Today (January 5th) will see the start of a new policy at the Microgaming Poker Network, according to several reliable sources. Observers say the policy is designed to encourage online poker sites on the network to bring in more “fish” (less experienced and therefore more likely to lose than win) players to ensure that the balance between deposits and withdrawals moves closer to the former.
Poker News, commenting on the move, reports that beginning January 5th, MPN will move from the contributed method of rake calculation, in which the operators’ rake is calculated by splitting pots between the total number of players, to the weighted method, whereby rake per room is generated proportionally according to the amount that individual players contribute to each pot.
“Although this may sound confusing to most people, it essentially means that it pays for Microgaming skins to attract players who are more likely to redeposit when they loose their cash playing. In other words, the sites recognize they won’t make money from successful players who cash out winnings over the long run,” is how the poker information site interprets the policy.
The Microgaming Poker Network is not the first to move in this controversial direction; the general strategy has been extensively and publicly debated by operators for some weeks and is already being implemented by major networks such as Boss Media’s International Poker Network, Playtech’s iPoker network and the Bodog network, which penalise skins with higher withdrawal than deposit ratios (see previous reports). The Merge network is also reported to be pursuing a similar policy.