Poker Networks Believe Fish Good For Health

The Poker Networks have been waging a war on winning players lately, in a bid to attract more fish to their poker sites. Last week, iPoker started implementing its policy of imposing penalties on card rooms that have a high proportion of winning players in relation to losing players. This resulted in a number of Victor Chandler players having their cash game stakes restricted to lower buy-in games.
Now, the Microgaming Network have decided to change their rake calculation policies, to a  “weighted contribution” instead of their previous “contributed” method. The network became concerned that a “contributed” based rate was encouraging rake back grinders and tight players, who would receive an equal share of each raked pot, regardless of the amount they actually contributed to it. For instance, a player on the small blind would receive as many rake back points in a hand as the player who went all-in.
“The new Weighted Contribution method,” as Microgaming explained, “is similar to the contributed method, except that the rake is allocated proportionally based on the amount contributed to the raked pot, enabling a fairer rake distribution.”
In recent times, it has become apparent to Poker Networks that while sharks and grinders exhibit a level of understanding of the game which allows them to consistently accrue poker profits, the overall result of their style of play is to chase existing players from the site, and discourage new players from joining. By contrast, it is the loose aggressive players who create more interest and excitement in the game by splashing around more money.
As Microgaming Poker Channel Lead Andrew Clucas explained: “The introduction of the new Weighted Contribution will reward operators with a greater proportion of looser, fishy type players, encouraging them to target these players proactively..It is believed this initiative will encourage the right sort of contributing players into the Network whilst discouraging the grinding type of behaviours which can be so negative to the health of the Network.”