It's been almost two years since Merge Gaming unveiled their last major software update. In that time, Black Friday happened and now Merge Gaming is a top ten room and the largest to accept U.S. players. So it's safe to say there is significant buzz with the next release. The next version of the popular software, version 6.0, will be unveiled next month. On Friday, Carbon Poker gave us all a preview of what of some of the new features the release will bring. On the list of improvements next month include new Filters, a New Search Field and Game List Expanders -- features that all make finding the games players seek much easier. Version 6.0 Preview Screenshots Check out the screenshots that Carbon Poker released with Friday's preview. Coming soon Carbon Poker will unveil even more details about the version 6.0 release. Stay tuned to PAS for additional details. 1) A new filter. Some players may notice the similarities to Full Tilt. 2) An upgraded advanced filter option comes with more options and a bet slider: 3) New Search Field. Search for an aspect of the game you are looking for: table names, player nicknames, player tags and even player names. 4) Game List expander features allows you to find basic table information and more ease of sitting down through the table preview: 5) Tournament game expansion is specifically design for tournaments:
As some of you may know, each month I go through each of our partner rooms and post the most significant non-exclusive promotions of the month. Today, I thought I would share my subjective analysis of the most interesting promotions on the list -- my Top 7 -- running during February. 1) WPT/Party Poker Card Rush During February, Party Poker and WPT Poker bring back the popular Card Rush. For each 15 Party Points a player earns they will receive a game piece that will reveal a guaranteed prize of a minimum of 10 Party Points up to a grand prize of $5,000. Card Rush Race points will also be earned towards a leaderboard that will pay additional cash prizes of $50 to $9,000 to the top 200 players. Party Poker will also scatter $50 spots to players finishing 220 through 2,000. Party Poker will be awarding up to 1.8 million cards during the length of this promotion. Undoubtedly, many of these cards will be Party Points and freeroll entries but it's still a great extra perks that grinders should appreciate. 2) Carbon Poker/Aced/Black Chip Poker $25,000 Bankroll Booster Freerolls Carbon Poker, Aced and Black Chip Poker will be running numerous daily qualifiers to the $25,000 Bankroll Booster Freeroll to be held on February 26th at 2 PM ET. There is no direct way to get into the tournament so players must enter either three-times-daily Freeroll Qualifiers (at 13:30, 17:30 or 21:30) or via VIP Points Earned Qualifiers. The VIP Points Qualifiers are run nine times daily. To qualify for these tournaments, players must earn a designated number of VIP Points the previous day and/or the current day up to the time of the tournament. I'm estimating an overlay of about $10 per player in the final. 3) Minted Poker $1 Max Rake Minted Poker and other sites on the Everleaf Network have extended $1 Max rake caps on all tables through February. These tables should be attracting more players than they are due to the fact they are not subject to the large 5 euro max rake and the winning limits that players must undergo at the euro tables. This would be the top promotion in online poker if there was more traffic on these tables. 4) Betsafe $100,000 Points Races Betsafe offers their lucrative Points Race every month so this promotion isn't any more special than previous months. I like this promotion not only for the total size of the prize pool -- which is divided into two promo periods each month -- but the overall value to players. Betsafe also sweetens the pot by providing a $6,000 freeroll to all players that finish in the top 100 of Race 1 or 2. 5) True Poker/Americas Cardroom You really wouldn't think that a small network such as Winning Poker would be able to offer such large promotions, but during February they have actually increased their monthly race promotions to $100,000. $60,000 of the prize pool is awarded to the top FPP Point earners during the month and another $40,000 will be given away during weekend "Sprints," $10k each weekend. Note that the Sprints are only available to ring game players while the $60k "Marathon" is offered to both ring game and tournament players and actually awards bonus points for participation in top tournaments. 6) Boss Magic Hands For one day only on February 14th, the Boss Network (Poker Heaven, Fortune Poker, Interpoker) are awarding cash prizes to players that hit various Valentine's Day themed hands. I've always loved these types of promotions, especially ones that are relatively easy to hit like this one. Players receive €25 for a Heart Flush, €25 when losing 3 hands with K and Q of hearts and €250 when winning a hand with Straight Flush of Hearts. Players must submit a Magic Hand to claim via the Player Zone within 72 hours of hitting the hand. Note that both hole cards must be used and other rules apply. 7) Mansion Poker On Target! I'm also a big fan of promotions that guarantee a prize when a certain amount of play is achieved and that is exactly what Mansion is offering during February with their "On Target" promotion. Each week during the month, players can enter On Target via a no-play tournament from the lobby. Players that hit a raked hand target during the week will receive a cash reward and a $50 pending bonus. Prizes start at $5 and a $50 bonus for reaching 200 raked hands. Not bad, especially for grinders and when combining the promotion on top of the other many Mansion promotions. There you have it- my personal favorite standard online poker promotions for the month of February. If you a PAS publisher, be sure to also check out over $300,000 in exclusive promotions during the month of February. Good luck and happy marketing!
