iPoker network changes in detail

Originally posted by acetbfish
Will the balances remain in $ or this will also change? Cause the exchange rates are going to affect us if the balances remain in $.

The balances will stay as they are now. So when your wallet is in USD it will stay in USD. When you join with a USD balance a EUR or GBP table, the currency will be automatically exchanged and also back when you leave the table.

Originally posted by ftw123

Originally posted by CoreySteel

Originally posted by ftw123
2. a 20$ + 2$ buy in tournament will be 18.2 + 1.8 in euros! when this time the convert is 14.7+1.4!!! why so much difference ?

They tournament should have roughly the same value as it is now. So the mentioned $5+$0.50 tournament will be a €4 one. A new €5 tournament will however use the mentioned buyin structure of 4.55 + 0.45.

Ad 2: Again it should be roughly equivalent. There will always be a bit of a difference since the whole structure and currency changed.

so , we have to assume that the GTD money of tour now in euros will be higher ? for example , the 20$+2$ GP freezeout 2,000 GTD will be more than 2,000 in euros or the tournaments that they will be untill that day of changes will be discart and there will be a hole new tours programm ?

It hasn't been decided yet how all the single tournaments will be setup. There will be further information about the new tournament schedule and which buy-in and GTD money there will be for each tournament.

Originally posted by Yoghi
How does this work for FL tables? There are no 25/50 tables at the moment and most stakes are missing (20/40, 30/60, 150/300 and 300/600). I assume the latter 2 will be removed.

The latter 2 and also 100/200 will be removed.

It is not only about how often such games are played. The goal was also to have a clear aim to protect less skilled players that tend to lose their money to quickly on these stakes. Solution was to remove these games.

But isnt that loosing value from very rich players - various business man who have millions and loosing at high stakes quicly is not the problem for them, next eveneing they can deposit another 10K and loose again.

I mean that will not make difference in their lives if they loose 5K in one evening or 500. But makes difference for winning players.

6max normal/turbo

current = 0.50 $0.05

i think thats a typo

current = 0.50+0.10$ (20% rake)

also

0.08E+0.2E, good lord, 25% rake?

A question -

Could somebody from, or on behalf of, the i-poker/Playtech management explain in detail how the proposed changes will benefit the player community?

The impression I get is that i-poker/Playtech has, first, made a decision not to attempt to engage with the US/Canadian market in the foreseeable future. Otherwise, why eliminate the $[US] as a table currency?

Second, it appears i-poker/Playtech has judged that poker is a contracting business. Therefore it has started 'sweating the assets' [which means us] to maintain profit, hence the changes.

One sign of this, obvious to even my uneducated eye, is that the daily freerolls have been amalgamated. 1800 people are now competing for one prize-pot of $100 per day, when previously several bunches of people, totalling 1800, were competing for several pots of $100 per day. That saves the network at least $70K per year, probably more.

I await a reasoned reply with interest.

Hi Glopslart,

Originally posted by Glopslart
The impression I get is that i-poker/Playtech has, first, made a decision not to attempt to engage with the US/Canadian market in the foreseeable future. Otherwise, why eliminate the $[US] as a table currency?

The current poker regulations in the US is ringfencing US players from the rest of the world ie: in Nevada or New Jersey. I would say it is unfortunately rather unlikely that they will be soon back in the "global" poker liquidity.

Originally posted by Glopslart
One sign of this, obvious to even my uneducated eye, is that the daily freerolls have been amalgamated. 1800 people are now competing for one prize-pot of $100 per day, when previously several bunches of people, totalling 1800, were competing for several pots of $100 per day. That saves the network at least $70K per year, probably more.

