Net Bet Blog

As part of my search for online gaming related business stories I use a range of different sources as you can tell by the links and credit associated with each article. Occasionally I will discuss these different sources if I believe they will be useful to the readers and are of a high quality in terms of content and reputation.

In today’s post I will consider Poker Junkie which is one of the plethora of “poker forum/ poker online sites that all seem to offer a fairly standard set of reviews of online poker rooms and report to offer the best poker bonus online. The byline of Poker Junkie is – “get your kicks at Poker Junkie”.

My own particular interest and I am sure some of my readers is just how profitable these affiliate sites actually are and whether they can attract sufficient punters to justify the salaries and hosting costs not to mention advertising and web design costs. In a sense once they have been set up the ongoing costs are relatively low so the margins can be significant. To really understand the revenues one would need to know how many players they sign up and what is the average lifetime and revenue of a player. Assuming they match standard KPIs this number can be less that $100 a player. What then are the acquisition costs per reader I wonder.

Let us consider Poker Junkie for a moment. The landing page is neat and well designed without significant advertising clutter which is always a good start. Any affiliate links are well blended and appropriate mainly linked to bonus offerings. This site offers the usual list of pages. For example, poker room reviews, news, rules, strategy, player profiles and a number of tools such as a bankroll manager and a poker odds calculator. The news service is good and up to date. The ability to send in your hand to get it analysed in a neat one. The strategy articles are decent. One addition they might want to consider is some online poker video tutorials.

Looking at the forums is always a good signal of a sites true potential and popularity. In this case Poker Junkie has 76189 posts covering 8936 topics and has 7611 members. Not bad but not spectacular either.

All in all, this is a good site offering everything you would expect from a good poker website. Their revenues come from punters signing up to the bonus offerings. Poker Junkie presents this information as tastefully as possible and it looks good. My worry is that there are other offerings out there that give rake back deals and free gifts for signing up. They need to remain nimble on their feet in an attempt to get more regular readers and participants in their forums.

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Interesting article on the superuser poker cheats. Whilst we know that hole card readers have been cheating players at Ultimatebet and AbsolutePoker is the problem more widespread? It often feels like it for a fish like me :-(

MajorWager.com have an interesting interview with Jay Lakin on this issue.

An Interview with Jay Lakin on Current Poker Issues [MajorWager.com]

The other day I received an invitation to conduct an interview with Jay Lakin from Pokersourceonline.com, a very large poker affiliate site. My first inclination was to decline the invitation since my articles generally don't focus on poker. But as a result of many incidents occurring with online poker of late (including the scandals at Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet), I decided to take Mr. Lakin up on his offer. After all, Jay is very close with all the poker sites and knows the ins and outs of the industry as well as anyone online. There were no restrictions on my line of questioning.

The question we all want to know is:

The obvious question regarding the scandal was, why it was allowed to occur in the first place? Why do these super users exist? I asked Jay. What possible reason is there for a site to have the ability to see hole cards?

and can players still cheat?

Asked what could be done to ensure incidents like that never occur again or that collusion doesn't occur in Poker, Lakin said it was impossible. "If people are determined to cheat they will find a way. People can create virtual accounts, they can make up IP addresses, use Proxy servers, etc. The companies try to stop the cheating, but if someone is savvy enough they can get around it," Lakin stated. Jay suggested that sites are always looking to catch suspicious play and have people watching 24/7 for tell-tale signs. The poker operators also have very sophisticated technology running algorithms, tracking IP addresses, looking for transfers between players, etc. But Lakin suggested the only real way to catch cheaters is for the players to step up to the plate when they see something fishy going on, as happened with the Absolute Poker incident. "If someone raises a concern, the sites take it seriously," Jay commented. "Otherwise, people will spread the word and players will go to other sites." Jay's biggest disappointment with the whole incident is the fact that the cheaters are still walking free in the streets of Costa Rica.

The next question is also very interesting but something I do not believe. The companies have too much at risk and all hands can be analysed afterwards to check for any illegalities.

