So...I haven't played online poker in about 7 or 8 years, just thought I'd get back into it, registered on PS and a couple others and....WTF happened to the SNG's? I am sitting around for twenty minutes waiting to open just one single game if the level is over micro on any site I can find. Turbo's are a little better it looks like but still, compared to the past it's as good as dead. What happened?

Spin n gos happened.

No traffic offpeak

Stars continued to make structures worse in hypers leaving smaller and smaller edges forcing players out of the games and over to high rake lottery type spin and go's that are effectively unbeatable but more fish friendly. Which is obviously better for stars because they make more in rake and fish don't spend their money so quickly

Well so.. what do I do now then? : p

$cha$ching$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

If you didn't play for years, then this thread is odd as it caught you up on how people feel for the last 1 month in particular since the AMAYA-stars VIP announcement a month ago.
What happened over the longer period was turbo's got big v standard sng about 7+ yr ago.
Then came hypers. hypers got big v turbo about 3 yr ago
then came spins, spins got big v hypers 1 yr ago.
If you want to play standard sng "slow" structure, you're gonna have to wait, otherwise go for hyper or spin.

Huh well that's pretty lame. I've always felt roulette has about the same odds as hypers and turbos. These spin things appear even less likely to allow for an edge. Am I wrong?

It all depends how good you are basically. There are plenty of players doing very well in spins, there are players doing very well in hypers and turbo's.
If you haven't played in a while it might be worth doing some study and posting hands on here as you'll likely be rusty in the start. GL

Really? I'm surprised to hear that. I would think, most especially in the hypers, that how good you are would have almost nothing to do with it anymore. Not enough to turn a meaningful or steady ROI at least.

Are there any specific forums for these formats or is all covered here?

Look at the low stakes $5-15 "any game 5-6 handed super turbo" leaderboard on sharkscope, the top guys win @5%+ over vey large samples so there are edges to be had, if you're good.
It's all covered here.
I'd say play a few games, post hands you didn't know what to do on here, and you'll get help :-)

Well to be honest I'm wary of playing them at all. Seems like a crapshoot to me..guess I've got some studying up to do.

Maybe the guys who win a lot just ran good for 30,000 games?

then again if the top players are only making 5%, sounds like it's not worth my time anymore, I'd need a much bigger bankroll at least : p

Lol ok mate.
If you ignore ignore the fact you can play 5x as many games per hr @hyper than normal speed then you might have a point.
If you made $2 a game @ normal speed and 10 games p/h for $20 p/h, but you make $0.5 per game in hyper but play 50 games p/h for $25 p/h then you make more money obviously.

Depends what you value more, money or very slow games that don't run anymore.

I prefer money because most of the shops near me don't recognise very slow games that don't run anymore as legal tender.
I've written to my local MP in protest but it seems like money is the way to go.

Try a different site, UniBet SNG's usually have hundreds of players.

If you want to play reg speeds you're gonna need a time machine.

Seems relevant. Any idea if they will be lowering the rake in hypers?

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...poker-1573430/

I'm honestly as confused by Amaya strategy as I am by IS.
Seems like they both just want to piss everyone off, but I can't see a long term upside for either of them.
Even if, grabbing a bigger chunk or recreational players deposits works out more $$ for them than allowing pro's to rake huge, (which I have no math on btw) their reputation will be sunk.
In the murky waters of online gaming their reputation is worth a lot more than I think they realise, and whilst it's very hard to know what will happen, the PS brand won't be seen the way it used to.

I can't see they'll maintain being the biggest room online because it's a competitive marketplace, if wallmart charged everyone at the till 2x the sticker price they wouldn't be a global retail giant for very long. Sad state of affairs though.

They own like 3 of the top 5-7 sites (i've done 0 research to come to this number). It should not be confusing at all. They don't think anyone has anywhere to go and they really don't care what the regs think, I can only assume. If they were to lower rake which would be rational combined with the 'proposed' changes, then we would have to assume they would say that in the announcement???

I knew ongame, which other network?

FTP, its kinda irrelevant the exact standings. They own a huge % of the marketshare.

I literally forgot all about FTP. Is that still a thing? lol, shows how much of a one site guy I've become. Used to grind ongame back in the day, there was a lot of action, seems not to be the case today.
Fair point though, makes amaya's move look more cynical.
So we're relying on Party/888/WPN/Ipoker? Who's you're money on?

http://www.pokerscout.com

Your guess is as good as mine. I hesitate to speak about specific sites since I am out of the loop, but iirc a lot of those have problems with botting and vpning.