The changes made to the daily $100 freerolls were done by PokerStrategy.com and not by iPoker or Playtech and are unrelated to the changes described in the opening post. PokerStrategy.com still has many other attractive and probably more interesting prizepools in our weekly depositor freerolls across several iPoker partners such Poker770 ($1,000), Gala Poker & Coral Poker ($1,000), Titan Poker ($2,500) and Winner Poker ($250).
On top our $10,000 freerolls which is hosted this weekend on Everest Poker:
Winter promotions: $10,000 freeroll at Everest Poker

HannesZ: The balances will stay as they are now. So when your wallet is in USD it will stay in USD. When you join with a USD balance a EUR or GBP table, the currency will be automatically exchanged and also back when you leave the table.

why we can not change our wallet from usd to euros?
this changes will probably effect us a lot! i made the wallet cause the most popular tables and tours were in usd. now they will be in euros!!!! do you know how much the players they gonna loose from the daily money convert ?
i guess a lot...

I dont think that its difficult for paddy to make cahnces to the wallets also!

Originally posted by HannesZ

Originally posted by Yoghi
sneaky change going from USD to EUR, I assume the rake won't change so the cap will be 1EUR instead of 1USD headsup?

As far as I know the rake cap won't change. So USD becomes EUR.

Do you think this is acceptable to have such an increase in rake? Not even talking about the sneaky way of implementation.

Originally posted by HannesZ

Originally posted by acetbfish
Will the balances remain in $ or this will also change? Cause the exchange rates are going to affect us if the balances remain in $.

The balances will stay as they are now. So when your wallet is in USD it will stay in USD. When you join with a USD balance a EUR or GBP table, the currency will be automatically exchanged and also back when you leave the table.

You are correct.
However there is still a currency conversion loss for the player because every time a player reloads at the table (which can be quite often as most regs automatically reload to 100bb) the amount is rounded to the cent in favor of ipoker.
Why iPoker will not allow players to change their wallet currency?

Originally posted by Dublimax
Why iPoker will not allow players to change their wallet currency?

respect for the question. same think i was wondering!!!! this is very unfair for the players if they dont make the wallet change

Originally posted by Dublimax
However there is still a currency conversion loss for the player because every time a player reloads at the table (which can be quite often as most regs automatically reload to 100bb) the amount is rounded to the cent in favor of ipoker.
Why iPoker will not allow players to change their wallet currency?

This is simply not correct. There is no disadvantage for you as a player when your USD balance gets converted to EUR / GBP when joining a table, buying in to a tournament or doing a rebuy. Your wallet and all the pop-ups just show 2 digits after the dot. However way more digits are used, but only 2 digits are displayed. Just test it yourself when joining and rebuying to a table. You will be positively surprised. ie. do 3 times a 1 Eurocent rebuy, the popup will tell you each time that 2 USD cents have been taken, however when you check your balance it is 5 and not 6.

Originally posted by Dublimax
Why iPoker will not allow players to change their wallet currency?

You can ask your poker room if they want to change it. However it is unfortunately not so easy to do it and the decision is up to the poker room. But again there is no disadvantage when your wallet remains in USD.

Your wallet and all the pop-ups just show 2 digits after the dot. However way more digits are used, but only 2 digits are displayed. Just test it yourself when joining and rebuying to a table. You will be positively surprised. ie. do 3 times a 1 Eurocent rebuy, the popup will tell you each time that 2 USD cents have been taken, however when you check your balance it is 5 and not 6.

I sugesst to add the option to allow players to see full digits number in their balance, it would be easier I guess, more trust would be I have read those complains earlier also about those convertions.

But I dont get what are the dificulties to change the walled currency?

Hey,

Some more details about the currency change from USD to EUR in MTTs and SNGs. The first MTTs have already been changed on 25/11 and the first SnGs will follow on 2nd December. Details about the affected tournamets/SNGs are in the table below:

This is simply not correct. There is no disadvantage for you as a player when your USD balance gets converted to EUR / GBP when joining a table, buying in to a tournament or doing a rebuy. Your wallet and all the pop-ups just show 2 digits after the dot. However way more digits are used, but only 2 digits are displayed. Just test it yourself when joining and rebuying to a table. You will be positively surprised. ie. do 3 times a 1 Eurocent rebuy, the popup will tell you each time that 2 USD cents have been taken, however when you check your balance it is 5 and not 6.

