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May 25, 2007
End of an Era
I find it odd and somewhat disheartening that Paradise Poker is switching to Boss Media's network. It sort of marks the end of an era in online poker, just like Kmart going bankrupt did for retail. I remember playing on Dise back when it had first opened and the only real competitor was Planet Poker. Their software was so much better, even for those of us who didn't know that Planet Poker's shuffle had been taken advantage of, that it was practically in a different league. It was what made me believe that some day online poker might be almost as good as the real thing.
Their marketing must have had just as much of a lead, because Paradise always had far more action than anyone else. Until Party Poker got the bright idea of advertising on the World Poker Tour it seemed as if their dominance was insurmountable. You assumed they'd always be the biggest site much the way you assume Wal-Mart will always be the biggest retailer.
In retrospect their biggest mistake was not adapting. They didn't advertise enough during the early boom year(s). They didn't get tournaments until years after PokerStars and Party. They never did make it easier for Poker Tracker to import hands, and their servers would crap out during peak hours. It's a pretty textbook example of a company being put in multiple evolve or die scenarios, and I guess who ever ran that site must have been a creationist.
I haven't used Boss Media's software since I propped there in their early days, but it was atrocious then. And it wasn't improving. I get the impression from their site that they're powered by software from someone called St. Minver (new idea, name gambling sites after religious figures. Next up, virginmarypoker.com) which also does Yahoo's poker site, so maybe this one is better. It appears to be Flash-based though, so then again, maybe it isn't.
Do any of my Euros have any experience there? I'd love to hear opinions on it.
Posted by themaroon at May 25, 2007 5:05 AM
Comments
Ok,ok so dise was a little slow in offering MTT's and their software left a lot to be desired. But you are forgetting dise's greatest online poker innovation; the cocktail menu. Stars just isn't as much fun without a martini on the table.
Posted by: built2last at May 25, 2007 11:01 AM
Hey Matt, I used to play on Canbet when it was part of this network. I cant say many complimentary things about it, apart from its never had server problems in my own personal experience, unlike Dise.
The tournament structures suck, but the cash games are juicy juicy.
Posted by: Paul at May 25, 2007 12:27 PM
Paradise moved to the network yesterday. Dise has been effectively dead since the US players left, so something had to change.
Incidentaly I can't see how Party is still the second biggest site - its much smaller than FTP and Poker Stars - I would say its about the size of Dise pre UIGE.
Anyway, first impressions of the new network is that it is the kiss of life for Dise.
Although: you have to transfer money from your Sportingbet account to a your poker account everytime you want to play; I couldn't log back in for about 10 minutes after logging out; and you still can't resize/tile tables properly (they have two sizes: full screen and slightly too big to multitable easily).
One thing that I am currently curious about though, is why my balance was 11 cents less following the systems update (I know its nothing, but I wondered whether anyone else had the same thing). I've asked Dise but they are ignoring my e-mails.
Posted by: Rich at May 25, 2007 6:16 PM
IMHO Boss software is the worst of the major networks/cardrooms.
Posted by: Div at May 26, 2007 5:41 PM