On Thursday, FullFlushPoker.com became the first online poker room to launch on the new Equity Poker Network (EPN). The network, founded by former BetOnline CEO Clive Archer, is billed to be a non-profit online poker network, existing to serve its member rooms.
EPN was announced in mid-March, calling itself a “cooperative” network. In a typical network/skin structure, the skins fork over a portion of their profits to the network every month. In the case of EPN, the member rooms simply pay a $10,000 flat monthly fee. That fee, in turn, is used to help the network operate.
Additionally, the network incentivizes its rooms to innovate and provide a great customer experience by ensuring that the skin that recruits a player is the one to keep any profits derived from that player. Should a player leave one room for another on the Equity Poker Network, the original room will still be the one to benefit. This removes all incentive to poach players, which has been a problem at many networks, particularly those that allow varying rakeback deals. Of course, rooms will still compete for the initial signup, but that competition will also serve to bring players over from different networks, not steal them from each other.
Rooms on EPN are given the freedom to setup their rewards programs, including rakeback, as they deem fit, as long as the rewards equal no more than 50 percent of rake. Each poker room will also setup its own tournaments, though one might assume that some tourneys will be network-wide.
Additionally, to encourage the poker rooms to recruit recreational players instead of professional grinders, EPN will impose a “Shark/Winners Tax.”
Said Clive Archer in a press release Friday:
Shark bait may be king elsewhere, but at Full Flush Poker, we won’t be courting the sharp players; we believe our marketing and promotions will speak more to the player who finishes a hard day at the office, and wants to unwind by indulging in a game or two of Hold’em or Omaha, or logs on to test their tournament skills against like-minded leisure-seekers in their spare time.
With what FullFlushPoker calls a “soft launch,” the room will be open to players around the world, including those in the United States, for play money only. Real money ring games will be along soon. For now, players will still have a chance to win real money in the site’s $500 Sunday Freeroll, which will be doubled to $1,000 this weekend.
“We are proud to offer all US players an alternative to their limited online options, and excited to deal out a new generation of poker to recreational players in all parts of the globe,” Archer said. “Our emphasis at Full Flush Poker is on reigniting the enjoyment factor in playing a game that we think has become far too much about the professional grinder and mathematical edge at competitor card rooms.”
