What is your criteria for a good poker room?

[G0930]

What criteria do you think are necessary to deem a pokerroom a good place to play ?

Is it the numbers alone?
Certainly not .
However ...what many people need to understand is : For a pokerroom to thrive, a pool of fish is essential.
Yes we often get angry about their carelessness and their ignorance towards the game we love.
BUT a room where the the majority of players are very experienced and fish are a minority will spoil the game.
Many pros agree with this. You need a healthy balance of pros and winning players. But the majority needs to be fish , otherwise the experience gets maybe more satisfying since you're playing mostly with skilled players but it automatically gets very less lucrative .


Curious to know what you think about my approach and what other conclusions you might have drawn

 

[fundiver199]

Yes as you say soft games. Although for obvious reasons $100 tournaments will never be as soft as $1 tournaments regardless of site. In top of that some other criteria are:

* Good game selection
* Good software
* Good security
* Fast payouts
* Reasonable rake
* Fair TOS

 

[German629]

By what the criteria make a good Poker room?!. Hm, as for Me, first of all, where can do withdraw money quickly and without the any problems!
And where I more often winning, of course!

 

[G0930]

where can do withdraw money quickly and without the any problems!

Fastest withdrawal has PS ..in that way they are still superior to any room, even GG

And where I more often winning, of course!

GG! They have the numbers and a vast majority of different game formats

 

[YLAN]

The poker room must have a reasonably high volume of players to sustain the site for a long time. With a few & declining number of players, the risk of the site closing & running away with your money increases.

 

[G0930]

The poker room must have a reasonably high volume of players to sustain the site for a long time. With a few & declining number of players, the risk of the site closing & running away with your money increases.

Exactly ! Hence my frustration with PS ...
They don't do enough at all for new players unlike GG. You need to attract more players where the majority are fish by default.
With such declining numbers the former powerhouse which was pokerstars they will become more and more insignificant until they ultimately will vanish at some point

 

[Liedust]

Good rake
Good traffic
Frerrolls

 

[G0930]

......until they ultimately will vanish at some point

Got another possible prognosis and in my opinion the only solution to survive for PS , cause regarding the fight against GG it became apparent that they lost quite definetly.
So my idea would be this :

Exclusivity
They could slowly turn it around.
Only Pros and rich people.
High stakes all day long ,maybe mid stakes just for fun , high rake but due to exclusivity still a very profitable payout structure

 

[Suns of Beaches]

Got another possible prognosis and in my opinion the only solution to survive for PS , cause regarding the fight against GG it became apparent that they lost quite definetly.
So my idea would be this :

Exclusivity
They could slowly turn it around.
Only Pros and rich people.
High stakes all day long ,maybe mid stakes just for fun , high rake but due to exclusivity still a very profitable payout structure

I doubt a high stakes only room would work. High-stakes rake is capped. They are making more money on lower levels and without low and midstakes there would be no fresh fish who want to take a shot at higher stakes.

 

[G0930]

I doubt a high stakes only room would work. High-stakes rake is capped. They are making more money on lower levels and without low and midstakes there would be no fresh fish who want to take a shot at higher stakes.

But that's the problem...new players are not many at PS

 

[fundiver199]

But that's the problem...new players are not many at PS

Yes and no. There is no question, that volume has been declining year after year since 2010, only with a short interruption during COVID-19. But even so, and even though I have played there a lot, I meet new players in almost every single game, I play. Maybe a bit less in something like a Fifty/50 SnG, but in MTTs half the table are usually unknowns. Meaning people I have never played with before, or at least not during the 18 month, my PT4 database goes back. So new players do in fact come to PokerStars all the time, just not at a fast enough pace to make up for those, who leave.

 

[G0930]

Yes and no. There is no question, that volume has been declining year after year since 2010, only with a short interruption during COVID-19. But even so, and even though I have played there a lot, I meet new players in almost every single game, I play. Maybe a bit less in something like a Fifty/50 SnG, but in MTTs half the table are usually unknowns. Meaning people I have never played with before, or at least not during the 18 month, my PT4 database goes back. So new players do in fact come to PokerStars all the time, just not at a fast enough pace to make up for those, who leave.

