- Heads Up Blaze player pools with an 8 player cap will replace all HU cash games.
- MPN sees bum-hunting an “industry-wide problem” that 8-man Blaze looks to solve.
The Microgaming Poker Network (MPN) has announced the introduction of “Heads Up 8-Man Blaze,” a fast-fold format with a limit of eight players in each player pool. The structure will replace all standard HU cash game tables across the network.
Microgaming’s rationale for the change is to solve what it sees as a widespread problem in the industry of predatory actions by professional poker players.
“Heads Up 8 Man Blaze will replace all regular Heads Up tables, thus solving the industry-wide problem of ‘bum-hunting’, in which players park in a seat at a Heads Up table and wait for a weaker player to arrive, refusing play with any player of equal or better skill,” today’s press release states.
Unlike “traditional” heads up fast-fold, which MPN and PartyPoker offer as a variant, this new introduction allows only one entry per pool, and caps the pool at only eight players. Instead of having a single unlimited pool of players at each game and stake, presumably there will be multiple 8-max pools that will spawn when games fill, much like regular tables.
MPN calls this introducing “the concept of speed dating to online poker.”
A brief history: Fast-fold games were first introduced by Full Tilt’s Rush Poker and popularized with PokerStars’ ZOOM launch in early 2012. In fast-fold games, players can fold and immediately move to another table and another hand, speeding up the experience.
Microgaming introduced its fast-fold product Blaze on the network over a year ago, and it was the first to introduce heads up fast-fold tables: Play a hand heads up, but when you fold you are instantly moved to play a hand against another opponent. PartyPoker has also introduced heads-up games in “Fast Forward” (which we referred to at the time as “speed dating for online poker.”)
Fast-fold poker “solves” what some see as an issue of predatory practices of aggressive game and table selection: On regular ring game tables, players can choose who to play, and skilled players choose only to play against those that they have an edge. Heads up games in particular suffer from this issue, with often dozens, even hundreds, of skilled players waiting for weaker opponents.
The limit to only eight players in the fast-fold player pool is an interesting innovation that may offer a compromise to players: It reintroduces a certain level of game selection, but forces skilled players to play each other. It will keep the action fast paced like fast-fold, but with only eight in the pool, you will build up history and dynamic against opponents.
Lydia Melton, Head of Network Games at Microgaming, champions the network’s innovation.
“This release is the latest in a long line of recreational player-friendly developments for the MPN. I truly believe that we have developed an exceptional product for our operators to utilise, and I’m extremely excited about being, once again, first to market with such a player-focused software feature,” she said.
The industry will certainly look on with interest in its experiment. Microgaming is the 10th largest network worldwide, nimble enough to iterate fast with such changes, but large enough that conclusions can be drawn from its success or failure. If action improves and players welcome its change, we can expect to see wider adoption from the larger players.
PokerStars in particular has been looking seriously at policy and game changes to improve the experience of recreational players. Last year it stated it was “leaning very heavily” towards implementing fast-fold only tables at high-stakes games.
