[WPT Global] Official Thread
Hi 2+2ers,
Welcome to the official WPT Global thread!
WPT Global is the real-money online poker business of the World Poker Tour, and we’re about to celebrate our two-year anniversary, having launched in April 2022. After such a short time, we’re already the third-largest online poker room in the world (ranked by PokerScout.com, based on cash game traffic).
We’re joining TwoPlusTwo to share information with you, engage with the community, and answer any questions you might have.
WPT Global is special for a few reasons:
- Our modern platform has been built from the beginning to leverage AI technology. We use this in two main ways. The first is to protect the games by detecting collusion, bot use, RTA use and other forms of cheating extremely quickly. We have the best Game Integrity tech I’ve experienced in my 19 years in the industry, and a team of around 50 people using it.
- The second way we utilise AI technology is in managing our ecology. We ensure that games are sustainable and beatable by reserving seats in every game for casual players and limiting the number of seats per table that can be occupied by highly skilled professionals. I’ll go into more detail on this point later, in the below FAQ, but the net result is - we have the softest cash games you’ll find online, and typical win-rates for regs are 5-10x higher than elsewhere. (If you don't’ believe me, just try them and see for yourself).
- We have had a large liquidity pool from the very beginning, especially in cash games. This is because we partnered with a couple of successful Asia-facing poker rooms to bootstrap their liquidity. Most poker startups face an enormous challenge in growing their liquidity from scratch - this solution allowed us to launch with cash games running 24/7 and it contributes to our soft player pool. Now, WPT Global is a large poker site in its own right and less dependent on the Asia liquidity, and we’re growing our games in US Dollars all the time.
- There is enormous value on offer - our explicit aim is to pay back more to players via promotions and giveaways than any other site. Check out our current promotions here.
- Global Spins is our unique twist on the Jackpot SNG concept, with a progressive jackpot and the lowest rake in the industry (5%).
- As part of the World Poker Tour family, we’re the best place to qualify for WPT events around the world, like the WPT World Championship at the Wynn later this year.
Some of you might remember me and my colleague WPT Global Peter from our previous roles. Many years ago, I was one of the first site representatives ever to engage with the 2+2 community, as the first PokerStars representative in the ‘PokerStars Software Improvement Thread’. Later, Peter and I ran the ‘Official MPN - Microgaming Poker Network...’. You can expect a similar level of transparency and responsiveness here. While I don’t promise to respond to every single thing, no constructive question or criticism is off limits.
I look forward to engaging with you all!
All the best,
Alex Scott
President, WPT Global
(X/Twitter: @AlexScott72o)
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FAQ
You can also read a more general FAQ on our website, here.
What countries is WPT Global available in?
Currently, we have a .com licence and have not entered any regulated markets (although we will start to do so later this year). We’re open to most markets that have yet to regulate, including Canada (except Ontario), Ireland, New Zealand and most of Latin America, Asia and Africa.
We don’t (yet) accept players from the US, UK, Australia, Russia, and most of Europe. If you’re from one of these countries and want to qualify for WPT events then Club WPT might work for you!
See our Terms and Conditions (section 2.5) for more detailed information.
How does the ecology management system work? Do you ban winners from playing at WPT Global?
Our ecology management system is specifically designed so that we can run sustainable games without having to penalise winners.
In cash games, our AI technology measures the skill level of every player and predicts their win rate. The model is highly accurate and continually updates so that it cannot be abused or ‘gamed’.
We reserve a number of seats at each cash game table for players that fall into one of our ‘casual player’ categories. In our most popular game (8-Handed NLHE with an ante and a straddle) we reserve six of the eight seats for casual players, which effectively means that highly-skilled pros can only occupy two seats.
Because there is plenty of liquidity, if you find yourself categorised as a pro, you can still always find a game to play at any stake, and you can guarantee yourself a seat in a great game if you start a table, since our ecology management system ensures that only one other pro can sit with you.