My next question to Jay concerned the sites themselves and whether he thought that they tampered with the software to ensure bad beats in the lower dollar games as many have contended. The belief here is that while software is run by a random number generator, the RNG can be set in such a way that it only gives random numbers within a range on the turn and river for certain games in an attempt to affect the outcome. The reasoning behind this is that it would provide incentive for the fish to keep playing believing they are good players. Note, while I never believed personally in the theory, the question has been raised on various poker forums. In Jay's opinion, the whole notion that poker sites are purposely cheating players is ludicrous. "As long as poker rooms are making money on the rake there is no need to cheat," Jay commented. While he has a bit more hesitation about online casinos where the house makes money on players losing, Jay thinks it would be insane for a poker site to cut its own throat by cheating players when the site has no vested interest in which players win. Jay believes the bad beats that occur frequently in low dollar games and tournaments are a result of players playing too many hands and poor play in general. Whenever someone loses with pocket aces to 3-5 suited in a real game it's the luck of the draw. When someone loses with the same hand online it's because the fix is in. According to one poker site, it has a staff member whose main job is to respond to complaints that the site is rigged. The staff member has to explain that more hands are played online than in real games, as well as other facts that explain bad beats. Jay also believes that these lower staked hands feature people who graduate from the free games and the .net sites. "I tell people all the time," Jay said, "playing at .net sites will only worsen your game. If you want to improve you have to play for real money."

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Cheating in online Poker is often talked about and feared and in some cases true. After the Absolute poker scandal UltimateBet get nailed after a long investigation.

Luckily the average fish like me is unlikely to be cheated as the cheats are more likely to target the bigger stakes tables and large jackpot tournaments. Find me on PKR under "netbet" and say hello and take my money.

I am sure that the amounts of money involved will run into millions. Knowing the hole cards would allow punters to quite literally win every game they played in a relatively short period of time.

The big question is whether this is going on elsewhere. Computer programmers are clever people. It is stories like this that undermine the credibility of online poker. The answer - to only play at sites with good systems which tend to be those quoted on the stockmarket.



UltimateBet Parent Company in Second Cheating Scandal [Gaming Industry Media]

UltimateBet.com has revealed that an individual or individuals who formerly worked for the site were able to cheat players for a period spanning 21 months. It's the second time in less than a year that parent company Tokwiro Enterprises has had to make such an admission. Another of its properties, AbsolutePoker.com, revealed a similar security breach last fall.

Tokwiro says the perpetrators were employed by UltimateBet prior to its purchase by Tokwiro in October 2006. They obtained opponents' hole card information by manipulating software code that was part of a legacy auditing system, and they were active players on the network from March 2006 to December 2007.

The company has not revealed how much money the cheaters won, but evidence indicates it could be millions of dollars.

'Tokwiro is taking full responsibility for this situation and will immediately begin refunding UlimateBet customers for any losses that were incurred as a result of unfair play,' notes the company's press statement.

UltimateBet, like its sister site AbsolutePoker, is licensed and regulated by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. The Commission fined Tokwiro $500,000 in January as a result of last fall's security breach at AbsolutePoker. In that case, it was 'a trusted consultant' of the company that had manipulated software to view opponents' hole cards. The company ended up paying $1.6 million to customers who were affected by the breach.

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Whilst the study of economics and the playing of poker go hand in hand in so many ways (too numerous to go through here) some see Economics as killing Poker.

Summer 2008: Poker at the Crossroads [Pokerblog.com]

"It was chance created the poker beast; beancounters will kill it."

Economics and Poker will clash this summer among the slightly tarnished gaming glitz of Las Vegas. Dispassionate observers of the poker world realize that this may be the watershed moment in the continuation or the demise of the "poker boom" worldwide.

What are they talking about? Not too much when you read the article closely although it does provide a few interesting links.

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Freakonomics's main protagonists, Steve Levitt and his faithful journalist sidekick Steve Dubner has a certain penchant for Poker and has made a number of posts on the subject.

As a economist poker player (albeit a bad one) this is a particularly interesting topic.

Phil Gordon Answers Your Poker Questions [Freakonomics]

This first quote sums up my view to an extent:

In his answers below, he discusses (among other things) variance, sunglasses, and why he’s not a gambler by nature, but rather “a strategic investor.”

