Poker release notes 3.23 (Banzai 2.0)

[Evarb]

i busted my 1 euro even though i had a balance on ticket i couldnt rebuy. Also my highest was 14 euro on 1 @Stubbe-Unibet

Edited December 14, 2022 by Evarb

[Panamera]

9 minutes ago, Evarb said:

i busted my 1 euro even though i had a balance on ticket i couldnt rebuy. Also my highest was 14 euro on 1 @Stubbe-Unibet

You didn't bust, it's likely some ratholing prevention or a bug. Wait 15 minutes and you can re-join. Had same issue with my ticket.

[Evarb]

6 minutes ago, Panamera said:

You didn't bust, it's likely some ratholing prevention or a bug. Wait 15 minutes and you can re-join. Had same issue with my ticket.

yea you right wrong useage of word i just left the table and rejoined again

[SShcherbyna]

2 hours ago, Stubbe-Unibet said:

What's the biggest stack you guys managed to achieve today?

[SShcherbyna]

@Stubbe-Unibet Days in a row or days in total? If consecutive, I have a good idea for a competition of community members 

[comanimal]

Managed to find myself with a 200bb stack after only half an hour 

[GotKot99]

Great playing guys! I’m out of likes (and about everything else too ), so time to call it for tonight.

 
 

 

[BillyR23]

I had like 150BBs at some point at Banzai NL1 but this hand at NL5 deserves more credit- especially that it was with the 'cursed' hand that somehow managed to hold in a multi-way pot // it was All IN preflop...

[Stubbe-Unibet]

Good morning

I was originally planning to quote everything and give personal replies, but seeing the number of posts and words, I might just have to skip that, so I don't get stuck in the thread for the next two hours 

I can share a few words about improvements likely coming in the January release:

• Sounds
  • The VS screen will get a sound effect
  • Belt level up will get a sound effect
  • Lobby will have a track added
• Features
  • The ace squeeze/peel will be added. We haven't added it yet, as it wasn't obvious enough you could click the 2nd card to reveal.
  • We could possibly add some of the names suggested here, as aliases

I like something like the below. We have the three biggest current stacks shown in the lobby and could possibly have an "ALL-TIME HIGH SCORES" link underneath, which would show top 25 for the stake or something. Would also fit well in game lab of course, but I'm personally leaning more towards having it in the lobby. Relax positive towards this idea as well. Main issue I see is what name to use here, which is a general issue for achievements and leaderboard, in my opinion. For a while I've wanted to add a leaderboard identity/name (which player can pick themselves) and I think it's a pre-requisite for this one as well. 

Another leaderboard could perhaps be consecutive hands played as Sensei (as someone else suggested earlier in the thread)

17 hours ago, Rushbie said:

For this reason exactly would love to see infinite high scores list (in gamelab?) which records can be always broken and brags possible for the buddies/pals/strangers about them sucking, just like in the good old times

I will probably come back later today when I have better time for more feedback  

[Livertool]

This must be best gif to express new banzai, at least for me when multitabling. If nothing else, good excersise for face muscles.

Happy, angry, happy, angry, happy, angry....

[GR1ZZL3R]

Sensei and Senseibility by Jane Boston Crab. ©

   Just thought I'd throw this one out as it came to me in the middle of the night and I've only just remembered it, having one of those weird flashback memory things, not exactly deja vu but close. 

   Anyhow I'm off to the Banzai streets to have a long session of being unmercifully beaten up, MMA style. That's More Masochistic Action. 

 

 

[Pesek]

Have two ideas about nicknames. Maybe good, maybe not but i'll try.

Jet alleen as Jet Lee and Tony jAA as Tony Jaa of course.

[GotKot99]

Had a quick session at the NL5 Dojo few moments ago. Really liked the graphics on there too: somewhat grim classical dojo setting 

Couple of additional feedbacks:

a) Forgot to mention, but I had one VS moment yesterday. The added anticipation and atmosphere brought by this animation is very nice in my opinion 

b) Regarding the “permanence issue” that was in many feedbacks yesterday (demotion/promotion), I first time took notice how the Sensei title goes back and forth very easily, which is very far from real life. This is both a shame and understandable within the context of the Banzai 2.0: I would look to see more permanence in the Sensei status, but at the same time understand that it might not be possible/implementable within the game setting. And perhaps it’s not (that much of) an issue within the game itself. Perhaps I’m viewing this trough too much real-life oriented eyes.

c) Possible bonuses/awards attached to belt level ups/upgrades. I have been pondering about this one. I don’t know how beneficial this is from the game provider’s perspective. But I still think it would solve the issue of some folks (myself included at the moment) seeing virtually no point in different belts and their level ups, and reaching Sensei status.

And the bonuses attached to the aforementioned would not have to be anything huge, but something that promote the overall playing activity and going all-ins etc. Maybe this could be just incorporated into some leaderboard or have some kind a leaderboard of it’s own, like

4 hours ago, Stubbe-Unibet said:

Another leaderboard could perhaps be consecutive hands played as Sensei (as someone else suggested earlier in the thread)

And maybe there could even be some Banzai leaderboard promos/missions etc. with bonuses/awards attached to them (daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly).

