seanysean -whats your opinion about Stars removing Dons?

lol. wp.

Edit: Never mind. I just searched there names and there both at the same table again. I'm convinced enough to send PS an email. I don't know if they'll agree or what will happen but whatever.

I'm obv never playing a DoN again.

If I worked for stars and I received stuff like this every day, I'd want DONs eliminated as well.

bountie dOnS would be great!

Ok Stars, sorry for complaining before. I didn't realise what you had to deal with, and I fully sympathise with you now.

Agree, this would be a reasonable strategy in F50. In 200/400/50 , everytime chipleader steal one hand, it means CL get 0.3 BI prize more. It really be unnecerssary to call ss to finish the game. But, this really looks like cheating play , I dont know how stars security team tell this?

Good point
Just face it these kind of games (DON's included) will always harbour some kind of strategy to manipulate somehow .. even if it's not classed as collusion

Poker in general is a game of skill & trickery combined with thievery

Pokerstars just face it you're in the Thievery business

It's fine & even applauded to watch these dippy young donks on Live TV steal & manipulate all night long but woahhh betide ever folding your BB late on in a DON

When DoNs are removed do you think traffic to the fifty50's is going to pick up significantly or not?
I just checked the fifty50 tables at stakes $50+ and only see 4 tables registering. Two for the 50s and two for the 100s. For DoNs at those stakes there are over 17 tables registering right now.

I highly doubt traffic will increase significantly fish wise. A recreational player wants at least double his money back in an easy to understand way.

+1 very well said

someone needs to reg for a few thousand dons right before they close them.

break up sex

AHAHAHAHAH FUNNY. LOL. u just made me laugh. nooooo, im NOT opinionated lol. U already know my opinion from my 62 posts on this thread. i really do believe u will see don traffic increase on the US friendly sites starting tommorrow when they are not on stars anymore. What i find funny is, Steve said on the radio interview that this was wanted by the players. If this was wanted by the players to have 50/50's replace don's then why if u check the running option in the pokerstars lobby for both dobs and 50/50s you will see far more dons running on average per hour than 50/50's. It does not look to me as if the majority of players think 50/50's are such a terrific improvement worthy of completely replacing don's.

This 50/50 format is an overall failure. won't last. These sng's will stop attracting traffic flows as of mid-march. The format is simply awful. It really, really is. Here's an example of how brilliant (sarcasm) this format is...Let's say u cash 60 percent of the time (60 percent is the most a winning player of the don format would cash on avg (usually a little less...like 59.5ish). If u lose 4 out of every 10 50/50's at the 5 dollar level u will lose 21.20. this means to even to simply break even in the remaining 6 that u cash, u would have to have an avg finishing stack of 2121 (that is just to break even keep in mind) ALL THIS FORMAT DOES IS TURN MOST CONSISTENT WINNERS INTO BREAK EVEN PLAYERS FOR THE MOST PART, IT CRUSHES POOR PLAYERS WITH MOST OF THE WINNINGS BEING EVENLY DISTRUBUTED AMONGST THE REST (THE REST MEANS MOSTLY STARS AS FAR AS BUY-INS. THIS FORMAT IS PROBABLY THE MOST CARD-INFLUENCED SNG AROUND. SKILL PLAYS AN EXTREMELY MINIMAL ROLE IN THESE OVER 1000 OR MORE GAME SAMPLES.

Dude, traffic will be terrible. Everyone makes mistakes...this time its stars. I wonder how much poker is played by the ppl who thought of this format. the logic is non-existent. In order for a game to work, there must be some logical approach to the format to some extent (ie 6 person sngs = patience and late stage aggression..dons = nit early level play followed by NOT calling shoves unless strong and shoving for equity on mid stack) THIS format is like a very, very poolry painted abstract picture.

whats even funnier is how the old saying goes,,,if it anint broke dont fix it...STEVE, u claim this decision was not based on the colluders but that the playerrs wanted it. um, go check the lobby, crunch the numbers for the tables that are running right now in both formats...it does not look to me that most ppl want this. it doesn't even look like 25 percent want it. You are taking a very hot product (so to speak) and killing it for no good reason. I am totally clueless as to why, after all that has gone on with poker lately, u would want to literally give up steady business for some poorly designed foramt that will never catch on the way the dons have. like i said, dons are not the backbone to stars BUT they consist of a very loyal player base and u guys basically had cornered that specific market. This move makes zero sense whatsoever.

I would really like Steve to start a thread or send out surveys to all don players who have played on the site. Let's see if the majority votes don's out. I think u will find that 50/50's would be the format voted out.

Steve, I actually think u are a well-spoken logical guy BUT were u on tilt when u decided dons should be replaced by an inferior format? Had u just taken a bad beat or something and lost ur mind?

Sean, you realize almost everything you're saying right now was said by all the 9m grinders when they came out with DoNs right

i miss arguing with Kajzer Sose on don chat

Yo, crunch don numbers with the same 50/50 winrate. totally different. i respect u if u think don's suck. ur allowed an opinion. they have been very good to me so i'm not about to criticize. i am a smart guy when it comes to poker knowledge..the 50/50 format cannot even be compared to the dons as far as quality. And to answer your issue...about 9 man sng players being mad, well, with these they should be even angrier...if u are going to play a 50/50 u may as well play 9 man instead. the fact that 2 guys (4th and 5th place who will usually barely get thier original buy in back)
will cash beyond the normal 3 players robs profit equity from the 3 who finish first thru third. Recreational 9 man players are the only ones dumb enough to frequent 50/50's (not 9 man grinders...the rec players) they think that at least if they can sorta get some of their money back then they are better off. On the other hand, the payouts in dons have no similarities to 9 man. the only similarity that would have robbed 9 man players was the fact that 9 + 1 = 10. lmao. They have one more person than 9 man (thats it my friend. 50/50's will be the true 9 man denter. NOW 9 manners have a reason to be angry. Have fun losing traffic cause the fish would rather make 4th and 5th so they can play these for free (minus some) while getting burned on the 6 percent turbo rake. (6 minutes = turbo ='ing 6 percent rake being absurd then couple that with the ****** payout structure and you have a disastrous insult to the game of poker AND to the sit & go world as a whole.

Seems regs are going to grind each other for the time being.

Random Fifty50 - Yellow = Regs with a positive ROI:

Isn't that exactly what DoNs looked like except ~50% of the players were cheating in any given game

I have a feeling that the decision to keep or get rid of dons wasn't steve's personal choice

Maybe, but the rake is simply unbeatable With that many regs.

fwiw i'd be confident i could beat the 10s with that many regs right now (maybe me believing this is a mistake too), but the average level of understanding and competentcy at this format is going to increase greatly over the next few months and will make the rake almost definitely unbeatable.

So readjust...isn't that all poker is?

The rake is already pretty close to unbeatable on a lot of DoNs and 9mans