08 Sep 10

PokerStars announces big software update

The world biggest poker room PokerStars will publish a major update for its software within the next days. Here is a sneak peek at what's coming .

PokerStars, which was founded in the year 2000, is the world's biggest poker room. Thousands of players can be found online day and night at every limit and poker variation.

It is the most successful platfom for a reason. The quality of the software, has without a doubt a siginificant impact on the poker room's success. The software is fast, dependable, user friendly and considered by many users to be one of the best on the market.

On the company's blog, PokerStars makes it clear what its goal is in terms of software: "Nobody's perfect, but PokerStars is working to get there."

In order to get closer to their goal, a huge software update will be released "by the end of this week".

Session Options - PokerStars is introducing an integrated platform that easily allows you to manage your state during a session. When you are playing you will notice a small additional icon on each of your tables that gives you easy access to the Session Options. From there you can Sit out on all tables, Sit out next Big Blind on all tables, Resume play on all tables that you are sitting out on, and end your session gracefully - Sit out next Big Blind on all tables and close them.
For immediate feedback about the state of your session, the table icon will change from a green play sign when you are sitting in on all tables, to a yellow play/pause icon when you are sitting in on some and sitting out on other tables, to a red pause icon when you are sitting out on all tables.

View of the current lobby

Auto buy-in - Auto buy-in allows you to instantly buy in after left-clicking Seat Open without any intermediate steps. Simply set up your buy in preferences once, and the next time you sit at a table you will automatically buy in. Auto Buy-in can be set up through "Options" > "Auto-Buy-In (Ring Games)..." or by clicking on the link in the traditional buy-in dialog.
Want to buy in as an exception for a different amount? Simply right-click on 'Seat Open' and the traditional buy-in dialog will show up.

'Seat me' - When you select a table that has empty seats in the ring game lobby, you will notice a Seat Me button below the traditional Go to Table. Clicking Seat Me automatically opens the table for you and sits you in one of the empty seats on the table. If you have Auto Buy-in enabled, you will be automatically bought in for the desired amount; if not - the usual buy-in dialog will appear. In this way taking a seat can be a single-click process from the main lobby.

Sit out next big blind - PokerStars has changed the existing Sit out next blind check box on fast tables to Sit out next big blind, and have added the new check box to regular-speed tables as well.

Stack tables layout - PokerStars has added the ability to Stack all your tables in addition to the already existing Cascade and Tile. This feature can be accessed either from "View" in the main lobby, or through the Table Layout menu on the table. Shortcut key is Ctrl+8.

Average Stack column - This is a new column in the lobby which shows the average stack of the sitting in players on the table.

No Chat in table tooltip - When you have lost your chat you now have the ability to display No Chat in your table tooltip by activating "Options" > "Show No Chat in tooltip". This option is only available if you have lost your chat privileges - if you are able to chat at the tables this option would not show.

Notes reliability - PokerStars has changed the way notes are saved so that you do not lose your notes when the client is closed in a non-conventional way.

This is how the lobby looked like years ago

Remove from all waiting lists button - The waiting list dialog ("Requests" > "Waiting on Tables...") now has a "Remove me from All Waiting Lists" button.

Link to last hand when dealing stops - You will now be able to access the last hand when dealing stops. The Previous link will remain active on the table instead of disappearing. Do note that usually the last hand is the cancelled hand, and the red Replay button will not open a hand that has been cancelled. To look at the last complete hand, click on the Previous [Hand ID Number] link and use the Instant Hand History.

Display Bet Amounts defaults to on - This option is now enabled by default on new installs and activated for players who have not explicitly disabled it.

Advanced action Check moved - To avoid mis-clicks when selecting the Check advanced action we have re-positioned Check slightly higher so that it does not overlap with the Call (Amount) check box which appears when someone bets before you.

Tournament Tickets dialog improvements - The window accessed through "Requests" > "Tournament Tickets" has been improved. Among other things, it will now list all tournaments that accept a specific ticket typed.


What is your opinion regarding those coming updates? Discuss in the comments section on the right!