[Dazarath]

[ QUOTE ]
First, I just called Party - that made me feel better. Cashing out now. I sent Stars an "I'm Back!!" email - would love to see a "Welcome Back!" email in return.

Here's a thought:

What if this is the straw that breaks the camel's back? The rake-structure of online poker has remained pretty constant ($3 max), despite tons of additional competition. Basic economics would suggest pricing pressure is an inevitable result, right? That $3 should go to $2.75, then to $2.50, $2.40, $2.30, etc. Not stopping unless it becomes unprofitable to operate at a certain pricing level. But this hasn't happened. Why?

Because there hasn't been a catalyst. The industry is still in "growth" phase, and it's not cutt-throat enough yet. WPEX was a good start, but they're no where near the scale needed to effect the $3/rake at Party/Stars. Assuming there's no "secret agreement" between sites not to engage in pricing wars, all it should take is one of the Top 7-8 sites to break ranks and lower the rake. And hopefully it's a domino effect.

We need RAKE to become a bigger buzzword in online poker - i.e. to the average player. This won't happen overnight. But if more shakeups like the MONSTER promo encourage ANY of the other sites to make a RAKE-based campaign of some sort - it's a POSITIVE for us, the consumer. Because all focus on the rake for us is good. Now, I realize this could be tough, because a site can't even advertise on ESPN saying "We offer lower rake", because they can't advertise they are a gambling site! (.net is hilarious)....So, I don't know how/when it'll play out, but I think the MONSTER promo is in a way a catalyst, because it brings RAKE to the forefront.

And let's hope capitalism and economics get to work here, eventually.

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This has been discussed before. This economic theory only works if the consumers are price conscious. There are many fish who think the rake is negligible because "They only take $3 when you win a $50 pot." And then there are many others who don't even realize the rake exists, even though if you did some simple math, there's no way a pot using $1, $2, and $4 bets could end up being $x.50.