Friday, December 17, 2010

2011 - FTP not PS.

It looks like I will be having the majority and possibly all of my play in 2011 at FTP not PS. First some background. In 2005/2006 the majority of my play was spread to many sites (20?) to capture tons of bonuses, but I would say the majority was at UB and OnGame since they had the most bonuses. Then the UIGEA came, my Neteller money was frozen, and most sites closed to US players. In 2007 my play was primarily at FTP and 2008/2009 primarily at PS. In 2010 was split about even between PS and FTP, with the first 4 months of the year at PS, then basically a 4 month break and the last 4 months at FTP.

Why is my play going to be primarily at FTP?

1) The rakeback system is better for me. FTP gets you 27% rakeback, about 2-3% extra rakeback from the points, and then there are affiliate dependent rake races that can add possibly a lot more each month. First, the system at PS is not very good unless you already start out as Supernova (which I lost my status this year, I earned 70k VPP in the first 4 months and then quit) because the rakeback percentage is extremely low at statuses below Supernova. At PS it is a complicated system where you get FPPs and then have save up a lot to get a bonus or concierge service, but usually what happens is that you have to waste time playing satellites to convert your FPPs to T$, and then play even more SNGs to turn those T$ into cash.

2) The game quality is better for me. PS allows 24 tables and FTP only allows 16, so there are more multi-tabling regs. Also, I believe the stratification of 20-50BB and 35-100BB breakdown of the games further ruined the game quality, with most of the fish going to the short stack tables. FTP also has RUSH poker, so instead of massively multi-tabling 24 tables on PS like I used to, I can just play 4 tables of RUSH and get ~1000h/hr which is close to the ~1400h/hr that I got playing 6x as many tables.

3) The software is better for me. I like it more and it goes faster.

4) FTP has more bonuses. Free money is good.

There are of course drawbacks where PS is better, but you can't have the best of both worlds.
(1) PS is better at cashouts.
(2) FTP has annoying deductions. For example, every time I cashout costs me about $80 - $40 fee and an additional $40 rakeback hit, I don't really understand it. Also, you get ripped off on your MGR hits when you buy from the store. As mentioned I bought 75, $26 tournament tickets for 5600 pts. each, yet they deducted my MGR for $28 (5600/250) for each ticket) which is an annoying additional 150 MGR I lost.
(3) PS customer support is in general faster and more competent. FTP is improving vastly in this area though.

The sites are about even in their miscellaneous promotions throughout the year. The rake levels are basically even between the sites as well (PS used to be a leader in this, but decided to increase the rake for all the micro levels below NL25).

So where are you playing in 2011?

1 comments:

game2eazy said...

90% poker stars for sne and 10% FTP for black card gl 2011