Stars needs to hire this man ASAP.

Also can't believe you people are arguing about tournament colors. Talk about taking complaining to a whole new level.

I WANT TO SAY SMTH LITTLE OFF THE MTT SCHEDULE SUBJECT

POKERSTARS BECAME WHAT IT WAS BECAUSE OF THIS THINGS
#1) IT WAS THE POKER SITE
#2) IT HAS THE BEST SOFTWARE
#3) IT HAS THE BEST GAMES

@1)

Spoiler:

POKERSTARS WAS ALWAYS ONLY POKER SITE, NO CASINOS, NO SPORT BETTING, NOTHING ELSE...
U LOG INTO POKERSTARS TO PLAY POKER... ONLY POKER... NOTHING ELSE... IT WAS SITE FOR PEOPLE WHERE PEOPLE GO TO PLAY THE BEST POKER GAMES, POKERSTARS MANAGEMENT LISTEN TO THEIR CUSTOMERS, WEREN'T GREEDY AND PROVIDE THEM WITH BEST SERVICE EVER (GAMES SELECTION, BONUSES, PROMOS, SUPPORT)

NOW, SADLY, THOSE TIMES ARE GONE !!!

@2)

Spoiler:

POKERSTARS SOFTWARE IS MILES AHEAD OF COMPETITIONS, PLAYING ON POKERSTARS VS PLAYING ON OTHER POKER SITES IS LIKE PLAYING GAMES ON SONY PLAYSTATION VS PLAYING MAME GAMES, THAT IS HUGE REASON WHY EVERYBODY STILL WANTS TO PLAY ON POKERSTARS

@3)

Spoiler:

IT USE TO HAVE THE BEST GAMES (ESPECIALLY THE VERY BEST ONLINE MTTs)
YES, ITS TRUE THAT GAMES AT POKERSTARS ARE THE TOUGHEST ONLINE POKER GAMES OUT THERE, BUT THAT IS BECAUSE THE BEST PLAYERS IN THE GAME PLAY @POKERSTARS BECAUSE POKERSTARS USED TO HAVE THE BEST GAMES.
AND BECAUSE OF ALL OF THIS, THE DREAM OF MOST OF THE POKER PLAYERS (RECREATIVES, NEW GRINDERS ETC) WAS TO PLAY @POKERSTARS IN THEIR GREAT GAMES VS GREAT PLAYERS AND TRY TO BEAT THEM AND WIN

I KNOW A TON OF RECREATIVE PLAYERS, NEW KIDS THAT ARE STARTING TO PLAY POKER AND LOVE THE GAME, ALL OF THEM WANT TO PLAY ON STARS BECAUSE THE BEST PLAYERS PLAY THERE AND THEY WANT TO PLAY WITH THE BEST AND TRY TO BEAT THEM...
EVEN WHEN THEY PLAY ON OTHER SITES THE GET OUT DECENT CHUNK OFF THEIR ROLL/WINNINGS FROM OTHER SITES AND PLAY ON POKERSTARS, BECAUSE POKERSTARS HAD THE BEST GAMES AND BEST PLAYERS

NOW ALL THIS STUFF #1,#2,#3 THAT MAKE POKERSTARS WHAT WAS IT, ARE SLOWLY BUT STEADY DISAPPEARING, THE DREAM IS GONE, THE GREED HAS TAKEN HIS PLACE

U ARE KILLING THE CASH GAMES, SNG, MTTs..... U ARE CUTTING THE TREE THAT YOU ARE STANDING OFF

DONT YOU THINK THAT THIS SCENARIO WILL HAPPEN:
REGs WILL LEAVE THE SITE AND RECs WILL STAY AND U WILL MILK THEM...

