The criticism of PokerStars’ recent overhaul to their Sit & Go tournaments – including buy-in, rake and blind structure changes – were addressed by PokerStars VIP Manager Steve Day in a thread on 2+2, Wednesday.
The shake-up of tournament offerings, rolled out last weekend, was heavily criticized by the poker-playing community for its rake increases at low stakes and blind structure changes that some felt unnecessary.
In a lengthy post on 2+2, Steve admitted there was room for improvement regarding the timing and notice of the deployment of changes and offered an apology “for the mistakes made.” Various issues in the roll-out – including incorrect time banks, longer waiting periods, and missing formats – have since been rectified.
In response to criticism of the new blind structures, PokerStars has already rolled back some changes.
“The Fifty50 and 180-player structures have already been changed back to the original structures”, Steve stated. Furthermore, a new Windows client that will help “clean up the mess” in the lobby is scheduled to roll out on Thursday. Next week will also see further changes in response to feedback, including a reduction of micro-stakes rake in some tournaments.
In response to criticism of the rake changes, Steve reiterated that the rake “would result in a very slight decrease in overall rake taken if volume stayed the same.” Assuming the same level of volume, PokerStars revenue from Sit & Go Tournaments would see a “0.66% to 3.37% reduction.”
Responding specifically to the removal of the popular “$15+1” NL Hold’em tournament Steve writes, “PokerStars has a long history of offering extremely competitive overall rake. In the case of the $16 turbos, the rake has been out of line with the overall offering for some time.”
The update from PokerStars has not appeased everyone, many of whom see the rake increase at low stakes as a potentially fatal blow to the games. Steve qualifies:
There will be some changes, especially at micro-stakes, in the coming days. There will be other slight changes as well that will address many concerns. Rake for Turbo 9s in the $16 – $27 range will not be as low as it was before.
However, he also notes that “PokerStars will be carefully watching traffic for all Sit & Go Tournaments, including MTT S&Gs, in the coming weeks. If problems [in reduction of traffic] persist, corrective action will be taken.”
