oneybiggs
Legend
Silver Level
Sooooo…..You think he should've stayed? ….hehe.Although Negreanu was a big part of the problem man. You kinda make it sound as though he wasn't. While Negreanu was just Pokerstars shill, he still made millions every year to keep going out there & blindly supporting Pokerstars never ending giant rake increases & saying its good for players & good for the games. When a player of his caliber with his knowledge of the game knows damn well that never ending giant sized rake increases are not good for the game or for the players at all. If Negreanu's local casino where he grinded at when he was a struggling up & coming player suddenly decided to do what Pokerstars is doing & start adding giant rake increases regularly with no end in site then I'm pretty sure Negreanu would have been livid about it.
I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be happy about it if he played regularly at Bobby's Room & they started increasing the rake every few months or wherever he plays the most. Though he'd probably care a little less now since he's rich. Hence why he didn't care cause it doesn't effect him. What if they started increasing the entry fee every few months for every tournament that Negreanu plays in? Pretty sure he wouldn't think that's "Great for the game". Pretty sure he would be none to happy about that. The never ending rake increases on Pokerstars certainly benefits all the amateur & recreational players way more then it does the pro's & reg's because it definitely hurts the pro's & reg's a lot more. Though it doesn't even really benefit the the rec's & amateur's either it just lessens the edge the pro's have on them while hurting all players in the process & lining Pokerstars pockets with more & more profit. The never ending rake increases just makes it harder & harder for anyone to turn a profit rec or not.
It's killing both Pokerstars & online poker. Recreational & amateur players should be equally upset as the pro's & reg's are about all the never ending giant rake increases because it effects them & their ability to make any money while playing just as much. The recreational players & amateurs are the ones that hold all the power in terms of ending the rake increases & getting them drastically reduced because the amount of recreational & amateur players on the site far outweigh the number or reg's & pro's. Plus the recreational & amateur players are the only ones that Pokerstars gives a crap about & listens to so they are the only ones that can change anything. When they all complain with one voice & stop playing then Pokerstars greedy ass sits up in their chairs & finally listens.
Unfortunately the problem is that A. The recreational & amateur players don't really seem to understand why never ending giant rake increases is a bad thing for them & for everyone else & B. The other problem is that recreational & amateur players just don't seem to care. The majority of them are losing players that play for fun & are going to lose money anyway so they simply don't give a crap even though it effects them & they lose money at a much faster rate now with continued rake increases. But they figure well I just play for fun & I'm going to lose money or break even anyway whether the rake is 4% or 75% of the pot so I don't care go ahead & rake me to death & take 75% of my winnings whenever I win a pot for all I care. Leave me with nothing whenever I win a pot that's fine with me.
Let's just keep jacking up the rake & eventually turn it into play chips where Pokerstars just takes like 99% of the pot in rake while we all fight over fractions of a penny every pot. Long as we still get to play right? That's eventually what its going to come to. They are just going to keep pushing the envelope with the rake & they are going to see how far they can push it until players start pushing back & until they start losing a large percentage of players. Then they will finally cap the rake at that point & stop the rake increases once it finally reaches a point where players are pushing back & they are losing too many people. Then in a few years they'll try again with another small rake increase. They are just going to keep doing it until it reaches the point where they are taking like 10-30% of the damn pot in rake. It's already at 4% - 4.5% which is insane. Micro stake players are actually paying 3.5% in rake which is just nuts for micro stakes. It's disgusting to rake micro stake players that much & I feel very bad for them. It was already tough as it was to turn any profit without the giant sized rake & before the stupid 4 table limit.
Negreanu has blindly supported all of Pokerstars F'ed up changes in favor of lining both his & Pokerstars pockets which was a majorly douche thing to do. I think it has nothing to do with being married & seeing family. I think he's leaving because of all the heat he's taken for it around the world from fellow players & from friends in the Poker community. His image has definitely taken a hit in the Poker community because of it. Mainly with the players he competes against. If you are a pro poker player that used to grind or still grinds on Pokerstars then odds are you hate Negreanu's guts & he gets to see & hear from all these people on a regular basis which I'm sure has to effect him at some point if he has even a shred of decency as a human being (which I question).
I know it would upset me a lot if I were him even if I was rich. Negreanu blindly supporting all the never ending rake increases & all of Pokerstars other F'ed up decisions is a big reason why a lot of pros look at him in a similar light now as Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, & Erick Lindgren aka The Holy Trinity Of Poker Scumbags. Unholy is more fitting actually. Negreanu is right there knocking on their door though for the 4th spot & close to making it a Quartet. Negreanu may not have gone to the same slimy extent that they did but it's in the same ballpark. He's like a prostitute really in a lot of peoples eyes. Pokerstars was his pimp & he was their go to whore. Or you could say he was their "Bottom Bitch" if you prefer:laugh:. Those familiar with hooker lingo know what that means lol.
