Whats wrong with poker in India

We have read all too many glorifying articles of how poker is booming in India and how its a game of skill now starting to triumph over previously luck based traditional card games in India. Don’t worry, I am not here to sling mud on any of those things, I am more than happy to see the game grow and have been lucky, in the sense that, its because of poker I have been able to do things which I could not have even thought to accomplish at my age, if I were on the normal life path set by society. Also, with the year coming to an end and as most poker sites try to revamp themselves for the New year, I hope some of the issues I list can be taken by operators and worked on.

Having said that, this article will touch upon on the darker side of things and how we, at times, manage to turn everything that is good to a worse state. This post is not a total mockery and will definitely bring out things that are being done right in the poker industry as well. Another reason I wanted to write this post on a personal page, rather than on a poker blog website is to restrict content removal and also to imply that these are my personal opinions and have nothing to do with my association with anyone in the industry.

Here we go then, poker is a fun social game. They say its a zero sum game but that can’t be anywhere close to the truth, when its organised by a third party which charges a commission. I am not saying they don’t deserve that commission, and having worked as an employee in the industry this number ranges from 60-85% of total deposits made depending on various factors. But the game still works and flourishes because most people who play poker don’t have their livelihood dependent on it. Food for thought the next time you berate a recreational player on how badly he played a hand and got lucky.  Who needs who more? Someone who can afford this loss as entertainment cost or you if you make money that you have got of the game to enjoy the luxuries of life.

Now coming to the technicalities , if we want to break poker into two basic forms, they would be – cash games and tournaments. Both these formats face their own share of issues. Let me try breaking them down individually. I am also not going to, let’s say, be politically correct, I know a quite  few people in the industry and have never been a fan of “I kiss your ass, you kiss mine” ideology, and this would be the best place to bring out my views for the betterment of the industry. I am also going to put my views on POKER STABLES which get a bit of controversy stirring now and then. Lets get to it now.

TOURNAMENT POKER

This form of poker, arguably, attracts the most crowd, the allure of exponentially multiplying your principal in a short span has always been a hit in human history. GREED IS GOOD. With the big name poker sites in India, all now catering towards tourneys more than ever before, this format has to be the most growing space IMO. There is always the aspirational goal associated with tourneys – that of glory, the adrenaline rush of winning a tournament – it still gets me going after playing 6 years semi-professionally wherein the same amount on a cash game might not have that effect. All this said there are certain factors which I feel are hurting the tournament scene in India, especially online. I am gonna discuss them ahead.

• Re-buys/Re-entries– This outright gives the PROFESSIONALS extra edge. A PRO is someone who is playing the game for a living with BRM (bank roll management – basically managing the buyins effectively for max profitability) and is rolled to play in the game. In any spot in an online game, its so much easy to stack off pre or triple barrel, when you know that with a click of a button, you can re-enter the game in which you’re still +EV. Tournaments work on the function of leveraging other people’s stack, which in a way means how much can you bully your opponents. Calling a shove on the river becomes much more tough when you cannot re-enter, there is a reason why the WSOP 10000$ MAIN  EVENT has always been a freezout and will always be, for the foreseeable future. I do not advocate banning of re-buy tourneys (I, ironically,  would actually want more of  them) but addition of higher buyin freezouts that can be equally enjoyed by pros and amateurs will hep the game.
• Structure– The structure on most of the sites are pretty rough except for a few major tournaments. The structures are designed in such a way that they cater to more re-entries even to  the level in which one would get around 6 big blinds when one buys in. There is no point in playing a tourney only to have a final table where the avg stack is less than 15bb and everything is based on who runs good in those end stages. We have definitely come a long way from what previous structures were but this still needs improvement.
• Rake– The previously, so called, industry standard used to be that rake was defined on how the structure is. A turbo structure would demand for half the normal structure rake but unfortunately now even the worse of structures ask for a flat 10% cut. I am  not saying sites do not deserve a cut, but the site which will bridge the gap will in the long term, will benefit on its own.
• Ghosting/Collusion– Way back since the advent of online poker/gaming in general,  this has been one of the worst things that has surfaced. Imagine two friends on a final table with significant money on the line for the win, collusion may/or may not occur but this would definitely be tempting. Collusion can’t be stopped but stricter back-end norms and policies to weed this out by the sites can lead to detection and banning of players involved in it.
• TDS – Well addressing the elephant in the room, TAX. Poker in India is a multi-million dollar industry . Money going out as excessive tax is bad for both operators and players. I have no idea how lobbying has never been done ,the best what would come out for a player would be if legally it would be net 30% tax for the year. This way, more money circulates in the system and by all means benefits operators much more than players.
• Moving up in stakes– Shot taking is another thing in tournaments that has changed quite a few careers. Essentially playing a tourney which you would not normally not play with BRM, for example something like putting 10% of your roll at risk. Satellites have always been a way through which smaller stakes players have been able to shot take. Baring ADDA52 (who do an amazing job at it) and Pokerstars no other site really wants to put out satellites. Considering the case of Adda52 they probably lost a lot of money, firstly, trying to promote satellites but if you were to see now none of their major 10 Seat GTD satellites ever face an overlay. All in all satellites make for a great rags to riches story too and everyone loves a slumdog millionaire don’t we, take the case of the Partypoker millions where a players converted a $5 satellite into a whopping $1.3 Million payday. Having one hand raked satellites is the most bizarre thing I have seen in Indian poker scene.

