*Official* Suggestions for Stars Thread

[Yo_Respek]

PokerStars has the loyality of their players more than any other site. That loyality is well deserved because they do many things right. In many ways my loyality to PokerStars has a grain of resentment. I resent PokerStars because they seem cheap. They take this stance because they know they are the best.

For many of the serious players the affliation with PokerStars is a love hate relationship. Players who play a lot, pay a lot of rake on PokerStars. They refuse to listen to players requests for rakeback. They act like this is insulting to them. A professional player plays poker to make money bottom line. Just like they run a poker site to make money. The balance of power is in their favor as of this point. There will come a time when one of these sites gets their act toghether and gives PokerStars a serious run for their money. If it happens to be a site that allowed me to get some of my overpayment of rake back then I will play there forever. Let people trade their points directly for cash!! Stop acting like you are too classy to do that. Or that the players are greedy for wanting that. The truth is you are too penny wise and pound foolish to offer it. The players want to feel like they are getting a good deal. The whole game of poker for a good player is about getting the most value for their money. No one wants to feel like a sucker just because they have loyality to your site Mr Jones.

[mbpoker]

Didn't Stars just introduce rakeback for serious players called "award bonus"? Are there any other sites that give rakeback directly to players without any affiliates in between and without deducting bonuses and fees?

Not sure what you are complaining about.

[NoahSD]

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Didn't Stars just introduce rakeback for serious players called "award bonus"?

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No.

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Are there any sites that give rakeback directly to players without any affiliates in between and without deducting bonuses and fees?

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Yes

[O Doyle Rules]

Big Cheers to Stars for staying in the U.S. market!

Cheers to Stars in recognizing that NL players and SH players were not getting their fair share of FPPs and correcting it!

Slight Jeers for the selective $ 1,000.00 bonus.

I understand why they would offer such a bonus, (that is to attract some High Limit players that were displaced from their regular site due to them closing shop in the U.S.) but IMO, the possible alienation of existing, loyal, high volume players because they are not eligible for the bonus could outweigh the potential gain of such a marketing effort. I would have like to seen them offer a smaller bonus in the $ 100 to $ 300 range for these players they hope to have capture from other sites. I think this would have been successful in getting a good number of them and a plan that most of their existing customer base would understand why they would not be eligible for it.

I know personally Party's convoluted, selective bonuses were the primary reason I left them. I would hate to see Stars start to make selective bonuses a regular practice.

I would still really, really like to see something "special" for Nova players, like the land based sponsored tourney idea for Nova players only I keep suggesting. I think such a "bonus" would be viewed huge by most Nova players and would be a great loyalty building program for stars. With the real possibility of WSOP packages going to the wayside, a SuperNova only land based tourney could become a really huge deal for both the players and Stars.

[Archon_Wing]

[ QUOTE ]
PokerStars has the loyality of their players more than any other site. That loyality is well deserved because they do many things right. In many ways my loyality to PokerStars has a grain of resentment. I resent PokerStars because they seem cheap. They take this stance because they know they are the best.

For many of the serious players the affliation with PokerStars is a love hate relationship. Players who play a lot, pay a lot of rake on PokerStars. They refuse to listen to players requests for rakeback. They act like this is insulting to them. A professional player plays poker to make money bottom line. Just like they run a poker site to make money. The balance of power is in their favor as of this point. There will come a time when one of these sites gets their act toghether and gives PokerStars a serious run for their money. If it happens to be a site that allowed me to get some of my overpayment of rake back then I will play there forever. Let people trade their points directly for cash!! Stop acting like you are too classy to do that. Or that the players are greedy for wanting that. The truth is you are too penny wise and pound foolish to offer it. The players want to feel like they are getting a good deal. The whole game of poker for a good player is about getting the most value for their money. No one wants to feel like a sucker just because they have loyality to your site Mr Jones.

[/ QUOTE ]

I do share some of those sentiments. However, these improvements to the FPP program is a start. It's true that it has a long way to go, as it still is not as comparable to rakeback. Stars really needs to gather more info on their major competitors such as UB and Full Tilt.

Perhaps the FPP store is not actual cash, but giving a certain value to the players can be just as good in promoting the site. We'll see where it goes.

It may seem like that spending so much $ on bonuses hurts the wallet, but the benifits will be far greater.

[HSB]

You know, if they were to do a supernova only tournament, how about a supernova only cash game for those who don't like tournaments?

Give everyone some FPP to dollar conversion, make the blinds and antes known from the start, let folks convert as much as they desire. Have them all gather at say the Bike and film it for LATB.

In order to prevent folks from just ditching the game and taking the cash, require that the money be at the table for a certain length of time.

[Archon_Wing]

A Random suggestion:

Make bonuses release in increments, but hold a restriction that any $ from bonuses can't be cashed out unless the bonus expires or gets completed. You'd have to let bonuses have a long expiration period for this to work well. I like incremental bonuses just because i feel like i am doing something without the feeling that it will be all for naught if i don't play 10000 tables for the next week.

[Tuff_Fish]

Good grief Stars.

It is easy as pie to get all the business you could possibly want from these guys.

It is not by creating a site that is friendly to the eight tabling grinders and pros.

Make your site friendly to ME. The rest will follow in more abundance than you can imagine.

Tony Tuff Fish

[Gildwulf]

[ QUOTE ]
Good grief Stars.

It is easy as pie to get all the business you could possibly want from these guys.

It is not by creating a site that is friendly to the eight tabling grinders and pros.

Make your site friendly to ME. The rest will follow in more abundance than you can imagine.

Tony Tuff Fish

[/ QUOTE ]

so...you're implying that fish don't want more FPP?

[mbpoker]

Care to explain why award bonuses are not effectively a form of rakeback?