Do you know how many digits are used?

Hi sc2zerker,

Well all I can confirm you is that there are way more digits used than the 2 shown in the software.

Cheers
Hannes

Hey,

In the last days we tried to answer all your questions related to the (upcoming) changes.

We compiled a short Q&A with the most asked questions:

Q: A player has a bonus in USD. Is the bonus going to be converted to EUR or GBP as part of the process, or will it be left in USD until it is cleared / expired?
A: All bonuses will remain as they are until they are cleared. It doesn’t matter which currency the bonus is set – players can redeem it on any currency table and the bonus amount will be issued to player’s account, in its currency.

Q: Exchange rate from USD to EUR – how is this exchange rate decided, when is it decided, and how often it is updated.
A: iPoker’s exchange rate is set on a network level, and it is taken from Oanda.com, using their exchange rate feed. The exchange rate is determined when a player sits at a cash table or buy-in into a tournament. The exchange rate is updated once a day.

Q: If a player has an account in USD and now he is forced to play in EUR tables. Are there any disadvantages in that? For example: when a player tops up 1 Euro Cent, will it then be converted to 2 Dollar Cents, which is more than the exact conversion or does the balance converted more accurately?
A: iPoker uses a “rounding mechanism feature” which is always beneficial with the player and players never lose that 1 cent when they sit in a table or top up. Data is recorded in our DB with more than two digits after the decimal dot and calculations are using this data. In fact, we are only showing two digits after the decimal for graphical considerations.

Q: Will the iPoker network cash games Rake structure stay the same?
A: Yes, the Rake structure for EUR and GBP tables is in place to support our already ongoing EUR and GBP tables. Rake CAPS will be kept the same as they are today.

Q: Will players continue to accumulate points in EUR and GBP tables at the same accumulation rate of the USD tables?
A: Most rooms on iPoker have a different accumulation rate for EUR and GBP. Card rooms need to make sure that their VIP plans and points accumulation rates are adjusted to these currencies, and are matched with their current USD accumulation rates.

Q: iPoker mentioned that you moved SNG’s from the offering, which SNG’s have been removed from the iPoker offering?
A: We have removed mainly multi players SNG’s of over 10 players, and some other formats that were less popular and almost never played.

Q: There has been a confusion as to what is the time to act is being changed to, 18 seconds or 20 seconds.
A: Time to act is changed to 20 seconds Hold’em and Speed Games, and 25 Seconds for Omaha and Stud.

Q: If a player won first place for three times in a row for one of the JP SNG’s, and now the first prize was won and the JP is then replaced to EUR and starts over. Can players continue their sequence after the currency is changed?
A: Yes, players may continue to try their luck at the JP first prize just as they could before.

Please let us know if you have any additional questions.

Best regards
Hannes

i have a question regarding iPoker double up sngs. Was 6 man sng rake always this high ?

Right now its essentially 20% rake (which is imo a bit high), as in you pay 2,40$ with hope to win 4$... thats not exactly double up is it

are double up rakes so high at other places (pokerstars, tilt, party etc i only have account on some ipoker sites)?

right now with my tiny budget i managed to get back, $2 is most i can afford (and even that is above suggested BR management) but i dont see those double up sngs worth it at all... basically you play 5 x 2$ double up tournaments where you have to pay $12 for a chance to win $20 (which is next to impossible, finishing in top 3 in 100% sngs isnt it).

tldr: right now, in that sort of tourneys you gotta finish itm 60% of the time just to break even, why would anyone play such a tourney (i see some people queued up for them all the time)?

not sure how was it pre-change but this is just (in my humble, fish opinion) ridiculous really

Originally posted by iMumu
i have a question regarding iPoker double up sngs. Was 6 man sng rake always this high ?

