Totally unfair pokerstars change game structure!!

JackDuckSooted · #1 10-20-2007, 02:03 AM

Please join me in emailing support@pokerstars.com We play poker to have a chance to win money not just to pay money to poker sites that change the rules on us just so they can make more money with no concern for the players!

It was a mistake to change the ante and bring in in the 100-200 stud hi lo game from $15 ante/$30 bring in to the absurd $25 ante/$50 bring in. First of all $50 bring in for 100-200 is insane at 50% of a small bet. No real stud game anywhere online or in the world is played with a 50% bring in look at some examples. 3-6 $1 bring in 33% of SB, or 10-20 $3 bring in 30% of SB, or 20-40 $5 bring in 25% of SB, or even 30-60 $10 bring in 33% of SB. And examples of antes 3--6 is .25 or 8% of a SB, or 5-10 .5 10% of a SB, or 10-20 1 or 10% of a SB. Now at 100-200 $25 is a HUGE 25% of a small bet. Also even the 100-200 stud games at the Commerce Casino in Los Angles, the poker capitol of the world, the ante and bring are both $20. The ante definitely should not be over $20 while $15 was fine. Also the bring in at $50 is totally outrageous!! You have turned this game into a crapshoot!! with a HUGE high ante and bring in, and there was no reason to do so. The game had plenty of action and was very popular why change the structure? Just to try and run up the rake on some of the shorthanded games? Have some respect for your biggest customers.

xxeximusxx · #2 10-20-2007, 02:35 AM

i would think the reason they changed this is because alot of players requested it. Don't most highstakew players prefer bigger ante games.

JackDuckSooted · #3 10-20-2007, 02:40 AM

No actually thats a myth. They prefer bigger limits not necessarily more juice in the antes. They used to play 80-160 stud at the commerce all the time with the $20 ante at 25% of a small bet. By many players request they changed the game to 100-200 stud with $20 ante (20% of a SB) a much more reasonable structure. Not many players wanted the 100-200 with the $25

Andy B · #4 10-20-2007, 02:53 AM

I agree that the half-bet bring-in is bad, but Stars uses it in a lot of their other games. Live $4/8 games at Canterbury Park and in California use it.

Standard $100/200 has a $25 ante and $25 bring-in. The quarter-bet bring-in is a lot better than a half-bet bring-in, and you can use all green chips which helps keep the game moving along (not a consideration online I know). Some day it might occur to the sites that the standard structures evolved the way that they did for a reason. I do think that Full Tilt did well to go with slightly higher antes for many of their games, because, for example, online $10/20 players generally play a lot better than live $10/20 players.

Higher antes are necessary at higher limits because otherwise the good players would win too consistently and the games would dry up. Twenty-five percent isn't unheard of. As I mentioned before, it's standard at $100/200. The Bellagio $300/600 has a $75 ante and $100 force. And I believe that the big game is $4000/8000 with the ante and bring-in both $1000. I imagine that the higher ante will be to your benefit in the long run. Glancing over some HHs from Friday night's $100/200 stud/8 game, it looks like the action was pretty good.

Or maybe you could petition them to go back to the single blind in LHE while you're at it.

Red_Diamond · #5 10-20-2007, 03:30 AM

[ QUOTE ]

It was a mistake to change the ante and bring in in the 100-200 stud hi lo game from $15 ante/$30 bring in to the absurd $25 ante/$50 bring in. First of all $50 bring in for 100-200 is insane at 50% of a small bet. No real stud game anywhere online or in the world is played with a 50% bring in

[/ QUOTE ]

If you go to crypto, that's basically the norm. 25% ante and 50% bring-in. And yes, they love it for the extra rake. Unfortunately it forces us to play more hands (especialy when you are the bring-in), but that isn't always the worst thing I suppose. It is said a smart stud player should make more than the smart hold'em player because of the more hands you can play. And you'll definitely want to play more hands here.

Your variance will be brutal though on these roller-coaster rides.

JackDuckSooted · #6 10-20-2007, 03:38 AM

Andy of course I know that the 25% ante is more common in bigger stud games but it really wasn't necessary here because the 100-200 hi lo on stars was very popular anyway. Besides why jack it up to $25 why not $20? In anycase the $50 bring in is out of control. THAT HAS TO CHANGE.

HostScott · #7 10-21-2007, 05:36 PM

After much discussion and taking into account all of the comments we have received, the structure of the $100/$200 game has been changed. The ante will now be $20, and the bring-in will be $35. We hope this will be a compromise that's acceptable to everyone.

Please note that while this change has been made in our system, it will only come into play when the game that is currently in progress breaks and then restarts. For obvious reasons, we can't alter the structure of a game that's in progress. (Or the second deployed similar game.)

The "fast" version of the $100/$200 Stud Hi/Lo game already reflects the new structure since it's not in progress now.