For all of you who say that PokerStars is not listening to their community and players, you are wrong. Not only are they listening, but they are also ready to make changes based on the feedback received. So, what’s new to the PokerStars?
Well, this week’s changes are all about tournaments. PokerStars Tournaments Team Manager, Luke Staudenmaier, has posted a blog post on their official website detailing all the upcoming changes. The changes are almost exclusive to their weekly Majors, but there are some small tweaks to other tournaments as well. The update went live this Monday, October 23rd, so players are already testing it out.
Just a small heads up, all of the changes that you are about to read are the result of Players Advisory Council feedback.
What’s new to the Majors?
The brunt of the feedback was about the lack of high stakes tournaments. To fill in that gap PokerStars is adding a $2,100 High Roller tournament on Sundays at 1:30 pm ET and a daily $530 High Roller tournament at 3 pm ET.
Furthermore, they are completely revamping their Super-Sized Sunday tournament. From now on, this tournament will have a $530 buy-in, and it will run daily as a “Bounty Builder High Roller”. However, that is not the best part.
PokerStars is also adding a brand new daily Major tournament that starts at 4:45 pm ET. This is going to be a 3-Max Progressive KO Zoom tournament with buy-ins of $215/$22/$2.20. Finally, some changes were made to the schedule. “Mini” and “Micro” variations of popular tiered Majors are now starting earlier than usual because these Majors are now starting at the same time.
Big Sunday overhaul
For Sunday tournaments, PokerStars has made both name changes and rule changes. First, Bigs and Hots are out, so please welcome their replacements Bigger and Hotter. Yes, this is not the most creative name change, but it makes sense.
From now on, all players will be able to re-enter the Sunday versions of Bigs, Hots, and Bounty Builders tournaments. What is the reasoning behind this? Well, more money for them of course, but they also want to create a unique Sunday vibe for poker enthusiasts.
Finally, we have a change to the Omania tournaments. As you probably already know, Omania tournaments have a double buy-in special every Saturday. After the update, that promotion will extend to Sunday as well, and they are now calling it “Weekend Special”.
These are all of the significant changes. However, there are tons of small tweaks and adjustments to other tournaments, which you can read all about by clicking here. Additionally, Luke stated that they are willing to make further adjustments depending on how well the community takes these changes.
So, if you are a PokerStars regular, make sure to try them out, or if you already did, tell us what you think. I imagine that an average player won’t even notice these changes, but then again, they are aimed at high rollers.
As always, if you want to read more interesting poker articles and news, make sure you visit us at Poker Sites UK. We also listen to our readers and update our content regularly.
