We Stand As The Giants Make Way

A big talking point among poker players lately have been the exclusion of winning players on certain iPoker networks like VCPoker. The biggest reason that they’ve been excluded has been because they’re winning players. Obviously this sounds like a load of shit to anyone who plays poker seriously, because why would you exclude winning players? They contribute to the rake just as much as the losing players, and some winning players contribute even more because they play for a living and therefore put in a much higher volume. However, most people fail to realize how these businesses are being run and they don’t realize that everything is all related.

To put things in perspective a little bit, here’s the scenario. The iPoker network is run by a company called Playtech. Playtech gives license to a lot of different skins who operate independantly of eachother, but on the same network so they share the same group of players. Someone who plays on Hansa Poker can play against someone who plays on Betfred Poker or VCPoker. I’m not sure exactly how the deals are between the skins and Playtech, but I think the skins get a piece of the rake they make, or a piece of the interest that Playtech make from keeping money in the bank. The skins probably make money from having a piece of the rake of their own players. That would make most sense anyways. It could be different, but the effect is the same anyways.

So here’s the deal. We all know online poker networks and sites make their money from interest. Money in the bank generates interest, and this interest generates profit. So obviously, the sites who make the most money are the sites that have the most money in the bank. Here’s where VC and whatever other skins that are kicking winning players off, are stepping into problems, but I’ll get into that a little later.

There’s a recession going on. Everything is intertwined. Playtech aren’t making as much money now, because people are more conservative with their money. John Smith from Sheffield can’t afford to gamble with his spare £500 every month anymore. jsmithswfc won’t be seen at the tables as often as he would’ve liked to. He has had to withdraw money from his poker account. This goes on all over Europe. John, and people similar to him, have a little bit of a tighter economy because of the recession. The banks are feeling the biggest squeeze, and to release some tension, they’ll squeeze their clients a little bit. Their clients will squeeze their clients and so it goes until there’s nothing left to squeeze. Everyone loses when economy is tight.

So why VC are getting into all this predicament and banning accounts from cash games? A lot of the players who get rakeback are winning players. Winning players who get 60 % rakeback and make a substantial amount off of the rakeback generally make a pretty solid living doing it. These people who make a living off of poker will generally withdraw money. When people withdraw money it means less money in the bank for Playtech and VC. So in order to start making profits again, VC will cut their biggest expense, the people who withdraw money from their banks. These are sadly the winning players.

Sucks to be a winning player, but this definitely wouldn’t happen if there wasn’t a recession. As a player you just got to deal with it. We’re part of the global economy too.