- Daniel Negreanu took part in a podcast broadcast in mid-March by Joe “ChicagoJoey” Ingram. During the discussion he mentioned that he would raise the issue of PLO rake. He was then prompted by a poker forum post to which he replied that he was in full agreement with the concerns raised.
- Now he has agreed to raise the issue of Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) rake with the company’s senior executives.
There are good reasons why PokerStars Team Pro Daniel Negreanu is the leading online poker ambassador in the world. His engagement with players through forums, blogs and social media is second to none. Now he has agreed to raise the issue of Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) rake with the company’s senior executives.
Negreanu took part in a podcast broadcast in mid-March by Joe “ChicagoJoey” Ingram. During the discussion he mentioned that he would raise the issue of PLO rake with management at PokerStars. He was then prompted to take action by a poker forum poster to which he replied that he was in full agreement with the concerns raised.
“Totally on board and have been for some time on this issue. Coincidentally I have a meeting later today and was already planning on bringing this issue up again,” he replied in the thread. However, he cautioned the players that his ability to provoke changes is limited.
“Obviously I can’t make any promises since I don’t have the power to make these decisions,” he continued, “but I can promise you that I will do my best to make a case for an adjustment here.”
The nature of PLO means that the same rake rules as those applied to No Limit Hold’em (NLHE) result in the operator taking much more money off the table per hand.
In PLO, the difference in equity between starting hands is much less dramatic than in NLHE. The flop can radically change equities, and weak hands often increase their equity after the first three community cards are dealt.
Since PokerStars only charges rake when a flop is dealt, the fact that flops are more frequent than in NLHE means that rake is taken from more hands. At a typical PLO table, the number of payers staying in the hand to see the flop and turn is also higher than at NLHE, meaning that the average pot size is bigger, so again more rake is taken.
Comparisons of rake measured in big blinds per 100 hands (bb/100), show that it is much more expensive to play PLO.
According to calculations posted in the thread asking Negreanu to take up the issue, the rake for 10c/25c PLO is 112% higher than that at NLHE; 74% higher at Zoom tables—PokerStars’ fast-fold poker variant.
The difference reduces as stakes increase, so at $1/$2 PLO, the rake is 71% higher, 69% higher at Zoom.
The issue of PLO rake has been a hot topic at the regular PokerStars player meetings ever since the first one was held in January 2012.
By July 2013, PokerStars had accepted some of the players’ arguments and reduced the rake at microstakes PLO games with blinds between 1c/2c and10c/25c.
However, PokerStars made the change in response to the demands of players, not because it believed that the change was justified.
At the time, the company said that “the evidence we have suggests that PLO games are healthy, though PLO winnings are more heavily dependent than NLHE winnings on VIP status.”
A reference to the fact that the extra rake paid by PLO payers gives a double boost to VIP benefits. Not only do payers earn more VIP points, but they achieve a higher VIP status as a result which increases the value of the points they have earned.
PokerStars said that the microstakes rake reductions did not imply that the company would do the same at higher PLO stakes.
“This is not an indication that we will be changing rake for other stakes of PLO. We do not currently have any such intentions,” said PokerStars’ Steve Day.
Unless something has changed in the intervening two years Daniel Negreanu may be knocking his head against a brick wall. If the PLO games remain healthy, and it is clear that skilled players continue to beat them for a good win rate, there seems little incentive for PokerStars to reduce its prices.
As of the time of publishing, Negreanu had not returned to the thread to relay the reaction of PokerStars management following his meeting.