THATS TOTALY NOT TRUE AND WONT HAPPEN, I WILL TELL YOU WHY:
BECAUSE NO REGs= NO BIG MTTs= NO BIG GUARANTIES= NO BIG MONEY TO BE WON, ALSO EVERY REC PLAYER HAS HIS IDOL, PLAYER THAT HE KNOWS AND HE WANT TO BECAME LIKE IT, IF THAT PLAYER IS NOT PLAYING @POKERSTARS NO MORE AND IS SPREADING THE WORD THAT @POKERSTARS IS BAD PLACE TO PLAY, THAT COMPANY IS GREEDY, DOESN'T TAKE CARE FOR HIS LOYAL CUSTOMERS GUESS WHAT WILL THAT REC DO AND WILL HE CONTINUE TO PLAY (HAVE DREAM TO PLAY) ON @POKERSTARS,

NOT TO MENTION WHAT WILL HAPPEN WITH EPTs,EUREKA, ESSTRELLAS ETC, IT WILL BE SNOW BALL EFFECT, EVRYTHING WILL CRUSH AS HOUSE OF CARDS

I THINK THAT IS VERY BAD AND SAD WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH BRAND THAT WE ALL LIKE (LOVED) AND THAT CORPORATE GREED AND INCOMPETENCE IS DESTROYING IT

P.S. I ALWAYS PLAYED ONLY @POKERSTARS, STARTED WITH 180 MAN SNGs, THEN TO GO TO PLAY REGULARLY MTTs...
THIS IS FIRST YEAR THAT I STARTED PLAYING AT OTHER POKER SIDES AND STILL 90% OF MTTs I PLAY WERE @POKERSTARS...
I FEEL REALLY SAD THAT EVERY DAY I REG LESS AND LESS MTTs ON POKERSTARS
I'M AWARE THAT THE PEOPLE THAT ARE MAKING DECISION AT TOP OF AMAYA ARE ONLY THINKING HOW TO INCREASE THE PROFITS,
BUT AS WE ARE ALL AWARE AT 2+2 THEY DONT HAVE A CLUE HOW THIS BUSINESS AREA WORKS AND THEIR INCOMPETENCE IS ON GOOD ROAD TO DESTROY GREAT BUSINESS AND ICONIC BRAND

THANKS FOR YOUR REPLY WILL READ LATER

Average at the final table for the 109 Super Tuesday was 10 big blinds Luke..

Luke- I understand you must be very overwhelmed right now.

I think the priorities for the tourneys (and I dont hate the new schedule as much as I initially thought I did) should be blind structure and level times. The blind increases are great for awhile, but they should be better late- not early.

If you just add a bunch of levels later it would make the tournaments so much better. Today I made the FT of the 109 super tuesday, and the average big blinds were 10. 9th place was 1200, and first place 20k. We have 10 big blinds each man.. that's simply not fair.

Luke apart from the Bigs, you gotta fix the structures of some Blues too. Take a look at a new key tourney like Mini Tuesday.

See the stacks at the start of today's FT. It truly looked like anohter turbo.

EDIT: Just realized that someone else just post the same thing above which, indeed, reinforces my claim.

Agree, it shouldn't be this complicated and PokerStars went at this VLT thing all wrong.

They had a successful "Big" structure already in place. Since they wanted to have tournaments play out a bit faster but allow late game play to have more time and excitement in the levels the changes seem sort of logical to me.

+first keep the successful blind increments from the successful "old" structure throughout the entire tourney. now the changes to speed up early game a bit..........

+EARLY GAME - add antes at all levels and lower time intervals; Keep blind level increments the same as "old structure"

+MID GAME - keep time level intervals the same as "old stucture"; Keep blind level increments the same as "old structure"

+LATE GAME - raise time level intervals for more time at the later levels; Keep blind level increments the same as "old structure"

The one thing that is constant and didn't need changed were the "blind level increments". You already had a successful and popular structure so I'm not sure why you took such a complicated approach to this VLT system by making changes everywhere. Start again with a solid blind increment system close to the old "successful structure and then go from there. Doggz's structure looks much improved upon the one you came up with and put in motion.

If you need to make sure players have enough time and incentive to "late reg" in your 2 hour late registration periods just raise the initial starting stack sizes a bit as you did to compensate and allow for a bit deeper play for those first two hours but then continue with the faster timed level intervals for another hour or whatever past late registration. Sure some players will complain that the early game plays out a fair bit faster than before but I think many will understand and be satisfied that the late game is much improved upon. Overall I'd imagine tourneys would definitely get to the money much quicker with this setup and still be shorter overall; which is what you want for your tourneys.

Add some 9-max $8-$22 freezeouts please. They are pretty much all gone!