 

CASH GAMES

Even though the rules of poker are the same, cash games are a totally different animal. When you buy-in into a tournament, you get assigned a certain amount of chips with no monetary value, until you have all the chips in play or lose all your chips you keep on playing. In cash games you sit with actual real money denomination chips and can leave anytime you wish. Its easier for recreational players since they can jump in and out whenever they wish.  There are a number of factors that are ruining the cash games, let me bring them out

• RAKE– Even though this point was brought up in tournaments too, it has an exponential effect in cash games. Every hand played has a cut for the organizer and having studied a decent bit of data from my previous engagements working as an employee in poker sites, the money cut as rake to total deposits on sites goes from 60- 85%. This is a very high number. The so called “INDUSTRY STANDARD” in India is so high that when international companies came to the Indian market they too increased their rake. I still never understood why a site with the best software in the market do it instead of trying to advertise a lower rake and best software combination. The reason why people are rarely able to move up in stakes has rake as a major contributor too. Many a times POKER STABLES move players up even though they are losing money because they understand the money lost is going down in rake and playing higher stakes with relatively with relatively less % of rake to higher actual winning amount will be profitable.
• Collusion– Enough said already.
• Bum-hunting /Blocking– These factors probably only get removed with the betterment of software. Pokerstars for instance has already worked on this and from random assignment of seats to minimum play requirements help the ecosystem.
• RAKEBACK/REWARDS– I feel this year a lot of poker sites have done a great job changing their rewards program. This assures a regular a kickback for the amount of commission he/she makes the sites. Still among the major sites for a person who would randomly sign up they can be site dependent to a max of 35% to a min of 2.75% even from the so called biggest players.Let me also tell you what factor rakeback is most dependent on. It might surprise you but rakeback is most dependent on how soft/hard the games are. No one would even care if an organizer provided the softest game in the world and take 5000 Rs in rake every hand,oh wait that has been done already. The tougher the games get for the pros to survive, rake needs to be reduced and rake-back increased. The games that generate the most rake are actually when competent players are playing against each other, a recreational player loses his money too fast to the pros for them to make a good commission out of it. Operators need to understand that there is a symbiotic relation between them and the regular players.

 

 

POKER STABLES

Poker stables is not a question of poker, it is a simple question of ETHICS. Ever since I started playing poker for the most part I was associated with one poker stable or another. Most of the poker stables in India are run very professionally as a business. They demand loyalty as well as hard-work. The place where stables draw flak is two or more people from the same stable are playing on a table be it of a tournament or cash game. I previously was part of a poker stable for Canada and they themselves had a policy that if someone was caught soft-playing or colluding their funds would be confiscated as well as being reported. So when you really think of it, this can’t be forced on the operators of stables but individual people who end up doing unethical things. Stricter back-end norms and better software can definitely help in detection too. Even if you are a player who actually does this, there is nothing anyone can do apart from report you if they find something fishy on the table. But a word of advice : if you think variance is a term of poker then so is KARMA- a term in life.

 

Happy playing this fun game of poker everyone.