This relates to poker being a game of skill that encompasses many of the attributes a trained economist should have - certainly those at my University.

Q: Do you gamble much on non-skill games or games that have a house edge?

A: No. I’m not a “gambler” by nature — I consider myself a “strategic investor.” In fact, what we do at the poker table isn’t very different than what investment professionals do — we just get our results every two minutes instead of every few months or years.

Q: How do math and psychology cross in poker? For example, if the book says a certain hand is a loser 60 percent of the time, how would this change if you know your opponent likes to raise with weak hands at this point, and if you suspect he is bluffing?

A: There are times in poker where making a correct decision is almost completely mathematical. For instance, if a player moves all-in after the flop and you have a flush draw or a straight draw, you can be 99 percent sure that if you make your hand, it will be good.

At that point, just making a simple pot odds calculation will lead you to a winning decision and psychology has nothing to do with it.

But, that being said, poker is the great game that it is because psychology plays such an important part in the game. Knowing your opponent, putting them on hands, and figuring out their state of mind and exploitable tendencies makes all the difference.

Clearly this is an important aspect of my decision to play poker. I assume by reading this blog that you also fit into this camp :-)

Q: Why do so many highly-intelligent people with advanced degrees decide to play poker?

A: It is a fascinating game that is impossible to master. The money isn’t bad either.

On this blog we also cover the UIGEA in detail. At least Phil Gordon agrees with me on this one using an identical phrase to boot.

Q: I hear a lot about compulsive gambling and gambling addiction which makes me wonder if the Safe Port Act, by causing online poker play to drop off, may not have been such a bad thing. What’s your opinion about the Act?

A: I think that the U.I.G.E.A. (the provision of the Safe Port Act that deals with internet poker) was a complete travesty.

First, it places an impossible burden on the financial institutions. Second, 85 percent of the U.S. adult population thinks that they should have the right to gamble on the internet if they want to. Third, what the hell does port security have to do with internet poker? Why do we allow politicians to do this?

Interesting take on Senator Jon Kyl and his support for the online poker ban.

Clicking his name brings a wry smile to ones face.

Pokerblog.com are certainly nailing their colours to the mast.

The irony is that a total US ban would be great for PRTY, 888 and others. It would potentially wipe out Pokerstars and Fulltilt overnight leaving PRTY to the outright winner and by far the biggest company. Billions of dollars are currently flooding into private hands and not shareholders.

The extent to which the last paragraph is true needs further debate and opinions are welcome.

Satan Speaks on U.S. Online Poker Ban [PokerBlog.com]

The chief architect of the Internet gambling ban on Tuesday said he is losing patience with the Federal Reserve and the Department of Treasury as they struggle to craft regulations to enforce the ban.

Senator Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said the regulations are a year overdue, according to the 2006 prohibition statute. Kyle is quoted as mumbling:

"The longer it goes the less certainty there is. I mean, the people who are violating the law need to know that they're not going to be able the get away with it, and I think that the failure to get these regulations promulgated on time has perhaps given some hope, and it's given life even to an idea over in the House of Representatives to put a moratorium on the regulations."

Below is a copy of a letter from Kyl. His and our fears are all laid out.

Dear Colleague:

For the past year, the Internet gambling lobby and its congressional supporters have worked hard to gut the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (“UIGEA”). Most recently, Representatives Barney Frank and Ron Paul introduced H.R. 5767, which would prohibit federal agencies from issuing any regulations that would give effect to UGIEA.

The Frank-Paul bill’s prohibition on issuing Internet gambling regulations would eliminate the most effective enforcement tool available for stopping illegal online gambling. The bill would result in the de facto repeal of federal and state gambling control laws and would likely result in a massive expansion of gambling on the Internet.

We urge you not to be deceived by the claims of the Internet gambling interests. During this Congress alone, offshore Internet gambling enterprises have paid millions of dollars to lobbyists in an effort to overturn UIGEA. For example, according to a recent Roll Call article, those trying to thwart UIGEA are “shelling out eye-popping sums for K Street’s top talent” (3/31/08, “Internet Gambling Ban Back on Table”).