Questions on these tournament changes on stars.



1. Will there be chance stars change and go back to the old tournaments/structures like before? When would we know when that is the final changes that has been done for tournaments?


2. Last time bigs seemed to end very fast. But now they made changes to it right? I see bigs last 8-9 hours now. Before these changes... did bigs last this long? And when they made these changes... bigs lasted like 6-7 hours right?


3. What in the world happened to those tournaments like the 16.50 turbo, 1.10x rebuy 3x 40k guarantee? Im sure others have favorite tourneys they play. Why did u remove these tourneys?


4. I dont play much rebuy tourney. But what in the world happen to rebuy tourneys? I recalled there use to be lot of those 3.30 rebuy and 5.50 rebuy and add on. And 20+2 rebuy and add on. So basically none of this again?


5. What happened to the satellites?


6. Why is there little freezeouts? Yes i know many players play bigs and hots. But besides this, what else is there to play? I see there is bounty builder. First off... what in the world is this? I took a look at it, and the prize pool is very low first place. But it seem popular because u dont need to even cash to profit from this when you eliminate players. Is that correct? Who actually enjoys this? Recs or regs or both? Also can someone explain how these bounty tourneys work? I look at it and still very confused. 50 percent of the other players bounty you get when you bust them. But the other 50 percent goes where? So if your bounty goes very high since u bust many players... then the whole point is to bust players with big bounties? Why are there bounty builders with other bounty formula then? This is extremely confusing. Also these last like 9-10 hours with first place being very low even when you factor in bounties.


7. Anyone here can recommend what tourneys to play if wanting to play low-mid stakes schedule on stars?

.

with an improved structure u easily could lower the gtds by a 20% margin to be safe and ppl would be happy regging all day long imo

whats that with the guarantees? Why are the guarantees of the schedule more important than fixing the schedule itself first? People are outlining the needed changes time and time again here and the concern is guarantees still?

I think with the help of all the contributions here it should have been very possible to have the schedule, structures and payouts adjusted by now and have all the time for adjusting guarantees in the upcoming weeks.

Clearly he's just claiming to be focusing on guarantees as an excuse for not dealing with the structures.

@luke
U CANT FIX GUARANTEES WITHOUT FIXING STRUCTURE FIRST (BLINDS + PAYOUTS)
Lots of players arent playing because structure sucks, and thays why u cand get real guaranties

And really just really how stupid you thing people here are, that you are repeating that you are concentrating on guaranties abd you can't fix structure. U can fix that guaranties isue in like 2-3 hours and then improve the structures in like 2-3 days max, and after that u monitor guaranties and see which ones need to be increased and how much, because prize pools will drasticly change when you improve structures

I repeat U CANT FIX GUARANTIES WITHOUT FIXING THE STRUCTURES FIRST

Hey luke! Thank you for a for non NLHE replay we been waiting for this.

It's not very hard to get the omaha players back smiling, the new format/ring size in Omanias can really been a success since I played 3 Omanias yday which did not meet the gtds even the fish thinks they are to fast now.

Make all the tourneys who where 9max from start back to 9max keep your new 6max Tourneys.

Change weekend Omanias back to normal and bring back our beloved weeklys. I find still no point of removing tournament you profit from just keep the 82 gtds on 8k there is no way your gonna loose money here.

Bring back our rebuy 9max slow, it was the only tournament we had with a 10min+ blind level.

I'll be happy to consult you in this matter I can take time off what ever I'm doing at what ever time it's needed I think I'm reggy enough to help you make these changes so you get the omahas community off you back!

Just hit me excel with the non holdem schedule I'll be glad to help.

Thank again for the reply I really wanna go back to grinding my 30 40 a day.
/simon

There are some good arguments for everything being 6max, and this is literally the worst possible one. Oh good, more good cash game players are playing the mtts instead of fish who prefer 9max in general over 6max!

And this is coming from someone who prefers 6max plo.

This is just ridiculous, how can a guy who knows so much about MTT's think this is ok and place his focus elsewhere.

Sort it out Luke !!

))))))))))) SO FUNNY

Might be imagining it but seems you get less time to act on your hand since the new schedule. The hots similar to what a hyper was, bigs like the old hots etc.

