Those same micro players no longer get stellar rewards, daily chrome star freerolls, and if they don't manage to complete a level they lose a significant portion of their lol value.


And just for more chuckles.....those t-shirts, and most of the other increasingly fewer items left in the 'vip' store, went up wayyyy more than the 20% transitional price from fpp's to starscoin.

Am I correct in assuming that the strike and changes to the VIP club did nothing in regards to Pokerstars traffic so far this year?

I mean ya, there is going to be a slight decline in year over year traffic but that's to be expected since it's happened several years in a row and it had nothing to do with the VIP changes.

Does anyone have any solid numbers for the first 2 weeks in Jan compared to last year?

+1 they should put a 10$ VIp cash rebate for recs for a 1000 Starcoin.
2,5k is way to much for micro recs to take th 25$ one

gotta agree with this

well i wanted someone to tell me I was wrong and point out where. but it turns out I am not because no one has.

there was an argument a bad one in my opinion but an argument for reducing Supernova or SNE rewards.

however this seems a reduction in rewards across the board. and not a small one a massive one. if they want to encourage recreational players more why are they penalizing these players so heavily?

it seems everyone is getting shafted here.

the only reason why I still log in or play anymore is because I am scared if I don't pokerstars will empty my account with there outright theft, from some dodgy country claiming security breech and blaming me. I really should and will seek legal advice about that one btw.

Not having a 10$ VIP Cash Rebate is obviously intended to make the recs buy tickets for 0.25/0.5/1.0/1.5$-Spins/SnGs and Amaya grabbing their share of the rakeback aswell.

Clever Amaya, most bronce- & silverstars will fall for it - unfortunately.

Exactly, tickets get raked again whereas cash could be withdrawn. The 25c Spin is the single highest raked game on the site and will be the most-bought item in the store.

LukeSilver, this isn't true. BronzeStars as a group are getting every close to the same amount of rewards. Most of them are earning more rewards, due to the Stellar Reward value being spread out between the Steps. For example, their FPP multiplier used to be 1. Their average FPP redemption rate was .013. Their effective multiplier for completing 5 Steps is 1.5. If they complete 10 or 15 Steps it goes higher. If they complete all the Steps it is 1.69.

For ChromeStar, their FPP multiplier used to be 1. Completing the first five Steps give them an effective SC multiplier of 2.5. If they complete 10 Steps their multiplier is 2.65. If they complete all Steps it is 2.98. This more than makes up for the lost Stellar Rewards and change in store prices (note there is a new VAT tax in 2016 that is incorporated into store merchandise prices that we are now required to pay).

SilverStar SC multiplier for first 5 Steps is 3.45 compared to 1.5 last year, 3.75 for completing all Steps. GoldStar SC multiplier is 3.9 compared to 2 last year, 4.5 for completing all Steps.

Yes, some players lose value for incomplete Steps at the end of the month. However, the magnitude of this was much worse for players last year with Stellar Rewards. Thousands and thousands of players fell short of Stellar Rewards every year, and why? Primarily because everything worked behind the scenes. Players would finish the year with 4800 or 4900 VPPs falling just short of a $50 bonus. That was a killer for their rakeback, but they simply didn't know. With VIP Steps, players will receive communication informing them of where they are to maintain status and where they are to achieve new statuses and how much time they have both for statuses and for completing Steps.

Are you individually receiving less rewards even if you are BronzeStar thru GoldStar status? That is likely if you maximized your Stellar Rewards and redeemed your points for only tournament, FPP sats, and merchandise. But as a group, a lot of these players redeemed their points for cash bonuses.

Shoving, you are correct - we prefer that players play through their rewards rather than cash them out. Winning players and PokerStars both benefit as a result. At the same time, previously we only offered MTT tickets with buyins of $11 or higher and you had to be SilverStar to get them. We have now made tickets available to all statuses while also broadening the offer to appeal not only to MTT players, but also to Sitngo and Spin&go players. And we've broadened the price range of the tickets as well by offering microstakes tickets and well as low and mid-stakes tickets.

Last year, players with less than 700 FPPs had only one option to redeem their points - FPP tournaments. Now, more players should value their points in that they can use them to play a variety of microstakes games as compared to the past.

Tx, Matthew

Okay then, funneling away from cash games confirmed. Not sure how that reconciles with making recs' money last longer, but thanks for the clarification.

I understand this is a publicly traded stock in freefall and the buckets for cash grabs are necessarily getting larger, but the systematic demolition of every last brick that Isai's team designed is mind boggling.

If you actually want recs to play through their rewards and actually benefit the players in the process, get rid of this 2500/10,000/100,000 same value bull****.

Replace it with a 1 Starscoin to $0.01 daily trade in for everyone and let people play through their rewards in whatever game they like to play. Those 500 Starscoin / month players are not going to be cashing out their $0.45 every third day.

Why don't you add some cash game/zoom tickets for the micro players as well? FTP had this kind of tickets if remember correctly.

