[confidoboyd]

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I think that the real issue is that you will be forced to change your style of play, and you're worried that you won't be able to adapt to playing with a double-digit VPIP.

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Yeah, that's nice. There's maybe only one person full ring that has a single digit vpip. But, let's take your example at face value. What you're saying is, people won't be able to adjust and thus won't profit from the games. Okay. So, some regulars (nits/weak-tights, whatever) have been dropping a little bit off the site. More will drop in the coming weeks. Then, contributed rakeback, you say won't make any regulars leave, but in the same breath you say "you're worried that you won't be able to adapt" Since there's a lot of people that don't want the rake structure to change, there must be a lot of people that "won't be able to adapt" therefore, the numbers will drop even more.

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Have to agree with Mitch on this one, as a tighter solid "grinder" I think another kick to my rakeback would send me back to the busier sights. The reason I came over to WPEX was that despite the low traffic the 100% rakeback allowed me to put in less hours of play to make my "goals" on a weekly basis. It's often been a frustrating struggle with the lack of game selection and quality of players. If they switch to contributed and it doesn't cause some sort of traffic increase (which I dont see why it will, in fact I expect the "grinders", or a better term might be the "seat fillers" to return to their old sites) then i'll head back to other sites.

The difference between 75% contributed and the rakeback/bonuses you can get on bigger networks is no longer enough to make me want to deal with the hassles of WPEX's growing pains. As a primarily NL player, sitting at a 6-max table now its very easy to quickly recognize the 3 or 4 other grinders at the table that aren't going to surrender their money to me because they're of similar quality and recognize the same in myself. Between $100NL and $400NL its not uncommon to see maybe 40 active seats running at a busy time. Of these 40 seats about 25+ of them are being filled by a small handful of grinding multitablers. Any decision (change to rake) that risks losing these players is one that negatively effects WPEX most pressing problem: game selection. The change isnt going to make me alter the profitable game I already play, that would be a bad $$ decision for me and I really can't see many successful grinders changing their games. I dont see any reason why the switch from dealt to contributed rake would bring in any new players as if they were cognizant enough to recognize the value in that, they would already be smart enough to have been playing for the 100% rake.

Crap this post is too long for what i wanted to say. In closing, as great as it is to see all of the posts here suggesting good and bad ways to improve the site, none of this matters unless WSEX steps up and makes a decision that they want the poker room itself to be a profitable measure. As long as they continue to view it as merely a gateway to the sportsbook then they will never put in the time and resources required to compete with the giants of the market. I mean lets be honest, as great as WSEX_GM has been in monitoring this thread it is painfully clear that him and the entire skeleton staff that WPEX is running are stretched far too thin to compete with the sites that dominate the market. They either need to put the money behind it to succeed or just walk away, after this much time its become clear that the one-foot-in-the-door approach is not succeeding.

Cheers, and GL to anyone in tonight's VIP tourney....unless you're the dick that knocked me out on Tuesday with A5o vs my AK, i wish you nothing but coolers tonight.