The system does not categorise players by their actual win rate, but by how skilled they are. If you have a great run of luck, you will not necessarily be categorised as a pro, and vice versa, you will not necessarily be categorised as a casual player if you run bad.
We find that once players get used to the system, they love it. Both pros and beginners have a better experience because we eliminate some of the common predatory behaviour that occurs elsewhere, and pros can achieve significantly higher win rates. I encourage you to give it a try!
What’s with the games in CNY currency?
Because we partnered with Asia-facing poker rooms to launch, some of our games are in Chinese Yuan (CNY) currency. At the time of writing, the exchange rate to the dollar is about 7.25 CNY to the USD. As we’ve become less dependent on the Asian liquidity we have introduced more USD games. Most cash games and all tournaments including Global Spins are now available in USD, and for those of you that want to play in the CNY games, there’s a handy currency converter in the lobby, and the ability to change the stacks to BB.
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Edit/MH: WPT Global Peter
We are all unhappy with the changes WPT made in regards to the rakeback and hsp tag in general. But I don't get what playing a higher variance game has to do with that. You choose to play this higher variance (and lower skill-edge game) game, and now you feel like you are more entitled to rakeback?
don't get me wrong I can't even handle 20bi swings lol, but thats also why I will not play these formats (other than a simplified and more gambly
hello!
It's not only the higher variance in Shortdeck compared to Hold'em, but as previously explained, the high number of blinds that need to be defended preflop (7 blinds) relative to the stack sizes of the players (39 to 59 blinds) also plays a significant role. This structure means players have to go all-in and call all-ins with a very wide range of hands.
Becouse of that, the rake generated per player is extremely high compared to Hold'em, making it very difficult to win consistently without receiving rakeback.
We are all unhappy with the changes WPT made in regards to the rakeback and hsp tag in general. But I don't get what playing a higher variance game has to do with that. You choose to play this higher variance (and lower skill-edge game) game, and now you feel like you are more entitled to rakeback?
don't get me wrong I can't even handle 20bi swings lol, but thats also why I will not play these formats (other than a simplified and more gambly
I don’t understand why it’s necessary to compare disciplines at all.
My message to Alex is the following: due to these changes:
- The regs will leave because for most of them, rakeback is 50%+ of their profit.
- WPT Global will deprive itself of several million dollars in rake per year in this discipline.
- Short Deck is finally dying (PS, GG, and now WPTG have taken all the steps to make this happen).
KidCudi147, if you have something to say about Hold'em or Omaha, please do so. I don’t see any reason to steer the discussion towards “which discipline is more skillful,” “where variance is higher,” or “who deserves rakeback more.”
How have the games been since the changes? I'm guessing there'll be some deluded spazz regs still lingering around?
How have the games been since the changes? I'm guessing there'll be some deluded spazz regs still lingering around?
This takes place after August 5th. My question for Alex is, what is the purpose of affiliates if all RB goes to to player? Affiliates will get nothing, so there is no benefit for affiliates to promote the site unless their players are all recs. Recs can only lose so much before they quit. Regs is what keeps affiliates, platform and themselves for continuously making money year round.
I already quit WPT since they reopen my account, thank you WPT for not taking my 60k, really appreciate it. But I still quit. The reason is WPT is slowly changed itself to Pokerking version 2.
WPT should understand that, your rake is higher than other sites, rakeback is also lower than other sites and you take rake preflop, take money for timebank and expose cards, sometime I missclick for clicking betting button on the table. All of these meaning you took a lot of money from players.
Next, WPT should stop investing your money(actually it's our money, cashgame players) to tournaments if you don't show statistics of players, people would not come if you don't make it.
STOP USING OUR MONEY(CASHGAME PLAYERS) TO COVER YOUR LOSSES IN TOURNAMENT DEVELOPMENT. IT'S THE MOST STUPID THING EVER.
Hi Alex, Please could you help me with reopening my account. I rented a place in a new country because WPT stopped offering services in the country where I live. I already sent an email and rental agreement details to [email]verification@wptglobal.com[/email] and also to [email]customercare@wptglobal.com[/email]. But I got no response and it's been a week already. Could I send you a DM please?