The Internet gambling industry, which was making billions of dollars a year taking illegal bets from Americans, was furious when UIGEA was enacted into law after a decade of congressional debate and development. To enforce existing federal and state laws banning Internet gambling, UIGEA required the government agencies with the relevant knowledge and expertise — the Federal Reserve and the Department of Treasury, in consultation with the Department of Justice — to issue regulations to enforce existing federal and state laws that make Internet gambling illegal. Immediately after Congress passed UIGEA, many online gambling outfits closed their doors because of the prospect that existing laws would finally be strongly enforced.

Now, in an effort to recapture billions of dollars in illicit profits, Internet gambling interests are trying to convince Congress that the regulations will be ineffective. But, if the regulations mandated by UIGEA will be ineffective against illegal online gambling, why are Internet gambling interests spending millions of dollars to effectively repeal UIGEA?

The reason: UIGEA is already beginning to cripple them. The Annenberg Public Policy Center, which conducts the annual National Annenberg Survey of Youth, found that weekly Internet gambling among college-aged youth declined nearly 75% between 2006 and 2007, falling from 5.8% to 1.5% just one year after the enactment of UIGEA. Internet gambling is highly addictive, as it brings the casino into the home and office, and it is particularly attractive to minors and young adults. While no law enforcement is perfectly effective, the Annenberg data shows that passage of UIGEA, which called for financial regulations to enforce Internet gambling prohibitions, has already significantly reduced the prevalence of Internet gambling in the United States, even though regulations required to fully implement the law have not been finalized.

Please oppose any efforts to rollback UIGEA or to delay finalization of the regulations.

Jon Kyl
Ranking Member
Senate Judiciary Committee

Spencer Bachus
Ranking Member
House Financial Services Committee Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security

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As an economist, the latest move by PartyGaming (PRTY) to slash its buy ins for high end STTs to $10 is an obvious move.

This should install fear into the smaller poker room operators.

The economics is very simple. Think of PartyGaming as the equivalent of Tesco and the smaller rooms as the independent grocers. One way for PARTY to break the competition is a simple price war.

The biggest losers are perhaps 888.com who are famed for their high end tournaments and ring games.

Price wars are always ugly - the punter wins, but the shareholder stands to lose.

This move needs to be watched carefully to see who follows. This will also lead to revenue losses at PRTY and might have contributed to today's share price fall.

Press Release

In an unprecedented move, PartyPoker.com has slashed the charges for ALL single-table tournaments over $200 to a super-low flat fee of $10.

No matter how high the stakes are above $200, the fee will be just $10 meaning there is huge value to be had for the bankroll, value that cannot be found elsewhere.

To celebrate this, PartyPoker.com has introduced a complete range of high-end STT's with buy-in's all the way up to $5,000. With a fee of just $10 this is great value and is simply not available at any other online poker room. For example, on a six seat $5,000 STT the typical saving is $190 and a ten seat $300 STT the saving is $10.

A PartyPoker.com spokesman said: "This is great news for any big game hunter looking to make the most out of their bankroll. Check out the full list of tournaments today!"

PKR already offer one of the best online poker sites for fun players and pros alike. Find the fish by playing Netbet at PKR.



Here is the link to the Casino (also see the top banner). Again, you can play for free to test it out. A much more fun option to lose money :-)



PKR unashamedly market themselves at young men and women brought up as gamers. The women also always seem to pick low cut dresses. What I always wonder is how many of them are really men.

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For those that want to improve their poker play one tried and tested technique is to watch the professionals in action.

To this end a number of sites have emerged that offer poker action videos. In this post I list 3 or 4 of the sites that currently have a good selection of videos some free and others that require a subscription to get the more advanced material.

1. PokerTube.com This site has a vast selection of tournaments to choose from and some tutorial videos but not many. Each film/show is provided in a series of 10 minute YouTube type sections.

Pokertube is an independent video community, run by passionate swedish poker players.

