- The new system will roll out as a test on full ring NL100 tables.
- “This will allow players to focus on playing poker, rather than on continuously finding new tables to play.”
- The new system, which PokerStars is calling “Buy-In Obligations,” tracks players stacks across tables and, once a certain threshold is met, forces a player to return with the same stack size that they previously left with, even if joining a new table.
- An “obligation” is the same regardless of the game type or buyin.
PokerStars has committed to rolling out its long-delayed and highly-anticipated solution to reduce ratholing next Monday, March 3.
The new system will roll out as a test on full ring NL200 tables. If the test period is successful, it will then spread to all real money big bet ring games. This will include 6-max tables, all PLO games, and deep-stack tables.
The system was first announced almost a year ago, but repeated delays have pushed back its implementation. Whether a coincidence or not, just last week a petition was started by players urging PokerStars to roll out the system as soon as possible.
Ratholing is the practice of leaving a poker table and returning with less money. Though online poker rooms commonly require players to return to the same table with the amount they left with, there is usually nothing to prevent a player from joining a similar table with a shorter stack.
This practice of table-hopping is seen by many as a detriment to the games, allowing a player to repeatedly return to tables and avoid playing deep-stacked poker. The issue is particularly acute at PokerStars, which has so many tables at all the major stakes—players can continuously cycle through new tables, each time buying in for the minimum.
“While most players will never be directly affected by Buy-In Obligations, the introduction of this feature aims to decrease table breaking and seating 'meta games,’ as well as to discourage players from moving too many times,” writes Nick Williamson, PokerStars Ring Game Manager, announcing the scheduled rollout on Two Plus Two poker forums.
“This will allow players to focus on playing poker, rather than on continuously finding new tables to play.”
The new system tracks a player’s stacks across tables and, once a certain threshold is met, forces a player to return with the same stack size that they previously left with, even if joining a new table.
The system only affects those who buy in for less than the maximum at tables. Players will be able to leave with a bigger stack, then return with a shorter stack, up to eight times. The eight-table threshold is based on a 20-hour rolling period.
Once the limit is reached, the obligations system kicks in: on the ninth attempt to join a table, the minimum buyin will be set to the stack size that the player left the last table with.
An “obligation” is the same regardless of the game type or buyin, so a player will rack up their 8 permitted “short stack” buyins on a microstakes no-limit 6-max table just as they do on a high-stakes full ring PLO table—they will all count towards the same threshold. However, obligations are different for different table “depths”—an obligation at a 40-100bb table is tracked separately to a 100-250bb table
Is it though to be the first time such a system has been implemented in an online poker room.
