Pokerstars innovations - abandonment of Seat in and 5-max

If you are a poker fan, then you know that poker rooms are constantly experimenting with the goal of increasing the popularity of the poker, opening a new hold'em, or otherwise attracting attention (instead of the reasons mentioned, you can read “increase profits, increase profits or increase profits in another way”). Pokerstars has the most experimentation opportunities due to the huge number of reservations where it is possible to study the reaction of players to new client features or other changes under controlled conditions. However, not all attempts to modify the game meet with the approval of the poker community.

Seat me - Arrividerci at Pokerstars.it?

Last year, PokerStars decided to actively fight with the regulars who earned through bumhunting (searching for weak players). The desire to find a weak player, sit on him in a position and take money is a fairly common thing for poker. Everyone put up with this approach, moreover, a thorough search for weak players has long been an integral part of poker. This could continue even if it weren’t for such an odious thing as auto-seating scripts. Programs that scanned the Pokerstars client lobby, found a weak player and put a professional at the table with an amateur, quickly began to irritate the recreational players. Later, part of the regular players joined the stream of hatred and indignation. At some point, it became impossible to find a free table - so seating scripts spread among all poker players of cash games.

Pokerstars reacted immediately in two directions:
• A significant limitation of script functions for searching for weak players, and then a complete ban;
• Introduction in a test mode of blind seating at tables called “Seat me” in the lobby of some local clients.

Seat me did not allow scripts to select tables according to their algorithms due to the inaccessibility of the necessary information for that. Players could select only the discipline, play limit and table type in the Pokerstars client lobby. After that, you were automatically placed behind the free space of any table that matched the parameters. The usual seating tables have been completely removed from the Pokerstars.it lobby. The reaction from the players was traditional and did not surprise at all (“They kill poker,” the poker community said 265 times).

Recently, there has been a return to the basics - the Italian version of Pokerstars has returned the old version that allows for the selection. They returned, however, only at the limit of NL1000. There were no comments from the representatives of the leading poker room. Analysts suggest that the return of the tables is dictated by the desire to compare the popularity of Seat me and the usual approach for seating. It is likely that Seat me will be thrown into the dustbin of history under the approving buzz of professional players.

5-max tables did not take off. Excuse us, Pokerstars!

Another unsuccessful experience was shortened cache tables for up to 5 participants. They tried them in Italy a year ago, removing all 6-max fast poker tables (Zoom) from the lobby of the Pokerstars.it client. The small traffic of the Italian zoom became even smaller and, soon, Zoom tables returned their former appearance.

However, recently PokerStars again decided to try to promote a breakthrough idea and experimented with its Europool (it includes Spain, France and Portugal). This time it was even more annoying than a year ago at Pokerstars.it. In the lobby of Pokerstars.eu, the regular 6-max and Zoom tables were forcibly removed. Here the players of Europool Pokerstars made it clear enough that the idea was so-so: the traffic of cash tables fell by 60% in 2 weeks. Stars pretended that everyone understood and returned again, as it was.

The reason for this backlash on 5-max tables is obvious - more frequent blind passes are only beneficial to Pokerstars. They increase dispersion for professional players and reduce their profit. It is interesting to see if Pokerstars will try for the third time or come up with something even more offensive. Or maybe they will return the old loyalty program and remove Stars Reward? Write your answers in the comments.

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