PokerStars announces new changes

The biggest poker room in the world PokerStars actively continues with its policy pro recreational players. It would be OK should Stars management not interfere with regulars’ interests. And the regulars are furious about the changes in this poker room.

On January, 26^th it became known that PokerStars management makes some new rules for the operating of the web site and one of them in prohibiting players selecting the table and the seat. We’ll tell you on how it would effect the game in whole and what new things are coming in the room here. For starters, we will let you read the official claim of PokerStars

“At PokerStars, we are constantly looking for ways to better provide a safe and fair environment, and to improve the overall experience when a customer chooses to play with us. Protecting the game of poker that we all love is at the core of everything we do. It ignites very passionate discussions as the decisions are often quite complex when we take in consideration our pool of players with different needs and desires, the historical precedence, the evolution of the game, the latest trends...

With so many customers who trust our products, we have to be particularly vigilant against tools or strategies used to gain an unfair advantage. We also need to be able to ensure that we create enforceable and sustainable policies, making sure that players who do follow the rules are not at a disadvantage.

These were the considerations we undertook before announcing today the introduction of Seat Me which aims to improve our ring game seating process by making it smoother, quicker and fairer. Seat Me eliminates the ability of players to pick their tables and seats at the tables, and will instead get them straight into the action automatically once a game and stake has been chosen. We will be testing this new functionality soon, on PokerStars.es, and will review the results of this trial before considering potential future use of Seat Me in other markets.”

What is Seat Me function at PokerStars?

The official claim of PokerStars makes us realize that this function will make users unable to select tables and they will be seated automatically. What’s the purpose of this new function for the poker room management?

• So called Bumhunting - hunting for the weak players - will not be possible any more
• Script use for seating next to the weakest players will be unable so the field will be more diversified
• Will allow to penalize the players who switch their seats too often searching for weak opponents
• Will make online poker at PokerStars similar to live games in respect the player will be seated randomly.

We should note that after the function “Seat Me" will come to work, the players won’t be able to observe the play at other tables. The viewers will be only able to see the play of the members of Team Pro members.

Other new PokerStars features in 2017

In addition to "Seat Me" function, some other features will be accepted by the PokerStars management, namely:

• Data mining prohibition. PokerStars plans to update the list of allowed software to gather stats at the tables.
• Random seating in heads-up and Sit-n-Go. Yep, “Seat ME” feature will appear not only at the cash tables but also in Sit-n-Go tournaments. That way, players won’t be able to see the nicknames of registered participants before entering the tournament.
• Improved payout structure in Spin & Go tournaments. After making the analysis of the tournaments, the management came to a conclusion that low multipliers don’t make Spin & Go tournaments too popular. That’s why probability of x2 multiplier x2 be reduced and x4 and x6 multipliers will be met more often.
• Payout structure in MTT. The management of the casino once again helps weak players. Several percent of the final table will be spread between the players in the very beginning of ITM zone. That way they will be able not just cover the buy-in but also win some.

Instead of conclusion:

Let’s notice that some changes have already occurred. For instance, multi-table Sit-n-Go tournaments now have late registration. This means that PokerStars management constantly tries to improve the game for recreational players trying new ideas and having experiments. We don’t know what it has to lead to and we can only follow the development of the situation.