Here are some arguments for and against 6-max and 9-max:

Arguments FOR 6-max:
-Less time to fill up, great for regulars wanting volume during off-peak hours.
-Average game time is shorter, players with a limited amount of time would consider playing (versus not playing a regular SNG that lasts 45 mins).
-This is a proven format. During the COOP satellites, all the hypers were in 6-max format, even for a 9-max tourney.
-Most cash games played at 6-max, so having a big $60 or $100 buyin would attract some cash game players that want to switch it up from time to time.

Arguments AGAINST 6-max:
-The majority of NLO8/PLO8 tourneys on Stars are 9-max (there is a $22 NLO8, a $16.50 PLO8, the $25 NLO8 and also the weekly $55 and $530 PLO8s are 6-max). All of the remaining 30+ tourneys are 9-max (one 4-max PLO8) to my knowledge.
-Game is more "gambly", you are forced to get it in certain spots because you are hit by the blinds 2/6 of the time and this will result in longer games.

Arguments FOR 9-max:
-Most of O8 MTTs are 9-max, players will be playing a format that they are more accustomed to.
-Game is less "gambly" with 9-max, as you are only hit by the blinds 2/9 instead of 2/6 and can wait for better spots.

Arguments AGAINST 9-max:
-Takes more time to fill up, difficult to achieve desired volume during off-peak times.
-A brand new format, not tested during COOP satellites, as they were all pretty much 6-max.
-Releasing the 9-max format will cannibalize the already decreasing 9-max SNGs. The $1.50, $3.50 and $7 NLO8 9-man KO SNGs used to be extremely popular, running as many as 25+ combined during peak hours. It appears that all of the players in these have moved over to the 18 man turbo SNGs, which has become by far the most popular format. Adding 9-max hypers would absolutely KILL OFF the 9-man KOs.

tbh i really think its 6max and not even close mostly for the filling which seems the most important variable to hypers (look difference 9 and 6max hypers for nlhe as an example)

Hello again,

It was great to see the feedback from all of you, and I hope and believe that we can have a productive dialogue going in the time to come. Of course, it will never be possible to satisfy everyone, but the input we are getting here is always taken into consideration when making decisions about the games.

I will look through the thread in the upcoming week, and aim to make a similar post next Friday.

The reason for this is that up until recently, there were users who had not upgraded their clients and as such could not see the ‘Hyper’ tab. This has now been resolved, so we will shortly moving the Hypers away from the ‘Turbo’ tab.

I do recognize that there is room for improvement in our game filtering capabilities. We have plans in this area, but they do not involve a new sublevel of lobby tabs.

There can be many reasons for such lag. Sometimes the problem lies with us, but it is also possible that there are factors that are beyond our control that are responsible for the lag.

Additional information would be helpful here. There are multiple players reporting lag. What exactly are you experiencing? The more detail you can provide, the better. If someone has a video showing the lag, that would be best, but I understand that is a lot to ask.

Here are some specific questions you can answer to provide more detail:
What exactly happened? What did the player see?
Was there a long delay after action on the table?
What was the player trying to do?
Did logging in take a long time?
Was the opening of a window what was delayed? If yes, which window?
When did the issue happen, specifically?
What kind of game(s) was the player in at the time?
What other programs were running on the player's computer at the time? (browsers, games, other applications)?

It would also be very useful to get the log-files from your computer. This can tell us quite a lot of what exactly the problem was.

When this happens in the future, you can use the following procedure to report the problem to us:

1. Open the Main Lobby
2. Go to Help
3. Go to Log Files
4. Select "Save Log Files as ZIP..."
5. Save the file to your Desktop, you may have to navigate to the Desktop as the default location is the PokerStars Settings Folder
6. Write an email to pokermanager@pokerstars.com, subject: "FAO StaffBryanS - Lag Issue"
7. Click on Attach File (or similar option)
8. Select the ZIP file located in your Desktop or wherever you chose to save the file
9. Click OK and send the email

Please note it is important that you send us these files as soon as you can as they are only kept on your hard drive for a period of one day.


