Recently, there has been a lot of discussion on the forums about “Chinese gold farmers.”

If you haven’t heard the conversation, here is the executive summary: a lot of Chinese players are suddenly appearing in the lower limit games all over the online poker world. The recent influx is probably due to a ban that China is instituting on “gold farming” in massively-multiplayer role-playing games (MMORPGs) such as World of Warcraft. Up until that ban, many Chinese gamers spent hours playing these MMORPGs solely to pick up virtual “gold” that was available in the game. Then they sold that gold for real cash in markets such as eBay. The money wouldn’t go far in the West, but may provide a marginal living in China. Also, I think it’s safe to say that “farming gold” beats most Chinese jobs that would pay similar amounts.

With the national ban on MMORPG gold farming, a lot of Chinese gamers have turned their attention to online poker. Specifically, almost all of them are playing an extremely tight (“nitty” if you will) style; their goal appears to be to convert deposit bonuses and grind rakeback.

The complaints on the poker forums fall into three general categories:

1. What they’re doing is not legitimate poker.
2. What they’re doing is bad for the games.
3. They are not only grinding rakeback and deposit bonuses; they are also colluding.

I will address each of these concerns separately.

Gold farming is not legitimate poker

I will use the phrase “gold farming” to describe an approach to the game where you are essentially attempting to earn your profit from rakeback and deposit bonuses rather than significantly beating the other players. First, I want to dispatch the idea that a particular style of poker or a particular goal within the meta-game is “legitimate” or not. There is but one bright line of interest: either you are cheating or you are not. If you are not cheating, then you are within the rules.

People have many reasons for playing online poker. Some are there to earn their primary income; others want to make vacation or extra toy money. Some know that they’re going to lose but enjoy the gamble. Some play a high-variance “let’s gamble” style; others choose to show up with the nuts every time. There are short-stackers and those who despise them. Right now, there are many people in the “traditional” online poker world whose profit consists almost exactly of their rakeback. There are well-known niches where almost nobody is making a meaningful “BB/100” profit, but many people are making enough rakeback to justify their time investment.

Whether we like it or not, the online poker marketplace has evolved to an environment that is much more complex and sophisticated than simply going to the table, earning your one big-bet per hour, and leaving. The Chinese gold farmers have found a place in that market that fits their needs and they are exploiting it. Karl Marx be damned; they’re grassroots capitalists of the best sort.

Gold farmers are bad for the game

Really? I don’t know about you, but when I sit down at a poker table (brick and mortar or virtual), there are things I like to see in the other players and things I don’t like to see. Two things I don’t like to see: aggression and unpredictability. Either one on its own is a nuisance; the two together produce a downright disturbing opponent. I like my opponents to play honest poker: fold when they don’t have much, call when they have a little, and raise when they have a lot. This makes it much easier to play against them.

Our Chinese newcomers seem to play a fairly predictable game of poker and rarely get “out of line.” Furthermore (though this is second-hand information) they don’t seem to have a lot of moves. If one of them three-bets you preflop, your pocket tens are in extremely serious trouble. Don’t you wish more players (not fewer) would play this way?

I’m not going to lay out a specific counter-strategy here. With a little thought, you should be able to work one out on your own; it’s more fun that way, too. Let’s just say that I totally disagree with the idea that such players are bad for the game.

They’re colluding, too...

Bah. This is the one I find most grating. Do you think that when four or five players from the same city show up at a single poker table together that poker forum denizens are the only ones who notice? I know for a fact that these new arrivals have been thoroughly investigated by Cake Poker’s security team. Our folks, after going through their play with a fine-toothed comb, found nothing. Security teams at other major poker sites have come to the same conclusion.

Look, if you were going to collude, don’t you think you’d devise a plan a little less obvious than filling half a table with your friends whose city is the same as yours?

As far as anybody can tell (and remember, we can see the cards – you can’t) these folks aren’t cheating. If at some point some of them decide to leverage their population in the games by colluding, we will stomp on them hard – just as we would any other colluders. Until then, there’s nothing to see here, folks – move along.

One final note

There have been some ugly undertones in some of the posts that I’ve read, suggesting that “these people” shouldn’t be playing in “our games.” I sure hope I’ve grossly misread between the lines. China represents 20% of the world’s population right now. If a poker craze suddenly swept that nation, the rewards for the world poker community would be almost inestimable. The Chinese middle class is growing like a weed and disposable income – once unimaginable to all but a microscopic fraction of Chinese – is suddenly a common thing.

If the gold farmers are an advance party for that craze (and even if they’re not) then they are welcome in the games at Cake (and elsewhere online, I’m sure). Poker is a big tent and there’s room for millions of people – and dozens of playing styles – under it.

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Lee Jones is the cardroom manager of Cake Poker and has been in the online poker business for over six years. He is also the author of Winning Low Limit Hold’em, which is in its 15th year of publication.

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