I'm the guru of poker club apps. AMA

Is there a way I can contact you privately?

You're a skilled writer, organ man.

So can you clarify, in broad terms, how the rake gets divvied up?

Say I generated 100$ rake in the week and I get 15% of that, how much of the remainder goes to the agent, club, platform? Roundabout...

You could DM me here or find me on the internet, but if you have a question or need help with a specific situation I'm sure just posting here would be better.

Thanks for the compliment. I've definitely had to improve my wordsmith skills a lot over the course of these degrees, through necessity...

The answer to your question varies greatly, depending on the situation. But here's what I would consider a "standard" deal - I would estimate that half or more of all deals are structured somewhat like this:

Union: takes 10%
Club owner: takes 90%, and shares it as follows:
Superagent: 70%
Agent: 55%
Player: 0%-50%. Whales get more and regs get less.

Often, any entity at the level of SA or lower will be on what we call a "sliding scale." For example, in one union, if my guys generate 1k or less in a week, I get 65%, 1k-2k is 70%, and 2k+ is 80% (or thereabouts, I'm not reporting the numbers exactly.)

Me either. But to each their own.

What are your thoughts on running a rake free app game for legal purposes building up a player base then selling it to someone who will charge rake?

Accused of using a BOT

I play in GGclub and cashed last night. I think the owners just didn’t want to pay me so they accused me of using a bot. Any way to disprove this to them?? We were playing PLO on the GGapp and the swings are so crazy in PLO. how the hell would someone even be able to use any type of bot at this game 🤷🏻*♂️ Any advice would be great. I want to get my money

So me and my partner are currently in smaller union, just trying to build up our action. Across bonuses, security deposit, and other expenses we seem to be tight for money. We are thinking about trying to "club hop" in order to climb up with better action. We have some smaller stake players, but are doing through growing pains. Any advice is very much appreciated.

We have been proposed with the opportunity to join a seemingly established and trusted union. Like most of course it requires a security deposit that is just a touch out of reach. Do you suggest getting the funds to join that union and plan to be there long term? I feel like that would give me the best opportunity to grow my club with games running 24/7 and taking a lot of the work load off of the sole owner. Thanks

Not a good plan IMO. Who is the buyer to say the players won't notice the rake change then leave saying they were bait and switched? Deals and schemes like this never work. Just run a normal game and be transparent with everyone.

They are scumming you. Figure out who is in charge of the union and tell them. Call them out here if you want, too.

They are scumming you. Figure out who is in charge of the union and tell them. They should be able to withhold funds from that agent. Call them out here if you want, too.

Judging by what you've said it sounds like you should be running a superagency, not a full club in the union.

Open to PM?

You can PM me but if you have a question that would be beneficial to others here, go for it!

Hey!

I read your insights about poker clubs and found them really valuable—thanks for sharing! I wanted to reach out because I’m in a bit of a similar situation and could use some advice.

Recently, I’ve been playing in a GGClub that a friend of mine opened. The club has around 70 players, and I’ve recruited 5-6 of them, including two high-stakes players. One of them consistently generates 5-10k in rake weekly. Despite this, I’m only receiving 5-10% of the rake, and the club owners aren’t willing to offer me a better deal. (The rake itself is 5% and rake back 50% to the players)

I’ve been thinking about starting my own club with a partner. We have a base of about 15 trustworthy players, and I believe this could grow as people bring friends. However, we’re concerned about sustainability and whether just relying on “friends bringing friends” is enough to keep the games running consistently.

Would you have any advice for someone starting out in this space? Alternatively, would you be open to potentially cooperating? If you’re interested, I’d love for you to check out the games we have in the current club. The games only run at night but are full of action—stakes vary between 1/2 and 5/10, with games ranging from Hold’em to PLO and PLO5.

Very interesting thread . Thanks for all the info .

You mention a few times the club owners pay alot for securities .

1.What exactly the security is doing ?
How do they prevent from playing together ? Or sharing cards between players ?
Which is the most common collusion , specifically in Plo.

2.Any other collusion types to worry about ?

3.Are there also bots which are there for profits and not by the club owners ?

4.Have you heard about super users which runs very well and hit anything they chase ?

I skimmed, so sorry if this has been covered. In Pokerrrr2, besides bots and the obvious player collusion, is there any way to cheat from the backend (card manipulation, etc.)? Can anyone besides the owner of the game or hosts incorporate bots into a game/club -- can a player be his own bot w/o the owner/host knowing about it?

Edit: just realized the post above is similar. Sorry about that -- still very curious.

Thanks.

You make it sound as if anyone can become an agent, provided they have players. How does one start an agency? Is there a minimum amount of players/action you have to bring in to keep the agency?

My friends and I also run a club mostly for home games and a few buddies we've made at our local casinos.
Still an interesting read into what the bigger clubs and unions do though.
We also use ClubGG, and only have around 40 players.. Usually get a few games going every other week and the challenge is to grow it. We plan to expand and advertise more in the near future though.

Thanks for your questions. Happy to answer them:
1. Security monitors for duplicate accounts and collusion through IP tracing. They can see pretty easily if players are consistently playing the same tables, tourneys, etc. I have been in clubs where it's pretty clear teams are playing the tourneys if not also card sharing, so I always make sure to contact security to make sure it's good before I play in a club.
They also check for bot activity, which is sgain pretty easy to detect using the software provided to unions. Especially in good clubs that limit or ban consistently winning players, collision is rare. In any case a secure union in a club app is way more collusion free on average than a normal site.
2. As long as security is good, collusion isn't really an issue in clubs like it is with normal sites.
3. Yes. Don't play in a bot ring!
4. I don't believe there is any hack like that. Even if there was, union security would catch it pretty quickly.

I hope that clears up at least some of what you wanted to know!

Hi! I'm not too familiar with that app, but I have zero doubt that most talk about superusers just arises from superstition.

Yes, theoretically anyone could run the bot software, but in most cases the bots will be easily discovered and the dirty agent's or club's funds will be seized. The information for the corrupt owner or agent, and his players' IDs, will be known and that person will have a tough time getting into any reputable union. So really the only way to run bots profitably is if the club or union knows about it.

YES - that's the beauty of it - anyone could become an agent if they have several active players. The answer to your second question depends on the union.

You'd be surprised how often casual games like yours turn into major operations. Play your cards right with it. Be fair to others who you meet. Don't get greedy.