Bodog has announced that they are making every effort to block Data Mining Sites in an attempt to ‘bring the fun back’. What this means is that sites such as PokerTableRatings, PokerDB, and others will be banned from entering Bodog and gathering players’ data. It is a move that, depending on which side you’re on, can be good or bad.
Not Everybody Hates Traffic
Rumors have it that Bodog has been suffering from a steep drop in traffic for the past few months. It’s difficult to compete with the big sites like Pokerstars and Full Tilt, after all, and we really have to commend Bodog Poker for holding its own despite the stiff competition. By blocking data mining sites, though, Bodog has a chance of regaining its former players and attracting some new ones. See, before, Bodog was open to these dreaded data mining sites. As such, you could view Bodog players’ hand histories, and possibly analyze their moves, modifying your own to better counter theirs’. The data mining sites offered something new, something innovative, but it soon became clear that the disadvantages outweighed the advantages.
Non-recreational players – i.e., players who played solely for profit rather than for the fun of it – soon found these data mining sites to be rather useful. It soon became harder and harder to beat the game; and the playing field became more and more unbalanced. Those who were simply playing for fun found it impossibly hard to compete.
Following their Lead
Full Tilt and PokerStars and other online poker websites actually saw the unfairness of the whole thing from the start and blocked them, though PokerStars did admittedly have a bit of a problem with SharkScope. Bodog is known for being one of the loosest online poker sites, and it’s therefore very easy to be a successful cash game player there. A lot of non-recrational poker players have deemed Bodog as good hunting grounds, especially since they have the data mining sites providing them with great arsenal. By blocking data mining sites, they’re giving players who simply want to have fun a very good reason to go to their site and try it out. Bodog isn’t actually finished with their attempts to block the data mining sites as of yet but they’re already making every effort to do so.
It’s going to be a long and grueling process, but I’m pretty sure that Bodog will succeed despite all the obstacles.
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