Ok, after about page 4 it goes sideways only once every 10 posts, most of the unintelligent trolls disappear and some very smart people start talking and using numbers to back up their points.
Going back to my 2) yes, this move does benefit Party in many ways rake wise and 1) the trickle up effect I originally guessed is key. The majority of a sites profits come from money that is constantly circulation at the lower leavels and bieng raked, but if moves to far up, it leaves without profit.
High stakes cash games generally cost sites money in that the rake in comparison to the security, VIP and withdrawn money processing fees...I know players love to hate on the fact that poker hosts make money, but if they don't, they won't be around and neither will be many pro players livings. My boss/owner at work expects profits as am sure all do yours.
This article was considered good reference on the rake/ecosystem topic:
The Poker Economy by Brandon Adams | Bluff Magazine November-2006
It's all good to try to please everybody, but ultimately it leads to financial failure and the players losing everything...Epic pokers freeroll and rake free events, FTP loaning high stakes players YOUR money and offering the excitement of watching huge pots being dragged as a marketing ploy...we can go on.
In the same way central banks raise and lower intrest rates, economists work numbers etc, there are people that are smart enough out there to protect the sustainability of a business/ecomony/infastructure by making moves that we may not like, but admittedly don't fully understand. I'm sure there are resident experts on this topic that could explain this better, but not me.
If rake dollars don't exist, the TV, sponsored pros, ads, affiliate, charity initiatives that please politicians, humatarians and the general public and take away some of pokers negative light, as well as all the other tools used to keep new money coming in disappear and eventually so does the game.
Bottom line is that most of this is generated at the stakes that have been kept and that means that players will countinue to have games to play.
7) it was suggested on 2+2 that even Stars has considered a similar move, but to put it another way, we know they changed their FPP system and played with rake numbers post Black Friday....in other words, they got more creative with their bottom line in a in a different yet similar approach.
What this meant to a Super Nova Elite player that I know that was beating the game and maintaining SNE for 5 years straight, was that this creative accounting has now made it near impossible to countinue to make the living that he has and will likely leave the game.
I think there are a hell of alot more rake back pros than high stakes players, so one is not better than the other by any means. What it does all point to is that the game and it's ecosystem, like everything else most evolve and react to its environment.
Out for now, but will be sorting this out in a simpler read, most likely for print.