Right now its essentially 20% rake (which is imo a bit high), as in you pay 2,40$ with hope to win 4$... thats not exactly double up is it

are double up rakes so high at other places (pokerstars, tilt, party etc i only have account on some ipoker sites)?

right now with my tiny budget i managed to get back, $2 is most i can afford (and even that is above suggested BR management) but i dont see those double up sngs worth it at all... basically you play 5 x 2$ double up tournaments where you have to pay $12 for a chance to win $20 (which is next to impossible, finishing in top 3 in 100% sngs isnt it).

tldr: right now, in that sort of tourneys you gotta finish itm 60% of the time just to break even, why would anyone play such a tourney (i see some people queued up for them all the time)?

not sure how was it pre-change but this is just (in my humble, fish opinion) ridiculous really

Yes, it has always been this high, so just keep not playing there and you are fine.

Originally posted by iMumu

i have a question regarding iPoker double up sngs. Was 6 man sng rake always this high ?

Right now its essentially 20% rake (which is imo a bit high), as in you pay 2,40$ with hope to win 4$... thats not exactly double up is it

are double up rakes so high at other places (pokerstars, tilt, party etc i only have account on some ipoker sites)?

right now with my tiny budget i managed to get back, $2 is most i can afford (and even that is above suggested BR management) but i dont see those double up sngs worth it at all... basically you play 5 x 2$ double up tournaments where you have to pay $12 for a chance to win $20 (which is next to impossible, finishing in top 3 in 100% sngs isnt it).

tldr: right now, in that sort of tourneys you gotta finish itm 60% of the time just to break even, why would anyone play such a tourney (i see some people queued up for them all the time)?

not sure how was it pre-change but this is just (in my humble, fish opinion) ridiculous really

Hi iMumu,

The buyin structure for Sit & Goes and Double Ups will change. In your example the fee will get a bit lowered: instead of $2 + $0.40 it will be €1.72 + €0.28.

The full overview of all buyins is available here in spoilers:

6-max SNGs (normal & turbo)

Spoiler

Current buy-ins		New buy-ins
Buy-in	Fee	Buy-in	Fee
$0.10	$0.02	€0.08	€0.02
$0.20	$0.04	€0.17	€0.03
$0.50	$0.05	€0.43	€0.07
$1	$0.20	€0.86	€0.14
$2	$0.40	€1.72	€0.28
$5	$0.50	€4.53	€0.47
$10	$1	€9.09	€0.91
$20	$2	€18.18	€1.82
$30	$3	€27.30	€2.70
$50	$5	€45.50	€4.50
$100	$9	€92	€8
$200	$15	€184	€16
$300	$20	€280	€20
$500	$30	€470	€30
$1,000	$60	€965	€35
$2,000	$90	-	-
$5,000	$200	-	-

6-max SNGs (super turbo)

Spoiler

Current buy-ins		New buy-ins
Buy-in	Fee	Buy-in	Fee
-	-	€0.45	€0.05
$1	$0.20	€0.90	€0.10
$2	$0.40	€1.80	€0.20
$5	$0.50	€4.60	€0.40
$10	$1	€9.20	€0.80
$20	$2	€18.40	€1.60
$30	$3	€27.60	€2.40
$50	$5	€46	€4
$100	$9	€94	€6
$200	$15	€188	€12
$300	$20	€285	€15
$500	$30	€485	€15
$1,000	$60	€970	€30
$2,000	$90	-	-
$5,000	$200	-	-

ty HannesZ, that chart does look a lot better as long as double up is actually 100% and not 80% or whatever it was prior to this change, im up for it ♦

STEPS

Some information about the new Steps promotion which is starting 13/01. The structure has been modified and you will be able to use the won tokens also for other MTTs and SNGs with the same value.

Please find the new format below:

Do we receive loyalty points by playing MTT/SNGs using a step token ?