The issue at hand: many (but not all) players believe that the current minimum buy in on the standard NL / PL cash game tables at stars – 20BBs – undermines the quality and profitability of the game by motivating players to ’shortstack’. Shortstacking is, roughly, the strategy of buying in for the lowest possible amount and then basically playing a push/fold preflop game according to a rote set of guidelines.

Critics of the practice argue that shortstacking is bad for the games, discouraging action, reducing the amount of skill involved and frustrating casual players. Adherents, unsurprisingly, argue that critics are either jealous or misinformed and that shortstacking is simply a profitable strategy that naturally evolved within the unique context of online poker.

Stars has addressed the issue in the past, adding a unique class of tables to the cash game lobby with a minimum buy in of 50BBs. That solution hasn’t been enough to mollify the chunk of Stars players calling for change, and it appears the room is considering a new approach. What kind of change and how it will be implemented is still an open question, but according to the statement from Stars on 2+2, it won’t remain open for too much longer:

Buyin amounts in big-bet hold’em and omaha cash games has been a hot topic recently both in forum threads and in emails from players. Many players have requested changes to our table minimum and/or maximum buyins while others have requested that they stay the same.

PokerStars is diligently examining all information available on this topic. This includes reviewing player emails and posts and exchanging ideas with members of the VIP Player Panel made up of respected 2+2 posters. PokerStars is also surveying casual poker players to learn their preferences. Thanks go out to all players who have offered their input.

This is an important decision and as such should not be rushed. All player perspectives must be given due consideration.

PokerStars plans to announce a decision and implement changes (if any) by mid-April, 2010.

Thank you for your patience during this process.

What changes are likely? It’s difficult to say, but the rest of the industry certainly seems to be moving, albeit with smallish steps, to a higher standard buy in. Full Tilt has a 35BB minimum on their tables, and both Party Poker and Everest have recently proposed changes to their buy in policies. Absolute / UB maintain a 20BB minimum, as does Cake Poker.

Updates as events warrant.

No matter if you shortstack or fullstack, you can’t be playing without rakeback. Learn more about what rakeback is and how to get it here.

The two sites, owned by Jazette Enterprises, are expected to migrate in April.

The move increases the volume of the growing Merge network, which already includes sites like Carbon Poker, Aced, PokerFantasy and Iron Duke. The volume of these two additions could increase Merge’s play four to five times, according to some estimates floating around the Web.

Merge CEO Anthony Taylor had this to say in a statement:

This is an industry changing deal and we are delighted to have come to an agreement with Jazette Enterprises. This deal will bring massive liquidity to the network and see the online poker industry landscape change overnight. We are delighted to sign such an established partner to the network, it’s through our great software and superior back end we are able to attract a group of this size to the network.

The move is the latest in a series of recent moves in the lower rungs of the online poker universe as smaller networks try to cut the distance between themselves and the larger sites.

The move will obviously hurt the Cake Poker network, which had been making strides in terms of volume before these sites decided to leave.

Want to play on the flagship of the growing Merge network? Sign up with rakeback for Carbon Poker today.

In an announcement made on the 2+2 forums, Stars outlined a number of significant alterations to their multi-currency system. The short version: fees are gone (or reduced), conversion is a smoother process and more currencies are supported.

The long version:

Fees – Stars generated a lot of controversy when they announced that they’d essentially be tacking a 1% fee on to all conversions – including every time you sat at a game to play. Stars has now decided to waive that fee, along with the 1% fee on deposits and cashouts for supported currencies (currently US Dollars, Euro, British Pounds or Canadian Dollars); other currencies get a .5% fee applied.

The point of that 1% fee, ostensibly, was to stop currency speculators from using PokerStars as a proxy, fee-free trading service. Stars said they’ll reserve the right to put the 1% fee back on any transactions that appear to be employing Stars as “a foreign-exchange service or bureau de change.”

Bottom line: To calculate your exchange rate when swapping currency at the table or in the cashier, PokerStars will be using the Reuters mid-market rate without any adjustments.

Process – Two nice features for multi-currency users in the new update. First, conversion is now a one-click process (if you’d like it to be). In the Stars client, go to ‘Options’ > ‘Multi-Currency Options…’ and check ‘Convert currencies automatically, without confirmation’, and from that point out, currency conversions performed when you sit down at a table completely in the background – no more popups or clicking.

Second, Stars now has the functionality to allow players to keep their entire accounts in a single currency, rather than maintaining parallel accounts split between currencies. Players can still sit in games of all currencies, and any winnings from said games will be automatically credited to the player’s account in their preferred currency. To employ this feature, go to ‘Options’ > ‘Multi-Currency Options…’ and check ‘Credit Funds in My Preferred Currency When Leaving a Game’.