Pokertube is a video community where you can watch and upload pokervideos. PokerTube is divided into two major parts “Your Films” which are all the films our members upload and “From PokerTube” which is all the material we put into the site.

To upload a video you have to register/log-in. Once you’re registered you will have access to your own page (My Page) where you can upload your videos, see all your uploaded films and activate/deactivate them. When you upload a video you have to fill in certain fields: Title, Category and Language. You will also have to confirm that you hold all the rights for the video you’re uploading. PokerTube will screen all videos before publishing them.

2. Pokerstars.tv. This site is still in BETA but offers much. The clip selection is already building and it is a high quality (branded) offering.

3. Grinderschool. Has some free (3 or 4) tutorial videos but it mainly a subscription site although the tutorials and quality appear high.

GrinderSchool.com is a site specifically designed with low stakes players in mind. We realize the need for quality poker strategy, including videos and articles, for players on a budget.

Each member of our team releases approximately one video per week. Each also provides our members with his own in depth analysis of poker hands and concepts in our forums.

Most advice on other sites is aimed at high stakes. This has created a void for low stakes poker strategy. We seek to fill that void.

For a glimpse at what we have to offer, check out our free videos. If you are ready to join, just click subscribe.

4. Cardrunners. A site that costs but is high quality and has a large range of tutorial videos.

CardRunners is the leading poker training service for in-depth poker instruction, complete with hundreds of poker videos, active poker forums, and sophisticated poker tools designed to give you an edge over the competition. Expert analysis of low-limit to high stakes poker is critical to developing your poker skills, and we believe there's no reason a poker education must be a costly process of trial-and-error. Find your edge at CardRunners today.

5. Bluff magazine. Decent collection of live poker clips and some tutorials.

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Breaking news - read without believing until the news hits the streets.

Poker Trillion are suing Boss Holdings Limited and Boss Media Malta Poker Ltd.

To quote Poker Trillion:

The freezing order has been made in conjunction and relating to a €45million initial law suit being taken by POKERTRILLION against Boss Media and Webdollar for alleged fraudulent, and potential criminal activities of various personnel and/or the management of Boss Media, or their associated companies in various jurisdictions including but not restricted to, Sweden and Malta.

Poker Trillion are a new entrant to the market and are clearly not happy with Boss Media. Should BOSS media punters take out their money? It is not for us to say but care needs to be taken.

Again WARNING - rumour only!

This strikes me as a quite insane situation and as investors we need to track events very closely. Something smells rather bad about this whole situation.

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This post is merely to demonstrate the increasingly competitive nature of online poker. We are sure to see the collapse and closure of many small poker sites in the future.

Protecting your cash is simple. If you have to play poker go to a big site and I would recommend that those that are publicly quoted (and the companies we track on this blog to be the best).

Partygaming, 888, Sportingbet (Paradise poker), GVC (Poker Kings) being just 4 of them.

Read the management statement here.

Pharaohs Poker Palace

At last we have a firm date for the congressional hearing on UIGEA.

Expectations will be minimal so any downside should be limited for the likes of PRTY but any positive developments could lead to substantial upward revisions in the share prices of PRTY, SBT, BWIN and others.

Congressional UIGEA Hearing Confirmed for April 2nd [Poker News]

An important and long-delayed Congressional hearing regarding implementation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act (UIGEA) has now been confirmed for April 2, 2008. The hearing will be conducted by the Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade, and Technology and will be chaired by Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL).

The 10:00 am hearing in Congress's Rayburn House Office Building will be entitled "Proposed UIGEA Regulations: Burden without Benefit?" and will offer one of the first true Congressional examinations of the 2006 UIGEA, which was attached to unrelated, "must pass" port-security legislation by Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) in a maneuver that left the UIGEA unread by many Congressmen before it was passed into law. The hearing will examine the viability of the UIGEA, which has been termed unworkable by many affected parties, including America's powerful banking industry.

A live webcast from the pokerplayers alliance can be found on April 2nd:

WEBCAST

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BettingMarket have recently written a piece on the state of online Poker that should ring bells for shareholders of some of the smaller brands out there.

