I was looking to see if anyone had posted any of the changes introduced to the poker room on January 1. I was there on the evening of New Year's Day to find that the rake had indeed been increased from $4 to $5 on the limit games ( I sat at 3/6 and 4/8). I assume that applied across the board.
I also was surprised to find a NL 1/2 game listed. On that evening, there was only one table of 1/2 that the room opened -- it seemed that they were intent on only having the one table running. The buy in was, as described, $60 to $120 and the rake was capped at an incredible $8!
I called in at around 5 PM and asked to be added to lists for my usual limits and "no limit". I generally prefer limit games, but after I moved to the one 4/8 table that was running, I happily took the switch to the 1/2 table (not knowing about the rake size before I arrived -- I just thought all of the new handwritten game plates showed the new $5 rake.) I had been on the list for more than 4 hours when called into the 1/2 game. That said, the fishing turned out to be excellent for me that night at that table.
I think I played roughly from 9:30 PM until 12:30 AM.
One word of caution -- there was no rake reduction even on the occasions the table got short handed when more than two people were up from the table. It seems like the poker room is "dipping its toe into the water" with respect to this game, but doing everything possible to discourage people from playing -- $8 rake without reduction only one table with a list that would certainly support many more.
I have been on vacation and have not had a chance to go back to see what the status of that game is 12 days into this new experiment.