Pokerstars bans HU Cap protest participants

Hey everyone.
I felt very sad when i read pokerstars have been banning HU Cap players protesting against their rake raise. I can understand if they up their rake if it is profitable for the company even if they lose respect and customers. Money > customers right? We all would up the price of a product if it is more profitable even if we lose some customers.
But the fact they banned those people sitting out in HU Cap games is ridiculous.

I think we live in a world where we have the right to protest. At least warn the people. Kick them from the table instead (Pretty sure they have the powers to do this) E-mail your customers and tell them if they do this once again they will be banned. I think they don't even care 0% about their customers.

I lost my respect for pokerstars, to bad they have so much power in the online world of poker. I wish there was more competition online, so pokerstars will care about their customers.

I am not mad about the rake raise, i'm mad about how pokerstars (don't) care about their customers.

Source?

There was a thread on that other forum with the regs saying "I;m going to sit out" They knew the risks, it's common knowledge if you're trying to sit out just to protest and stars sees this you will get banned. It's fair.

I'm still struggling to understand these guys protesting like this, I mean just bloody quit the site and play elsewhere! That seems a much more better and effective protest. If they really wanted to just not play on that day, then all the regs should of agreed to just not go on the site rather than sitting out. Pokerstars isn't funding their servers for people just to sit out, it makes perfect sense they would kick/ban them from their games and taking up space for people wanting to play.

If I was playing in games and I couldn't get a game because regs was sitting out, I'd report them to request them to be removed from the table so I could join. What makes them think they have a right to kill off the action or try?

The games don't revolve around regs but actually the recreational players, infact stars would be better off not having regs so they are just over estimating their importance to the site, stars really don't care for regs.

There are some posts on 2+2 about players being banned.

Some protesters being warned off & if they weren't complying, they got banned.

Isai Scheinberg needs to open up a new site (PokerTilt/ FullStars/ PokerProTilt).

Then for the first 6mos. have rake 1/2 the amount of AmayaStars (ie. tourney fees for MTT & SNG make it 5% (instead of 9 or 10%) especially for micros & lowstakes... ie. $10 + $0.50 ... not $10 + $1)

Sponsor ~ 1 dozen well-known poker pros to play on the site. Market it on TV... perhaps have a TV cashgame with the site's pros (PokerAfterDonk).


'nh' 'gg' 'obv'

RamdeeBen said:

What makes them think they have a right to kill off the action or try?

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umm... idk but I thought it was because they were protesting

Poker Orifice said:

umm... idk but I thought it was because they were protesting

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They're protesting the free enterprise system. People can charge whatever they want. If it's too high someone else can come in lower...if noone does obv it wasn't too high.

Should they be banned? No...suspended maybe.

Poker Orifice said:

umm... idk but I thought it was because they were protesting

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What I mean is, pokerstars isn't going to accommodate them protesting by letting the players use their servers to do so, doesn't make sense. They can protest for sure, but if they honestly think they have the right to use pokerstars business as the support of their protest they are stupid. I mean as already seen it's not like pokerstars would allow them to do that. Of course they are going to allow them to proest in their own ways as there is nothing they can do about that, but they are going to have to use their own resources to do so.

As I thought, I knew the protest would make zero difference other than actually increase pokerstars traffic to the cash games on the day of the protest and also getting them banned from the games as predicted. So basically, all they did was increase pokerstars revenue on protest day something they was trying to reduce.

Correct and actual protest which might do something is moving to another site.

This protest and the way it was set up to the equivalent to holding the place hostage.
It is like if you didn't like your local pub raising the price of beer so everyone went in and took all the seats and didn't order anything while people that wanted to buy there could not because all the seats were taken. Would the bar owner allow that? I think not.

They knew the penalty before they did it - no need to feel sorry for them.

People seem to forget that we only get to play online poker where there is an online poker operator willing to host games. Those operators have the right to refuse service if they so choose.

If you don't like the way an operator operates, don't play there. It is that simple, and nothing else matters.

RamdeeBen said:

So basically, all they did was increase pokerstars revenue on protest day something they was trying to reduce.

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I think they 'were' trying to raise awareness. I believe they succeeded.

Poker Orifice said:

I think they 'were' trying to raise awareness. I believe they succeeded.

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Everyone who is a reg knows about the rake increase.

The fish don't so who else was made aware that didn't even know?