Fairly normal Summer Festival day today, with at least 1 day 1 flight for each event!
Our $530 WPT500 ($400K GTD) winner walked away with just over $83K in yesterday's Day 2, which had a total prize pool of $449,000!
Hi Alex, Please could you help me with reopening my account. I rented a place in a new country because WPT stopped offering services in the country where I live. I already sent an email and rental agreement details to [email]verification@wptglobal.com[/email] and also to [email]customercare@wptglobal.com[/email]. But I got no response and it's been a week already. Could I send you a DM please?
Need your UID or screenname. DM it if you do not want it public
Fairly normal Summer Festival day today, with at least 1 day 1 flight for each event!
Our $530 WPT500 ($400K GTD) winner walked away with just over $83K in yesterday's Day 2, which had a total prize pool of $449,000!
Need your UID or screenname. DM it if you do not want it public
Thank you for your reply, I registered on 2p2 just recently and it looks like I am not able to send a DM yet. Is there any other option to contact you guys directly? (other than email or here on 2p2?).
So question for Alex, how do you determine that I can beat 5/10/20 cny on WPT before I know I can? And why do you also restrict me from playing 10/20/40 when I haven't even played that stake?
Some stakes are grouped together and the categorisation applies to groups, so I guess that is what's happened here. Also, FairGame works by predicting your win rate so you don't have to actually win to be categorised as a skilled player.
Posting again since it wasn’t answered:
It is said that with each 20bb+ win, 1bb would become jackpot rake. However, in this hand on 50/100/200, even though winner got only 10bb, 0.5bb still went into jackpot without seeing flop.
We can’t get jackpot if we don’t see flop, so this doesn’t really make sense to me. Any explanation please?
Could you share the hand ID for this please so I can look into it and provide an answer? I can't determine it from your screenshot.
I hope you will consider the situation from the perspective of Short Deck regulars and ultimately provide a fair rakeback system—statuses, checkpoints, and other options, rather than leaving the situation in a state of "it was 100, now it’s 0.
I appreciate yours and others' feedback on Short Deck and we'll take it into account. I just want to highlight that it's not 'it was 100 now it's 0'. The change doesn't mean that affiliates will not be paid commission. Affiliates will get commission for a) any stake where you're not categorised as an expert; b) PLO, MTT, Spins, Casino & Sports revenue.
We're also introducing table starter rakeback, paid directly to players, and an invite-only VIP scheme. Some players will be better off after these changes, some will be worse off.
- WPT Global will deprive itself of several million dollars in rake per year in this discipline.
Our rake probably will decrease in the short term but you have to understand that this is just a small component in the overall health and profitability of a poker business. Some pros pay a lot of rake, but hurt profitability. Some pros pay a lot of rake and help profitability. We want to reward the latter category and not the former.
This takes place after August 5th. My question for Alex is, what is the purpose of affiliates if all RB goes to to player? Affiliates will get nothing, so there is no benefit for affiliates to promote the site unless their players are all recs. Recs can only lose so much before they quit. Regs is what keeps affiliates, platform and themselves for continuously making money year round.
Affiliates will still earn revenue share (see above). Tellingly, many affiliates couldn't care less about these changes because they've brought a good balance of players.
Hi Alex, Please could you help me with reopening my account. I rented a place in a new country because WPT stopped offering services in the country where I live. I already sent an email and rental agreement details to [email]verification@wptglobal.com[/email] and also to [email]customercare@wptglobal.com[/email]. But I got no response and it's been a week already. Could I send you a DM please?
Sure - please either DM me or post your user ID (the numerical ID that is shown in the cashier / profile) and I will escalate this case.
Some stakes are grouped together and the categorisation applies to groups, so I guess that is what's happened here. Also, FairGame works by predicting your win rate so you don't have to actually win to be categorised as a skilled player.
