WPN Set To Make Big Changes To Beast Promotion: "Jackpot Fee", Non-Beast Cash Tables No More

The Winning Poker Network has announced they will be making major changes to their weekly "Beast" promotion beginning with play on April 5th, 2014. The chief change: WPN is effectively ending the added "jackpot fee" cost (sometimes referred to as the Beast drop") from their rake calculations.

While the "max rake cap" setup (no more than $3 per hand can be raked at any stake) will not be changed, players will no longer be subjected to the fixed jackpot fee of $0.10 to $0.25 depending on cash game stakes. Instead, beginning with play on April 5th, $0.02 of every $0.06 in standard rake, capped depending on the amount of players at the table (chart below), at all Winning Poker Network cash game tables, will be taken out to feed the weekly Beast prize pools.

There will no longer be any non-Beast cash game tables available once these new features kick in. All cash game tables will become Beast tables, and all cash game tables will be subject to the new policy.

The effort of the changes to the Beast promotion is naturally to get more players involved in the leaderboard race. The incentive is that with no fixed jackpot fee, and a more flexible cap system that funnels more cash from WPN's take of the rake instead of the player's contributed rake, players will be able to earn more while increasing their ability to earn a slice of the weekly Beast leaderboard prize pools.

As you can see in the graphic above, WPN currently takes $0.25 out of post-flop pots as a jackpot fee to fund the Beast prize pool (denoted by "JP" when you hover over the pot). After play at all WPN cash game tables begins on April 5th, this jackpot fee will cease to exist. Since there are six players at the table above, $0.24 of the $0.86 in rake will then feed the Beast prize pool, and there will no longer be any additional money taken from the pot.

In effect, eliminating the jackpot fee should serve to open up cash games at low and micro stakes to a much wider player pool. Previously, play at $1/$2 tables and lower was difficult to beat and was not as conducive to players who were not outright playing for Beast leaderboard points races. With no jackpot fee, players will only be subjected to the standard 5% rake from the ACR Poker website (caps are slightly lower in fixed-limit games).

The Beast has run as a weekly points race since February 1st, when ProfRB.com reported that the Beast would be brought more in line with their popular "Sit & Crush" promotion. The Beast paid out nearly $30,000 in prize money to their Beast point earners last week, with first place earning over $3,600.

Players earn points by playing in raked hands based on this chart - you get an equal amount of the points awarded based on your stakes and how many players contributed to the rake each hand. First place pays out 13% of the total prize pool, or $20,000 - whichever is lower. The remaining places are paid out based on a "sliding scale algorithm", and every dollar added to the kitty is spread through every place that is paid. The amount of places paid out depends on the overall prize pool: the ACR Poker website mentions that a $50,000 weekly pool would pay out 200 players, while a $90,000 weekly pool would pay 360 places.

Each points race runs from Saturday at midnight EST to Friday at 23:59 EST.

Professional Rakeback is an online poker affiliate and player advocate offering services to players across highly reputable USA and Rest-Of-World poker rooms. We work closely with multiple network-owned rooms on the Winning Poker Network (WPN) including ACR Poker (ACR), Black Chip Poker (BCP), and True Poker (TP).  We also offer in-depth reports and information to the online poker community in general, including our leading Monthly Online Poker Cashout and Withdrawal Reports, our Overlay and MTT Reports, and our player to player Trading Value (Vig) Reports. If you wish to know more, feel free to contact us directly via the options available at this link.

-- ProfRB.com Content Staff