Supported Currency – Stars now offers currency support for accounts in British Pounds and Canadian Dollars, but has no current plans to offer games in those currencies.

The multi-currency features are all still technically beta, with a formal release slated for late February.

One thing you won’t find at PokerStars – rakeback. Consider rooms that do offer rakeback such as Full Tilt Poker, Cake Poker and Ultimate Bet in addition to your PokerStars account.

The reaction to Rush Poker has been overwhelmingly positive, with regulars flocking to the game and the interest of casual players seemingly reignited as well. That sort of response is bound to lead to a rapid evolution of the game, and that’s exactly what’s happening.

The most significant expansion so far: Holdem Manager today announced that they’ve developed a HUD for Rush Poker. The HUD works differently than a traditional HUD does, as HEM isn’t able to (obviously) collect and display real-time data on your opponents since they change every hand. Instead, the HUD works by essentially injecting any past data you have on players into your notes on that player.

Interested in HEM? PTP Members get a 20% discount, details here.

Full Tilt has also responded to the increasing popularity of the game by expanding the formats and limits allowed. Originally, Rush Poker was only available for Hold’em at small stakes full ring. Recent updates have introduced Rush Poker for PLO (6 max and full ring available, .25/.50) and additional limits for NLHE (full ring and 6 max available from .05/.10 to 1/2). While there’s no official word from FTP, we’d expect that limits and games will continue to increase in type and variety, assuming that the popularity of the game continues to grow.

That’s the question of the moment regarding Rush Poker – is it simply a fad or an actual game-changer? Opinions seems to be fairly split, with the optimists carrying the day by a slight margin. In a poll on 2+2, ~350 respondents answered the question “How long before action dies at Rush Poker?” 12% responded that the games is already dead, 53% responded “Action is never stopping, always going to be fish” and the rest saw the game drying up within varying points of the year.

Rush Poker is only available at Full Tilt Poker. Read this before you sign up at FTP.

Rush Poker is such a simple concept that it’s a little surprising we’re just seeing the innovation at this stage of the online game. Here’s how it works, in a nutshell: when you sit down at a Rush Poker table, you’re essentially joining a large group of players and not just a single table. Let’s call that group the ‘cloud’.

For a hand of Rush Poker table to be dealt, FTP essentially picks nine players from the cloud, sits them at a table, and deals a hand of poker. Once any player exits from the hand, they immediately return to the ‘cloud’ and are eligible to be picked to play another hand.

That would be a drag if the player pool was small or the software was laggy, but FTP seems to have both covered. In testing of Rush Poker table, hands moved very fluidly from one to the next, and the average hands per hour you’d expect at a normal table are increased by several hundred percent at a rush poker table. It’s aptly named – in many ways you see more action than you do even during certain points of multitabling, because once you fold (or even chose a special quick-fold button) you are immediately moved on to a new hand.

You can multi-table Rush Poker, essentially holding multiple spots in the cloud. Obviously, the software never seats you with yourself. Currently, Rush Poker tables are available at a limited number of limits, ranging from .05/.10 NLHE to .25/.50 NLHE.

How do you play Rush Poker? You take a seat at the table in a fashion similar to taking a seat at a standard cash game table at Full Tilt Poker. First, find the games in the lobby:

Standard View:

Basic View:

Choose the limit you’d like to play from the lobby. That will bring up the ‘lobby’ for that particular cloud. To join, just click the join now button in the top right:

Once you click join, you’ll be taken to the buy in screen, where you decide how much money you’d like to sit down with. You can reload at any time from within Rush Poker.

Once you’ve bought in, you’ll move to a countdown screen. After a quick 3-2-1 you’ll immediately be dealt into a hand.

From that point on, the moment you exit a hand, you’ll immediately move on to another hand. It is the fastest poker you can play at a single table, hands-down. If you want it to move even quicker, you can select the ‘quick fold option’ that allows you to pre-fold your hand before the action gets to you and moves you straight into another hand.

It’s hard to say exactly how popular this format will be, and purists will certainly have some valid complaints about how the rapid seating shifts undermines some of the basic things that make poker poker. That said, it’s always good to see online rooms innovating, and anything that makes the game appealing to a broader audience is, at this point, a win.

Thinking about playing Rush Poker? You MUST read this before you sign up for a Full Tilt Poker account.