But your fairgame assumes that I can beat games for which I'm not bankrolled. It doesn't even know if I can beat the rake and variance in the short term. You're effectively preventing me from moving up in the poker pyramid. It's against the spirit and dream of poker.
Let's just call it what it is. This is a cash grab on the affiliates and therefore the players.
I already quit WPT since they reopen my account, thank you WPT for not taking my 60k, really appreciate it. But I still quit. The reason is WPT is slowly changed itself to Pokerking version 2.
WPT should understand that, your rake is higher than other sites, rakeback is also lower than other sites and you take rake preflop, take money for timebank and expose cards, sometime I missclick for clicking betting button on the table. All of these
You forgot one. You also have to pay to report players. That blows my mind. I reported a hit n runner when I started a table the other day and noticed that in future it will also cost me to report someone who breaks the new rules. So obviously they don't give a **** about game integrity either.
And last point from me. It's after 2pm CET on Monday. You haven't paid your 20% rakeback for starting tables like your promotion states.
And last point from me. It's after 2pm CET on Monday. You haven't paid your 20% rakeback for starting tables like your promotion states.
This start's today. You should still receive your affiliate rakeback for last week (up to today)
Just want to state that game's are stone dead right now 25/50/100+
Only one table running, usually there would be 4-5 games at this time.
This start's today. You should still receive your affiliate rakeback for last week (up to today)
Just want to state that game's are stone dead right now 25/50/100+
Only one table running, usually there would be 4-5 games at this time.
It doesn't state that on the promotional page.
It doesn't state that on the promotional page.
True!
All I know is affiliates are still paying RB from last week... so I tought it would sense it's starting today.
Have you just considered bots? They are life like and you don’t have to troll all the pros all day. With random rule changes and straight up gas lighting about winrates and rules. Bots seem like a clear win for your platform. Play all day at for peanuts.
Like why even bother trying to convince pros a lousy deal is a good one.
Some stakes are grouped together and the categorisation applies to groups, so I guess that is what's happened here. Also, FairGame works by predicting your win rate so you don't have to actually win to be categorised as a skilled player.
Can you say please if NL holdem 1/2/4(1) cny and 2/4/8(2) are in the same group?
I would also like to know if there is any news regarding the release date of the fix for the high CPU usage problem.
Thanks
Hello Alex, can you clarify this 20% RB is 20% of the players poker share or rake paid? This makes a huge difference if its rake paid only, then the actual amount of RB compared to pokershare is closer to 15% than the 20% they state.
Hi Alex, My agent account has been locked for checking since April and it has been almost 4 months now and I still haven't received any feedback from you:
- You have created a money transfer function and allowed players to withdraw money through agents (while you don't control the player's bet level like other sites like Natural8,...). Some scammers have joined my agent and are laundering money without placing bets, while you don't have a system to check and warn agents.
- You created a loophole and it seems like I am responsible. What should I do when my players request a withdrawal? Should I refuse? I can't check if the money from the player is clean or dirty and is it my fault? I wish you guys would warn me or at least ask me to report every time there is a transaction so you can check, but no, you didn't warn me and then put all the responsibility on me and now you are silent?
- The first few weeks after the lock, although the rakeback was still locked in the agent account, I spent my own money to refund the customers to keep them on the platform because I believed that after my detailed and honest explanations via email, you guys would have a general view of the problem and make an impartial decision. But until now, it has been 4 months and the amount in my agent account is more than $25,000 and all I get in return is silence. The person who should be punished is the cheater and your poor programming team for creating the loophole, not me, an innocent person who brought customers to you. If I colluded with that bastard to cheat, then why would I trust that you will make a fair decision and continue to spend your money to pay rakeback to customers while the account is still locked? If so, am I no different from a psychopath? If I am a cheater, how dare I stay despite the increasing commission in my account?
