Galfond Enters Negreanu's Higher Rake Debate

Back in 2016, Daniel Negreanu defended the decision by PokerStars to raise its rake by asserting that it would drive out middle tier players from the game, thus improving the overall playing experience of the site’s recreational players. According to the PokerStars frontman’s argument, it was these players that relied primarily on rake for their profits and so would not be missed, while better players would continue being able to make a living from the game.
Needless to say, Negreanu soon attracted accusations of shilling on behalf of PokerStars, with Doug Polk being one of his most vocal critics. The two influential poker pros have been involved in several high-profile feuds since, and in a recent podcast Polk reserved his most stinging words yet for the Canadian superstar, calling him “a little bitch” and explaining to Joey Ingram that he gets “paid millions of dollars to be a hypocrite and tell you why taking your money is good and why he should take more of your money..”
Negreanu then hit back in a podcast with Eric Wasserson in which he called Polk a “net negative” for the industry “because most of what he does is looking to create drama by shitting on everybody else.. just to get views.”
Negreanu’s retort has subsequently led to a series of heated exchanges between himself and Polk, but in the meantime one of poker’s most respected players, Phil Galfond, has decided to air his own views on the issue by publishing a post of his blog entitled “The Discussion on Higher Rake that Nobody is Having”.
In the article, Galfond explains that he didn’t enter the debate last year over concerns that he may have been perceived as opportunistic and trying to drum up business for his yet to launch site Run It Once. He said that he has since regretted that decision, and despite not agreeing with Negreanu’s views that he was keen to make clear that he believes him to be an “honest guy” who genuinely believes what he said.
Nevertheless, Galfond said that the approach currently being promoted by PokerStars in which recreational players are charged a higher rake and professional players receive lower levels of rakeback is turning the site into the world’s biggest “poker-themed” casino in which poker enthusiasts are left with nowhere to play. Summing up his post, Galfond said that PokerStars may stand to profit from its “fast, exciting, low edge, high rake games”, but by making them nigh on unbeatable hordes of poker enthusiasts will be forced to play on rival sites, such as partypoker.
“There will always be millions of us looking to play true, authentic, beatable poker. If PokerStars ceases to meet that demand, somebody will,” warned Galfond in his article.