WSEx: Official Thread: January & February. (#5 of 6.)

[WSEX GM]

The website will be corrected today or tomorrow.

Fred

[Benjamin]

[ QUOTE ]
Don't hold your breath for fixing hacks,

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I was happy to hear the GM say they have already disabled the ability for old versions to connect to the games. Cheers! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[hoosiertim]

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Cracked aces is actually worth probably $20 rather than 50 and will happen every 3 hours or so.

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lol - try four tabling 6 MAX tables. That's between 350-400 hands an hour.

[MakhtarUNC]

[ QUOTE ]
Since you don't address points 1, 3-4, I guess you conceed them. Don't hold your breath for fixing hacks, they have know about namegrabber for several months and only now just got around to fixing it. Remember, they make no $ off this site, and have never stated if it is drawing any more traffic to sportsbook then without it. Their only chance for this business strategy to work is to increase traffic dramatically, and that isn't going to happen is LOTS of players are not going there because of policies that PURPORT to be player friendly but are acctually are not.

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First of all, what would WSEX gain by allowing HUDs? Even if allowing HUDs slightly increased traffic, what are the chances that somebody that will ONLY play on a site that allows HUD and dataming, will in fact place a bet? Poor.

I think that would WSEX is doing is great. I have also given them a good amount of sportsbook business.

My point is that WSEX's business strategy isn't entirely to strictly increase traffic. They want to attract the poker players who are also likely to get involved with the sportsbook. And I don't think that allowing HUDs will help this cause, as this may attract more SERIOUS poker players (people that are less likely to place bets), rather than more casual players.

[Mojo56]

It would be nice to be able to use Poker Tracker for SNG's and MTT's.

[BuddyQ]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Don't hold your breath for fixing hacks,

[/ QUOTE ]

I was happy to hear the GM say they have already disabled the ability for old versions to connect to the games. Cheers! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed, I hope that is fixed soon as well, I would not have mentioned it if I had wanted it to continue. However, my point regarding that hack, was that there will always be hacks, and the illusion of a level playing field vs. the evil HUD users is/will be always an illusion. Also, although it has been brought up many times, the GM never adresses head-on the glaring collusion/bot problems caused by having no names in the histories. To be comforted by the fact that most players won't be using HUDS, but at the same time be unconcerned/oblivious to the fact that the lack of player names makes WPEX a circus of colluders and bots is idiotic. The latter should be far more concerning to the players and the GM. Also, many have proposed solutions that will keep names in the histories but forbid datamining ('stripmining'), and GM ignores/doesn't reply to these either. I love rake free, I like wpex, I want traffic to bloom there - but I fear the alienation of a significant number of players is going to prevent that. I hope I'm wrong. I respect the GM's stance, I guess we will just have to agree to disagree. Good Luck to Wpex.

[zooey]

Total Economized Rake: $17,346.55

It's that freakin simple.

I can't believe anyone would play $20-40 and lower anywhere else.

[Genesis]

WSEX GM, Just wanted to say that I am very satisfied with WPEX since I left Absolute about a month ago. You seem very willing to listen to your players and make changes accordingly to improve your software. Even if you get some people who just can't let go of the HandHistory/HUD issue...

I think your major issue at this point, like most others have said, is the size of the player base. I feel the change to the 'Aces Never Lose' promotion will help in that regard. Unfortunately, I don't see it being enough to trigger the fast growth we are all looking for. From an earlier post I saw that you were considering affiliates which is probably a good step as well, but is it possible with a 100% rakeback structure?

I honestly believe that 100% rakeback is the flaw in your business plan. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but it limits you from doing so many things that could help you grow many times faster. Players, especially the kind that everyone wants at their tables, love gimmicks. Rakeback to these players is an almost unknown concept. They need something more. A carrot to dangle in front of them…a bonus, tournament freerolls/entries, jackpot hands, points and status levels, etc. Attract these players and good players follow and it snowballs from there.

I highly suggest reevaluating your rakeback idea, perhaps dropping down to 75% or something. You still blow away the competition, but make room for affiliates to take a cut and give you extra advertising power. Also, you free up room for sign-up and periodic reload bonuses, that can boost some player’s rakeback to near 100% at times, may allow you to add some nice freerolls (the type that you can enter if you play a certain number of hands in a week), and many other options. Party did so well in my opinion because they had a constant stream of these types of promotions.

Anyway, just wanted to get those ideas out and let you know that I think WPEX is doing a good job so far.

[Shandrax]

[ QUOTE ]
It's still possible to study your own play all you want, just not the play of others.

Datamining for weaknesses as well as datamining to build better bots are not something we want to facilitate here at WSEX. The old version no longer works, that bug has been fixed.

As I have stated before, we want to offer a place for people to play poker, not strip mine. We are starting to grow again and have a nice player base of real players.

The platform is now stable.

We have delevered almost everything people have asked for on 2+2. HH to hard drives, 6-Max, ability to play four tables, plus several other features. The only thing we have not done is added the names to the hand histories, something that only has about 50% support here.

We are still paying on Aces for Stud H/L.

The new Aces schedule starts today, Wednesday through Saturday, 1 PM until 1 AM.

An option for a new look is in the pipeline along with smaller tables. We will also be adding new games in the future. Everything is possible, everything is happening, everything takes a little time.

If what we offer is not for you, that's fine. You can find plenty of action at the relevant backwaters where they rake an arm and a leg.

Keep the comments coming.

Fred Balfour
General Manager
WSEX.com

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I understand your motives perfectly well, I am just not sure if it's a good pollicy. Other sites do not have this sort of restriction on datamining and people are accepting them very well. In other words, if this was a real issue, sites Pokerstars would have reacted in a similar way, but so far they didn't.

Now the question is who really benefits from it. Which players profit from a lack of information more, the good ones or the weaker ones? Maybe it helps the sharks in the end. Maybe weaker player don't have the confidence to play if they cannot use little helpers like PAHUD. This may seem counterintuitive at first, but you cannot exclude such a reasoning right away.

Overall there is one problem which cannot be denied. WSEX is offering by far the most attractive conditions in all of online poker, yet the playerbase is quite small. This bug has to be fixed one way or the other.

P.S.: Personally I am missing a 4-table-view option. Right now the windows are overlapping and I cannot resize my tables.

[Benjamin]

[ QUOTE ]
To be comforted by the fact that most players won't be using HUDS, but at the same time be unconcerned/oblivious to the fact that the lack of player names makes WPEX a circus of colluders and bots is idiotic.

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What is idiotic is to say that WPEX is a circus of colluders and bots.

It's true that identifying collusion and bots would be easier with names in hand histories. But, if every player is vigilant and reports fishy behavior, then we should be able to keep a handle on it.

Despite all the hot air about bots and collusion on WPEX, I've never seen anything terribly unusual in my many hours on the table there.