Your feedback for PokerStrategy.com in 2011

Originally posted by ragney
Everything was fine except that alot of promo's / suggestions went to specific poker rooms (where ps.com receives more promotional money for?) instead of a good balance between rooms. There are alot of poker rooms who got full attention from ps.com while other rooms did not. I hate this and will not support ps.com in any way.

For example: December, month of promo. What promo does pokerstars have? Not a single penny. 21 I-pads being given out and there is in total 18 poker rooms. Some poker rooms get 3 while other get zero. Fair? Hell no.

Of course I understand that the income for ps.com is also important but I feel some total greed of only promoting certain poker rooms who probably gives better income to ps.com.

Hey ragney,

some words on the promotions:

besides some promos that are happening just at our website (such as say a forum promotion), all our promos need some kind of co-operation from the poker room.

The minimum co-operation is of course "allowing the promo" - which is where some poker rooms have very strict policies. PokerStars for example does not allow affiliate-based promotions - thus, we cannot hold our regular freerolls, rake races and other promotions there.

Sorry if that means that as long as you play on PokerStars only, you might not benefit from too many of our exclusive promotions.

Best,
Lutz

ps is the nuts and I love you guys :heart: :heart:

Hello,
my only gripe with Poker Strategy is that you do not receive points from those sites that are registered before the registration of Poker Strategy. I registered an account at Poker Stars 7 days earlier than on Poker Strategy, by reason only that at first I heard of poker with. And now I'm playing regularly only at Poker Stars and can not receive points, but I had to pay . Now that's just wrong

[x] this site needs to do more promos for Stars.

I understand why you don't, biggest poker room, and it will create it's own traffic so therefore you probably make less money from your end with stars than you do for example 888.

However, a lot of people play at stars and we don't even get a freeroll - What's that about? No extra points weeks or anything like that.

Some thing small like option to earn extra 200 SP's would be better than nothing... I play exclusively at Stars, and never get any chance to win an iPad or enter a free roll... On some platforms you have one daily if I am not mistaken. And yet there is not even 1 a month at stars... Kinda sucks for us Stars players especially when you consider we pay more rake than any other room in relation to SP's also.

In addition.. Setting up a $50 free roll on stars is not hard and is a way to meet members from community and I must of made you at least triple that alone as one player ♦

Seriously though, I really think if you can't get co-operation from Pokerstars you could still do something - Easy options:

One off month - Increased SP's
One off month $50 leaderboard - Again not loads but a little goes a long way
One time chance to boost to next status level for one month (Minimum SP's required etc)

These are just off the top of my head, I'm sure you can think of better things that are within YOUR capabilities as a company. Just because you cannot get stars to co-operate, doesn't mean you can't do something.

Originally posted by MrMardyBum
In addition.. Setting up a $50 free roll on stars is not hard and is a way to meet members from community and I must of made you at least triple that alone as one player ♦

Seriously though, I really think if you can't get co-operation from Pokerstars you could still do something - Easy options:

One off month - Increased SP's
One off month $50 leaderboard - Again not loads but a little goes a long way
One time chance to boost to next status level for one month (Minimum SP's required etc)

These are just off the top of my head, I'm sure you can think of better things that are within YOUR capabilities as a company. Just because you cannot get stars to co-operate, doesn't mean you can't do something.

Hi Mardy, please do take time and read previous posts and you can see why we're unable to do promotions at PokerStars. See below.

Originally posted by Xantos
some words on the promotions:

besides some promos that are happening just at our website (such as say a forum promotion), all our promos need some kind of co-operation from the poker room.

The minimum co-operation is of course "allowing the promo" - which is where some poker rooms have very strict policies. PokerStars for example does not allow affiliate-based promotions - thus, we cannot hold our regular freerolls, rake races and other promotions there.

Sorry if that means that as long as you play on PokerStars only, you might not benefit from too many of our exclusive promotions.

Best,
Lutz

Can still run freerolls.... Meh whatever... You must drive a lot of traffic to stars use your weight imo.

Just because they say no once doesn't mean you can't force their hand.

Originally posted by MrMardyBum
Can still run freerolls.... Meh whatever... You must drive a lot of traffic to stars use your weight imo.

