The Winning Poker Network (WPN) has made the decision to contribute to the jackpot for “The Beast” promotion out of its own pocket, rather than charging players additional rake. The promotion will continue to run, but will now be free for network customers.
“The Beast” promotion is a progressive points race in which players earn points for every hand they play at designated jackpot tables as long as at least four players are dealt into the hand. Similar to bad beat jackpot tables that have been common at online poker rooms over the years, players are charged an additional fee, over and above the rake, which feeds the jackpot.
The table is awarded points based on the stakes, which are then divided equally amongst all the players who contributed to the pot in a given hand. Each player has his or her points added up on a weekly leaderboard and the top points earners win cash and other prizes. As an example, this week’s (Saturday through Friday) leader has almost 17,000 points and would earn a $2,220 cash prize and a special tournament entry if the promotion ended right now. The current jackpot sits at just over $22,000, while the tournament package jackpot is over $8,600. Both will continue to climb until Friday at 11:59pm, at which point the prizes will be awarded.
Beginning April 5th, though, the Winning Poker Network will change the structure of “The Beast.” Rather than designating certain tables for the promotion and assessing extra fees to feed the jackpot, every cash game table will award points for “The Beast” and there will be no additional fees. The jackpot will instead be fed directly from the standard rake. That is, the house will take only a portion of its normal rake with the rest going towards the jackpot. For every six cents of rake, two cents will be earmarked for “The Beast.”
This could be an effort by the network to increase its cash game participation. Jackpot tables that charge extra rake tend to split player traffic, making games at both the regular and jackpot tables less attractive. By eliminating the fee and including all tables in the promotion, all cash game players will be gather under one umbrella and possibly strengthen the traffic at more tables.
WPN is one of the few remaining U.S.-facing networks that is not regulated on the state level. According to PokerScout.com, it has fielded 375 cash game players over the past seven days, making it the 23rd largest network in the industry. It ranks only behind Bodog as far as U.S.-friendly networks go, though Bodog is light years ahead with a seven-day average of 1,500 cash game players. The Merge Gaming Network, another U.S.-facing network, is 50 players behind WPN.
