As of May 6th, Party Poker Progressive Knockout online tournaments will have a new rake structure. The timing for removing rake from the bounty element for all PKO multi-table tournaments was perfect. Party Poker will roll out the changes right before their Powerfest PKO events.
Patrick Leonard, the Party Poker representative of multi-table tournament players, explained it all in the Two Plus Two poker forum thread. In Leonard’s words, his primary interests revolve around treating Party Poker players fairly and improving poker experience with players in mind.
The managing director of one of the best poker sites in the UK, Party Poker’s Tom Waters, revealed platform’s future rake plans. For now, the removal of rake in PKO online tournaments is not permanent. As Waters explained, the company will hold the policy for six months. If the site gets the support they need from their players, the new rake structure would become permanent.
So, how will players benefit from this new rake structure?
To put it simply, players will pay less rake with their bounties increased. Party Poker explained on their official blog how they plan on going about this. According to the site, they will use the old rake amount to increase players’ bounties. The smaller the buy-in amount is, the higher the bounty increment will be.
For example, in a tournament with the $530 buy-in, the prize pool and the bounty pool are worth $250 each. There is also a $30 fee. The new rake structure would change only the bounty pool amount and the fee. The buy-in amount, as well as the prize pool, would remain the same. Therefore, the bounty pool would go up by $12.5, while the fee would go down by $12.5. So, the original fee would decrease by 44%, and the bounty pool would increase by 5%.
As Party Poker ambassador, Patrick Leonard said, up until now the poker platform followed the industry rather than leading it. With the latest change, Party Poker is changing the industry standards while staying in line with Leonard’s expectations to be bold, brave, and fair.