I have been harping on for a while about this - only the largest most liquid will survive. Smaller brands for poker including William Hill and Ladbrokes (see banner above) are finding it increasingly hard to compete.

http://bettingmarket.com/

Second line poker websites are now finding the going hard. as more and more online players migrate to where the big money is.

and here:

Pressures build in online betting sector

A cursory glance at the results recently posted by a number of the leading online betting companies, reveals a picture of intense competition; reflected in increased operating costs and marketing budgets, high customer acquisition costs; reduced yields per player and reduced revenues and profitability.

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As an academic economist I get to sit through many arcane theoretical papers on voting mechanisms and their design.

It was therefore amusing to read of the role of poker in deciding the outcome of an election. Why not simply use poker full stop and do away with the voting bit.

The only downside from this article is that poker is employed as a "game of chance". This is a much debated point and not one the poker alliance would want to see as the common belief.

New Mexico Election Settled by Poker [Poker Source]

The U.S. government may be trying to protect its citizens from the evils of poker, but the state of New Mexico sure thinks the game is fine for its own electoral process.

Josie Richards and Michelle Dunlap ran against each other for the position of Estancia Town Trustee, and, as luck may have it, the election resulted in a dead heat. According to state law, ties in an election must be broken by the outcome of a game of chance. In the case of the Estancia contest, that game was five card stud.

Each woman was dealt one card face down and four face up. It came down to the hole cards, and when Richards turned over a nine to give her a pair of nines, she became the new Town Trustee.

This wasn’t the first New Mexico election decided by a hand of poker. Richards’ sister, JoAnn, lost her bid to become Estancia’s mayor several years ago the same way Josie won her contest. In 2006, Edgewood’s mayor was determined by the draw of a single card.

As part of my research into the investment potential of online gaming companies it is an ugly part of the job but I also have to sample the merchandise. This means of course playing poker in all the dingy poker rooms, testing the affiliate sites and checking customer service (cash in, cash out, bonus clearing etc).

Inevitably this could prove to be a costly exercise. For example, you can find me on PKR (see below) as "netbet" or on PokerWise and PokerKings (GVC) as "Sharecrash".

Now, to undertake a full review means I have to at least be able to play poker. The solution, as all good academics and investors know, is to do the research. Having devoured a couple of books and read many websites I also happened across PokerStrategy.com.

I have many links under the "Poker links" and "Poker Blogs" below but Pokerstrategy.com stands out and was given a thorough road testing (although I have not yet registered to get the more advanced stuff and videos although they look interesting). There are also a series of scary looking downloads that I am sure would help. Being mathematically trained I find it simple enough to memorise most of it (he says confidently).

What is great are the strategy sheets and the well populated free forums. It is fascinating to read about all the students and general misfits who are attempting to make a living as poker pros after playing for 2 months. There is some deliciously voyeuristic about reading about the ups and then inevitable downs as their poker fueled life disintegrates around their ears. The blog series also makes for entertaining reading. Must be such a dull job playing 12 hours a day at 8 tables a time to make a few dollars.

I can genuinely say that I learnt something from this site, perhaps enough to keep me playing for a few more months. These poker rooms have to be tested and remember I am doing it for research purposes to pass on the information in this blog.

It does all seem to be free to the extent that they appear to pay you to register. All economists like to get something for free and the catch is not clear. The idea appears to be that they train you and give you up to $150 (although they will be given a commission from the site you sign up to). A decent business model. It would be interesting to know how much profit they make from this. Read about the business model HERE.

PokerStrategy is the world’s biggest poker school! We offer you an entire poker education for free. You will get $50 starting capital plus $100 bonus to start your poker career. That means you do not have to deposit your own money. Our offer is absolutely free and without any obligation. You are not agreeing to any sort of financial or legal duties, neither a bank account nor a credit card is needed!

Here again is the PKR weekly promotion and thanks to those who have already signed up. Remember any payments go into further research. Given more money can be made from one good investment than hours and hours of poker play.

PKR week long limited Rakeback promotion



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Regular readers of netbetblog will know that we are unique in that we inhabit the space where stock market investing and standard gambling as we know it meet (with some economics thrown in).

