canada | Rest Of The World

model no.s: Klvs26a10-Us | Klvs26a10e-Row

Party Points 2000000

Dennisa

01-30-2006, 04:16 PM

After the Cruise downgrade fiasco, I am sure they are setting the numbers very high during testing. All they need is to set the 10K WSOP buy in for about 100 points and see how many of you 2+2's would try to hold them to it.

Tk79

01-30-2006, 04:59 PM

All I see is womans track suit, purse, his/hers polos, and thats it.

protocol

01-30-2006, 06:06 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I really doubt Party will keep giving VIP cash bonuses and then also decide to let us use our points for cool merchandise.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a very good point. The VIP bonus offers might have just been a way to keep the high-volume players at Party until they could get their merch store on par with Stars'. I wouldn't be surprised if the VIP bonus offers end as soon as the new store is up and running.

tisong

01-30-2006, 06:50 PM

maybe party are more clever than that (I know , I know...)

It seems they estimate how much you played the month before and asks you to increase your play with maybe 20% to get the VIP bonus - or get nothing.

So in order to get a bonus you will have to play more than you usually do at Party and they will make more money. Returning some or most of it to you. But they will keep you as a customer at very little cost.

And every month increses till you cannot play more and they save the VIP payment for a month or two.

Also they give a time-limit for the bonuses so you cant just spend some time at stars and other places and return later.

Overall this could be a genious move by Party to attract most of the high-volume players away from stars.

At a reasonable cost for Party, but also very reasonable for us VIP players.

I hope they are clever enough to continue :-)

tisong

01-30-2006, 06:53 PM

[ QUOTE ]
SONY BRAVIA 26INCH LCD

2 million points

[/ QUOTE ]

Price in Europe is about 1500 usd for this TV.

so earlier estimates of 80k points = 500 usd is way off.

Unless of course they are just testing the products and the price is set at 2 mio to make sure noone buys them in the testing phase.

Tk79

01-30-2006, 06:58 PM

Im pretty sure they are just running some tests and that is not the final price since golf balls were 2million pts earlier today also.

jsnipes28

01-30-2006, 07:52 PM

I would shy from thinking that Party will let you use all of the points you have accumulated to purchase the new "cool" items. When Stars developed their VIP club you cannot use all of the pointsn you have accumulated to buy IPods and the other cool [censored], only the points you have accumulated since the inception of VIP. You can still use your old points to buy Hats, Beanies, T-Shirts, et cetera but they can't be used in the VIP store.

I would imagine that Party will do something similar so that they are not cleaned out by High Volume players who have years and years of points in their account.

jasonHoldEm

01-30-2006, 09:08 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I would shy from thinking that Party will let you use all of the points you have accumulated to purchase the new "cool" items. When Stars developed their VIP club you cannot use all of the pointsn you have accumulated to buy IPods and the other cool [censored], only the points you have accumulated since the inception of VIP. You can still use your old points to buy Hats, Beanies, T-Shirts, et cetera but they can't be used in the VIP store.

I would imagine that Party will do something similar so that they are not cleaned out by High Volume players who have years and years of points in their account.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is how I felt originally, but I'm feeling slightly more optimistic based on the poll numbers (although it's a very small sample size - yadda, yadda, yadda - in general, it doesn't look like there are a lot of players with HUGE PP point bankrolls)...so I'm slightly more optimistic that party will allow us to use our full balance. Party might end up sending a dozen ipods to one of it's best players, but is that "really" a bad thing for them?

That being said, I still feel the most likely "catches" will be high prices and perhaps VIP status required for certain big ticket items.

J

Catt

01-30-2006, 09:54 PM

gurgeh

01-30-2006, 11:48 PM

This is on Amazon.com for $1149, but that's still an insane number of points (about 1,740 points per dollar). At that rate you'll be paying about 43,500 points for a $25 poker book. Of course if you consider that a baseball cap (maybe $10?) is only 500 points (50 points per dollar), you'd only need about 1250.

I think I did that right, but it still seems crazy.

Cactus Terry

01-31-2006, 02:06 AM

i saw a fountain pen on there for 2mil points today so i think its safe to say they are only testing it right now.

UATrewqaz

01-31-2006, 02:21 AM

I think everyone is seriously underestimating the stupidity of Party.

gurgeh

01-31-2006, 12:27 PM

[ QUOTE ]
i saw a fountain pen on there for 2mil points today so i think its safe to say they are only testing it right now.

[/ QUOTE ]

That may be, but I still wonder where between 1,250 points and 43,500 points a book like SSHE will fall. I think we should start a pool. Who wants to set the over/under?

BuckeyeMC

01-31-2006, 08:06 PM

That must be one hell of a nice pen...

Dan BRIGHT

02-01-2006, 01:00 AM

I sure hope they dont put books in their store that promote the learning of how to actually play holdem.

Anyways, ppl would probably rather have the mp3 player right?

POKhER

02-01-2006, 01:34 AM

[ QUOTE ]
I sure hope they dont put books in their store that promote the learning of how to actually play holdem.

Anyways, ppl would probably rather have the mp3 player right?

[/ QUOTE ]

fingers crossed. Or dont even realise they have points? /images/graemlins/laugh.gif

triviaguru

02-01-2006, 04:08 AM

If you go to PartyGaming.com (the parent site of PartyPoker), they occasionally show press releases giving information to investors. The latest one had talk about an integrated poker/casino interface, given the recent boost in profitability from the addition of blackjack.

Also, they plan on launching a multi-lingual/multi-currency option in 2006 also.

I hope this isn't what they had in mind when they said improvements. I couldn't care less about a Swedish version of PartyPoker- I just want more bonuses and items in the store!