yeah rec vs rec tables might net them a bigger % of the pie but regs grinding it out gives stars a much higher turnover .

Poker is gambling - above all else people gamble (hoping) to win. The rhetoric about providing an entertainment product, competing for "entertainment dollars" etc - it's just trying to justify moving towards unbeatable games. If no-one wants to win then no-one needs to win, right?

Josem - you might want to look into an ex-Amaya rehab programme.

Not with TST (cashgames only). Maybe one of the datamining/tourney results sites can do it. As said earlier, the amount of single-tablers is going to vary a lot from game to game and stake to stake. You're probably right that you're surrounded by "regs" (whether they are profitable or not) in your particular game.
Although there are obviously are lots of casual players on Stars, there are plenty of tables on which every player is a reg. Whether the situation is "worse" in SNGs or cash is a debate for another time maybe.

as a reg in low stakes sngs i have to admit that the pool is good regs quit and recs take their places games fill slower but still good after all

Are they testing this new changes yet on any of the PokerStars domain not .com? I recall that I read something about it. Has it started?

They announced to start a tester in denmark, iirc in may.

i dont know if you guys also have this. but i do not see how much steps i need to complete in order for me to main my VIP status. Used to say: you need to complete x steps in order to main y status. now it says nothing.

May be it means you completed all ready?

No. And when i had, then it would tell me how much steps i need to complete for the next vpip status.

Steps bar is ****ed. Just look at how many vpps you've earned for the month and work it out from there.

I didn't receive any mail about these changes.

Does it concern only .eu ?

As pointed out many times, the fish/reg dichotomy isn't helpful. But even if you could divide the poker population into two neat, static groups consisting of fish and regs, you still haven't refuted what I said. What I said was regs generate revenues and this is perhaps the greatest service to the poker room. Without revenues, the server bills and creditors don't get paid. Again,

Lol.

Without the risk factor of winning or losing something of value (e.g. real money) there is no entertainment value in poker. The gambling element is an essential part of the game. The game is built around risk.

I mean, come on. You can't be serious. Playing poker for worthless play money is about as entertaining as watching paint dry.

I play mid stakes and still play zynga poker on my phone.

Then how do you explain all the people who purchase play chips on PS, Zynga etc?

Not old enough to gamble/in the minority. I'd agree with the other guy that most people attracted to poker are in it for the risk/excitement and that's gained by $$$. Obviously other reasons as well though too

If they are paying real money for them, then obviously they have some value.
So they are not play chips in the real sense of the word.

Like a cinema ticket, they are paid for but don't have resale value. Play money purchasers seem to be people for whom "cinema ticket with entry in a raffle for another ticket" < "cinema ticket without the raffle entry"

I don't understand why people in non-poker countries buy play money chips either but then I don't understand why people pay money to bypass bits of freemium games and then say they've "completed" them.

As I said before, I just think real money poker - even at the tiniest stakes like $0.09+$0.01 with a 75BB starting stack where you're playing the first level at effective stakes of $0.0006/$0.0012 - is a better product because when there is even the smallest amount of money at stake both sides are playing for pride and you have a good game rather than just going all in every hand (if we want to go for unpaid stuff, freerolls are a better product than play money for much the same reason).

The one situation where I think it could make sense would be if you were in somewhere that doesn't allow real money poker, and you've been invited to a juicy home game with amateurs, but where they want to play something obscure like Courchevel, it might be a wise investment to get $10 of play chips and sit in the highest stakes play money game you can afford and just get a little bit of practice in.

Is it possible that the new vip changes have been implemented in the .eu client? While I was playing 4 MTTs (not registering, not busting out, just playing) I heard a jingle and when I clicked on my starscoin balance it said "congratulations! You just earned 24 starscoin". 24, not 240 or something like that.

it was probably because its new month and you had a a pending starscoin bonus from april.

^^

it's this , I got it too at midnight for ~150 stars coins in NA

Ahhh, never thought of that. Thx guys!

There are players who withdraw money and players who don't withdraw money. As Amaya, how can you stop people from withdrawing so you can get all the money(or more of it)? By getting rid of the players who withdraw.

A player who withdraws claims to pay rake but he is paying with money he has gotten from non-withdrawer's. If you were Amaya, wouldn't you try to get rid of withdrawers too.

To do this you need to make the game unbeatable in the long term(like any other casino game). They should force withdrawers up stakes and dramatically increase rake at higher limits. When a non-withdrawer type runs hot at low stakes he is probably inclined to move up stakes. People will still occationally withdraw but in the long run they will all lose.

Does it hurt the company to get rid of players who will only play if they can win long term?

I play live and this is how I feel about the casino, they owe me zilch, and, in fact should ban me so more casual players can win more often then brag to their co-workers about winning, some of whom will come to the casino to play poker and get exposed to slots.

No?

No.

I really hope the danish guys all stay away from stars as soon as they announce the changes. Don't know if they have alternatives there though.

I'm really curious to see what the new VIP system will look like. After all, they will try to sell a story to the recreationals as well: that less bonus is better. Because if regs will get 80-85% less bonus overall I don't see how recs will end up with more than what they already have with the actual system