I like the idea of swapping double deuce with Mini million would make a lot more sense to start longer tourney earlier and turbo tourney bit later,

give this man a medal

+1

Thanks Luke, but... this is still not even close to the other Omania High Rollers:

PL/NL closes late reg with 400/800 (I forgot to substract the breaks in the post above). According to Pokerstars 8-game structure 1 big blind (PL/NL) equals 4 big bets (FL). To comply with this structure the Limit Omania High Roller should close its doors at 1200/2400 big bets (4x800).

This means late reg should be available for 4:15h (currently 3:30h only).

This just seems like a slamdunk. Mini WU would blowup, especially as the offering of low-midstakes MTTs between the B27 and B22 is pretty limited and especially noticeable on Sunday's.

Earlier starting time for the mini-milly would almost definitely increase participation. I've skipped it numerous times as I just don't wanna be stuck 1 tabling it for 8hrs, whereas if it starts a bit earlier, I skip it 0% and I imagine a lot of Europeans are in the same boat.

Luke - please grow the mid stakes NL offerings. $22-$55 NL tourneys are very popular and have room to grow.

There is definitely room for a sizeable GTD tournament between the Big 22 and the Hot 55. The $22 4k GTD that starts 10 mins after the Big 55 would do well to have its guarantee increased. It always smashes the guarantee, it could easily be a 10k+ (probably 15-20k like the old schedules $22 that was around the same time) and thrive.

Also, the 11$ 5k that starts 45 minutes after the big 11 always smashes the guarantee as well. In the old schedule there was an 11$ 10k that did very well and this tourney could do very well as a 10k.

Thank you for considering these changes.

I agree with possibly swapping the 22deuce and sunday mini milly, would make sense with the long reg on mini mil, i often sleep in and wakeup when deuce is almost done late reg making it not worth playing, whereas the mini mil i have to sometimes question if i want to play if my session has been a dud and i've busto'd a lot of the early normal tournies like storm / big 11 /etc

Could we please get an an 8max vanilla reg speed 5.50-16.50 in between 07:00 and 11:00 ET (11 probably works best), the old 16.50 8max was fun and an 11 8max there would be more successful then the old version.

From the early big 11 to the big 16.50/early mini blue is a great time for low stakes mtt players. I think we just need a little more in between the 06.00 ET and 11ET (big 7.50) to make it worth grinding a schedule from the early big 11 to the primetime big 11.

This post is from the perpective of a micro/low stakes mtt player, I live in australia and have grinded every timezone possible, i really think if this timezone was improved it would be a win win for everyone.

+1 to replacing the $2.50 with a $3.00 knockout, either 90 or 180 person (KO, PSKO, all good to me).
- I wouldn't change the price of the $1.50, but I can support the idea of changing it from KO to PKO.
+1000 to not making them turbo. Definitely don't make them turbo. There are enough of those already.


I know I said I was going to respond to one of your posts Luke from a couple of weeks ago, but I've been really lazy lately, and haven't done a lot of things I told myself I would do. That being said, thank you for adding the two $2.20 tournaments between 19:00 and 21:00 (or was it 21:15?). I got to enjoy these last weekend (and it helped that I final tabled one of them ).

I think I may have said before that I don't like re-entry tournaments. I take that back. If I bust from one tourney and jump into another, what does it matter if it's the same tournament or a different tournament part way through late registration? I'm still starting a new tournament from a starting stack, so as long as I look at it as a new tournament, I'm alright with it.

However, I still think late-registration is way too long. I won't register to a tournament after about the first hour or so because the starting stack is too short. Another poster raised the point, and I completely agree, that the shortness of the starting stacks near the end of the late registration period ruins the "deep(ish) stack" aspect of the game for everyone that has been playing for over an hour to build a stack. Also, simply due to the duration of the late registration period, I've stopped (re-)registering for tournaments almost an hour earlier than usual. Before, I would register for tournaments until 22:30. Now, with the extra hour of registration, I stop registering at 21:15 (or if I really want to, I'll push that to the 21:30 bounty builder, but no later than that).

