Players will no longer be able to select a table and seat

seems like a strange move
I wonder what prompted that.

left that site before luckily, tablestarted a lot the nanos etc. could be fun those rules, they had it already implemented on the mobile app.

Unibet does it same way basically. You can still somewhat table select by opening tables and then replacing bad ones by opening new one and sitting out afterward from bad one. Pokerstars reasoning has probably been to make table selecting less aggressive.

Originally posted by ghaleon
Unibet does it same way basically. You can still somewhat table select by opening tables and then replacing bad ones by opening new one and sitting out afterward from bad one. Pokerstars reasoning has probably been to make table selecting less aggressive.

easier to do when u can select from 9 tables than 4 though!

They should ban preflop hand selection too. Fuck those 28 VPIP nits!

You can't generate rake if you fold preflop. And as we all know - more rake is better.

You even get to spend 20 seconds per chest when you open your rake rewards! I mean, you know exactly what is in those chests every single time because they removed the lottery element and every single chest has a fixed "prize"... But don't you just love watching the same animation over and over for every single one you open? Don't you just love the urgency you feel when your chest progression is at 90% and you have to spend a couple hours more playing, even though you don't feel like it, just because you don't want to lose all that progress the very next day when that chest "expires"?

Sorry, I went on my typical rants there. But pokerstars is awesome and their player pool shows it! What are we talking about? Oh yeah, table selection! Nothing like sitting at a random table, seeing 5 regs and closing it down immediately. Pure genius of a change.

Originally posted by nsavov
They should ban preflop hand selection too. Fuck those 28 VPIP nits!

wait — what! 28VPIP is a nit!?
If I hit 20 I check to see if I had a great run of hands or was just being sloppy

Originally posted by nsavov
Sorry, I went on my typical rants there. But pokerstars is awesome and their player pool shows it! What are we talking about? Oh yeah, table selection! Nothing like sitting at a random table, seeing 5 regs and closing it down immediately. Pure genius of a change.

Yeah, I hate the chests.
As for the lobby thing, I just play zoom (when I play at all)

29 VPIP seems pretty high for 6 handed ring games. I think I play based on that reaction to tight as well

yup, 28/16 is nit nowadays, everyone solid plays 35/30 or higher vpip pfr nowadays.

Originally posted by nsavov
Sorry, I went on my typical rants there.

Whenever I see a new post from you, my first reaction is "I'm glad nsavov is still around". The second reaction, after having read it, is typically "...and I'm glad he hasn't changed".

About the news on Pokerstars, it seems like just the next thing in line after a series of similar changes, not just on Pokerstars, to make the "standard" poker games less and less grinder-friendly. Personally, I gave up on those games many years ago already, so as far as I'm concerned, this is far from being the straw that broke the camel's back - the camel has collapsed long ago, now we just keep piling up straw on top of it.

So it doesn't really affect me personally. I'm just sitting in my non-Hold'em MTT lobbies, being like this as I read those news:

It's still kind of sad to see what is happening in those games where everyone got their start, but like I said, it's basically nothing new.

Just 1-2 years ago, I was training a new guy at work, who was kind of chatty, so he heard a couple of things about me, including the fact that I play online poker. He seemed excited and expressed an interest in getting started himself. Had he been about half a decade earlier, I would have been excited too, linked him to this site, and encouraged him to start a blog and all to follow his progress. The way things were, however, I could only really say "not sure if I would bother if I were you, to be honest". Not all of this is due to changes in poker rooms - the new German regulations about online poker are another big factor.

So yes, it sucks, but I guess we can only adapt. I did it long ago by just ditching those games entirely.

"Players no longer allowed to select a seat" made my day... please make sure it is on top news on everyones Android automatic news.

If I walk in to cascades casino I put my name down for a table, and the host directs me to the first open table of that type when one is available — and it's my turn.
If there are empty seats on more than one table, I don't get to pick[1] .

Usually there is a 20 minute or so wait, which I presume is artificial — to encourage me to go get a drink or snack.

[1] Actually, empty seats on multiple tables is very rare, and I've never asked.
"Thanks! That was quick! Could I have that one please?"

A dream seat is like so +EV, right... let's say you manage to get the skill-wise worst player heads-up... he busts, regs join, as they always do for some reason, you start a new more +EV table, right... Let the regs battle each other. When they get angry at youand shove mid pair vs your top pair+ big bluff-looking bet, you get that +50bb/100 vs them as well... But at some point you want to play regs HU as well, right?