I don’t know. Just rambling something here…

[Evarb]

So I've played a little on mobile and sensei looked a bit huge there

[SupiDr]

It's is (still) a lovely game. I would love an option for auto top-up.
I am curious what will be this promo: CG Banzai 2.0 Launch Campaign 19^th Dec – 31^st Dec

[Stubbe-Unibet]

9 hours ago, Evarb said:

So I've played a little on mobile and sensei looked a bit huge there

I assume this was a one-time thing?

[Tom Siddle]

Guessing this has been said before but isn’t the 1m30 sit out time a bit extreme?

I sprinted to the toilet and came back I was kicked out.

I am now keeping water bottles next to my computer to go for a piss. 

[Jami-Unibet]

22 hours ago, GotKot99 said:

Great playing guys! I’m out of likes (and about everything else too ), so time to call it for tonight.

 
 

 

I've increased the number of reactions just for you.

[Rushbie]

31 minutes ago, Tom Siddle said:

I am now keeping water bottles next to my computer to go for a piss. 

Online pokergames getting faster and faster, think it has been a pro move to keep a duck or few nearby quite a while now

Edited December 15, 2022 by Rushbie

[Stubbe-Unibet]

2 hours ago, SupiDr said:

It's is (still) a lovely game. I would love an option for auto top-up.
I am curious what will be this promo: CG Banzai 2.0 Launch Campaign 19^th Dec – 31^st Dec

You'll see Monday can't say if you'll get one of the free tickets though 

1 hour ago, Tom Siddle said:

Guessing this has been said before but isn’t the 1m30 sit out time a bit extreme?

I sprinted to the toilet and came back I was kicked out.

I am now keeping water bottles next to my computer to go for a piss. 

It's tricky. Not sure if the perfect balance has been found with 90s.

With it being just 5 handed, we really want and need to eliminate or reduce sitting out as much as possible. 

Sitting out is basically not supposed to be a thing, as the downside (worse games) is more significant than the benefit (players can take breaks and remain seated) 

[Tom Siddle]

Yeah I definitely see your point about 5 handed having to keep people seated to keep the game going, I just think 90s is too extreme for regs and recreationals, no rec wants to go toilet and get kicked out.

and why once you  rejoin straight away do you not keep your stack and rejoin with lowest, that seems pretty harsh.

cos people are rushing and answering the door and losing an entire €400 euro stack and having to rejoin with 20.

I understand why you would wanna reduce the previous time but surely not straight after the 90s?

[Tom Siddle]

So you’re out for 90 seconds and you come back with the lowest stack on the table, some weaker players, recs, newbies, whoever can easily rathole a massive stack, which is outrageous really, and awful for the game 

[Wizard]

Edit by mod: moved to release notes thread to have all feedback on one place. 

First off I want to say thanks for the free ticket giveaway, these are always much appreciated.

1) The Banzai lobby is gorgeous, I really like the  retro arcade art style. It is also extremely functional showing the top stacks, giant play button and game lab.
This is a big improvement. I would imagine that better visibility in the global lobby showing banzai in the header may pull in more players esp casual ones. The table theme on B1 is gorgeous, B20 is ok and the B5 one I think is a bit jarring.

2) I am ambivalent about playing 5 handed vs 6 handed, I don't think its a big deal either way.

3) The change to remove SNs and give people random names is not something I'm a fan of. The current system worked, was universal and I saw zero complaints about it. The B 2.0 system seems very clinical and kind of breaks the 'biggest pots' replayers and leaderboards. IMO the pool of SNs is also bit small atm and could do with an expansion (I made a comment with some suggestions in the other B2.0 thread if this is the route B2.0 goes down).

4) Levelling up your character is very different, its something I am used to doing in games like Assassins Creed or Fortnite, not gambling games. Personally there is a big divide in my head between gambling games involving real money and other games played for 100% entertainment. If I play Fortnite I'm playing for fun, its super casual and winning a new skin is a reward.
If I am in a poker game I'm just trying to win and I'm not bothered about levelling up an avatar or having a special avatar for eg. winning a random donkament.
There will be players (especially 'for profit' players but also some rec players) who don't care for anything other than $ won/lost.
That said I realise that some people will be excited to level up their character and become sensei, if you play poker purely for fun then maybe the avatars are a more meaningful.
I would suggest having something in monetary terms for being the sensei and maintaining your position over x hands. eg. a leaderboard, bonus points, cash, entry into a flip tournament for banzai tickets etc.
You definitely don't need to give away a whole UO package or anything but I think achieving sensei feels somewhat anti-climactic (debatably pointless) without some kind of 'real' reward beyond the avatar.