The move is an attempt to stop datamining by players at the site. Nearly all poker sites allow players to save their hand histories and review them at a later date, or download them into a third-party software that allows for analysis of other players. Sites such as 32RedPoker and PurpleLounge.com are members of the Microgaming Network, which is one of the top-10 poker networks in terms of traffic, according to PokerScout.com.

Andrew Clucas, Head of Poker at Microgaming Software Systems, said this in a release about the move:

Concern has been rising over the long-term effect of third party software upon the poker industry as a whole, and in particular the negative effect it has on the recreational player demographic. The decision to put a stop to the practice of datamining on the Poker Network is part of Microgaming’s overarching network strategy to support operators in attracting and retaining recreational players. It further demonstrates commitment in providing a secure and fair playing environment.

The move is the second groundbreaking move for Microgaming this year. Recently, the company announced that its sites were changing how rake is calculated, moving to a “weighted contribution” method in which the amount a player contributed to a pot determines how much rake that player paid.

Both moves are designed to take an advantage away from winning, non-recreational players and level the playing field for casual or recreational players.

Although Microgaming is a fairly large site, it does not rival the largest poker sites on the internet. The news becomes more relevant if this is the start of a trend at the larger sites that serve the poker community. It will be interesting to see if other sites make similar moves in the near future, or if this is simply the story of one network bucking standard operating procedure.

It’s about as straight-up as promos get. Every day between January 12th and January 31st, PokerStars will be discounting one item per day in the store. We figured it would just be cast-off stuff, but if you look at the list it’s an impressive array, including multiple tournament tickets and bonuses:

* Men’s Long sleeve two-tone T-shirt (Green)
* Scarf & Beanie
* Spade Design Hooded Sweatshirt
* Daniel Negreanu ‘More Hold’em Wisdom for all Players’ book
* iPod Touch 32GB
(available for players in EU, US, CA & AU)
* iPod Nano 8GB
(available for players in EU, US, CA & AU)
* Spade Stress Toy
* WorldEventTickets worth $200
* Limited Edition PokerStars watch
* Sundog Polarised Sunglasses
* Mini Chip Set
* Sunday Hundred Grand ticket worth $11
* Step 1 Ticket worth $7.50
* Step 2 Ticket worth $27
* PokerStars Sunday Million Ticket worth $215
* PokerStars Sunday Ticket worth $530
* $50 VIP Reward Bonus (Not Cash)
* $285 VIP Reward Bonus (Not Cash)
* $650 VIP Reward Bonus (Not Cash)
* $1500 VIP Reward Bonus (Not Cash)

There’s no telling what item will go what day, so you’ll have to check the official PS VIP Sale page here. New items are announced 05:00-07:00 ET every day.

Discounts on the items vary; there’s been no official word from Stars, but we’d assume that apparel will be more heavily discounted than bonuses, for example. Stars has set a range for discounts: 15-50%, according to the website.

It’s important to note that if an item is restricted by VIP level, the sale doesn’t do anything to change that. So, if you’re Gold Star and the Platinum Star bonus is discounted, tough luck – unless you put in a nice bit of volume that day.

VIP Sales are great, but cash is better. That’s exactly what you can earn in the 2010 PTP Rake Challenge – cold, hard cash, up to $8,000. Click here for full details.

Governor Ed Rendell signed a bill into law legalizing table games on Thursday, ending a drawn-out budget process in the commonwealth. The move means more than 1,000 state workers will not need to be laid off, as the legalization of table games will make up for a possible shortfall in the state budget. The state budget had already been approved with the added revenue from table games already figured in, although the companion bill that actually legalized table games was just now turned into actual law.

The new law allows all sorts of table games, such as blackjack, roulette — and poker. Most of the table games apparently will be added to existing slot-machine parlors.

Greenwood Gaming & Entertainment Inc., which ownes PhiladelphiaPark Casino & Racetrack in Bensalem, has already said it will plan to add 60 to 70 poker tables to its current slots-only format. The Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh is guessing it will add 20 poker tables, while the under-construction SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia will plan to have 40 poker tables.

In the Ponoco Mountains region, Mount Airy Casino Resort will plan to add 15 poker tables, while Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs has no plans to add poker at this time.

With the rough economy, the new law will create a lot of new jobs in Pennsylvania. And the legalization of table games in Pennsylvania obviously will have a huge effect on Atlantic City, in the bordering state of New Jersey. Atlantic City has already fallen on hard times, and the addition of competition right next door could mean more trouble for the East Coast gambling haven. Or the added competition could spur positive change in AC. It will be interesting to follow in the coming years.

It seems one network has now decided that those goals are mutually exclusive.