With less of a gap between tournaments, there is/would be less of a need for the longer late registration periods, especially for the non-BIG/Bounty Builder tournaments.

Lastly, why do you have late registration periods of 120, 130, and 140 minutes? Why not make it all a nice, rounded 120 minutes and leave it at that? Of course, in the long term, I would prefer the nice round number of 60 minutes .

Don`t change the 1.50$ 90 Players reg Speed, this tournaments are running good enough, a lot of Players love this!

But the 2.50$ 90 Players are running very bad, can`t understand why Pokerstars not change into 3$ with the same structure as the 1.50$.

I am sure they will run much better.....

25% PKO for a change?

I don't think changing these from KO to PKO would hurt them, if anything I think it would help them even more. I do agree though that the total buy-in should stay the same and that the structure should not change, and I don't think anyone in this thread (at least in the last page or so) has commented otherwise.

I would start changing some of the smaller field tourneys to 8/9-max, because a small number of entries coupled with long late reg means you basically play 4/5-handed throughout the whole tourney in a 6-max. Which is a bit meh.

I'm thinking especially about:
Daily 15:36 (ET) $55 PLO8
Daily 17:32 (ET) $55 NLO8 Turbo
Mo 15:00 (ET) $55 Monday PLO8
Fr 15:00 (ET) $55 Friday NLO8

edit: changing those to 8/9-max would also prevent tables breaking up constantly

Pokerstars Luke care to comment on this? Few players i spoke to mentioned the same thing with the poland players softplaying satellites. This isn't going to get swept under the rug. If nonpoland players dont register to these satellites, none of these poland players will since they obviously dont like to play against their fellow polish comrades.


Over 20 poland players play these satelittes and helping one another. Yet the next ones that run either have none or maybe 1 max poland player?
Look at their timing when multiple poles at the table. They are using skype while playing these satellites in these.


Its time for you to clean up these satellites with these poland softplayers helping their fellow people.

When can I expect my SCOOP watches?
I mean I didnt even get an email yet and its 3 month over, is this what we can continue to expect from amayastars? is this how you treat your customers in the future?

Hey all,

Bubble Rush

Our new tournament format "Bubble Rush" will launch on August 22nd. These tournaments begin with hyper-turbo levels until the money then slow down to regular speed. When testing this format, it became obvious that Bubble Rush tournaments need at least a few hundred players to provide the ideal experience, so the additions to the schedule are primarily $0.55 to $33, with a $109 on Saturday and Sunday. They are a mix of majors (this is why some majors were recently moved to earlier time slots) and "regular" guaranteed tournaments.

EPT Barcelona

Medium and high stakes guarantees will be adjusted during Estrellas/EPT. This includes the Sunday Million allowing a single re-entry on August 21st and 28th.

Thanks! I still plan on expanding this functionality to other tournaments and I've learned a lot through Bubble Rush testing.

I'm not sure if Bubble Rush is your type of thing, but there will be mid-stakes tournaments at 12:25 and 15:30 ET. There's also an $11 and $16.50 planned during peak European time.

Bubble Rush tournaments are not rebuys.

Beginning Monday, I've added:

10:08 $5.50 NLO8 (8-Max, Turbo), $750 Gtd
22:08 $22 NLO8 (8-Max, Hyper-Turbo), $750 Gtd

As far as WCOOP and main schedule synergy is concerned, COOPs can feature different formats that can succeed as an Event but not as main schedule fixtures. The most obvious example I can think of is shootouts.

I checked with my colleague and he says that we had to stop offering Phase 1s because we ran out of hotel rooms.

Thanks for the feedback, I'll continue to tweak the non-hold'em offering in the coming months.

I'll ask the team what they think of this idea, thanks.

Depending on the success of Bubble Rush, I could foresee this (or something like it) as a possibility for the Hots. Important to remember that for Bubble Rush to work as intended, it requires a larger number of entrants than some Hots can attain.

This will be very rare at this point, but there simply isn’t much flexibility in tournaments like these with very small fields.

I was curious to see if we'd receive any complaints about this over the weekend. Nothing has made its way to me yet...

