Players at Run It Once Poker could soon finally see a new format added to its game offerings.
Last week, Phil Galfond, the founder of RIO Poker, joined DAT Poker Podcast hosted by Daniel Negreanu, Adam Schwartz, Terrence Chan and Ross Henry, and talked about the progress his site has been making and his expectations for the future.
When asked about how close his site is with the launch of other game formats such as MTTs and Sit & Gos, Galfond answered that they are “pretty far from MTTs, [but] we are not so far from Sit & Gos.”I think that a year from now we have a good chance of being #1
Further, he revealed (while also not promising) that SNGs could be released before this year comes to an end.
“I’m not going to promise it but I’d expect we would have Sit & Gos by the end of the year,” said Galfond during the podcast.
Galfond also talked about his plans to add nosebleed games that could appear “somewhere before or after MTTs” which would be a lot “different than regular cash games.”
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Launched in February with cash games only, the poker room did enjoy a significant level of buzz during the first few weeks thanks to its various innovative and industry-first features like StreamR and Splash the Pot which anchor its rewards program and Dynamic Avatars. The site also includes progressive industry concepts such as fixed buy-ins, Auto Seat, table caps and a prohibition of HUDs.
Currently the site is considered to be in “public beta,” but RIO has made significant progress in adding features to its online poker client.
The room has received several significant software upgrades over the past few months adding in various new features including downloadable hand histories, resizeable tables, improvements to hotkeys, improvements to the time bank and seating logic, new table backgrounds, visual tweaks, an expansion of payment methods and many other software improvements.
In fact, RIO has been running lucrative promotions, including its current experiment with 70% rakeback giving back 35% rakeback via Splash the Pot and an additional 35% through direct rakeback. The company also plans to run a table starter cashback program encouraging players to start games and keep them running.
Can Run It Once Become the Top Online Poker Site in the World?
Recently, Galfond highlighted his site’s progress in his latest blog post and also shared his thoughts on what he thinks of his site after being approved by the regulators to play on his own site.
While Galfond admitted that the site is “not close” to being profitable, he still believes that there is a good chance that Run It Once could become the number one platform in the industry a year from now.
“I feel like we are 1 or 2 updates away from a clear top 2 or 3 poker platform experience, and I think that a year from now we have a good chance of being #1,” wrote Galfond in his latest blog post.
How Soft Are the Games at Run It Once?
Galfond went on to say that the games at RIO are “very soft” something that runs contrary to what many believed ahead of the launch.
“Now that we’ve launched, there is criticism of those 'dumb’ policies, but nobody has been saying how tough our games are. In fact, almost every single bit of feedback I hear from our players about the games is that they are very soft,” Galfond wrote.
He further indicated that RIO provides a big opportunity for those looking for an edge at the tables:
“These splashed pots are 'the glory days’ that so many players say they wish they could return to, where nobody knew what they were doing and massive edges were attainable.”
But not all players prioritize profits. Being able to play their favorite games is a primary reason some players choose an online poker room. With the launch of Sit & Gos likely coming in the next few months, other game formats such as fast-fold, Short Deck and mixed games are also on company’s radar.
