Tain to Remain

October 24, 2008 (InfoPowa News) — A persistent poker forum rumor that Playtech's iPoker network is to axe Tain websites soon has been strenuously denied by licensees and may have its genesis in a simple rule to bring rakeback activity under control.
 
Tain sites include Chili Poker, Cardoza Games, Carlos Poker, Poker Ducks and NoIQ Poker, reports PokerListings in examining the issue and quoting involved licensees this week. The rumor involved two propositions: one that NoIQ Poker was being expelled for rakeback violations and the other that Tain sites were being removed from the network for reasons that are not clear.
 
A spokesman for NoIQ Poker clarified the position, writing that NoIQ was "fenced" [players allowed to play against each other but not with other players on the iPoker network] a year ago on rakeback and affiliate advertising conduct allegations, but this was for a period of one week only.
 
The second proposition — that Tain sites are to be removed — is also false but may be rooted in a new iPoker rule designed to obviate rakeback.
 
Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO and shareholder for Chili Poker, told PokerListings that the new rule targets rakeback affiliates and compels network member sites to show more money in than money out. If a website has a negative money in / money out ratio, it will be penalized.
 
The new policy will apparently be implemented from November 1st, and is generally regarded as necessary.
 
"The logical consequence is that [the rule change] is not a threat but an opportunity for us and for every room of iPoker. We want also to stress that we have never been suspended from iPoker and that we are 100 percent confident [that we will] work for several years with Tain, Playtech, and iPoker," Chili Poker's Severin Rasset told 2+2 forum readers recently.
 
"As far as I am concerned, these new rules are a blessing, for the network, for Chili Poker, and for every player that wants to play on the network iPoker. Lately it became really tough to have fun, not for the players of 2+2 with a skill above the average, but for the normal players that would like just to sit for one hour at one table and have fun without fighting against nine ultra-tight players that are waiting for his first mistake," Rasset said.
 
"We will do our best to work with iPoker in order to keep our poker room as a good place for regular players but also for beginners."