One of the senior citizens of the online poker world, PartyPoker, has made the unprecedented move of removing its entry fees from every multi-table tournament the poker room has to offer this summer.
Seeing as entry fees are the rake of tournaments and rake is the revenue stream for the poker room, this is a risky move to say the least. But if it proves to be a successful loss leader and filters new and returning players to cash games or keeps them in tournaments after the promotion is over, it could be a boon to the poker room which was once the 800-pound gorilla of the industry.
The method for eliminating fees will vary depending on the buy-in. For tournaments with buy-ins greater than $6, the fee will simply be dropped. Thus, if a tournament was previously listed as, say, $20 + $2, it will now just be $20 + $0. For anything less than $6, the fee will be tacked onto the buy-in. A $5 + $0.50 tournament, for example, turns into a $5.50 + $0 tournament. The total buy-in plus fee remains the same in this case, but since it is all buy-in, the prize pool is larger.
To illustrate how this might affect payouts, let’s look at the $5.50 example. Before the promotion, a 1,000 player $5 + $0.50 tournament would have a $5,000 prize pool (1,000 players times $5). According to PartyPoker’s payout schedule, first place in a tournament of this size wins 23.5 percent of the prize pool, or $1,175, while second place would receive 13 percent, or $650. Now, because the tournament is $5.50 + $0, the prize pool grows to $5,500 without any more money coming out of the players’ pockets. As such, the first and second prizes will now be $1,292.50 and $715, respectively. Essentially, PartyPoker has added extra money to the prize pool.
For those tournaments with buy-ins above $6 where the fee is just cut out of the picture, the prize pool will remain the same because that fee was never part of the prize pool in the first place.
In terms of cash game traffic, PartyPoker has been in a battle with the iPoker Network for the last few years to lay claim to the third spot in online poker traffic rankings found at PokerScout.com. Now that Full Tilt Poker has been shut down for the time being, PartyPoker ranks second behind PokerStars. With a seven-day average of 3,950 cash game players, it still has a long way to go to catch PokerStars, which has a seven-day average of 21,600. According to PokerScout’s figures, PartyPoker has gained just shy of 500 cash game players at its daily peak since Full Tilt’s license was suspended and play was halted on the site.
According to an article by eGaming Review, H2 Gambling Capital reported that in the 36 hours since Full Tilt went dark last week, PartyPoker picked up 503 cash and tournament players, based on average player counts. Only 41 percent of Full Tilt players had actually migrated to other poker rooms in those first 36 hours, though. Said H2, “This is likely due to players being unable to withdraw balances from Tilt and some lack of confidence in playing online poker in the current climate.”
PartyPoker drew in 5 percent of the Full Tilt refugees, compared to just 2 percent for its closest competitor, iPoker. PokerStars attracted 27 percent of the Full Tilt Poker expats.
The most substantial increases at PartyPoker have been seen in the micro and low stakes categories, with a 15.6 percent increase in the micros and a 13.4 percent increase in the low stakes games.
