Jungleman had an hour-long chat with Ryan LaPlante, a professional player, coach, and owner of LearnProPoker. From their discussion, there was an interesting segment on the current state of online poker rooms and the ones that deserve player membership the most.
Daniel Cates: You could say that poker is predatory on the pros' side in comparison to chess. Chess has a massive edge, but there's no money in it. So, is it really predatory? It just seems like a strong word in this case. I'm comparing chess to poker. There's no money in chess, but there's money in poker because the margins are thinner.
Ryan LaPlante: Let's say you have a tournament with a 10 big blind starting stack, which I know they do. Realistically speaking, you would think that when you have a tournament that short of a starting structure and is a super turbo, it would also have a somewhat low rake. A lot of them just don't. They just have a really high, or relatively speaking, fairly high rake.
To me, doing things like that, doing things like anything that encourages players to play in a way that is incredibly rake-generating and removes the vast majority of possible edges in events, is somewhat predatory. That's just how I think about it and how I view it.
A lot of poker sites, when they run $0.01/$0.02, $0.02/$0.05, $0.05/$0.10 games, those games have by far the highest rake. To me, that's somewhat predatory. Those games should have similar or lower rake than the mid-to-high stakes stuff because you want this player pool to survive. The more this player pool survives, the more likely they are to actually circulate funds through mid-stakes and higher stakes.
This is me talking from a player perspective. I've had a lot of talk with operators. If you're going through players' win rates too quickly in whatever way is possible, then the issue is, you're not going to have liquidity. And if you're not having liquidity, you need to bring in new blood, which GGPoker does an incredible job at, and have those players add money to the player pool. If you don't have that happen, then you see player pools die out. The best example of this is I'm sure you've played in a lot of super high-stakes underground games the high-stakes games that are underground that have a lot of chopped pots that are high rake go broke the fastest because it just kills the fish super fast.
It's about finding that balance between offering games and offering game types that are less profitable for professionals but also aren't overly aggressive in terms of how they generate rake.
Cates: I mean, this is kind of a big part of the discussion. It's good that you're talking to operators because almost no one is taking that kind of initiative. I agree totally. I understand that GGPoker's rake is actually kind of reasonable for micros, but I could be wrong about that.
LaPlante: Yeah, they might be, I don't know. I just know that some of the things they do seem not that wonderful to me.
Cates: Well, that seems like a reasonable way of looking at things, but they do some innovative things.
LaPlante: I agree with that, they do a lot of really cool things. Game of Gold was wonderful. I loved it.
Cates: Who do you think is making the biggest innovations, live or online, that is best for the game of poker? Are there any particular operators?
LaPlante: I do think GGPoker does a lot of really good things. They're really great at innovation. In terms of innovation, they're by far the best in the industry. It's not even close. There really isn't a second place.
In terms of online operators, I think WPT Global does a wonderful job in terms of providing good games and doing so in a non-predatory way with very good security. I think Global Poker also does a really good job on a lot of different things.
I think, in terms of live examples, Triton Poker is ridiculous in terms of the amount of innovations and the stuff they bring to the industry. Not only in terms of the events that they run, but largely just in terms of the quality of content that they provide and how much there is of it, and how good their apps are and everything is around it.
I think the World Series each year does a wonderful job across the board. Obviously, there are always certain issues occasionally, but for the most part, Jack Effel cares so much about the gaming industry and really does a great job of innovating. He really does. While obviously, I thought payout structures need to be a little bit fixed in terms of registration, honestly, the overall payout structures I loved. I think a 2x min-cash on 15% is great. I thought the overall payout structures were great. I thought the main event had a really good payout structure. I have very few issues with WSOP across the board. Each year, they improve and each year they impress me.
Wynn Poker does a wonderful job. PokerGo does a lot of great jobs too. There's a lot of it.
Another great example of this actually is Doug Polk at Rounders and The Lodge. You can tell that he cares passionately about providing a good product. Him, Andrew Neeme, and Brad Owen, they all do wonderful jobs and they care a lot about providing a good product. They recently had a $400,000 overlay that they paid out of pocket. You know how many scumbags in this industry have tried to pull out of these big overlays and done all these different things? The Wynn just paid out a massive overlay. They didn't need to overlay. They could have had one re-entry per flight.
Cates: Yeah, that's still a big deal.
LaPlante: But it's more about how they're trying to push the industry in different ways. Like the WPT December series at The Win, they're trying their best to innovate, offering big guarantees and doing cool stuff. Even GGPoker, with their series in the Bahamas, my only issue is that it's in December. Why not do it in January so I can play too? Having it in January clashes with the December events, making it hard to justify playing.
I think there are many operators doing a great job, trying to make the industry better. However, there are also many that aren't, and players shouldn't give them their business.
Cates: So, which operators would I like to throw under the bus?
LaPlante: I'll just list the places I like playing online. I like playing at WorldSeriesofPoker.com, despite their software issues. They're working through glitches, so they need work, but the CEO of the company, she knows what the issues are. They have a lot more money now, they're working on it, it will improve, and I have faith that it will improve a lot.
I've had a lot discussions with the CEO of Global Poker and their head of security, and I think they do a wonderful job. WPT Global is doing a wonderful job too. The CEO posts regularly on his blog. He posts about the industry and how they're keeping game liquidity alive, protecting recreational players, keeping professional poker dreams alive.
Partypoker does a really good job, and PokerStars used to. They used to be great. GGPoker even does a good job on a lot of different things across the board. 888poker, they're pretty good. iPoker, and Winamax. Any of the USA legal sites are all really good.
Well, are there a couple I left? Are there any lesser-known ones? Because a lot of these ones you're mentioning are like the major ones. That I personally am aware of most of these.
Global Poker is probably the one that people know the less about, the least about, and WPT Global. I would say both of those. Global Poker is a USA largely facing site. They use something called Sweeps Coins. Essentially, you buy gold coins, and they give you Sweeps Coins, and then you can convert the Sweeps Coins to dollars.
It's how they get around a lot of US legal laws. The way in which they operate is legal. They do their best to make sure that they can provide a legal product to US customers. This is the process in which they go around doing it. And almost every tournament on there is a freezeout. All of them have very short registration periods. So, like, you know, their $218 Sunday major that I played last night, $30k guarantee, registration only open an hour. It's a freezeout. Cool. Their software is not the best, but their security is good. Cashouts are quick.
I would say, in terms of what most viewers have access to, who are watching this right now, assuming they're most in the US, Global Poker is going to be one of your best options. Unless you have access to the legal, you know, fully legal regulated sites, then I would offer those instead. Well, you can move to, like, yeah, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Nevada.
Cates: Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's not a bad idea for a lot of pros looking at, like, the possibilities for Italy or some like that. I mean, it looks like there's other options as well. I personally did a bit of research on it. Maybe some options in Asia. I thought Taiwan was pretty good, I personally played there.
