Players boycott of party already beginning?

4thstreetpete · #1 02-09-2006, 10:53 PM

Seems like a lot of the higher volume players are really unhappy with their vip offer, mainly being unattainable targets. I fired up pokerstars and see that they have over 80K+ players on their site. Party right now only has about 71K. Weird, I haven't stars with more than 10K players more than party in primetime ever, and this only one day after the party vip offer was issue.

I guess if I'm checking out other sites so are a lot of other people too. Boycott would be a little extreme for me as I'll be giving up too much EV, but I'm tired of being disgusted with party so this will give me an opportunity to carry a large portion of my play to many other sites. Looks like stars is a good option.

garion888 · #2 02-09-2006, 11:00 PM

ssshhhh...

Gobgogbog · #3 02-09-2006, 11:00 PM

I'm certain those numbers are not due to the party vip offers

4thstreetpete · #4 02-09-2006, 11:05 PM

I don't think it can all be attributed to the vip offers but a 10K player difference was rather surprising.I don't think I've ever seen such a big gap before during prime hours. I figured if 1 person like me has left party than I'm sure there are plenty who are too.

4thstreetpete · #5 02-09-2006, 11:14 PM

Holy [censored]! Stars is at 88K+ right now, party is at 72K. What is going on??? [img]/images/graemlins/ooo.gif[/img]

HavanaBanana · #6 02-09-2006, 11:18 PM

Must be all the players they lose from going broke too fast at BJ.

ToT

MicroBob · #7 02-09-2006, 11:28 PM

stars advertising is catching on like wild-fire??

I suspect it has very little to do with party's vip.

4th st - I'm going to assume you are in the U.S. or Canada.

We only have a vague idea of their marketing even in our own countries...because they can market themselves in other way in big markets that we aren't even aware of.

For all we know, they are really stepping up their advertising in some European television markets.

But I do believe all the Raymer and Hachem and Moneymaker (I learned to play on stars-dot-net) spots are running and awful, awful lot.
See the Monte Carlo tourney on FSN or WPT on Travel or WSOP re-reruns on ESPN and you are bound to see these commercials multiple times.

And, again, they might be advertising much much more than that somewhere that we don't know about.
Or sending out mailers from some list they got.

Whatever.

You can argue that Party advertises on TV about as much.
But I think Stars commercials are more direct and to the point (then the 'got a bad poker-face' spots).

I really don't know if that accounts for the uptick in players either. Also possible that it's just 'one of those things' and maybe has nothing to do with advertising.

I note that Full Tilt is still only in the low 5-digits, 13k tonight. Obviously that's okay for them...but they've been around for a little while now and they are also ALL OVER the freaking TV with some clever spots (and that Learn from the Pros paid-program).

4thstreetpete · #8 02-09-2006, 11:43 PM

You're right Bob, I have seen quite a bit of Stars Ad on TV here in Canada. It's very reassuring that the poker boom is going nowhere fast. I remember the same time last year people were saying online poker has reached it's peak. I don't think it's anywhere close.

I really thought party would be the first to hit 100K players but this doesn't look like it's going to happen. As for the vip speculation, I think it's a combination of everything like poor cs support etc. There really is no reason why party shouldn't have way more players than they do currently.

Hopefully with all these advertisements stars will lure more fish to their cash games. I know stars have been focusing on their tounament side of their site but if they would put more effort in to their cash games they could be the new party. I don't know what stars could do, I guess their vip program is a start but I highly doubt that would be enough to lure party's high volume players over. I think a lot of party's success with their cash games have to do with their affiliate program. I wonder why stars don't follow party's model?

LVGamb00ler · #9 02-09-2006, 11:48 PM

I got about the worst offer I have seen listed ($245 for 8990). I told Party CS I was offended by their offer. I have withdrawn my BR to Neteller and will not be playing for next 8 weeks. It was time for a break anyway!

G'luck all,
LVGamb00ler

4thstreetpete · #10 02-09-2006, 11:54 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I got about the worst offer I have seen listed ($245 for 8990). I told Party CS I was offended by their offer. I have withdrawn my BR to Neteller and will not be playing for next 8 weeks. It was time for a break anyway!

G'luck all,
LVGamb00ler

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL, I got exactly the same offer. I sent party vip an email telling them to stick it because I'm not going to kill myself and play 9K points a week for their measily bonus. If I was a pro this would be easy but with a full time job they want me to play 30 or more hours a week, forgetaboutit. LOL.