Sure there are new players.... But take all the accounts into the equation who migrated from PS to GG.

 

[Suns of Beaches]

But that's the problem...new players are not many at PS

Yeah sure. They could:

-lower their rake to slightly LESS than industry standard
-give people of any level 25 percent minimum rakeback
-take away that stupid table cap (dumbest idea ever, just cut timebanks)
-introduce crypto as deposit method
-bring back the old stars software before aurora

To name a few things that could "make them great again".

But it will not happen.

 

[thedarkman]

Lots of different games
A reasonable number of freerolls
bounty tournaments!
no ludicrous long registration times.

 

[kunkgreen]

Well... I always consider the best room to be the one I'm earning the most at the moment!

Jokes aside, some ideal characteristics that I consider for good poker rooms:

- Promotions
- Quick or instant withdrawal
- Wide rakeback
- Easy and quick access to all account activities (hand history, etc...)
- Decent player flow
- Lightweight software and not a bitcoin miner while playing (see WPT) haha

 

[dreamer13]

Good rakeback, weak field, fast deposits and withdrawals and support service.

 

[Dmitriy_rus7]

What criteria do you think are necessary to deem a pokerroom a good place to play ?

Is it the numbers alone?
Certainly not .
However ...what many people need to understand is : For a pokerroom to thrive, a pool of fish is essential.
Yes we often get angry about their carelessness and their ignorance towards the game we love.
BUT a room where the the majority of players are very experienced and fish are a minority will spoil the game.
Many pros agree with this. You need a healthy balance of pros and winning players. But the majority needs to be fish , otherwise the experience gets maybe more satisfying since you're playing mostly with skilled players but it automatically gets very less lucrative .


Curious to know what you think about my approach and what other conclusions you might have drawn

I agree with everything.
but there will always be an asshole at the table who goes all in every hand. you sit and wait for a good card, you get AA n, you go all in with this guy, he has 37 in his hand and he gets a straight🤣🤣🤣 therefore fish is fish. but when you go all in there is always some luck or bad luck

 

[G0930]

I agree with everything.
but there will always be an asshole at the table who goes all in every hand. you sit and wait for a good card, you get AA n, you go all in with this guy, he has 37 in his hand and he gets a straight🤣🤣🤣 therefore fish is fish. but when you go all in there is always some luck or bad luck

Tell me about it ...
Yesterday in the GG Road to Vegas game (25 got in the final where the 1st recieves a wsop package )
There was a Guy with 700Bb ..went all in every single Hand .
Finally I got Aces (myself 550BB)
Snapcall by that twat with K3 or smth...
Two pair cracking my Aces....

 

[Dmitriy_rus7]

Tell me about it ...
Yesterday in the GG Road to Vegas game (25 got in the final where the 1st recieves a WSOP package )
There was a Guy with 700Bb ..went all in every single Hand .
Finally I got Aces (myself 550BB)
Snapcall by that twat with K3 or smth...
Two pair cracking my Aces....

Yes. That's what I'm talking about. This happens very often, sometimes it drives you so crazy that you start to give up and start thinking about quitting playing altogether.

 

[G0930]

Yes. That's what I'm talking about. This happens very often, sometimes it drives you so crazy that you start to give up and start thinking about quitting playing altogether.

indeed. sometimes I think it would be no difference than burning money in the casino... some lucky ****s always get rewarded for donkplay^^

 

[mclay]

Yes as you say soft games. Although for obvious reasons $100 tournaments will never be as soft as $1 tournaments regardless of site. In top of that some other criteria are:

* Good game selection
* Good software
* Good security
* Fast payouts
* Reasonable rake
* Fair TOS

I agree with all of the above, and would also add the presence of a large number of weak players.

 

[hilary antonik filho]

I like to play in rooms where I can learn more, I prefer where there are more experienced people than where there are more fish, the absurd moves that the fish make, are truly pure luck