PokerStars Changes to Rake, Spin & Go Prizes, and Battle of the Planets

BlackMember

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The following changes will be implemented for pokerstars.com and shared liquidity sites in the near future. Implementation dates are included for each change and full tables detailing the changes are provided at the end of the post.

Battle of the Planets

The week ending Saturday, November 1st will be the final week of the Battle of the Planets promotion. Prizes will be paid out this week as per normal.

Rake Changes Effective November 3, 2014

Rake will increase for all stakes of heads-up hyper turbo Sit & Go tournaments.

Tournament fees for all forms of knockout tournaments, including both scheduled and Sit & Go tournaments, will now be equivalent to tournament fees charged for similar non-knockout tournaments. This is a change for all forms of knockout tournaments except for progressive super knockout tournaments for which tournament fees will not change.

Hyper-turbo scheduled tournament fees will increase from 2% to approximately half of the fees charged for other scheduled tournaments at same or similar buy-in levels.

The cap for ring game rake for hands dealt at PL/NL games to exactly two players will increase to $2 for stakes $25/$50 and higher and $1 for all other stakes.

The cap for ring game rake for PL/NL games at $25/$50 and higher stakes with 5+ players dealt in will increase from $3 to $5.

Spin & Go rake will be increased at stakes $3 and above. Details are in the table at the end of the post. Note that the ‘Rake’ row in the table refers to the % of prize pool withheld for rake, as is consistent with our current communication on our website and communication of pricing by competitors about similar products.

Rakes Changes Effective January 1, 2015

Hyper-turbo satellite Sit & Go fees will be increased at stakes below $2,000 from 2% to an amount equivalent to roughly 75% of the fees charged for cash prize hyper-turbo Sit & Go tournaments of the same buy-in. A table at the end of this post includes sample fees for a wide range of buy-ins.

New tournament fees will apply in rebuy tournaments for players whose play is subject to significant local taxes in the form of gaming duty and/or VAT. For such players, tournament fees equivalent to those charged for initial buy-ins will be charged for rebuys and add-ons. We will soon provide a full list of sites/countries affected on January 1, but as examples, PokerStars.be, PokerStars.dk, PokerStars.uk, and PokerStars.bg will qualify due to gaming duty and players from germany will qualify due to VAT.

Spin & Go Prize Changes Effective November 3, 2014

Spin & Go prize distribution will change to offer top prizes of 3000x the buy-in at each pool, increased from 1000x. Full details of the new distributions are available in the table at the bottom of this post.

Details and Examples of Changes

Sit & Go

http://i.imgur.com/nI8kdzB.jpg

Spin & Go

http://i.imgur.com/NcV0fP2.jpg

Scheduled MTT

http://i.imgur.com/jAP3h6H.jpg

The above are examples; similar changes will apply at all stakes.

NL/PL Ring Games

http://i.imgur.com/zZi6n61.jpg
 
horizon12

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Spin & Go will kill all games..
RIP PokerStars..
 
BluffMeAllIn

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regardless of everything else the biggest surprise to me is the removal of the BOP....dissapointing to see a site as big as stars removing these kind of promo's.
 
duggs

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literally doubling the rake at 50nl, 50PLO swell. HU must be virtually unbeatable now
 
Farseer

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MTTs just got big slash too. Hypers were from good games to completely unplayable, and regular KOs too.

RIP PokerStars. But I hope that new AmayaStars will rip their monopoly and let other sites / networks to come back into game.
 
WeenieSVK

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I hate the way which online poker goes... They dont give a damn about regular poker players, all they care is the way how to make the gamblers to spend more of their money at tables. No matter how negative effect it will have on regulars...
 
H

hffjd2000

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Surely, this spin and go is so addictive.

If you lost or win in a table, you want to play more.
 
loafes

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Amaya, going out of their way to kill the games.
 
BluffMeAllIn

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on a further read, yeah this is pretty disgusting all around. :(
 
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Isn't pokerstars still lower than any other poker site?

I mean, don't get me wrong a rake increase is never great but I feel most of the people kicking off about it are just the break-even slightly winning players which, stars really doesn't care about.
 
tenbob

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Its the problem of having one dominant pokersite out there. If I was the owner of Stars I would be doing the exact same thing. Regardless of all the outcry, people will still play there, mainly because no other site compares. Make hay !

Sucks for the players though. Combine this with the promise of a much reduced VIP system in 2016, its not looking good for anyone thats playing for a living.
 
loafes

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Isn't pokerstars still lower than any other poker site?

I mean, don't get me wrong a rake increase is never great but I feel most of the people kicking off about it are just the break-even slightly winning players which, stars really doesn't care about.

But stars is also by far the toughest site, people play there due to the lower rake and all the goodwill the company has gained from being run extremely well. It may make it more attractive to play on softer sites. Unfortunately I think that there still aren't better option than poker stars, regs will still be forced to play there due to no other sites comparing and Amaya shareholders will be the only ones to benefit.
 
horizon12

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Surely, this spin and go is so addictive.

If you lost or win in a table, you want to play more.