- At least you guys have to give me a satisfactory answer instead of being silent, more than 200 players have registered through me and among them there are about 100 active players, I can wait for you but not the customers. For such a small benefit, would I trade it with 100 active customers? Obviously it is too unreasonable. I have exhausted my finances and have no more money to spend rakeback to customers. I hope to receive a satisfactory answer from you.
And finally, I want to send you a message that you should perfect and develop the features you have well before thinking about creating a new feature, forgetting that your customers do not need them, leading to serious loopholes and putting the blame on innocent people. My agent account UID is 124993, please check and give me a satisfactory answer here. Thanks!
There is another Day 1 flight for the $1,060 WPT Prime ($750,000 GTD) today, with many feeders running to it! For the 7 players who enjoy playing PLO MTTs, we have a $5.50 $1,000 guaranteed event today:
All event winners will qualify for the $25,000 Champions of Champions freeroll, and if you have at least 30 Summer Festival event entries then you can get into the [B]$75,000 Festival Freeroll[/B]
Yes, you can report bumhunters and we'll take action.[/QUOTE]
Hi Alex
I want to report this bumhunter. This player always open table to earn reward, but when a tough player sit to HU, he will sit out and only come back when some weak player join. The name is Nina218. He play that way very often. I hope you can take a look on the hands history of these table: HS7675 HSB7839 (from the beginning).
Alex I have a question regarding rakeback.
The new rule is not paying rakeback to top 10% profit player right? just assume that the winning player have 100 people. So 10 players will not take rakeback, and the player on 11th postion will take full rakeback.
Is this fair if 10th and 11th have winning nearly equal but 1 player get full rakeback and another get zero?
But your fairgame assumes that I can beat games for which I'm not bankrolled. It doesn't even know if I can beat the rake and variance in the short term. You're effectively preventing me from moving up in the poker pyramid. It's against the spirit and dream of poker.
Let's just call it what it is. This is a cash grab on the affiliates and therefore the players.
It's not a cash grab - every penny we save (if we save anything) will go back to players through other promos.
You forgot one. You also have to pay to report players. That blows my mind. I reported a hit n runner when I started a table the other day and noticed that in future it will also cost me to report someone who breaks the new rules. So obviously they don't give a **** about game integrity either.
Yeah... this is an interesting feature that we inherited from our Asia network. There's a built in velocity limit to discourage players from spamming the reporting feature (you get n number of free reports and then it charges you). FWIW - we'll always refund the cost of this if your report results in an investigation, and you can send as many 'free' reports as you like to [email]customercare@wptglobal.com[/email].
And last point from me. It's after 2pm CET on Monday. You haven't paid your 20% rakeback for starting tables like your promotion states.
The promotion only started yesterday, my apologies if that wasn't clear.
Hello Alex, can you clarify this 20% RB is 20% of the players poker share or rake paid? This makes a huge difference if its rake paid only, then the actual amount of RB compared to pokershare is closer to 15% than the 20% they state.
It's 20% of the gross rake paid while you continue to play at the table. (20% of the Poker Share would be a lesser amount, because poker share is a net value that includes deductions for various costs).
Hi Alex
I want to report this bumhunter. This player always open table to earn reward, but when a tough player sit to HU, he will sit out and only come back when some weak player join. The name is Nina218. He play that way very often. I hope you can take a look on the hands history of these table: HS7675 HSB7839 (from the beginning).[/QUOTE]
Noted, I have passed your report to our security team. Thanks.
Alex I have a question regarding rakeback.
The new rule is not paying rakeback to top 10% profit player right? just assume that the winning player have 100 people. So 10 players will not take rakeback, and the player on 11th postion will take full rakeback.
Is this fair if 10th and 11th have winning nearly equal but 1 player get full rakeback and another get zero?
No, none of this is correct. The change is that we are not paying commission to affiliates for NLHE and Short Deck activity where the player is tagged as an expert at the stakes in question. In turn, those affiliates will likely reduce or remove rakeback for some of their players. You can learn more about how FairGame works and how it tags players here: https://wptglobal.com/blog/how-does-wpt-...