That’s the conclusion one could reach from recent news that the iPoker network is forcing some skins to close the accounts of winning players. The skin in question: VC Poker, where numerous players received this email (a presumably unpleasant way to start the new year):

“If you are not already aware iPoker will be implementing a new policy in the New Year which will categorize players depending upon certain criteria. The new policy will also impose penalties upon card rooms that in essence, have a high proportion of winning players in relation to losing players.

Regrettably therefore, we are being forced to restrict a number of accounts in order to comply with the new policy and to avoid penalization by iPoker and it grieves me to inform you that we have no option for the time being other than to restrict the cash game stakes at which you can play on Victor Chandler Poker.

We sincerely regret having to take this action and hope that the policy will change in the future so that you may once again enjoy playing cash games at Victor Chandler Poker. In the meantime, please accept our apologies for any inconvenience that this action will cause but know that you can still play in our tournaments and on any other of the Victor Chandler suite of products.

Yours sincerely,

Victor Chandler International”

The move is apparently part of a larger strategy on the part of iPoker to make their cash games more attractive to casual players.

This isn’t the first step by iPoker in this direction, although it is the most headline-friendly; last month the network gave skin Blonde Poker three months to find a new network. Was Blonde poaching players or offering an illicit rakeback deal? Apparently not – their crime, according to reports, was having too many winning players.

Say what? If you fail to grasp the logic involved in that calculation, Bill Rini has a good blog post explaining the flaws inherent in the skin model that are likely driving iPoker to adopt these seemingly draconian policies. Excerpt:

The smaller skins on their network have contracted down to a hand full of sharks who generate the room’s monthly nut. The rooms making the big money (those in the 20% bringing in 80% of the revenues) are getting angry that the money they’re investing in bringing in new players gets sucked out of the system by those other rooms but the smaller rooms have no other option. They don’t make enough money to be able to run effective marketing campaigns and they don’t have sports book customers to cross-sell. I’m sure they would love to be sending huge fish into the pond but they don’t have the resources to do it.

iPoker isn’t alone in their operational philosophy. For those who think iPoker is pursuing this policy as a unique result of their legacy issues with player poaching and rakeback, consider what Bodog Network VP Jonas Odman told EGR back in September about Bodog’s plans for creating a network with a rake structure that, from the word go, would essentially penalize skins that brought in winning players:

“Operators who bring in losing players [will] make significantly more money than today. This will encourage them to market their poker product even more. Winning players, on the other hand, will be worth so little that there is no point competing for them”.

According to an anonymous source who works with an Ongame skin, that network will be implementing a similar method for classifying players based on their net win and adjusting affiliate / skin revenue along that classification within the next few months.

Will such a system become the standard for rooms that operate on the network model? If it does, will major standalone rooms such as PokerStars feel pressured to respond by crafting their own incentives for losing players? We’ll keep you posted.

Thanks to Tight Poker for the heads-up on the VC email.

Full Tilt Poker won’t shut down your account if you win too much. If you’re thinking about signing up for FTP, don’t make an account until you read this.

The VIP program for PokerStars is generally considered to be an industry leader (it has to be, really, as the room doesn’t offer rakeback), and the improvements Stars seeks to make with the new-and-improved VIP Program for 2010 will no doubt help to secure that position. The highlights of the upgrade:

Easier Qualification: PokerStars has restructured the formula for awarding FPPs and VPPs. While the changes will impact every individual player differently, it appears that most players will earn points more rapidly under the new method. Also, Stars has lowered the threshold for qualification for the SilverStar VIP Level, cutting the number of VPPs required almost in half, from 1200 to 750. Once you get there, it will also be a bit easier to hold on to SuperNova status; the monthly requirement has been cut from 10,000 VPPs to 7,500 VPPs.

More Rewards: VIP freerolls have been restructured, with weekly 75k freerolls shown the door and replaced with less frequent freerolls with much higher prizepools – a (cool) million every quarter. PokerStars Pro matches will now be more accessible, with Silver Stars able to buy entry, and more seats for PS Pro matches will be reserved for players from the same region as a particular pro. Higher levels get more in 2010 as well – Supernovas will find that Milestone bonuses will now offer them more cash faster.

VIP Stellar Rewards: A totally new aspect of the PS VIP Program for 2010, VIPSR basically offers milestone bonuses to players of practically all levels, with thresholds starting at just 750 VPPs. If you complete every milestone, you’ll total $1,000 in bonus money for the year.

Learn more about all of the changes at PokerStars here.

Bonuses are nice, but rakeback is simpler, easier and usually better for your bottom line. View all of our available offers and learn more about rakeback by clicking here.