Partypoker hasn’t been shy about changing its software as of late, with most of the changes seemingly designed to protect recreational players. Now, a further change is on the horizon for cash game players that once again appears geared towards improving the online poker room’s ecosystem.
According to a tweet by the official Partypoker account on Twitter, players will soon be required to buy into cash games for a minimum of 100 times the big blind.
Change Expected by End of Month
The announcement first came from Partypoker on Friday, though the poker room has yet to announce a specific date for when the policy change will go into effect.
Cash game news: All of our #cashgames, including #fastforward, will have a minimum buy-in of 100 big blinds by the end of June as part of our ongoing improvements. More details coming soon. https://t.co/jO5hpF2NY4 18+. Play responsibly. begambleaware pic.twitter.com/p7ausZOhdE
— PartyPoker (@partypoker) June 14, 2019
“All of our cash games, including Fast Forward, will have a minimum buy-in of 100 big blinds by the end of June as part of our ongoing improvements,” the short message read. “More details coming soon.”
As of yet, those details haven’t emerged. But it is clear that Partypoker is planning on following an industry-wide trend towards larger forced buy-ins at cash game tables.
Several other sites have implemented fixed buy-in sizes for at least some of their cash game tables. Phil Galfond’s Run It Once Poker was an early adopter of the policy, with PokerStars using fixed buy-ins for some of its specialty games like Showtime and Fusion.
But interestingly, the Partypoker announcement doesn’t actually mention anything about buy-ins being “fixed.” Instead, it refers to 100 big blinds as the minimum, suggesting players might still have the option of buying in for more money.
Partypoker Wants Fish-Friendly Ecosystem
Whether that’s the case or not, it’s easy to see how forced higher buy-ins would fit in with Partypoker’s pivot towards creating an ecosystem designed to be friendly to recreational players. For starters, it will make it more difficult for players to engage in “ratholing,” the process of quickly jumping into a table, quickly doubling up or winning a large pot, and then leaving before returning to the action with another small stack – thereby preventing opponents from having a fair shot at winning their money back.
But the biggest advantage may be how a larger buy-in impacts player behavior. By making players buy-in with a significant stack, it will dissuade users from playing for higher limits than their bankrolls can support, and completely prevent them from moving up just because they can scrape together a minimum stack at a high stakes table.
The move comes on the heels of other significant changes at Partypoker.
On June 17, players were required to choose new screen names, effectively eliminating any previous data users might have collected on their opponents. Players who made that change in the first 24 hours were eligible to potentially receive a share of $500,000 in rewards.
That, combined with an end to downloadable hand histories, will make it nearly impossible to track the play of other users – though some have argued that those changes will also be detrimental to game integrity on the site.