It is therefore of interest to note the expansion of "academic interest" in all things risk and gambling related.

Anyone with share holdings in online gaming stocks "should" be aware of the psychology related to trading shares. I suspect good poker players should also make good stock market investors primarily because they know when to fold, "cut losses".


Oxford offers post to Chinese professor [FT]

Oxford university’s latest professor is a top Chinese expert on mathematical finance who aims to understand how markets are affected by traders’ gambling and irrational risk-taking.

A new chair has been created for Xunyu Zhou at Oxford’s Nomura Centre for Mathematical Finance. Prof Zhou started his career at Fudan University, Shanghai, and he has spent the past 14 years at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Prof Zhou has recently developed mathematical models of financial trading in uncertain environments. At Oxford he aims to focus on the way psychology and emotion affect decision-making and risk control. “It is fascinating to see how mathematical theory can bridge the gulf between finance and social science,” he says.

Mathematical models need to incorporate the behaviour of traders who act unpredictably or irrationally in their risk management strategies – and therefore fail to follow the rules of classical economics. Prof Zhou says an extreme case is Jérôme Kerviel, the Société Générale trader who allegedly bet billions of the bank’s funds on European futures markets for more than two years.

“Traders don’t always want to sell even when it would be rational to do so, because it means admitting they have made a mistake,” says Prof Zhou. One of his premises is that people are much more willing to take risks when facing a loss than when holding a gain.

The new professorship represents an extension of support by Tokyo-based Nomura for mathematical finance at Oxford. Reza Ghassemieh, Nomura’s head of quantitative research, says he is looking forward to the practical application of Prof Zhou’s research. “The future of finance is in risk control.”

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Whilst on the surface this may appear to be evidence of consolidation in the market in reality it is merely a little housekeeping by Absolute to regain control over its customers by taking over its skin Vegas Poker 24/7.

Punters have been informed that their accounts will be moved over to absolute.

Absolute Poker Buys Vegas Poker 24/7 [Poker Source]

The deal has yet to be officially announced, but Absolute Poker has bought Vegas Poker 24/7, reportedly as part of a “skin” consolidation. Vegas Poker 24/7 is one of only a few skins of Absolute, and easily the best known.

Affiliates were the first members of the general public who were informed of the poker room migration, as many will be affected financially. The two poker rooms have not combined yet, but should within the next several weeks. When the migration occurs, Vegas Poker players will have their accounts transferred to Absolute Poker.

The reasons for the buy-out are not readily known, but one could guess (and this is just a guess by this author) that Absolute wants to reign in their player-base and not give up some revenue stream to Vegas Poker 24/7 when both rooms’ customers play at the same tables. Many players who wished to receive rakeback at Absolute Poker but already had an account there opted to signup at Vegas Poker. This way, they could get rakeback and still have access to the same tables. Best of both worlds.

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We have just added a new site to our Poker blogroll. Beat the Fish is a online poker review site that covers reviews of legal poker sites, strategy, books, bonus codes, poker minimum deposits and has a forum with a respectable number of punters making comments. A range of new poker sites are also highlighted.

Whilst most of the material is standard "Poker Portal" fare the reviews are what makes this a site worth a visit. They have the feel of being written by (1) someone who knows what they are talking about (2) a professional player who knows the difference between tight and loose players and sites (3) are well written and accessible.



As you know, on NetbetBlog we like to support sites that are from quoted companies such as Casino Club poker (GVC holdings) and Paradise Poker (Sportingbet) but also PKR's 3D offering that puts the fun back into poker.

Here is part of the review from Beatthefish of the PKR site. I think he has it spot on which is why I was happy to write this sponsored review. It is a long review - here are some of the highlights.