As I posted before, we have now added $15 9-Max Hypers. The $60 is not going to be added right now but we will review again at some point in the future.

As stated before, this is also something that is under consideration, but no decision has been made at this time.

For the time being, we do not intend to open more lobbies for these games. There is not a lot of liquidity so we feel that it is better to keep the focus on one tournament at a time. We have done detailed analysis when other games have been reduced to one lobby registering at a time and have found no indication that it has a significant adverse affect on registration. It does make the lobby much easier to browse though!

I have now deployed $1.50, $3.50 and $7 6 Max NLO8 Hypers.

Enjoy!

Baard

Gotta say this is quite refreshing getting all these responses and additional games. Keep up the good work Baard.

Baard btw epic name. Do u like ur name baaaard? (sry) k

Option to "play again" when you cash/bust in a sng, with a snipshot of ur bankroll

Ability to block register is fine by me, and I don't like hypers...just seems fair.

The lobbies lag behind which means we can't see who's registered for a game and that the lobby is usually full with games that are already full. I'm sure this is costing Stars a lot of rake. You can usually still reg using the 'automatically reg for another game' function (not always though), but I'm sure not everyone uses that, esp casuals.

That's right, we're not getting lag during games - it's just the lobby lagging and I'm certain it's a problem at Stars' end.

I'm getting tiny lags during games too tonight (first time I've noticed this since this problem got up). It's usually only a fraction of a second though and not often. Not something that hinders me personally but I imagine someone who is playing 15 tables or more would be irritated by it.

Obv it could be 2 seperate problems, but I really don't think either is coming from my end.

I'm experiencing lobby lag as well. It shows that there are only 1 or 2 people registered, but when I go and click to register the tourney is full.

+1

Trying to load $15 6 man hypers - even showing 0/6 registered but tourney is full - cant get in games. Took video - will send to address mentioned by PS Baard.

Yes it's completely this

I have no other problems other than the lobby just basically being behind (as in not updated) for like 30 seconds. Games fill and the table will pop on screen yet the full lobby won't go away and a new lobby won't pop up, sometimes the 'lag' is 10 seconds, sometimes its 30-45 seconds

Doesn't affect me at the $100s and $200s as much because the games load slower, but this has to be a massive problem at the $15s and below costing PS literally thousands of games worth of rake

When FTP2 is re-opened, please start Turbos at 20/40 or 25/50 with the same blind structure from there, as suggested by Stars employee(s).

With a corresponding slight rake decrease for the shorter run-time, of course.

I too have experienced serious lag the last 1-2 weeks or so. Same as all of above basically.

This might be spamming since every has already decribed it but:


All of those are like 15-20sec after 6 guys were enrolled and there were some saying 0/6 enrolled in lobby, but it was actually full and had started.

excellent, thanks for the add. Any chance we can register for 3 of them at a time? Seems like it would get more games fired up at once.

Sick, thank you. Two things while you're at it:

1) $15's will also run If you decide to deploy them

2) being able to register for more than one at the time would be great

Thanks!!!

Can you send this to highstakes@pokerstars.com? That will make sure that Baard and I see it. Thanks much for taking the time!

There's def some problem about the stars software.
I have also heard some HUSNG guys complaining about the lobby lag.
Please fix that asap.

Slight change to the above procedure. Change the subject to "FAO HostBaardD- Lag Issue"

Thanks
Baard

Lobby lag and software lags and disconnects from time to time

Yep last week or so I have also been experiencing software and lobby lag

We are in the process of checking if the cause of the lag issue is on our end, and if so, what we can do to resolve it as quickly as possible.

I will return when I know more.

Thank you for your patience.

Baard

its not if, stop that please.

yea jesus christ, its so annoying that you guys never want to admit it's on your end, just like with the MTT lag earlier this yr, ITS CLEARLY A PROBLEM ON POKERSTARS END