Does Party even need a VIP program?

[Petomane]

You'd think with WSEX creating a buzz, Party woulds be offering generous bonuses to VIPs and others by now, just to stop people from trying it out. But no.

Ever since that mind numbing Acceler-8-tor finished, there's been no drop off in players as far as I can tell. Does Party even need a VIP program? They seem to be doing just fine either way.

[Leader]

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They seem to be doing just fine either way.

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Business isn't about being "fine." The question is whether the VIP program is +EV. And it is.

[popeye18]

I plan to play somewhere else very soon if they do not get a decent bonus going. I think theres prob others who feel the same way.

[krazyace5]

Short term, no. Long term, yes.

[tagtastic]

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I plan to play somewhere else very soon if they do not get a decent bonus going. I think theres prob others who feel the same way.

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I play on playing elsewhere IF they don't offer a bonus that doesn't force me to play 21,000 hands/wk just to hit the minimum.

[augie_]

The VIP program makes money.

[somapopper]

Ever since I haven't been able to use PAHUD for table selection, I've needed an incentive to play at Party. I just can't easily find great games and get into them before they turn bad anymore, so while I'm still willing to take a small hit in bonus/ rakeback style compensation for access to party's tables, I'm certainly not going to play there without any sort of bonus or promo.

I played on WSEX, WPEX, whatever, for the first time today, and was surprised at both the number of tables, and how good the games are (I expected them to be amongst the worst I've seen and they were only below average). I'm still holding my breath here, but if the player base actually grows to a medium large site, this will be my new home.

question: Since Poker is only a promotional device, and isn't the source of any profit, might WSEX poker be in a different legal category than other operations, or does the attached casino and sportsbook nullify this?

[NJDevils]

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Ever since I haven't been able to use PAHUD for table selection...

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FWIW, you can still do this if you are a little computer savvy and visit the Software forum from time to time.

[Wongboy]

Pacific has gone the opposite direction with a "reverse VIP" program. They offer a very small rakeback (in the form of points to cash) to losing players, but cut the winning players off from that cash. They are very up-front in saying that they only want to provide this benefit to losing players and do not wish to reward winning players.

I'm not sure which one is better for the site, but it is interesting that there is at least one site which feels that VIP programs are a bad idea.

Obviously, discouraging winning players makes the site fishier, which should get more good players wanting to play there, even though it costs them more than what the fish are paying.

Barring an unlimited bankroll, I think there is a strong correlation between a winning player and a frequent player. There will obviously be exceptions, but I would have to think that the majority of Party's VIP's are at least break-even (meaning much better than average).

[McShove]

Did party make some kind or statement about not using PAHUD?