On January 1st, we will be removing all $50/$100 NLHE & PLO Ring Game tables and Table Starters and replacing them with Zoom Pools. This change will occur during off-peak hours.

This is intended as a trial. No decision has yet been made as to whether this change will be permanent or temporary.

After the change has been implemented, we will look at how it affects the games and make further decisions regarding either rolling back or expanding the change at that time.

We had developed our High Stakes Zoom product with an eye toward replacing all High Stakes games with Zoom, and it’s now time to put it to a test.

Our biggest motivation for making this change is to reduce the seating and angle-shooting meta-games that surround our current High Stakes offerings. This is in an effort to allow players to concentrate on actually playing poker while encouraging a healthy, competitive, non-predatory environment in our highest stakes games.

We do understand there are potential issues with moving toward a Zoom-Only offering, but the current state of the games at these stakes makes the risks associated with a major change more worth taking.

If you have any questions or feedback, please don’t hesitate to post them in this thread. I and my colleagues will be monitoring this thread closely both leading up to and during the trial period.

Doomed to fail.

Unless of course the plan is to drive traffic back to tilt, in which case certain to succeed.

1) Is this only for 50/100? IE 25/50 and 1/2 will stay under the traditional ways?

2) What are the implications for this in regards to HUNL? Does this change the HUNL lobby in any way?

Planning on playing much 1/2?!

The idea is to eventually end all ring games and replace them with the super rake game.

For now, yes.

To clarify, the regular HU lobby will not be affected by this change.

For now.

In the HU forum, the changes for the HU lobby were supposed to be either A) forced hands or B) modified KOTH.

What have right now is a cap at 15, at only 25/50 and 50/100. Also hu 25/50 zoom was added.

Here is what happened. The good regs take bumhunters tables, but there are still 8-10 bumhunters that just cycle the other tables so the changes are minimal. 25/50 HU zoom was a complete disaster. I sat that stake basically every day, and what it turned into was no one ever sat it because it was just going to be me vs them hu. I played roughly 100 hands over the course of a couple weeks, with about 30 of those being someone was forced to play 2 hands vs me before they left.

Not my goal to derail (although I certainly have by this point), but I think that this is an important element to the high stakes pokerstars lobby. If you are going to make 50/100 6m only zoom, then why not take the same steps for HU 50/100?

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oh snap, this should be interesting

HU Changes will be handled independently from the rest of the lobby.

We do not have plans to offer Zoom only for our Heads Up offerings. However, I have again lowered the number of tables at 10/20 & higher at NLHE & PLO.

Lowered to what number? Seems like 25/50 and 50/1 are still 15

10 tables of each type at 25/50 NLHE, or 20 total.

10 tables each at 50/100 NLHE, 50/100 PLO, & 25/50 PLO.

15 tables of each type at 10/20 NLHE.

15 tables of 10/20 PLO.

More tables will persist until players either leave them or there is a server restart.

The future is exclusively Zoom at all stakes. There is no need for the embarrassment that is game selection and the politics/programs that go along with it.

I'd imagine by 2015 it'll be only Zoom, and I'll give a big thumbs up to that change.

finally you are doing something about the seating scripts. thumbs up pokerstars.

Does it mean the end of 3-4max regwars?

CAP tables 50-100 will be replaced to zoom-only as well?

does this mean that crappy 6max regs will have to grow some nuts and play hu to play each other?

there are special tables for hu

gw stars =D

I never play zoom but welcome these changes. I see no other way around it, the status of the current 6max plo and nl games is redic and the only to benefit from it is the bumhunters/angleshooters. Fishes and honest regs are getting punished for not having 20 programs to jesus seat and what not.


2-3 years from now all ring games will be zoom and thats def the most fair way to go, ppl have been saying for years that bumhunters and angleshooters are thinking shortterm and will destroy it for all the other guys - Well, now its beginning and the ppl that wont dedicate time to evolve their game and have abused all possible angles are going down in ****ing flames! So ****ing epic...

Everyone against this is bad regs and bumhunting scum that now see that theyll have to put in some honest work to make a living.


What u need to do now is correct the HU lobby, and here it would be good to just give the player the option to choose what stake he wanted to play and the amount of tables and he would be paired with a random and would have to play him, if i he choose to quit then he could not join any HU tables for like 30 min.

Every $50/100 NL running right now is DEEP ANTE.

Is Zoom deep ante even going to be a choice? Or is the next level of short stacking about to start when 50BB short stackers start showing up in the pool to angle shoot the deeper players.

This. You are a fool to think if stars is not going this route. Perfect for mobile/tablet poker, awesome for recs/fish, endless rake and action, no bum hunting possible. Also it is so easy to market "MORE HANDS MORE POKER etc". Just save us the time and change it to 100%zoom tomorrow, we all know its going to happen.


Interesting to see if zoom 50/100 will run though.

I have an idea, that I don't know how difficult it will be to implement.

How about instead of waiting to see how it goes at high stakes, at mid-high and mid stakes you just change it once a week? Every friday for example is just Zoom day?

I'd also really like to see zoom change to a uniform buy in amount.

Just curious, why would you like to see this happen?