Policy PS not happy,I agree the action was necessary to show his opinion

I'm sure Stars would have been up with all the chatter on the forums, and probably had the names of those that were participating in the protest before the protesters sat at a table.

Like Dakota said they knew what the risks were.




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RamdeeBen said:

Everyone who is a reg knows about the rake increase.

The fish don't so who else was made aware that didn't even know?

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Too true & most (like me before joining CC) wouldn't even know what it is.
But it takes me a while to catch on.

mootso said:

Source?

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http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/2...-sitout-cashout-protest-1485843/#post45099988

Last 20-30 posts it was a while ago. Maybe it is more now.
Got it from a tweet from a proffesional poker player

I don't think they all knew they would get banned. And even so.. It's very sad to threat the people who want to host a protest this way.

In my opinion it is exactly the same thing like protesting in real life. Lets say you're working at KLM airlines. Your boss have lowered your income to a ridiculous price. You are going to protest. But because of the protest there will be a fewer flights that day. Will the boss ban those people and say bye to their job? Ofcourse not. We have the right to protest.

As Dave said ; They could have atleast understand it and suspend them to show to them that pokerstars is serious about this. Banning people for things like this is just really bad. Maybe it changes in a few years and those people want to play again?

PokerFunKid said:

I don't think they all knew they would get banned.

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If they knew about the protest they should have also known they would get banned. It was stated repeatedly in every thread about it - including in the one here.

If they didn't know that means they just blindly jumped in on it by reading 1 or 2 posts and making a decision without knowing what was going on. In that case they still don't deserve anyone's sympathy.

It was very well known that the players participating would be voluntarily violating Pokerstar's T&C and if they didn't want their accounts banned they should not have done it.

Why do they care anyway?? If they are that pissed off they shouldn't be playing there - they have plenty of other choices.

Well, my opinion:
- players will be welcome at any other poker room (with new players bonuses etc), so why to do some ridiculous sit outs
- PS dont have any way how to find out they are actually protesting. That "ban for sit-out" rule is there for long time already.

dakota-xx said:

If they knew about the protest they should have also known they would get banned. It was stated repeatedly in every thread about it - including in the one here.

If they didn't know that means they just blindly jumped in on it by reading 1 or 2 posts and making a decision without knowing what was going on. In that case they still don't deserve anyone's sympathy.

It was very well known that the players participating would be voluntarily violating Pokerstar's T&C and if they didn't want their accounts banned they should not have done it.

Why do they care anyway?? If they are that pissed off they shouldn't be playing there - they have plenty of other choices.

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Well, i agree with you on some part. I also 'knew' they would get banned but i didn't believe pokerstars would. Even if they knew it, it keeps being a sad decision in my opinion to ban them (and maybe they also didn't believe it?). Pokerstars is still the best room, but people are just disapointed. They want to protest but not leave. And i agree with them. I thank those for taking part. I didn't because i didn't even want to take time for it, but i understand those who did. I know it is not smart to take part in those protests, but they are punished way to hard in my opinion. They made their statement and it is sad pokerstars is banning them for it.

Theres also a difference between liking the room and the people behind the room. I like the room, i don't like those behind.

bnasp2 said:

Well, my opinion:
- players will be welcome at any other poker room (with new players bonuses etc), so why to do some ridiculous sit outs
- PS dont have any way how to find out they are actually protesting. That "ban for sit-out" rule is there for long time already.

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O well, i didn't knew there was a rule for sitting out. But i see lots of players often sitting out and i am sure they weren't banned. Also at high stakes. I think those people weren't sitting out there every day. They just wanted to make a statement and i think it is not needed to punish them and ban them from the greatest poker site in the world. I also think it is not smart to sit out, but it wasn't needed to ban them after they made their statement. If they continue days and days i understand..

bnasp2 said:

Well, my opinion:
- players will be welcome at any other poker room (with new players bonuses etc), so why to do some ridiculous sit outs
- PS dont have any way how to find out they are actually protesting. That "ban for sit-out" rule is there for long time already.

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The bolded is wrong...do you think stars with all of the people on their payroll don't have people reading the bigger forums?

Agree with your first point though.

Just find another way to protest if you want. If these kind of things can ban you.

Like if 1000 regs block their account (for 24h) at same time right before prime time, i don't know if these rake changes applies for tourneys, but if it lets say a lot of MTT regs, do this before the start of guaranteeds , stars might have problems in some cases to meet them, thus creating an overlay.

Guess this will hurt them more.

kinda feel like the stars players dont appreciate what they have