Just because they say no once doesn't mean you can't force their hand.

Mardy,

I can't say much more than we already tried to explain here in this thread. I'm sure you understand that there is nothing else we can do about this situation even if we promise the stars for PokerStars. Its their decision and it has been questioned just about 1000 times. You must respect this business decision and move on about it.

Thankfully we have many other poker rooms available for you to sign up and benefit from all the exclusive promotions which we were allowed to create there.

I wish you understand this and concentrate on the positive things excluding the PokerStars issue.

Thank you
Ingrid

Originally posted by VorpalF2F

Originally posted by TarhonyaTo be fair, if I have to pick what I didn't like it's the Sidekick and the inablility of retracking accounts to pokerstars, although I understand why it isn't possible.

I DON'T understand why it is not possible!
It is a win for PokerStars, it is a win for PokerStrategy and it is a win for the players.
It seems to me that it would just take a sit-down by the honchos of both PSes to iron out the details.

I would gladly pay a nominal fee -- perhaps in VPP points? -- to make it happen.

But yes, that is the only thing that ever bugged me, too

Hey Vorpal,

To be honest with you, it may not be that easy to understand why it's not a win - win situation for both parties.

Just imagine, if PokerStars would re-track all players they would need to pay us a certain amount of %. Right?

Now, if you think about this you soon realize that you guys play there anyway with out them giving out that extra % , right?

Now what would you do if you were in PokerStars shoes?

"It seems to me that it would just take a sit-down by the honchos of both PSes to iron out the details." <<-- and I wish you guys would understand that we sat down not once but a zillion times. You must respect the decision.

Thank you for your feedback.
Ingrid

Basically STFU - I get it...

Just saying 9 x affliate based Freerolls / MTT's in next 10 hours on stars... Bankroll mob does what you do (without strategy) - what makes them so different?

Originally posted by MrMardyBum
Basically STFU - I get it...

I don't speak like this to any of the community members so please don't assume something that's isn't there. would appreciate that.

Originally posted by MrMardyBum
Just saying 9 x affliate based Freerolls / MTT's in next 10 hours on stars... Bankroll mob does what you do (without strategy) - what makes them so different?

I can't comment on internal decisions further more. There are many different scenarios where a country based affiliates can run their promotions. I'll forwarded this to the responsible person and hope we can get an explanation.

Sorry didn't mean to imply you did, but you do want the most talked about subject in the thread dropped. But see it from our side - You say you can't yet we know of about 20 other affiliates that can, really sucks for us

Anyway nothing more on the subject - Can delete my posts if you like.

Of course I want your opinion and discussing this will only enable both of us to share information. I tried to tell you that we have gone the extra mile and exchanged several thousands of emails to be able to do something about this situation.

unfortunately we did not succeed but will get more information regarding this for you.

please do continue discuss whatever is in your mind.

Originally posted by IngridN
Of course I want your opinion and discussing this will only enable both of us to share information. I tried to tell you that we have gone the extra mile and exchanged several thousands of emails to be able to do something about this situation.

unfortunately we did not succeed but will get more information regarding this for you.

please do continue discuss whatever is in your mind.

Okay

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
The only downside I can think of is the inability of PokerStrategy & PokerStars to figure out a way for us to re-track our accounts.
!

This x1000. The sole reason why I can not be arsed with playing that much anymore. So its Pokerstars monetary loss when it comes to me and I am sure a lot of other players.

Originally posted by IngridN

Originally posted by VorpalF2F

Originally posted by TarhonyaTo be fair, if I have to pick what I didn't like it's the Sidekick and the inablility of retracking accounts to pokerstars, although I understand why it isn't possible.

I DON'T understand why it is not possible!
It is a win for PokerStars, it is a win for PokerStrategy and it is a win for the players.
It seems to me that it would just take a sit-down by the honchos of both PSes to iron out the details.

I would gladly pay a nominal fee -- perhaps in VPP points? -- to make it happen.

But yes, that is the only thing that ever bugged me, too

Hey Vorpal,

To be honest with you, it may not be that easy to understand why it's not a win - win situation for both parties.

Just imagine, if PokerStars would re-track all players they would need to pay us a certain amount of %. Right?

