Sounds to me like Stars has the software and game selection that is worth paying for.

how long are peoples accounts being banned for?

and we do pay for it, a ****ing **** load of rake.

I heard that the .fr accounts were reduced to one table for a week, but I can't confirm that. The e-mail I got from stars said I had been reduced to a single table due to the ToS agreement, and that I could e-mail Pokerstars concerning this issue.

via other players' deposits. You aren't really paying the rake. The rake you do pay is used for promotions that attract the players who deposit who pay your rake for you.

No rake sites do not work. Poker players will only be able to make a living at raked sites like pokerstars.

I'm not really paying the rake? Well I guess the money in my account isn't mine because all but 100 bucks have been other players deposits. I better start paying that back to every player I've ever won money off.

Oh I get it, you're saying I am a nit and I don't play pots and I just leach off other people's rake, well not really, I didn't make 50k vpps last year, which is pathetic, but true, characterising every single reg as a "nit" is ******ed.

no idea. Havent got a reply to my mail either.

Not completely. I'm saying the rake you pay is not 100% pure profit for stars (your rakeback rewards only being part of that). They are also paying for all the promotions that bring depositing players to the site that would not exist without rake. Go play at a no-rake site and see how long you want to keep playing there for.

qf new page

I earned more vpp yesterday than I would have in the old system. Thanks pokerstars. I am sne and play low fixed limit and am laggy and spewy at times. this helps make up for my bad play at times. sn slimfast

If you took me off ignore, you would see that I actually predicted both the reduction in tables allowed (although I predicted they would reduce you to 4 tables at once, they actually went down to 1, and I also predicted they would ban you once the wait-list fiasco started)

However, if you want to completely ignore the voice of logic and reason, then by all means, keep me on your ignore list.

^Good to hear, congrats on SNE

Would you mind posting some stats when you get a larger sample?

1) Poker Sites around the World have decided that winning/professional players are a much less desirable group than people who play poker in a "recreational" manner. Therefore, most have been changing rake methods and other practices to encourage more recreational players and less professional players, or in the alternative these sites want to reduce the overall amount of promotional payments made to heavily grinding players to attain higher profit (and also limit withdrawals from these professional players who they feel drain money from the sites Micro poker Economy);

2) In a shock to many 2+2 posters, Pokerstars, the clear leader in the Online Poker World (especially when it comes to the highly efficient functioning of its software and sheer numbers of available poker games - plus what many say is top notch customer service), decides to switch to a system similar to these "other sites";

3) 2+2 posters scream money grab (of course, I do not hear much from same posters sympathizing that indeed Pokerstars has lost massive amounts of revenue, profit by forced cutoff from its United States business and money grab by United States Government);

4) 2+2 Members exercise their rights to disagree with these business moves and vehemently protest Pokerstars rake changes/promotional payments changes/rakeback changes in 2+2 threads and letters to Pokerstars support;

5) Several prominent 2+2 Members think it is a good idea to organize a 'sit-out' protest to cause turmoil, havoc and disruption to Pokerstars business on January 1st, in the thought that when Pokerstars physically sees how many people sit-out, they will immeditely change policies, or they feel the business disruption will force Pokerstars hand to change policies. They do this without regard for what other players who wish to play at Pokerstars on January 1st feel about their movement;

6) Many 2+2 members agree with 'sit-out' idea as an excellent protest and plan to wreck havoc with the site and people who want to play there January 1st. Protest gains momentum and apparently was successful in attaining large amounts of people who plan to 'sit-out' in support of the protest;

7) Pokerstars responds to attempted shut-down/slowing of their business (and/or severe inconvenience to their other players) by temporarily banning players who are participating in 'sit-out', or by limiting these players to only playing one table instead of 24 tables (and cutting off their chat so they can not relay their revolutionary ideas to the ignorant masses)

Has anyone had a response back from stars regarding there account and the amount of tables? I recently found myself receiving the email stating that my number of ring games I can join has been reduced to 1 even though I had nothing to do with the protest, (Heck I even played HU with someone on a table full of sitouts for ~100 hands.) I am very angry with stars for taking this measure against me, and hope that it gets resolved asap.

True, but the people who might not be well informed about it may not care to much about it. Also, for many players the changes aren't bad at all, please don't forget that.

I do understand it's bad for a certain group though, and I do understand this group tries to take action. I sympathize any form of striking which doesn't include taking away the ability to play for players with different viewpoints.

Imho these players should simply refuse to play, maybe even withdraw, and try to open communication with PokerStars. If this group is large enough I'm sure it will have succes. If it isn't, these players are free to look for better deals elsewhere, if there are any.

I've pmed Steve and he said "We haven't decided yet"

Ouch. I guess Stars has deemed you as necessary collateral damage in the company's put-down of the "Occupy Stars" movement.

That is exactly what is happening now. Player representatives will be meeting at Stars headquarters in Isle of Man later this month.

It turned out that the only practical effect of the sit-out/disruption tactics was the embarrassment of those that participated in them.

suuuuure, none of us had anything to do with the protest

Players stating this is a moneygrab which is bad for the poker economy and trying to convince others and themselves it is not about their own bottomline are probably a bit dilusional, maybe even to themselves.

Also, I'm not even that sure it actually is bad for the poker economy. Sure, the tighter (not all) supernova plus players will have a lower bottom line but in general, these are players who are taking money out of the poker economy. The changes are good for lower VIP players which are more loosing players and players who will give this money back to the economy.

Also, of any $ Stars will take out of the economy most of it will probably go back some way or the other through promotional activities to improve the poker economy, which is vital to Stars existence. Of any $ a winning player takes out of the poker economy, I estimates nothing goes back to it.

No, I very much doubt these changes are bad for the poker economy, I'm tempted to think, in the long run, they are more good than bad actually.

This is about our bottomline, It is about almost every players bottomline. even a lot of the fishes will get a lower bottomline with this.
Some games will die because of these changes.
Yesterday, as part of the strike, i played at other sites, where the LHE games are raked between 5-10% in small stakes. Guess what... there are no tables of LHE running at these sites, because due to that games are getting harder by the minute, players just cant beat the rake in these games.
PS has been one of the last site where some games are still popular, but by taking away the benefits of playing high volume there is no chanse that even the very best players can beat the games in the long run, and then the games will turn into just another casinogame with a small disatvantage for the player unlucky enough to like the game.
We have to look at the poker community as a whole, not just what will gain eatch one of us for a short period of time. If we look at our bottomline as if we where one, then PS has raped that bottomline.

He he. Stars has now brought out a tank and the protesters' Volkswagon van with its protest signs and loudspeakers is squashed pretty good.


Perhaps it's time to raise a white flag and negotiate a term of surrender (may be the group that goes out to the Isle of Man in a few weeks can salvage some leftover crumbs)? Protesters were up against Goliath from the beginning and were unfortunately destroyed.

raising our flag for what? i'm just waiting to see Stars official position on the banned/1table "incident" + if they are going to make anything about this whole new system. If i don't like what i see i will just withdraw my funds and that's that, end of story. pretty simple, no?

Yep, it´s a free market. Pick another site if you dont like Stars.

Amen.

These breakeven fish think they are going to hold Stars to ransom Stars doesn't want mass-tabling breakeven nits exploiting rakeback.