PokerScout, the poker industry’s leading cash game tracking site, released its weekly update yesterday, reporting a decline in overall online cash game traffic for the second consecutive week. It wasn’t a huge decline, just one percent, but it was a decline nonetheless. Out of the top ten poker sites and networks, half were up and half were down. Of course, PokerStars is the king until further notice with a seven day average of 19,500 cash game players.
Of particular interest is Adjarabet, the once little-known poker site from the country of Georgia. Readers may remember that Adjarabet soared into the top five of PokerScout’s rankings not long ago thanks to some long-lasting, aggressive promotions. Once the promotions ended, though, so did Adjarabet’s standing. The site did not sink like a stone, as it was able to retain some of its momentum and stay around the top ten, but without the promotions, many players went elsewhere.
Well, Adjarabet is up to its old tricks again. Late last week, it introduced the Magic Hand promotion in which it will give away 1,000,000 GEL (about $535,000). It is a very simply promotion, akin to PokerStars’ popular milestone hand promotions. With Magic Hand, Adjarabet will give away 100 GEL ($53) on every 5,000th hand. 50 GEL will go to the winner of the hand and 50 GEL will be split amongst the other players in that same hand. That’s it. Adjarabet claims that it deals about 1,000 hands per minute, so the Magic Hands will come fairly frequently.
At the same time, Adjarabet is giving out Flush Bonuses (or bonii, if you want to have some fun with words) during the promotion. Unlike the Magic Hands, though, very few of these prizes will be awarded. The only way to win a Flush Bonus is to flop – yes flop – a royal flush or straight flush. Those who somehow flop a straight flush will win 500 GEL and those who flop a straight flush will automatically win 50 GEL (really? $27 for flopping a straight flush?).
The genius behind this promotion, as well as past ones from Adjarabet, is that they appeal to players at all stakes. Oftentimes, poker rooms design promotions that, intentionally or not, cater more towards high stakes, high volume players. Adjarabet, though, has once again launched a promotion that simply rewards people for playing. Certainly, those who play more hands are better off, but the stakes don’t matter at all. It is this inclusiveness that has allowed Adjarabet to force itself into relevance in the online poker world.
Only cash games are eligible for the Adjarabet promotions. The site estimates that the promo will last two months, though that is obviously dependent on how quickly the giveaway limit of 1,000,000 GEL is hit.
