Years in the making, Run It Once Poker will officially be open to the public this week. The newest online poker site, a spinoff of the Run It Once poker training site, was designed to offer “a fair, honest, transparent poker site” that fosters the ability to pursue the poker dream that became a reality for the company’s founder Phil Galfond.
The first hands will be dealt to the public on Wednesday February 6, 2019.
“You may encounter the occasional hiccup here and there as we continue to work out the kinks, add features, and make other improvements, but we’re proud of what we’ve built and we think you’re going to really enjoy playing on it,” Galfond stated in his blog post announcing the launch date.
“I can’t express how excited I am to see this project come to life. Support from the community has been overwhelming, and I’m so glad that I don’t have to ask you to wait any longer.”
When Run It Once goes live later this week, in what the company is calling a “Public Beta” period, only No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha cash games will be available. Multi-table Tournaments (MTTs) and Sit and Gos (SNGs) are expected in a future release. Mixed games and specialty poker variants, such as Short Deck Hold’em are on the company’s radar but aren’t expected in the immediate future.
In addition to the launch date, Run It Once also recently announced details about its rake and rewards system. In general, when comparing similar games and stakes, the rake on Run It Once will be higher than what the industry leaders (PokerStars and partypoker) charge. However, Galfond asserts that when considering the impact of its rewards scheme, the “net rake” will be lower than the competition.
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“We estimate our net rake to be lower than the “big two”, PokerStars and Partypoker, across the board.”
Run It Once will offer rewards equivalent to 51% of the rake it collects, a factor which when considered along with its rake, produces some of the lowest pricing for online poker in the industry.
Galfond and company have even come up with an innovative way to distribute the rewards called “Splash the Pot.”
During select hands, money will seemingly fall from the sky into the pot prior to any betting rounds. This additional money can range from 1 up to 1000 big blinds and will be rake free, according to the company. Players will then play out the hand as normal with the winner reaping the benefits of the rewards.
While under this program rewards will not be a part of every pot, Splash the Pot does help the company achieve some of its objectives around rake including rewarding all types of players equally and eliminating unclaimed rewards. The distribution mechanism also adds an element of fun to the game.
Players should be aware that changes to the rake (and likely the associated rewards) are bound to occur.
“As we get more information, as we learn about our ecosystem and the effects of the rake we’ve started with, as those factors change over time, and as we introduce new stakes, new formats, and new game types, we will be making rake decisions again and again,” Galfond cautions.
At launch, the site will be available to players on the international market under licenses issued in the UK and Malta including players in Canada, South America and much of Europe, including Finland, Netherlands, Russia, most of Germany and of course the UK.
Unfortunately, players in markets that are segregated or require additional licensing (such as those in the US, France and Spain) will not be able to play on the upstart poker room unless the required authorization is obtained by Run It Once at some point in the future.