There will be more than one Bubble Rush major. The current schedule is:

• 06:30 $22
• 06:35 $2.20
• 14:35 $109 (Sat & Sun only)
• 15:30 $33
• 15:35 $3.30
• 20:30 $22
• 20:35 $2.20

Nice one

Variable level times are fine!

This happens when a Phase 1 hasn't completed. I will raise this issue with our developers to see if we can add a message so players are aware of what is happening. Thanks for pointing it out as I didn't catch it and nobody mentioned it to me.

I appreciate the creativity but don't have any plans to add a new red brand. I really like playing off of Hot/Cold, Fire/Ice, etc. Nice one!

This is not going to happen. No way, no how. Let it go, people!

I've passed this on to our SNG manager.

The Double Deuce is the Warm-Up's spirit mini.

I'd rather speed up the structure than make them earlier.

I see them in my client. If you're having trouble, PM me and I'll see what the issue is.

It has been moved to Thursday, August 18th. My colleague will be emailing the 14 currently enrolled players.

I've passed this onto our SNG manager.

Added another 15 minutes. I'm not going to increase it in larger chunks as I want to ensure there is a sufficient gap between late registration ending and reaching the bubble.

And thanks for writing out a thoughtful post! There will be a $22 Bubble Rush @ 12:25 ET and an $11 @ 14:25. I'm hoping they'll be successful additions.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm always looking for ways to improve region-specific time slots.

Why not 200?

Thanks for the comments, as always.

From my perspective, this is a strong argument for converting some existing games. I've added it to my list but I have a strong suspicion I won't be able to get to it before my holiday.

I've asked a colleague in Game Integrity and he says they're looking into it. Thanks for bringing it up.


I apologize for the lack of communication. I've asked my colleague and he says they're now in the VIP Store and available to be ordered.

As a reminder, I'll be on holiday from next Friday for a few weeks. There will be radio silence until I get back, but I'm sure you'll be preparing for WCOOP anyways!

Solid work luke thanks for the good communications lately

Well they were during micro millions which is what I was referring to
Bubble rush is just another scummy rake trap- I'm sure plenty of degens will still play them.
Best of luck

Thanks Luke

Thank you Luke for the response and good job on adding two 8-max o8 mtts.

I'd like to see a bubble rush tourney with 3-6-9 time level. 3 mins before bubble and then 6 mins and finally 9 mins when final 2 tables are remaining.

Luke, we need some low/mid-stake games for Badugi, Triple Draw and other games as well. And we need some turbo tourneys too!

This has been asked many times before. Please make this happen!

Thanks I got told by many players that they loved that format. Any chance of making that tourney a special/major tourney on weekends? $7.50 hyper pko at 13:25 ET imo is perfect. Make this special on weekends and give it 25k stack and 75% bounty on saturdays and 50% on sundays and use the same structure which was used in my tourney. Throughout the tourney avg stack was 19-20bb.

Does that mean you won't be bringing back red mixed games?

Also, Luke when will you be adding Friday major 3-max zoom pko tourney?

Great post, agree with all points made.

yeah, +1 anuj, 3max zoom ko was vvv popular during SCOOP. we need it in the regular schedule

+1 zoom 3m psko ftw (turb and non) pls

if some of you save up 5k coins we can run our own 2+2 series, every player gets an event date where he can create his tournament.

Just looking at some lowstakes reg speed vanilla freezeo00uts in the primetime slot just after big 11 we have

14:00 Big 11 40k
14:45 11 5k
15:45 7.50 2.5k
16:00 11 8max 3.5k
16:15 11 3.5k
17:00 11 3k

perhaps you could swap the 11 at 16.15 with either the 11 6max or 11 4max that run at 18:10 and 19:40 respectively. Just seems to be too many similar tournaments in a row and they are probably canabalising each other.

I think a better option would be however to change the one at 16.15 into a 13.50 ko (just like the old 13.50 ko). And perhaps make the 7.50 a 1r1a.

I just feel like a little bit more variety around that slot would keep people a bit more excited.