Winning Poker Network took their excellent “Cage” idea and made it available to even more players. What the new idea is, and how it came to be are equally as interesting in their novelty.

The newest version of “The Cage” hosted by Winning Poker Network that will be available to players all around the world will be $500 and fit squarely into the mid-stakes price range. This new version will be hosted every Friday night through the end of December and most likely much longer than that. They are running multiple satellites into the first one starting as low as $4.40, but you can expect even more satellites to be run in the upcoming weeks. This event was put together on shorter notice, so the first week is not as indicative of the future, but more of a trial run.

“The Cage” is a hybrid of tournament and cash game that has players buy into a “tournament” that last 4 hours. At the end of the 4 hour time limit players receive the dollar amount of the chips that they still have left at a 1:1 ratio. When considering this hybrid its interesting in how it really changes the bankroll requirements one has to consider when playing in any type of poker game. It’s not a true tournament, so you probably need less than 100 buy-ins, but you can’t leave early, so it’s a bit different than a cash game that generally requires significantly less buy-ins to feel comfortable playing. The best answer is most likely somewhere in the middle of those two numbers.

The idea for this event came to the forefront during the stream that the CEO of Winning Poker Network hosted during the last “Cage” event on Twitch.tv. It was a fairly unique and well-received idea that the CEO says he will continue to do during every “Cage” event. He answers almost any question about the company, promotions and ideas that the users send his way. You can watch the first two on YouTube, or tune in for the next one on December 7th. The only questions he really didn’t answer were about payment processing and what his salary were, which is understandable and reasonable to most players.

The discussions themselves are a pretty big story if they are able to influence decisions made by Winning Poker Network in any meaningful way. The CEO of WPN states that this tournament is purely because people convinced him to have it during the stream. It’s unclear if future suggestions will be as successful, but they are worth an attempt.

It’s one of the first times that a CEO has interacted and then took the advice of his or her players like this and should raise the bar for what players expect out of their poker sites and the communication and answers they receive. If you need specific help or have other suggestions you feel need to be rought to light Winning Poker Network also offers a “live chat” feature. Us here at ProfessionalRakeback.com also have a FAQ page that can help answer some of your questions before you sign up!

Winning Poker Network is a US-facing site that has America’s Cardroom as its flagship site. BlackChip Poker, Spanish speaking oriented Ya Poker and True Poker are also on the network and offer different feels, but about the same benefits and promotions. You can get 27% rakeback by signing up for one of the site and they have many promotions and deposit bonuses running, many of which we have covered on here.

Are you excited about “The Cage” being accessible to a different set of players? DO you plan to play in it? Do you think that more people than just the CEO should appear on the stream? Tell us on Twitter or Facebook!