Catering to the Fish

Hey everyone,

I'd like to get some thoughts about online casinos catering to fish. Imagine you're an online poker room... is it in your best interest from a profit standpoint to cater to fish, and simultaneously deter sharks? I guess the basic logic behind this is that fish will lose their money to the site, while sharks will actually be withdrawing more money than they put in. I strongly disagree with this logic. But I've searched around, talked with people, and it seems like a lot of people (including knowledgeable poker players) are buying into it. I even found an article written by Brandon Adams (a Havard grad), where he seems to believe in this idea.

The reason I'm thinking about this is because Bodog has openly stated that they are subscribing to this philosophy. Just like a week ago, I heard they stopped showing full games in lobbies. Their reasoning behind this was to stop tracking sites like PTR and sharkscope... I guess... because they believe that these sites scare off recreational players. They've made other decisions in the past based on this same principle, including getting rid of their tournament leaderboard, and never increasing the table-limit beyond 4 games.

Basically, the thing I don't understand is why in the world a site would seek to attract fish and deter sharks. I see it as a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of poker as a zero-sum game and relative skill levels. The online poker room makes the same amount of money in a 9-player SNG of all sharks as they do in a 9-player SNG of all fish. In every poker game, there are winners and losers. To me, an online poker room should only care about getting people to participate in raked games. They should try to maximize the total number of people playing, not just the fish. They get their cut regardless, as long as money is being circulated. Sure... I understand that if no new players are depositing, then maybe the whole operation dries up. But I just have a hard time believing it.

I have a lot more to say about this issue because I've been thinking about it a lot, so I'll cut myself off there, and get some of my other thoughts on this thread later.

Great post Brett. :)

Personally, I don't really see how it would benefit an online poker site to cater to losing players, and not want the regulars, so I am not a believer in this theory.

I can see how this would benefit them. The number of casual players far outweighs the number of regulars, and as you said earlier, the site makes the same amount in rake from the buy-in of a regular as it does a casual player. So, the more players you bring in, the more money you make. If there are way more casual players than regular players....that is where you will make your money. So if they were to allow all of the stat tracking software and allow you to play 20+ tables at a time, it would make the environment less inviting to the casual player.

I love the idea. Im sick of playing against sharks, us fish want to play against each other.