Last month Merge Gaming began accepting players from all of North America for the first time since June of 2011. Around the time of the June player ban, the network also halted new rakeback sign-ups, choosing instead to offer a standard VIP program, a tiered scheme that progressively rewards players the more they rake. Because a whole new group of players are now able to play on the network, I thought it would be a good time to go over what players can expect from these “new” rewards programs that have replaced flat rakeback deals and how affiliates should market these offers. On PAS sites, you’ll see most of the Merge Gaming offers on PAS referred to as “47% VIP,” “47% VIP Rakeback” or something similar. Although the language is sure to confuse some players, we believe that many who are aware of rakeback are also familiar with the “VIP” designation, which essentially references the fact the offer is not based on a traditional rakeback deal, but instead refers to the site’s standard VIP program. Affiliates may also refer to the Merge Gaming VIP program as “cashback” but should avoid the straight “xx% rakeback” language if only to avoid confusion with players who may think they are getting traditional rakeback deal. Old Rakeback Vs. New VIP Programs So what can new players expect who didn’t register for an account while rakeback was still being offered? In general, players that failed to register for a rakeback account prior to June 1st will see lower rates than players who are grandfathered into a flat deal. There are exceptions however, notably for players that put in a decent amount of volume. At Carbon Poker, for example, a player that rakes $2,500 or more in a month will actually receive the full 47% VIP Rakeback rate- 35% from Cash Rebates and 12% from VIP Point Exchanges, a rate that actually exceeds what flat rakeback players earn. A caveat is that players must rake that amount each month to receive that rate. Another exception is the Top-Up Promotion at Black Chip, which has been running for the last few months. Players who take part in that program basically receive 35% right away and up to 47% when raking $1,000 or more. This promotion is assumed not to be ongoing. Other VIP Perks Like many VIP Programs, players are often treated to a variety of miscellaneous perks for being frequent players. On Carbon Poker, top players received reduced check fees (no check fees at the highest level), a VIP player host and event invitations, among others. Other sites such as Black Chip Poker –which offer the default Ace-High Rewards Program -- add monthly freerolls up to $8,000 for players. With No Rakeback, Do Players Need Affiliates? Since the network no longer allows flat rakeback the need to use an affiliate has unarguably diminished. Despite this fact, players still have plenty of motivation to sign-up through an affiliate due to exclusive promotions. Merge Gaming sites are going to be the most appealing site available to many North American players due to the amount of traffic the site receives. Even though the site does not offer rakeback, exclusive promotions including Rake Races, bonuses and Free Coaching are still quite appealing to these players. An example of these exclusive promotions include $10,000 Rake Races at Carbon Poker and Black Chip Poker. PAS also offers a $5k freeroll at Carbon Poker and even added a $25 Free Bonus a couple months ago for publishers. In addition, Free Coaching is available at Drag the Bar at Carbon and Black Chip Poker and DeucesCracked at all Merge Gaming rooms. The Ace-High VIP Program The default VIP Program at Merge Gaming is the so called “Ace-High VIP Program,” which is offered by a few different Merge Gaming sites. In my opinion, these programs are inferior to the custom VIP programs offered by poker rooms such as Carbon and PokerView. In addition to the complex nature of these VIP programs, many players won’t be able exchange all of their points at the max value for their status level. Not only do players have to generate $30k before they receive the maximum rate (45%), but they can’t exchange all of their points at the maximum rate. One positive of the Ace-High VIP program is that players will get to keep their VIP level even if they are maintaining a certain level of play -- assuming they earn at least 1 VIP Point every 60 days. So IF a player generates $30k in rake AND then generates less than $6k per month after that – a point where they wouldn’t be forced to exchange VIP Points at a non-max rate – only then will the Ace-High VIP Program become competitive. VIP Programs; A Snapshot The rates below represent the rates players can expect from VIP programs of PAS partnered sites when generating certain levels of rake. *program based on cumulative rake. Not directly comparable to custom VIP Programs. Which Program Is Best? This question will depend a lot on the player. At this point, the Black Chip Poker Top-Up promotion provides players the best value at all levels but that does not appear to be a permanent promotion. The PokerView VIP program is very competitive at all status levels, despite the site not offering exclusive promotions. With that said, I like PokerView for low rakers and Carbon Poker for mid to high rakers. One additional thing to keep in mind is the various additional promotions that each of these sites offer. Carbon Poker, for example, is diligent about offering players monthly reload bonuses, which add an additional 13% to players’ when they are clearing a bonus. A player taking advantage of these bonuses each month will almost certainly be better off with Carbon Poker versus competitors. Because of all the various factors, I can not apply a “one size fits all” explanation, meaning each player needs to consider their own situation.
