This is a condensed version of Ideal Poker, dealing with specifically what might be called “Ideal Rake”. I TRULY believe the “esoteric key” to this, is to have in your mind while reading the quotes below the concept of a universal poker coin. On top of this I present some thoughts and a few questions on the topic of “Ideal Rake” here.
So a few notes from Ideal Poker on the top of rake:
… various interest and groups, notably including PSFTFBICIADOJ has sold to the players a “quasi-doctrine” which teaches, in effect, that “less is more” or that (in other words) “raked poker is better than not raked poker”.
…chips themselves are merely an artifact of practical usefulness in poker communities and/or sites, there are some traditional or popular views associating chips with sin or immorality or unethical or unjust behavior. And such views can have the effect that an ideal of rakeless poker does not seem such a good cause as an ideal of a good public water supply.
Or the question can be asked “How do `raked poker’ and `rakeless poker’ differ, if at all, for the valuable function of facilitating utility transfer?”.
And also, if we view rake as of importance in connection with transfers of utility, we can see that rake itself is a sort of “utility”, using the word in another sense, comparable to supplies of water, electric energy or telecommunications. And then, if we think about it, we can consider the quality of rake as comparable to the quality of some “public utility” like the supply of electric energy or of water.
Our view is that if it is viewed scientifically and rationally (which is psychologically difficult!) that rake should have the function of a standard of measurement and thus that it should become comparable to the watt or the hour or a degree of temperature.
But it seems very likely that, although that scheme for arranging for a system of rake with ideal qualities would work well, that, on the other hand, it would be politically difficult to arrive at the implementation of such a system.
Our observation, based on thinking in terms of “the long term” rather than in terms of “short range expediency”, was simply that there is no ideal rate of rake that should be selected and chosen as the target but rather that the ideal concept would necessarily be that of a zero rate for what is called rake.
But of course, also, poker sites of a state cannot actually do anything of the form that can be called “rake targeting” without having some means for measuring rake. How would they do this? The means for measuring inflation that they would naturally use would be a “deposits raked” index relating to domestic transactions within the territory of the state.
And if “rake targeting” were used as a “line” by the managers handling all of these various internationally prominent sites then there would arise interesting possibilities for comparisons between these major sites. Each of the sites managed thusly would have its officially recognized status in terms of rake as measured by the domestic index of deposits raked of the state of the managers. But also, and this is what is more significant from an internationally oriented viewpoint, the various rakes would have rates of exchange so that they could be realistically compared in terms of their actual values.
And so the various currencies managed with “rake targeting” would be comparable by professional and recreational players who would be able to form opinions about the quality of the rake. And what I want to suggest is that “the public” or the players, those for whom a medium of exchange functions as a basic utility, may develop opinions that are critical of rake of lower “value quality”. That is, the public may learn to demand better quality of that which CAN be managed to be of better quality or which can be managed to be of the lower quality observed in so many of the various poker sites in the 21st century.
So here is the possibility of “asymptotically ideal (rakeless) poker”. Starting with the idea of value stabilization in relation to a domestic ‘deposits raked’ index associated with the territory of one site, beyond that there is the natural and logical concept of internationally based rake comparisons. The sites being compared, like PSFTCIAFBIDOJ, Merge, Party Poker, etc. can be viewed with critical eyes by their players and by those who may have the option of whether or not or how to use one of them. This can lead to pressure for good quality and consequently for a lessened rate of rake.
But it cannot be irrelevant whether or not the future quality of a rake is really assured or whether instead that it depends on the shifting sands of poker site decisions or the possibly arbitrary actions of a bureaucracy of officials (PSFTCIAFBIDOJ).
We can legitimately wonder how the speediness of its adoption or delays in its adoption might affect the policies operating to control the actual exchange value of poker deposits. The constitutional structure of the authority behind rake is of the “chips” character in that nothing is really guaranteed as far as the value of the chips is concerned. But this is typical of all currencies used in the world nowadays.
thewealthofchips 