Changes in PokerStars School League since July 2018

BlackMember

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Starting from July, PokerStars School will introduce a series of changes to The League. The new leagues are designed with the same purpose as the previous ones, establishing a space for players to learn, practice their poker skills, and become winning players.

Below you will find the new changes we plan to make:

The League - Levels

Currently there are four levels to our leagues. In the new The League there will only be two levels - the Initiation Level, and the Masters Level.

The Initiation Level will be reserved for those players who have joined pokerstars School within the past three months. Each time a new member enrolls in the school, they will be given a ticket to play at this level, with a duration of 180 days. To begin with we will give all PokerStars School members access for 180 days, meaning we will not exclude our long-term members for those first 180 days.

The Masters Level will be open to all eligible members of PokerStars School. To play this level, you must login to PokerStars School at least once a month to obtain a free ticket to play.

Tournaments

Currently our various levels run between four-six daily tournaments. In the new format, each level will have three daily tournaments across various time zones.

Initiation Level tournaments will have an added prize pool of $10 awarded in tournament dollars (T$). These tournaments will be free to enter.

All Masters Level tournaments will have a guaranteed prize pool of $20. Masters Level tournaments will have a buy-in of $0.25c.

Tournaments will continue to run on the same days as they do now. The League will be played between the 5th and the 30th of each month.

Our new The League format will require less time to play, allowing more players a chance to participate. The maximum number of tournaments a player can play per month will be 32. This works out as one daily tournament and a little extra maybe at weekends.

Promotion and Demotions - Points

The current system of promotions and demotions will cease to exist in the new The League. However, the way to determine the score, and the accumulation of points in the 15 best events, will remain unchanged.

Leader Board

Each of the two new levels will have their own Leader Board. However, you will not need to qualify for the higher level. This means if you're able to play in the Initiation Level, you will also be able to play in the Masters Level.

Initiation Level
The Initiation Level will have a Leader Board awarding prizes to the top 100 players, sharing a prize pool of $1,215 in tournament dollars (T$). First place will receive $325 worth of tournament dollars (T$) credited to their PokerStars account.

Masters Level
The Masters Level will also have a Leader Board awarding prizes to the top 100 players, sharing a larger prize pool. First place will receive $2,500 worth of tournament dollars (T$) credited to their PokerStars account.

Other Changes

The Fast Pass tournaments will no longer run, as there is no longer a need for players to satellite into either level.

Big Bang Tickets will be removed from The League; all leaderboard awards will now be credited in tournament dollars (T$).

Finally

We will continue to review The League. Our goal is to make it easier to join, easier to play, faster to win and more available for our new members.
 
Andrew Popov

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Will the league become paid? LOL ... It seems that they ran out of money.
 
Dejange

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We will continue to review The League. Our goal is to make it easier to join, easier to play, faster to win and more available for our new members.


This is the joke of the year, they are tying to kill and bury this Poker School more likely, huh ...
 
C

canabero

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bye, bye poker school league. i won't waste my time anymore whit these ridiculous changes.
 
BlackMember

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Initially, they even wanted to pay prizes for the leaderboards - tickets for spin & go, but after numerous negative responses at school, they decided to remove tickets and replaced them T-Moneys.
 
pirateglenn

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If there is one thing i have honestly and truly learnt about pokerstars over the past 12 years - its that they never do anything without considering how much profit they are either going to make or how much money they are losing..for a business that i dread to think yields millions of dollars profit every year, this latest change is ridiculous as they did not change the league that long ago..i remember the last change and thought it was pointless.
I would like to see pokerstars become less greedy and more player centered..
 
kraemer

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Let#s see how this affects the tourneys...
Maybe the 0,25 buyin already helps to get
rid of the countless all-in with anything guys
that are currently making the league unplayable
unless you enjoy bingo...
Maybe it is turning this into a more serious tournament series...
 
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kozong

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Initially, they even wanted to pay prizes for the leaderboards - tickets for spin & go, but after numerous negative responses at school, they decided to remove tickets and replaced them T-Moneys.

the decision to change real money prize on LB w/ tickets is the worse in the new leagues
this is the new low for PSO/PSS i guess
 
Andrew Popov

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This is the joke of the year, they are tying to kill and bury this Poker School more likely, huh ...
The new version of the league will cost pokerstars for 20-30 thousand dollars cheaper. A poker room with a multi-million dollar profit found on what to save. facepalm
 
Andrew Popov

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I would like to see pokerstars become less greedy and more player centered..



They are constantly trying to make the SCHOOL league profitable. First they were satellites - paid tournaments, where you could win a place in the higher league for 1 - 3 or 5 dolars. These tournaments did not even collect a minimum number of players. After all, the meaning of the league is to rise to the upper levels with your skill. Now they just made paid games. I do not think that this will make the tournaments themselves more reasonable - there will always be rabid fishes that will play 0.25 as well as a freeroll. It would be prudent to increase the leaderboard prize zone - 100 people per poker room with a hundred thousand players is ridiculous. Left the leaderboard from the masters, but removed all the intermediate leagues ... :mad:
 
EVA777

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Yes! And I just gained momentum in the league, and what will be in a new way I do not know! It is clear one thing - gradually, starting with the masters, to turn free league tournaments into paid ones ...
 
