[cougar62]

I really find it amazing that some people think that these poker sites have little to no idea how to maximize their profit. You, me, and just about everyone else who posts in this forum spends countless hours trying to maximize our own profits at the poker tables, wouldn't you think that the poker sites do the exact same thing with their business? Of course they do. Stars and Full Tilt did not become leaders of a gigantic industry by not fully understanding the dynamics of the marketplace they operate in, just as no player can be profitable long term without understanding the dynamics of the games they play.

Of course I'd like to see lower rakes, and I'd like to see lower gas prices, car prices, cable bills, etc. too. But the simple law of supply and demand establishes the market price of all these things, and until the marketplace changes the prices will stay the same.

If the market can't bear the current rakes, the rakes will go down. This is quite possible IMO, especially at the higher buy-ins, as competition gets tougher and high volume players find it tougher and tougher to achieve their desired profitablility, or can be more profitable elsewhere. Then again, it might be more profitable for PokerStars for this to happen, so they might be more than happy to watch their volume move from SNG's to cash games.

The whole point is, these sites know what they're doing, and the rakes are what they are because it is optimal for them to be that way.