It is not something that addictive, how what all the new and old players will play mostly Spin&GO , because its gamble win good prise , fast game..

And in other games much be lowered the number of players , that's the problem , because they have increased prise pool in Spin&GO... It will destroy the entire poker system in the addition of recreational players , they all play Spin&GO...

In future many regulars must play Sping&GO , adapt game and generate a lot of rake...That is why the SNG may be unprofitable..
 
zam220

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Spin unprofitable for bankroll unless you fall in the maximum prize,play them that the prize draw
 
micromachine

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Spin unprofitable for bankroll unless you fall in the maximum prize,play them that the prize draw

Definitely, if you get the maximum prize it's profitable for your bankroll :hmmmm:
 
horizon12

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Definitely, if you get the maximum prize it's profitable for your bankroll :hmmmm:

More chances that the car will bring down me .than I win the maximum prize in PokerStars
And this reality if you look at the statistics car accidents and the chances of winning maximum prise Spin&GO :D
 
BlackMember

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From 2+2
Amaya/Pokerstars have a monopoly on online poker and are making any changes that they believe will increase their bottom line. They have just increased rake across most games.
Added a 2.5% margin on cashouts and deposits when changing currencies.
It is time for players to do something. While it may seem that player power is limited, history has shown that organized player movement can have results. The alternative is to do nothing and let Amaya walk all over you.
A few ideas:
i) A mass player sitout on the 5th of November at 6pm(GMT). At this time you open as many tables as you can and sitout for 2 hours. Explain to other players why this is happening.
ii) Do not use the name pokerstars anywhere. If you do this it gives the company soft advertising. Pokerstars was the old company, Amaya is the present. Call them Amaya.
iii) An organized player movement away from Amaya. Players join together as a union/single group and approach the other sites. If this group of players is significant enough they should be able to negotiate a deal with those sites that gives them amazing rewards and customer service.
Please post ideas and support.
 
toots babos

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just remember that amaya has only recently taken over PS and these changes are probably one of the 1st to be made.......

wait until they see how much they can actually make out of it and how greedy they may become.

since they brought in the currency converter charge it wouldn't take a genius in their boardroom to say that they should make every single game on the site US$ buy ins for tourneys and cash and turn the cashier into only US$ so that nearly every player in the world will be withdrawing into their own currency hence taking a 2.5% charge and for those depositing there will only be an option to deposit into US$ so that will be 2.5% more for PS.

as for rake on cash games doubling it here and there..... further on down the line they increase it by another 50c..... a bit further another 50c and so on and so on

increasing rake on hyper turbos? before you know it you'll be paying the exact same rake as a regular speed game

what they have announced they are doing is just the teeny weeny little tip of the enormous iceberg in my opinion
 
LD1977

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I have seen this exact scenario before (betfair).

There is no competent competition to PS/FTP (as I was saying quite recently), therefore the only thing customers can do is give up their hobby/means of income or endure what is happening. This is not the only thing that stinks and will not be the last either.
 
L

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few points
1. pokerstars does not stand out in terms of charged rake anymore there are better options out there now for some games and many offering the same for others.
2. the fact they attack high rake generator games to eliminate the top pros and there hard pushing of spin and goes clearly leads one to the impression that they want it to no longer be possible to do for a living they just want to provide effectively a scratch card service.
3. even these drastic changes are just the tip of the iceberg what else do you think they will do if they have done all this so fast? despite everything if you could guarantee that nothing else would be changed stars would still be a good site to target for an income but you can guarantee the exact opposite.
it takes a lot of effort devotion and time to learn how to competently beat a game for any income worthwhile achieving.

by the time you get to the standard to do that who is to say that will be available in the same format anymore?

at least with targeting games on other sites you know there will still be a reasonable chance of your long term efforts been rewarded.
 
S3mper

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Lol Dave and I briefly discussed this in a CC game about PokerStars not having any competition and will be able to do this type of stuff when they decreased the benefits of Super Nova players, as it surely will have to effect the rest of the ladder..

I believe I used hookers to discuss my point? lol

Pokerstars is making a mistake IMO, It's only a matter of time till some one new comes along everyone wants the top spot in their field and even if it's 5 years down the road people will remember... Stars screwed their loyal players and now some one bigger is here...

In fact I'm off to create a new poker site... Just need osme lawyers, investors, programmers, Security team, a support team, a promotions team, and more... Let you guys know how it goesss....
 
Gorak

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Added a 2.5% margin on cashouts and deposits when changing currencies.

This is very bad. Players will hesitate to deposit because in the end it will cost 2.5% in + 2.5% out = 5% lost and you haven't played a hand!

Greedy PokerStars. :vollkomme
 
S3mper

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The new owner apparently hasn't heard of "If it's not broken don't fix it"

I wonder what Daniel Negreanu thinks of the new management decisions lol - I'm sure these changes don't conflict with him at all but he prides Stars on being the best and looking out for the players... Stars is looking out for Stars atm
 
Jostone6

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Changes that really are not pleasing to the players, I'm afraid that's just the beginning of several changes that amaya planning. Hope some responsible see complaints from players by poker forums. What will it be after?
 
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