My comments on WSEX's latest update and the missing names in the HH's

[WSEX GM]

My fellow Posters,

The two features that were added in the latest release were Hand Histories to Hard Drives and the ability to play four tables at a time. When I posted a couple of months ago asking for suggestions, there were three items the posters here felt were the most important, HH to hard drives, the ability to play more than three tables at a time, and 6-Max. We have delivered on the first two items and for the time being are offering 5-Max instead of 6-Max.

There were no changes to the way rake is calculated or the way rake back is distributed.

Everything else that has been suggested is being considered and the vast majority of it will be added in time. Connectivity is still an issue for some more than others. We will continue to work on improving it until there are no complaints. Disconnect protection has been rewritten and will be released in an intermediate update within the next couple of weeks if all tests well.

The lack of player names in the hand histories has been the subject of some passionate debate here on 2 + 2. I’ve personally read every post on the topic. There were some who suggested this format in my suggestion thread. I would expect the sentiment for including names to be stronger here than anywhere else, yet in an informal poll on this site less than 50% of the respondents wanted the player names. But this is not about polls, this is not a democracy, this is a poker room, a rake free poker room.

A few years ago I went on a fishing trip with a friend. He took me down below and showed me all of this computer hardware that allowed him to track the big fish below, have the boat stay on course with the fish, and even adjust its speed accordingly. I looked at him and said, “This isn’t fishing, it’s hunting.”

It’s not much different here. WSEX wants to offer its customers a rake free poker room, not a platform for professionals to data mine and target weaker players with the assistance of automated software. We are trying to offer a level playing field for people who want to play poker, not treat our poker room like a strip mining operation.

We provide players hand histories to hard drives to study their own play, that’s why many of you claimed you needed it. (As well as for our Wednesday Aces promotion) All of a sudden it is clear who wants it to study their own play and who wants it to profile other players. Big difference!

I’m comfortable with my decision at this point. Many of you have praised it as innovative and forward thinking. If I had gone the other way I am sure some would have complained as well. If there are less multi-tabling professionals at the tables and the recreational players last longer that’s fine with me. I’m not saying all professional multi-tablers never place a sports or casino bet, and that all recreational poker players do at some point, but the bulk of each class is certainly more likely to behave in that fashion than not.

Nothing is set in stone. We will constantly evaluate all of these decisions. We will also continue to repair and enhance the software until everyone agrees it is the best platform available. We will do more advertising in the future, as soon as we overcome a few more issues. In the meantime I hope you all enjoy the millions of dollars in rake back that we have paid to the poker community every Monday. Yes, it’s really in the millions.

Fred Balfour
General Manager
WSEX.com