Well, I've Ft'd a bunch of Bigs over the course of my career. I've Ft'd twice since the changes (yeah, shameless brag). I've also taken a mental samples of some random FT's the last 10 days.

Yes, they are better now. But the playability is still limited. Between 22 and 28 BB average stack is pretty much the norm (with outliers of course). That does not help the recs because the pros have played with 20-30 bbs for millions of hands and have the technical ability to crush recs who don't know how to play with that stacksize (and that's before we talk about ICM).

The increments matter. It is a blow when your 500.000 changes from 16.6 BBs to 12.5 BBs when blinds change from BB30k to BB40k. It's also a blow for the whole table as the dynamic changes too much. That's why we need the 35ks. That's where I disagree with Soepgrente. I like the multiple in between levels with 10 minute interval instead of the old school 15 minute method.

This is why the Sunday million structure is such a disaster and hilarious really that it's been implemented in all the daily majors. Yes, the three hour late reg is good for Pokerstars but it's a absolute disaster for the playability of the tournament. I do not play the 1ks but I would be furious that the 15 minute juicy structure with the multiple in between levels has been banished. You're alienating the core base with that move for no reason at all. At least 90% of players in the 1ks are regs/pros and you're not doing anyone a favor changing that.

Lastly, the Sundays are so bad right now. People aren't going to register a 15k gtd when they bust more quickly than normal because the Bigger tourneys are gone. I for one registered the second chance, Sunday six max and the Bigger 162. Now, there are the Big 215 which I don't play because of the structure change (yes, I consider variance, that's why I don't register a turbo over $55) and the Sunday Grand which is above my bankroll. Sunday Stack is fine but you're missing about $40 in rake from my account, just because there aren't enough tournaments available. On a Sunday.

You would think we would have an answer by now; it shouldn't be this hard; we just need:

- More vanilla non-turbo MTTs, specially on micro-low stakes
- More minutes per level
- More non-nlhe mtts
- Better payout structures

First I just want to say thanks to Luke because so much of this thread is relentlessly negative and people don't seem to realize that it's absolutely impossible to please everyone. His job is ridiculously hard.

Regarding the new omaha schedule:

I prefer playing all variants 6-max, but it's pretty clear from chat at the tables and in this thread that a big % of the o8 regs prefer those games 9-max, so keeping all plo hi as six max and making half or so of the o8s into full ring seems like the ideal move here.

Also, it seems like the plo hi pko's are significantly more popular than just normal freezouts/reentries, so focusing a bit more on those makes sense. There are waaaay more non-regs entering the pko's and since it seems like Luke's goal is to grow these games then that should be where we put our energy. I'm not smart enough to know what the best way to do that is, but having the 3-stack omanias (which I adore but are less interesting to new players) in red and having the 27/11/55 plo pko with smaller guarantees and not highlighted feels backwards. Perhaps changing the color of them, upping the guarantee temporarily to see if they perform well, and adding in a 22 or a 16.50 plo pko in the midday would be a good solution

Excellent post and I concur wholeheartedly! In particular with the bold part

I wonder if Luke and PStars have considered adding some PKOs to the Omania Schedule..? (Or just basically highlight some of the PKOs and call them Omania Bounty Builders or whatever)

Naah i dont think its a bad argument. But the difference is prolly that i dont care about the softness of the field as much as the number of entrants. The relevance for me is to get more people to play Omaha, whether it be cash game or tournaments. I just give my humble view on what I hope will help increase the popularity of the beautiful and great game of Omaha in general. And its my firm belief that offering PLO tourneys in a 9-max format is discouraging quite a few players, who otherwise plays PLO rather often.

Given that 99% of us are asking for the same thing it's not impossible to please the majority. They're not even outrageous demands, we're just wondering why the structures have been altered for the worse (in general), why the payout structures have been made flatter and questioning the new schedule that has killed the low stakes game. I've never seen this thread so busy yet all we get is sporadic posts from Luke that answer very few of the questions asked, if any.

You or anyone can tell me how it's not Luke's fault as it's coming from above his head but the fact of the matter is that he is representing Stars and getting paid for it. He avoids our questions and patronises us lower stakes recs. He will get some sympathy when he earns it.