Spaceman

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What a surprise.. Another Pokerstars disheartening change. A neverending disappointment to everybody except their pockets. Is Pokerstars really that greedy or are they having serious economical problems? Thats not even funny anymore:mad::damnmate:
 
N

neptun1914

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Very bad decision by pokerstars. They should have left the 10$ real money freerolls for the elementary level untouched. I can understand the t-money solution partially but not the fact that you can play elementary for just 3 months and then they ask you to pay for the masters level. I hope that they will see the negative results and change this soon.
 
Vodnik2017

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Nears the influx of aggressive players on the CC
 
Y

Yoda_Priest_X_Napo

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Wow, and i was wondering what else can go wrong.I do not have time to review and analyze these changes but in a first glance i can not see something else than - They just did it again, they trying to squeeze profit for them every way possible.There are gonna be fewer tournaments 6 daily than 4x6, 24?? + they gonna pay less prizes on the leaderboards 1215$ + something below than what the Masters is now, assuming that because Masters has 100 prizes paid and the first one is 3.000$ , now it is 2.500$. Entry fee of 0.25$. Wait..seriously wait a minute, do you understand how serious this one is? if you have 4.000 entries per tournament. You gonna get 1.000$ dollars. and the prize pool gonna be 20$... wait guys what the hell is happening now seriously.If we assume that 4.000 people gonna play each tournament then 12.000 per day then 3.000$ dollars per day -60$ so they gonna make profit from that?The Leaderboards are gonna pay less in the long run from what you could win if the prize pool was 0.25 x number of players???


"Our goal is to make it easier to join, easier to play, faster to win and more available for our new members"


Easier to join/easier to play = So lets change is from TOTTALY FREE to 0.25$ per entry.Facepalm
Faster to win = Welcome recreational, we know how this phrase rings to your ears we know that this phrase releases dopamine in your brain and makes you smile, thinking that its truth without analyzing anything, same phrase that 10% house edge gambling companies use to attract non-thinking people.


So what is gonna happen if you have 30.000 active players and you pay 100 of them? How does that even work. Is that what they fantasize??

I can help you a bit more Amayastars. Leaderboards gonna be 1st place only, and prize gonna be a random number generated by the end of each month. Prize gonna be Profit made from the 0.25 entries divided by 10 but without anybody knowing it and presented as Random?

This is how you work anyway, you dont have people that think of something innovative you dont have new ideas.
These guys are like, "oh look we raked them so hard and they keep coming, they keep playing, and they laugh with that. We as community do not respond as we should and they just keep pushing their edge.
 
orchidra

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My initial reaction to the changes was, thank you, but no thank you, PokerStars. However, I best wait until tomorrow, when the full details are released.

I have gathered this information though.
Initiation, 3000 starting chips with 5 minute levels
Masters, 3000 starting chips with 10 minutes levels


It looks like the tournament dollar prizes will have a 30 day expiry period. Therefore, the monthly winner of the Masters is going to be busy.

Good luck everyone in the new league.
 
iriska

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farewell league! I and so rarely played them with a crowd of deer, and now certainly I will not look in that direction.
 
X

xbursonicx

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Entry fee of 0.25$. Wait..seriously wait a minute, do you understand how serious this one is? if you have 4.000 entries per tournament. You gonna get 1.000$ dollars. and the prize pool gonna be 20$... wait guys what the hell is happening now seriously.If we assume that 4.000 people gonna play each tournament then 12.000 per day then 3.000$ dollars per day -60$ so they gonna make profit from that?The Leaderboards are gonna pay less in the long run from what you could win if the prize pool was 0.25 x number of players???


I seriously doubt that total prize pool will be fixed to $20. It's just a guaranteed prize pool which means that if the number if players is less than 80 (if there is no rake) then total prize pool will be compensated by PS to make it even $20. But in general case total prize pool size should directly depend on the number of players.

Overall it seems like totally experimental approach because playing a normal tourney (even micro for 0$.25) is very different from playing freerolls - basically it's the next step for every new player. But that step could've been done by any player with $0.25 SnG (or other SnG with a buying ranging from $0.02 and higher). So I'd guess that players who regularly play such SnG will probably "migrate" to Masters level as it offers additional prizes from the leaderboard; but it's unlikely that these prizes will entice anyone who doesn't want to play micros or wants to play freerolls only.
 
KozakAlex

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The changes completely changed the essence of the league. Now you do not need to fight for promotion between the divisions. But I plan to play the Elementary exactly, and the Masters may simply not have money to enter.
 
V

vic75

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I made it to University this month now another slap in the face from Amaya corporation they will slowly kill poker stars. I remember the good old days they are long gone.
 
A

Aline da silva

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in fact I did not see change, they already helped the students from the beginning and always helped, only that the students are too intelligent to learn before playing. my opinion
 
vov4ik

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There has already been an update and made 4 leagues, so now they are upgraded back to 2 leagues and the prize will be paid in tournament dollars, I have not seen an update in the poker school, I can not go there!
 
I

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I will give it a shot but I don't know what I think about it
 
N

neptun1914

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Transitioning to t-money for the initiation level and the buyin for the master i can somehow accept but they made two serious errors in my opinion:

1. Why they deny access to their loyal players to the initiation level after 3 months? They are giving t-money as prize anyway so the winners will need to play with them at their tables. They are not loosing anything.
2. Buin of 25c is too much for the master in my opinion. You can play normal games for such money. If they expect all people playing at initiation to automatically switch to master and start paying after 3 months - well i highly doubt that such thing will happen. Buyin of 10c looks much more reasonable for me. Anyway we will see how it goes. I personally think that very soon they will make changes again when they see that they are loosing players.
 
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