Now, if you think about this you soon realize that you guys play there anyway with out them giving out that extra % , right?

Now what would you do if you were in PokerStars shoes?

Hi, Ingrid.

Sorry, I can't say I agree. I'm barely playing @ Stars just because my account is not tracked, plain and simple. While I play 30k hands of NL30/50 on 888 poker I've played some 1k of NL10 at Stars.

So, if they allowed for my account to be tracked I'd be grinding loads there; since they don't, I'm not and I'm rather playing elsewhere.

I'm not proficient in calculating rake but I'd guess they might be losing $1k/month - and that's with me only.

On top of that, honestly, if the software difference I'd def. be putting MANY more hands on Stars than what I'm able to to on 888.

Originally posted by IngridN
"It seems to me that it would just take a sit-down by the honchos of both PSes to iron out the details." <<-- and I wish you guys would understand that we sat down not once but a zillion times. You must respect the decision.

Thank you for your feedback.
Ingrid

With that I can agree. I'm very sure PS put the best efforts into it; if Stars don't want it, well, I do respect their decision but what I can do is say screw them and I'll give my rake to another platform.

My 2c.

---

Now, coming back to the thread and feedback: thanks a lot for all the hard work there. It's not an exaggeration to say pokerstrategy.com just made my year better in so many ways.

I had to think hard to make a constructive criticism, i.e., to find where you could make better. I found two things:

1) live coachings. They could be much better organized (I've given this feedback before) and they could make much better use of our time. Plus I've seen some coaching sessions that were, just honestly, bad - with coaches just randomly playing hands, tilting and swearing on recreational players. I don't have problem with the swearing tbo, it might be fun to watch drinking a beer, but I would respect it if it came with learning the game; in quite a few cases, it doesn't. I don't know, I think (with brilliant exceptions) the live coaching sessions are just not very professional overall.

2) well, also coachings: the competition has one product that is tokens for private coachings. I must say I was tempted. I'm not sure about ps.com now but ps.pt is offering loads of opportunity for public private coachings and such for beginners - and that is great. But I think we could have a bit more attention to non-beginners in what respects to private coachings - like 1hr of public private coaching every x or y strategy points or something like that (I think 1hr once you get to diamond is just far from enough). Private coaching would be even better, but using the already-existing coaching schedule for that could be an option to reduce costs. I don't know, this may fall far from your model but I think it would be a huge appeal for intermediate players (not beginners, not diamonds) to remain at pokerstrategy.

Cheers!

edit: sorry, I don't think the #2 was clear. Other affiliates have, on top of videos and articles, the following: as you play with tracked accounts, you accumulate coaching tokens. You can then exchange this tokens for private coachings with the site's coaches. Different coaches have different "prices", so while 1hr. with a less experienced coach on micro limits might "cost" you 10 tokens, 1hr. with an experienced coach on small limits might "cost" you 75 tokens and so forth. You're probably aware of that. I've found this system very interesting, and very appealing.

I'm sure you've already explored all possibilities but anyway... couldn't you create a home game club thingy on Stars, then pm everybody with the details to join? Seems like a simple solution though I'm sure that there will be a major problem that I haven't thought of.

Feedback: very good year once again! I especially like the beginners course, which gives a sort of structure to the brilliant material here. I hope that a new, more advanced school will be brought in soon to further people's learning once they finish the BC. Apart from that, thanks to everybody who works so hard here like the hand judges, moderators, the people who write the articles, everybody. You're doing a great job

Originally posted by ragney
The poker guides are getting way too much; there is too much guides and videos. You need an expert to sort them by some kind of "score". The quality ones aboves. Now it feels quantity over quality, for this reason I even bought a poker book because there is too many (crap/semi useless) guides/videos out there. The total videos/guides available is getting out of control, there is just too many of them. Sometimes you see two/three guides/videos about the same topic where the difference between those guides/videos nearly the same is.

