Im Set up better now than before BF

[Dan Abnormal]

If Merge, Doyles and Cake stay open, I am actually set up better than I was before black friday. I was able to get all my accounts tagged to give me rake back (of course now if I played enough cash games to make it worth while LOL) but I had been signed up to PS and FT with no rakeback so I might have to get in that grinding mode. Of course if I blow my rolls on these sites I not sure if I will be able to get more on. Im tempting to try the wallet option on carbon but just as a way to get money on the site with the idea that it will be small chunks at a time and I will only withdraw through the site, not through the wallet (so i dont have another ewallet experience) but I dont know. sucks to be us (MEANING THE USA) but hey RAKEBACK ALL NIGHT LONG LOL

[scrawnybob]

hi

Carbon have finished offering rakeback on June 1st

I think that is mostly because the vast majority of the new signup will have looked to have RB before signing up to remaining US facing sites ... pushing the percentages way way over from easy fish majority to nitty rakeback grinders being too big a factor

to be honest I think finally sites are realising rakeback isnt a good long term solution ... its made nothing but problems for most of the sites that offer it

IMHO the remaining sites facing the US have had to cut rakeback because it simply isnt sustainable ...

It might seem to be great for players on a personal level but I dont think that it will feel that way as a long term proposition .. it fundamentally changes the balance in the system negatively which ultimately affects even the players getting rakeback when the site has nothing but nitty rakeback grinders it will consume itself eventually

the levels and widespread use of it on FT has IMHO made their situation worse with rakeback payment as well as actual player balanced and the RB levels for players at the top was draining the site badly before BF came along

I dont want to be negative but there is a reason why Ive held back from offering rakeback and stopped developing my rakeback site while others have been happy to scalp signups from anywhere they can

if rakeback was taken in house or made into a VIP program and promoting sites were just paid for doing what we should be doing and promoting a standard across the board offer - it would mean useful sites could get back to being useful rather than losing out to thin RB sites that just scalp and poach.

I predict there will not be any Rakeback allowed or available in 12 months time - poker rooms already realise it is a counter productive way of doing things and they will start to reward players more efficiently via internal VIP programs so everyone gets VIP rewards and its not selective and its also geared to give more back to the average player and not just the "savvy" and the "winning" players or more specifically to grinders who actually distort the games alot

if carbon hadnt closed the rakeback program and stopped affiliates from offering it at some point it would have meant things would grind to a halt IMHO ... % to the flop levels are already on a par with the old grinding FT levels bacause most of the new signups are ex FT and PS grinders who wouldnt be tempted to play any other sites without RB

I'm not sure anyone is going to be better off post black friday ... its going to get tougher and tougher and rakeback isnt going to make up for substantially tighter tables playing against RB grinders who are just draining the system + less and less recreational players due to difficulty depositing ... it's not a great formula for long term stability IMHO

cheers SB

ps. this is NOT a judgement on you dan - this is just symptomatic of how more and more players feel they "have" to have rakeback ... but if its not an automatic thing that ALL players on that site get like a VIP program (if it was then they may as well just lower the rake) then even on a personal player level its going to have negatives as well as the seemingly obvious advantages