You're not suggesting that Stars is pushing people towards Spin and Go's over a game format that would help the poker ecosystem.

Does anyone have any solid numbers for the first 2 weeks in Jan compared to last year?

Am I correct in assuming that the strike and changes to the VIP club did nothing in regards to Pokerstars traffic so far this year?

I mean ya, there is going to be a slight decline in year over year traffic but that's to be expected since it's happened several years in a row and it had nothing to do with the VIP changes.

That would be teh way if they had any sort of interest in the ecosystem.

However ecosystem for stars = as many players grinding spins as possible

Play with tickets does earn VPPs in full, so, for a tourney specialist, it doesn't matter whether it's in the ticket or cash form; for someone who dislikes tourneys, that rake is indeed a bit of a 'sunk cost', but selling tickets for Coins that are cheaper than $25 cash is one of the most humane ways possible for Stars to improve the traffic (which is 'a necessary evil' if you wish).

That said, it would be also nice to have an option of buying a ring game ticket like at FTP (of course, at the same rate of $0.01 per Coin).

Cash game players from BronzeStar thru GoldStar are the players who benefit the most under the new system, while tournament players are the ones who see lower benefits. The $10 cash bonus last year had a value of $.01 and StarsCoin have a value of $.01, but players are earning considerably more StarsCoin than they did FPPs. Tournament players are the ones who see the biggest decrease as they were the ones who were able to redeem their points at the best rates previously.

It has been discussed and I would like to. It will take considerable development and there are many projects in the development pipeline so I can't say if or when this might happen.

tx, Matthew

As someone who has used Ring Game tickets on FTP in the past I've gotta say I don't really like them. When they drop far enough below 100bb there eventually comes a point where you just stop using them, ime, so you are throwing away some of their value. That's especially the case if you've bought and are using a few at the same time.

What a load of rubbish. I shouldn't need to say why but micros players, are getting screwed. And chasing targets is a big part of that. Stupid casino mentality. Keeping people in house longer and to use starcoins in a way that only advantages pokerstars, including pushing plyaers towards (more commonly raked, higher volume) raked cash games (than mtt's), and who have now to chase redeeming higher bonuses (minimum $25) taking longer to achieve. GT*O pokerstars. Finally jokerstars is a fitting title. You respond here to posts with some air of servility and feeling of obligation but your actions already tarnish your name and the best thing to do would be becoming awol and leave the topic. YOu're good at doing things to benefit only you, so stop lying to peoples faces.

If you missed posts also at http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/28...1/index21.html, which is in similar fashion about all your recent changes. No one is taking any of this with a smile. And why should so many smart people have to have so many questions simply to understand a "simpler system of doing things> geared towards micro and rec players"? Seems like you are trying to make it hellishly hard to comprehend further benefiting only pokerstars, with a pretty looking sentiment of calling it star coins. A sharade only imo.

Would you like to have an option to top the stack up with real money out of your account (if you lose a pot, money will be taken out of your added chips first and only then out of the ticket balance, like it's done with casino bonuses)?

Your redirect of a response towards rec reward earning rates does not address the funneling of players into Spins. Unless I am mistaken, Spins have been deemed by and large to be the worst thing to hit the poker ecosystem and chews up those extra rec earnings back into rake faster than anything compared to previously having a somewhat reasonable cash rebate. Semantics aside, this is a cash grab on the "extra earnings" by removing all reasonable options aside from the least profitable, fastest rake conversion option.

From an ecosystem perspective, could you please provide the logic on how giving a rec a $0.25 Spin & Go ticket for their 25 Starscoin is superior to having a $0.01 Starscoin cash rebate with a "convert x Starscoin to x cash" option where the same player can do whatever they want with their $0.25?

Daily conversion of all Starscoin to cash on player demand would increase liquidity, and in turn, improve the poker ecosystem. On the other hand, being forced to play a specific tiny margin game that lasts all of 3 minutes that I may or may not enjoy or be any good at makes rec Starscoin essentially worthless.

Please refrain from further redirection when quoting my posts.

Glad to have JH1 back in the house.

Stars changed buddy as you can see......

lol why was it removed this is just getting silly, please make a convert starscoins to $ option any excuse not to is straight up money grab

can someone please send me 0.89 starscoins thanks

Matthew,

Starscoins now have a set value of 1c each. Every serious or semi-serious player on the site is going to convert them to cash in $25 increments. The only players who are going to buy tournament tickets are lazy tournament grinders, broke recreational players and imbeciles. The players who will suffer through your refusal to offer a cash conversion option for <2500 coins are the low-stakes recreational or occasional players.

If you're going to claim that the recent changes are for the benefit of lower stakes, recreational or occasional players (well, if you're going to make such a claim with a straight face), you ought to offer at least a $10 cash rebate.

Yep, JH1 is a top man.

Excellent post.

lol at development time to convert for cash game tickets or to convert to cash.