Overall: 4/5

The goal of PKR is simple: advance the visual experience of online poker. This site does provide a significant improvement in terms of realistic 3-D software and the ability to actually create a personality at the table. Players can choose their facial structure, hair style, clothing, and other external visuals of their avatar. At the table, you can clap your hands, cry over a bad beat, or egg your opponents into a call. You can move the camera around the table at will and the graphics really are super. PKR has drawn some criticism for not being friendly to hardcore multi-table taskmasters and my response to that is usually, �So what?� As I always stress to new players, you need to examine your priorities before choosing an online poker site. If you don�t need to tile 4 tables around your screen and play 300 hands per hour but do care about things like visual experience, realism, and creating a customizable character, you might want to give PKR a try. I�ve had a lot of fun at this site so far if only for the ability to give a thumbs-up to my opponents before I call their all-in reraise with quads. Tournaments and ring games need still need to grow in terms of traffic, but the bonus offering and free perks are strong. Overall, this is a unique poker site that will please users looking for a more realistic, customizable visual experience. Unfortunately, I have decreased their score for their weak stance of not allowing US players.

Beatthefish go on to list the following positives and negatives about PKR.

POSITIVES:
-Advanced 3-D rendering, shadows, and detailed textures
-Customizable avatar facial structure, skin tone, hair color, eye color, etc.
-Customizable clothing, jewelry, and accessories
-Moveable camera, multiple camera modes
-Highly detailed background environments
-Avatars physically act out desired actions (i.e. cry, cheer, dance, boo)

NEGATIVES:
-Character voices (some might enjoy this, but I found it a bit annoying)
-Having to manually look at your cards (this is realistic but can be frustrating, so I recommend setting the software to �Auto Look� to automatically check your cards. They may remove the manual card-checking in the future.)

Overall, I have added Beat the fish to the Poker blogroll - a useful site to visit if one wants a down to earth review of the real poker play available. The other major addition is the "Strategy" section that will take the player from beginner level all the way through to advanced play. A good free resource.




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As economists we tend to employ a lot of mathematics in our work but we use mathematics to fundamentally analyse human behaviour. These two book are my most recent purchases:

The Mathematics of Poker (Paperback)
by William Chen (Author), Jerrod Ankenman (Author)



Some good Amazon reviews although they point out that you do need to have above basic level mathematics. I would hope the reader of this blog would qualify.

The Poker Mindset: Essential Attitudes for Poker Success (Paperback)
by Ian Taylor (Author), Matthew Hilger (Author)



It is interesting to note that Taylor got a degree in Economics from Warwick University. If he had been at a different University in the UK I would have taught him. This had better be a good book or this senior economist will have to have words ;-) The reviews on Amazon are not too encouraging though.

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As part of our sector overview we bring you news that Dynamic Gaming Systems may be in trouble and about to fold.

What is interesting about this news is that it is beginning to show that barriers to entry are eventually increasing to such a level that new entrants will find it harder to get sufficient liquidity when up against the big boys with their huge marketing budgets.

Some background from an article on Flop Turn River.com written last year:

Dynamic Gaming Systems Network [Flop Turn River.com]

The Dynamic Gaming Systems poker network is one of the newer less popular networks you will find in 2007. The only reason they are less popular is because they are relatively new, not because of bad software or reviews. In fact, they have some of the best software features I have seen and are constantly updating to make them better.

They have some real nice features such as button click table resizes, and things to get into other players heads such as showing when you fold, or even showing just one card. Their support desk is also spectacular and I rank them up near the top.

Although they might have some nice software and support, they need to get the word out. On average they will have 600 or so players connected, and only about 15 tables max with active players. This is much too small for the online world today, so hopefully people will start to catch on.

More and more rooms are popping out that use the DGS software, and they have at least 18 rooms on the network. With this kind of growth you should expect to see some serious player number increases. Dynamic Gaming Systems are one of the networks that still allow US players to play from all locations.

News of closure comes from SBR and Online Casinos.

BigJuicyOdds (SBR rating D+) poker network, Dynamic Gaming Solutions (DGS) folds

and

Dynamic Gaming Solutions reported to be in trouble

This is another indication that there will be a shake up in the sector and that consolidation is inevitable. Barriers to entry will increase and only the large will survive in the very long run as costs increase and margins become under pressure.

The counter argument is that there are enough punters to go around and that these numbers will continue to grow. This is by no means certain and it is also likely that any new punters will be swayed by TV adverts and the larger most trustworthy brands such as PRTY, 888, Paradise Poker.

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