PartyPoker, the online poker division of gambling giant bwin.party, announced late in October that it was ending its policy of making “limited” tables available to unskilled players. These special tables, which debuted in February 2013, were designed to protect new or inexperienced players from losing their money too quickly to savvy professionals, or “sharks.”
A Division of the Player Pool
In order to determine who qualified to play at the limited tables, the staff of PartyPoker regularly evaluated the results of players to determine if they were skilled or unskilled. Unskilled players had access to certain tables that were not even visible to their more talented opponents. For a thorough explanation of how this phenomenon appeared from an end-user perspective, take a look at this video. In general, it is to poker sites’ advantage to prevent losing players from facing tough opposition. Rapid losses dishearten new players, causing them to choose a new site to play at or to abandon poker altogether.
Dishonest Workarounds
The limited tables have been unpopular among winning players from their inception. What really drew the ire of the online poker community, however, was the October discovery that certain dishonest gamblers were able to circumvent the restrictions put in place by PartyPoker. Many competent players were accused of using throwaway player accounts to access the special tables until an account was classified as “skilled.” Upon such reclassification, the clever manipulator would proceed to use another account and do the same thing, continuously accessing these tables. Facing the wrath of the player community, PartyPoker had to reconsider its policies and ultimately decided to end the segregation of the player pool.
As poker operators take steps to encourage the participation of new players, they must always be aware of the potential consequences of their actions. As PartyPoker discovered, no move that it makes can escape the scrutiny of the ever-vigilant online player community. To his credit, PartyPoker’s Director of Poker, Jeffrey Haas, released a statement on poker forum Twoplustwo.com promising to solicit more player feedback before adding new features or making big changes going forward.