We have a few exciting announcements this month for PAS publishers that promote Carbon Poker. Beginning in October, CPA publishers can now enjoy the benefits of promoting exclusive PAS Carbon Poker promotions, including the long-running $10,000 Rake Race. In October, we will also be introducing a $5,000 Freeroll for Carbon Poker players, available to publishers under revenue-share or CPA plans. The $25 Free Cash Bonus is also back for Revenue-Share publishers in October. We believe that these new promotions will go a long way towards increasing player value which will help in conversions and keep your players coming back. As a reminder, PAS offers CPA commissions of $100 per qualified player with requirements of a $50 deposit and 300 VIP Points. Affiliates choosing Revenue-Share will receive 40%. Details of Carbon Poker Exclusive Promotions During October $10,000 Rake Race: Available for MGR and CPA publishers The $10,000 Rake Race pays the top 75 generators from October 1st to October 30th with cash prizes of $10 for 75th up to $2,000 for 1st place. $5,000 Freeroll: ***NEW*** Available for MGR and CPA publishers New players that earn 1 VIP or non-new players that earn 500 VIP Points during October will be qualify for a PAS exclusive freeroll to be held on November 13th. New players will be defined as a player that earned 1 VIP in the first month they deposited. $25 Free Cash Bonus: ***Back for October*** Available for MGR publishers Players that sign-up and deposit through a PAS site during the month of October will receive a $25 Free Cash bonus the day after their deposit. The promotion is in addition to the PAS exclusive promotions and 150% up to $750 sign-up bonus. Players must earn 1000 VIP Points to withdraw the bonus. Miscellaneous Promotions If that wasn't enough, players can also receive the following perks from Carbon Poker: 150% up to $750 sign-up bonus (MGR) or 100% up to $600 (CPA)VIP Program that pays VIP rakeback up to 47%Free Drag the Bar Coaching14 Day of Depositor Freerolls + Five Daily $2000 Freerolls2x October- Twice the normal rate of VIP Points earned during 00:00 - 04:00 + 12:00 - 16:00 daily, all Omaha games, all Tuesday SNGs (Players must opt-in) Request the Offer: If you do not yet promote Carbon Poker, request your offer from the repspective tab after logging on to the publisher admin:
In case you missed it, we wanted to remind Carbon Poker PAS publishers of a great exclusive PAS promotion currently available to new sign-ups during the month of September: a $25 Free Cash Bonus for players that sign-up and make a deposit before October 1st. Everyone loves free cash to play at the poker tables and this one is extra special because players are awarded the $25 Free Cash in addition to the other perks they receive when signing up through a PAS publisher site including: 150% up to $750 sign-up bonusVIP rakeback up to 47%$10,000 Exclusive Rake RaceFree Poker Coaching through Drag the Bar (rake $1 during your first month)14 days of $500 daily First Depositor Freerolls More Reasons to Promote Carbon Poker There are many reasons to promote Carbon Poker on your affiliate websites. A year ago the site added a dedicated Mac client, further broadening the appeal of one of online poker’s most unique software platforms. Then this summer, Merge Gaming received a gaming license issued by the Lotteries and Gaming Authority in Malta giving them a highly desirable European license. We'd also like to mention that our Merge Gaming reps have stated that the LGA license requires that operational funds must be separated from player funds. Full Terms of the Exclusive Free $25 Cash Bonus: Valid from September 1st to October 1stAvailable to players that register and make a deposit during SeptemberOnce a deposit is made, players will be credited with the Free $25 to their real money accountPlayers can make a withdrawal once 1,000 VIP Points have been earnedIf a withdrawal is made before the completion of the bonus, the $25 Free Cash bonus will be voidFree $25 can only be used in poker games If you don't currently promote Carbon Poker, PAS strongly recommends you give the Merge Gaming flagship room a look. PAS publishers can choose between a $100 CPA or 40% revenue-share.
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