5) I think the option to rathole has the potential to be game breaking, there is a reason why you are not allowed to do this in any game online, on poker apps, in casinos or home games:
It is extremely frustrating to lose a large pot to someone who then ratholes so you have no chance to win it all back. The format encourages action and trying to spin up a stack, ratholing defeats this. The rake increase means its tough to push any kind of edge off 10bb so if people rathole down then the game becomes almost impossible to win in. Players might (not unreasonably) think that 10bb is a bingo-esque rake trap but that 20bb+ becomes a bit more 'real' poker and is beatable. My most memorable experiences of banzai (good and bad) are when I was playing a long mad session where multiple players spun it up and we played huge pots wtih a wide variety of holdings. This won't happen if people rathole. To look at it in another way, can you imagine playing in a live unibet event and someone wins a fat pot and just scoops most of the chips into their pocket, then the dealer says this is completely fine?

6) The 90 second limit to sit out is very very quick. I agree 8 minutes (or whatever it is in 100bb) is too long for Banzai 2.0 but its now almost impossible to answer the door, go to the bathroom, get a drink / snack etc. What I might do is have a timer with a cooldown eg. you can take a 3 minute break but then for the next 30 minutes only 90 seconds or something. You dont want someone taking 3 minute breaks every other orbit but you also should be able to play a 4h session with a bathroom break in the middle. This is a particular issue when you could stand briefly, sit down again but be sat on another table and have stacks reset.

7) I am massively less inclined to start games shorthanded and play when games are breaking (ESPECIALLY when we 10bb deep) due to the higher rake. With the previous rake I was ok with starting games including vs regs because I wanted the game to fill and the rake wasn't a huge deal, now I think I'm just burning and I should wait for the game to fill up and have deeper stacks before sitting. This is much more of an issue at off peak times at B20+ because you have to have regs starting games / maintaining games shorthanded otherwise not much runs outside peak hours.

8 ) The thunderclap / game shaking event for big pots is incredibly over the top, I kinda like it though. The fact it doesn't go off too often is really important, this would drive me insane if it was every hand. Every once in a while is good. 

9) The 'Heaviest Hits' of big wins is great, love it. Its really good for advertising the game, especially that it shows every individual player's biggest wins. You gotta celebrate everyone's wins, especially for rec players who are net depositors. 10/10.

10) I have played nowhere near enough volume to make a statement about how good the games are, seen a couple of very optimistic plays and also had a few stretches where the games seemed a bit dead / reggy. So basically standard banzai. The state of the games might fluctuate a lot as its a new game and there will be changes due to mobile users coming back, casino brand pop. entering the pool, promotions, different people playing over Xmas / NYE, previous banzai players playing more / less etc. I think its very likely the games are better for the next month or so (games tend to be quite good around Xmas / NY anyway) , not sure about long term. The nature of the promotions will impact the state of the games a lot, especially at the higher stakes (I will come back to this in a comment another time).

11) Not sure what impact no table cap will have, makes more sense with 5-max tables not 6-max.

Overall I'm kind of reserving final judgement to see what happens wrt the promotions and the state of the games long term. 

Thanks again for the free tickets, I hope at least some of this is helpful.

Best of luck at the tables everyone.

[Tom Siddle]

Yeah agree with a lot of what the wizard said above, 

Particularly to do with SNs, the 90s timeout, ratholing, and a lot of the positive things as well.

I think it’s a bit boring not associating any name to a player ever, I think we need names for people, but I agree the fact that you could change every day but the recs kept the same name hurts the recs.

Maybe we could have 3 or 5 names but for a week or month instead. 

If not the fun new names given at random are not all that bad. 

[Stubbe-Unibet]

Quick reply to the latest feedback (I'll try and work my way backwards but lots of stuff to do these days).

• Ratholing. It's interesting to see the feedback here vs feedback in regular cash game. Basically, we now have the same rules everywhere so in Banzai you can also rathole 5 times a day. Also, if you leave a table and then sit down at a new one, this won't count as ratholing. Ratholing in this case - which is limited to the 5x a day - would be when you leave a table and sit down at same table again shortly thereafter. I believe this is better for the games and I think it's a good balance with allowing the recreationals to protect their balance a bit (without leaving the game completely) while not making it abuseable by regs - one of the great things about Banzai is that your stack does grow and it's not a constant 10bb game like on other sites (also good from a rake/skill perspective for you guys)

• Starting games/playing short handed. Here it's worth mentioning the lower rake cap now and the 50% discount when starting table a playing short-handed.
• 90s kicking from table. I agree it isn't good for regs, but again, we're designing a game for recreationals. First priority is to bring the girls to the party - by making the party as attractive to them as possible - and then the boys will automatically join, even if there's a higher entrance fee  
  Poker is still lacking behind other products with share of players and rake from mobile devices (for other products it's the vast majority that is from mobile), but Banzai is a mobile heavy game and it'll only become more mobile heavy in the future. Recreationals generally are likely to be playing from mobile and this new rule is solely a good thing for them.
• Judging the skill level of the pool. With mobile apps from Play Store and App Store still not working, I don't think it's worth looking at yet (also way too early of course, as you say). Let's see in a month or so when the hype around it being new is gone, we've had promotions running, we have game live on mobile apps and on the casino brands.