***Official Fix the PokerStars Heads Up Lobby Thread*** - Heads-Up No Limit Poker Strategy

rbracco · 12-09-2009, 07:34 PM

This thread is meant to make PokerStars management aware of the numerous problems currently present in their heads up lobby, and to work with them to find solutions that work for the heads-up community as a whole.

Current problems include, but are not limited to:

1. Players are allowed to sit and wait at 24 tables at a single limit. This is completely unnecessary and is unfair to other regulars waiting for action. It makes the lobby a mess, is intimidating to other players who see 60+ tables with people sitting alone, and gives other regulars the incentive to sit at a similar number of tables in order to "compete", thus furthering the problem.

2. Players are allowed to sit out for an unlimited amount of time. This has led to repeated instances of players sitting out for periods of greater than 12 hours on tables beginning with the letter 'A' in order to hold tables that are at the top of the lobby and thus more likely to receive action. Sitting out for extended periods of time with no intention of playing serves no benefit and is not allowed on any other major site(that I am aware of). This also leads to the ability to table-block players (sitting out on a player's tables with no intention of playing them in order to keep them from playing other people).

Simple solutions for these problems exist and the large majority of heads-up regulars believe that they should be implemented as soon as possible.

1. Players should only be allowed to sit and wait at 1-2 tables per limit. This policy has been enacted with reasonable success on Full Tilt Poker and should be built into the software if possible.

2. Players should be able to sit out for only 20 minutes at a time before they are kicked off the table, irregardless of whether or not they are sitting alone.

***What you can do***

1. Email PokerStars regularly and tell them how you feel about the problems in their lobby and what they can do to solve them. Include a link to this thread if you so wish. Tell them if you have decided to play less or stop playing on their site as a result of their policies (do not lie about this).

2. Post in this thread. Let PokerStars that you are dissatisfied with the heads-up situation there and ask them to make some changes. I'm sure many people have concerns in addition to the ones listed above so feel free to voice them. That being said, please do not let this thread derail into a debate about implementing a "King of the Hill" system. If you support or dislike KOTH, feel free to say so but let's try to avoid hundreds of posts arguing why KOTH is good or bad, that thread has already been made.

3. People have discussed sitting out on 24 tables to make the lobby a mess and to convince PokerStars to do something about it. I wouldn't advise sitting out 24 tables as a form of protest as it can get you banned but if you want to hold your tables, or are too lazy to close tables and just want to sit out in between sessions, this is fine with PokerStars to the best of knowledge. You can do whatever you want to make them recognize but that there policies are terrible and are abused daily, but please do it within the rules of the site (don't tableblock, don't sit out 24 tables as protest, don't harass other players...etc).

Again feel free to add on to anything that has been mentioned here. Let's keep the pressure on them until changes are made.

ArrrInnn · 12-09-2009, 07:40 PM

nice thread i will be supporting this to gogogo

Dace · 12-09-2009, 07:50 PM

Im too lazy to mail them but i support this 100%, good luck

Radeh · 12-09-2009, 07:51 PM

Signed, signed again, and again, and again, and again.

The current situation is completely ridiculous!

OMSDON · 12-09-2009, 08:22 PM

Why bother with stars? Let's just switch to playing on Full Tilt and problem is solved.

rbracco · 12-09-2009, 08:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dace

Im too lazy to mail them but i support this 100%, good luck

Well thank you for your support. Here is a form letter that you or anybody can send and it will take no time at all. Thank Pasterbator, he wrote this up for us last month. I've edited it only to include updated stats on the lobby.

Quote:

Here is the form letter I just wrote up. Everyone send this (or some version) ASAP and hopefully we can get something done. Feel free to add/change anything you want.

Send to: support@pokerstars.com

"PokerStars Support:

I'd like to start by acknowledging that your support has always been top notch in the online poker world. You guys are always ahead of the game in creating best possible atmosphere for all players.

That said, there is a growing problem in your HU NL lobby and it is only getting worse. If you were to filter the NL cash lobby to only show HU games, you will see the problem immediately.

On Dec 9, at 8:15PM EST there were...

42 5/10 NL tables with 1 player sitting and only 1 game with 2 people playing. There are 5 players sitting 4+ tables and 1 waiting alone at more than 6 tables.

49 3/6 NL tables with 1 player sitting and only 4 games had 2 people playing. 3 players were sitting out alone for extended periods of time on multiple tables in order to hold premium tables with no intention of playing.

56 2/4 NL tables with 1 player sitting and only 4 games had 2 people playing. Multiple players were sitting out alone for extended periods of time on multiple tables in order to hold premium tables with no intention of playing.

88 NL200 tables with 1 player sitting and 71 NL100 tables with 1 player sitting. There are multiple people sitting out on 6+ tables, and one player sitting out on 24 tables!.

Something needs to be done about this situation as it is pretty clearly getting out of control. Every regular needs to compete with his peers by opening more tables in order to get the same chance to play a fish.

Possible solutions:

- You NEED to put something in the software the boots a player from the table if they have been sitting out for more than 5 or 10 minutes. Its ridiculous that someone can sit out at multiple tables OVERNIGHT and wake up to still have all 10 tables that they want open on their screen.

- Follow FTP's lead and cap the amount of OPEN tables each player is allowed to sit at. Allow each player to sit at no more than TWO open tables at each stake.

- Create a "play or leave" rule. If Player A sits at an open table and does NOT want to play the person who sits at his table (Player B), Player A must leave the table.

If you don't take MY solutions, that is alright, but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do something about this situation. There is a thread in the HUNL forum on 2p2 pleading for you to fix this, please view it at: forumserver.twoplustwo.com/58/heads-up-nl/official-fix-pokerstars-heads-up-lobby-thread-654189/ ...many other players feel this way, I am not alone in my views.

Thanks for your consideration,

Your Name"

rbracco · 12-09-2009, 08:30 PM

Thanks to the mods for stickying this thread. I've posted a link to it in the LC threads to make sure people are aware of it.

Redgrape · 12-10-2009, 12:26 AM

God thanks for stickying this, this absolutely 100% needs to happen. I'd love if they simply capped the number of empty tables that can be open and boot people who are sitting out for over 5 minutes. Although, I think this is a pipe dream. Simply capping the number of tables someone can sit at at a given limit seems plausible.

delerium · 12-10-2009, 01:55 AM

email sent.

SeanyJ · 12-10-2009, 04:43 AM

Sent an email, it's pretty ridiculous how bad it is and I don't even play very high.

glpmurray · 12-10-2009, 05:45 AM

i dont agree that you guys should be flooding the lobby - sitting out at 24 tables - to try and get stars attention. it makes it even worse for regulars who are day to day trying to make a living. i personally think the best way is getting a petition or get people to send an email to show the bulk of players who actually want a change rather then a handful of people flooding the lobby which doesnt show a wide base of activists and hurts the regulars detrimentally.

Syous · 12-10-2009, 07:24 AM

well the point is we all sacrifice some profit to get this thing noticed by stars asap. thus we're going to organize a date where we all agree to start flooding the tables.

In the meantime, if anyone's written a nice professional email that we can copy paste, it'd be great if you could post it

bdc30 · 12-10-2009, 07:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Syous

In the meantime, if anyone's written a nice professional email that we can copy paste, it'd be great if you could post it

scroll up to post #6.....

Syous · 12-10-2009, 08:15 AM

oh my bad. shouldn't you be working?

bdc30 · 12-10-2009, 08:22 AM

sigh, i am