dj11
Legend
Silver Level
I start this thread, which hopefully eventually will provide all readers with some important info. Please feel free to correct any assumptions made. To start this off it will at first be full of assumptions, and thin on documentation.
What is a Poker Skin?
As currently understood it is one site, using their Web Site name along with a separate 'Poker Engine', from another site to provide games at a common table.
I tend to think of it as a Room in the Round. Picture a huge parking lot, with a circular building with many doors. Over each door you find a sign with the name of that door and its associated web site. You pay to get in (one way or another) and find a room full of poker games. You sit at a table where the other players may or may not have come through the same door as you.
Example 1;
Absolute /Vegas 247. Both use the existing Absolute 'Poker Engine'. For non special events you could join into a tourney or ring game and play against players who sat down at that table after entering via either door (Absolute Poker or Vegas247). Since Ultimatebet and AP are owned by the same folks, it might be of note here that the first version of CardPlayer magazines playing site was using a UB engine. CardPlayer is now supporting a beta for a new site called Spade Club.
Example 2;
The Cake network. Cake, Sportsbook, Players Only, and apparently several others. Aside from special events (hosted by and for a particular subset of players) the tables will be mixed with players who entered via different doors.
Example 3;
There were many other skin sites before the UIGEA. Not all of the skins worked like the above two examples. In some cases the 'Poker Engine' was all that the sites had in common.
There are peculiar issues involved with skins.
1. A player that you know from one site could leave a table, and come back to that same table as a different entity.
Please correct or add anything you know here.
Add complete 'networks' if you can. Much of this info may already be compiled somewhere, post if you know where. My gut feeling is that for the most part, most sites would prefer to keep us all in the dark about this.
If you think of a particular issue, post that.
What is a Poker Skin?
As currently understood it is one site, using their Web Site name along with a separate 'Poker Engine', from another site to provide games at a common table.
I tend to think of it as a Room in the Round. Picture a huge parking lot, with a circular building with many doors. Over each door you find a sign with the name of that door and its associated web site. You pay to get in (one way or another) and find a room full of poker games. You sit at a table where the other players may or may not have come through the same door as you.
Example 1;
Absolute /Vegas 247. Both use the existing Absolute 'Poker Engine'. For non special events you could join into a tourney or ring game and play against players who sat down at that table after entering via either door (Absolute Poker or Vegas247). Since Ultimatebet and AP are owned by the same folks, it might be of note here that the first version of CardPlayer magazines playing site was using a UB engine. CardPlayer is now supporting a beta for a new site called Spade Club.
Example 2;
The Cake network. Cake, Sportsbook, Players Only, and apparently several others. Aside from special events (hosted by and for a particular subset of players) the tables will be mixed with players who entered via different doors.
Example 3;
There were many other skin sites before the UIGEA. Not all of the skins worked like the above two examples. In some cases the 'Poker Engine' was all that the sites had in common.
There are peculiar issues involved with skins.
1. A player that you know from one site could leave a table, and come back to that same table as a different entity.
Please correct or add anything you know here.
Add complete 'networks' if you can. Much of this info may already be compiled somewhere, post if you know where. My gut feeling is that for the most part, most sites would prefer to keep us all in the dark about this.
If you think of a particular issue, post that.