He ragney,
I want to comment on your statement of our guides & video-section 'problem' that you were refering to.
Our aim is to provide the best content for all our users. This of course leads sometimes to the impression that we do not have any video for you - just because we are trying to serve all of our users.
When it comes to the good overview that we want to achieve in our video- and strategy section: We have implemented several tools to increase the overview.
The two biggest were
a) the learning paths for our strategy articles
b) the video series overview for our video section.
However we also concentrate more and more on very specific pieces. We do release less and less "random live videos" and try to incorporate more videos about special topics.
On top of that PokerStrategy currently develops a new platform that will make it much easier to arrange content rather then our current static webpage. Please bear with us as this is a huge project and not done within weeks or some months.

Originally posted by luizsilveira
I had to think hard to make a constructive criticism, i.e., to find where you could make better. I found two things:

1) live coachings. They could be much better organized (I've given this feedback before) and they could make much better use of our time. Plus I've seen some coaching sessions that were, just honestly, bad - with coaches just randomly playing hands, tilting and swearing on recreational players. I don't have problem with the swearing tbo, it might be fun to watch drinking a beer, but I would respect it if it came with learning the game; in quite a few cases, it doesn't. I don't know, I think (with brilliant exceptions) the live coaching sessions are just not very professional overall.

2) well, also coachings: the competition has one product that is tokens for private coachings. I must say I was tempted. I'm not sure about ps.com now but ps.pt is offering loads of opportunity for public private coachings and such for beginners - and that is great. But I think we could have a bit more attention to non-beginners in what respects to private coachings - like 1hr of public private coaching every x or y strategy points or something like that (I think 1hr once you get to diamond is just far from enough). Private coaching would be even better, but using the already-existing coaching schedule for that could be an option to reduce costs. I don't know, this may fall far from your model but I think it would be a huge appeal for intermediate players (not beginners, not diamonds) to remain at pokerstrategy.

Cheers!

edit: sorry, I don't think the #2 was clear. Other affiliates have, on top of videos and articles, the following: as you play with tracked accounts, you accumulate coaching tokens. You can then exchange this tokens for private coachings with the site's coaches. Different coaches have different "prices", so while 1hr. with a less experienced coach on micro limits might "cost" you 10 tokens, 1hr. with an experienced coach on small limits might "cost" you 75 tokens and so forth. You're probably aware of that. I've found this system very interesting, and very appealing.

He luizsilveira,

thank you for your input - especially in regards to the Live Coaching sessions I agree with some points, but also see that its easy to give general criticism but hard to find points to start with. Let us take an example: Our coaches are of course instructed to not tilt, swear etc. during their live coaching sessions. In general this works out very well in my opinion. Of course there are some bad beats, one leads to another and one opponent is shouted at. But thats not the point, you are right that we always need to act professional. With guys like Collin Moshman & others we have made the right steps, also our homegrown communities coaches improve more and more.
I also think that especially beginner and advanced coachings should never be 'pure coaching', they will always include some small talk, some off topic to make the coaching more casual. That is the big difference compared to videos that always concentrate on the topic. It just makes it so much easier to follow and learning will be even more fun.

For the private coachings: We occassionally have the opportunity to hold private coaching sessions in our live coachings. This is a matter of fact, however we can not just do only those - we need to have a large variety in topics.
On the other hand we always have topics like "Session Review Opportunity with YourDoomPoker " and "Have your Database reviewed by leatherass!". However the turnout is rather low and we want to improve our impact by having material that is accessible for everyone (i.e. spending 10 times X$ on a private coaching is +EV for 10 Diamonds, but spending the same money on videos reaches much more Diamonds).

Originally posted by luizsilveira

Originally posted by IngridN
Now, if you think about this you soon realize that you guys play there anyway with out them giving out that extra % , right?

Now what would you do if you were in PokerStars shoes?

Sorry, I can't say I agree. I'm barely playing @ Stars just because my account is not tracked, plain and simple. While I play 30k hands of NL30/50 on 888 poker I've played some 1k of NL10 at Stars.

Originally posted by IngridN
"It seems to me that it would just take a sit-down by the honchos of both PSes to iron out the details." <<-- and I wish you guys would understand that we sat down not once but a zillion times. You must respect the decision.

Thank you for your feedback.
Ingrid

Ingrid, you're right.
Perhaps we should be pressuring Stars.
Do we have enough members at PS playing on Stars to make a difference?

If everyone at PokerStrategy with an untracked Stars account suddenly went elsewhere, would it matter to them?