- Party “testing various features to make poker more fun and entertaining.”
- Certain tables apparently hidden from winning players that contain a certain threshold of “new” or “inexperienced” players.
A representative from PartyPoker has, in rather uncertain terms, confirmed that they are at least “testing” a feature that apparently grades tables, and removes them from the lobby of regular players.
A Party representative posted publicly Thursday that the company is “testing various features to make poker more fun and entertaining,” including looking for ways to facilitate “players of a similar ability” playing together “in the early stages” of their online poker experience.
Reports began to surface earlier in the week on multiple online poker forums, including German and Russian community forums on PokerStrategy and on English-language 2+2, that players were seeing fewer tables after logging into the client.
A variety of screenshots and YouTube videos apparently show fewer tables after a player logs in, or shows that lobbies of a “new” or “losing” account has more choices than that of a “winning” account.
Although reports vary, a consensus seemed to be that players with “winning” accounts saw fewer tables, and in particular, less “fishier” tables, at low stakes NL. New accounts, or those with lifetime negative balances, saw more.
After days of speculation, an official representative from Party Poker posted the following on 2+2:
We are continually looking for ways to balance our poker room ecology. As we have said before, we are testing various features to make poker a more fun and entertaining game for both new and inexperienced players. Our extensive research shows that new and inexperienced players enjoy the game more and continue playing for longer if in the early stages they play with players of a similar ability, this includes, but is not limited to our welcome lounges. These players are free to play on any table they chose.
Although far from clear, apparently this new feature in testing is speculatively hiding specific tables—rated with a certain threshold of the number of new or losing players—from winning players.
A representative at bwin.party has been unable to comment on the issue since Wednesday, and was not available to confirm or clarify details of the latest message from “Party Rep.”
The segregation coincided with an observed drop in ranking on PokerScout, an independent monitor of online poker network traffic, which helped fuel the rumors.
What is not clear is how tables are being “graded” and for whom the tables are hidden; whether simply new players are being counted, or if win/loss rates of each player is also factored in.
Party has recently seen strong growth in traffic thanks to the transition of bwin players onto the PartyGaming platform, which has let it keep in striking distance of Full Tilt in terms of cash game traffic.
Protecting the “poker room ecology” has been highlighted as an important goal for bwin.party. Part of this multi-step plan has included removing the bad beat jackpot, cutting its VIP program at the highest tier, and moving onto social and mobile gaming platforms.
Its “all-new” poker client is still in the works, although it has fallen behind initial launch plans.
Sites and networks have taken various approaches to attempt to solve what some sites see as a problem in the poker ecology, as winning players use more and more tools at their disposal to increase their skill edge.
Almost all networks have made some form of policy change in the last two years—from anonymous tables to anonymous poker, from changes to rake allocation to splitting up the entire network—in an attempt to rebalance the scales.