For those of you interested in the new games, there are three play money tournaments tonight in which you can try them out. I'd love to hear your feedback on the structures (since I wrote them) and on any issues with the games in general.

The tourney IDs and names are:

100466177 : Play Money No Limit 2-7 Lowball (215)
100467456 : Play Money Mixed Hold'em (215)
100468112 : Play Money Mixed Omaha Hi/Lo (215)

You can find the tournaments under Tourney/All or Tourney/Freeroll.

Unfortunately, 8-Game and Badugi are not quite ready for testing on the main site yet.

Not something I know a lot about, but I think the changes are supposed to stop PokerStars requiring a UAC popup every time it runs, and making sure that things like hand histories, log files etc are stored properly. Sorry I don't have more info.

That reminds me of a South Park episode.

'Not having Badugi makes me a saaaad panda!'

Are they close?

this would be great.

Alex Scott,

Do you guys have any plans to make a different table layout? Fulltilt gives us an option to choose between a centered-seating table layout in addition to a racetrack layout. Personally, I would love to see a centered-seating layout in Stars.

I've begged and pleaded for that, but the answer has always been no

Additions to the ring game filter I would like to see:

Limit: NL/PL
50BB min tables/20BB min tables

Also, this isn't exactly a software question, but what is the ratio of 50BB tables to normal tables, and is there any chance of this increasing?

begging PokerStars once more - please unencrypt the gx.ini files.

here's another example of useful things we could do in days gone by, but no longer.

I guess I have comments/questions about the 8 game mixed tourney blinds schedule:

Is the intent for the NLHE/PLO structures to bridge the cost per round (CPR) between small-bet (2-7td + horse) and big-bet (NLHE + PLO)?

1. WSOP's structure for the NLHE/PLO blinds were 1/2 the limit blinds. Also, the NLHE ante was huge.

2. Pokerstars' structure seems to be 80% of blinds with a more normal sized ante. But, the CPR (cost per round) is 2x the previous CPR.

If the intent is to have a significant higher cost per round in the NLHE preceding the next limit round, then this works well. (30
I guess my only concern is that the NLHE and PLO portion may get "overemphasized" (even though it's only 5 min. per 40 min. cycle).


==========================================
I used Cost Per Round calculations from a relatively late point in the tourney for comparison.

WSOP:
http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/to...02&groupid=411
18 Triple Draw 2-7 - Hold'em - Omaha 8 - $6,000 $12,000 $12,000-$24,000
Razz – Stud - Stud 8 $3,000 $3,000 $12,000 $12,000-$24,000
No-Limit Hold'em – PLO (No Ante) $3,000 $3,000 $6,000

round cost (per 6 hands):
button games: (sb + bb) = (6k + 12k) = 18k
stud games: (6*ante + 1 bringin) = (6*3k + 3k) = 21k
NLHE: (6 * ante + sb + bb) = (6*3k + 3k + 6k) = 27k
PLO: (sb + bb) = (3k + 6k) = 9k

PokerStars
levels 41-48
TD27, LHE, LO8 - stakes: 12k/24k
Stud, Stud/8, Razz - stakes: 12k/24k, ante: 1.5k
NLHE - blinds: 10k/20k, ante: 1.25k
PLO - blinds: 10k/20k

41-43 button games: (sb + bb) = (6k + 12k) = 18k
44-46 stud games: (6*ante + 1 bringin) = (6*1.5k + 1.5k) = 10.5k
47 NLHE: (6 * ante + sb + bb) = (1.25k * 6 + 10k + 20k) = 37.5k
48 PLO: (sb + bb) = (10k + 20k) = 30k

TD27, LHE, LO8 - stakes: 36k/72k
Stud, Stud/8, Razz - stakes: 36k/72k, ante: 4k
NLHE - blinds: 30k/60k, ante: 3k
PLO - blinds: 30k/60k

levels 49-56
41-43 button games: (sb + bb) = (18k + 36k) = 54k
44-46 stud games: (6*ante + 1 bringin) = (6*4k + 5k) = 29k
47 NLHE: (6 * ante + sb + bb) = (3k * 6 + 30k + 60k) = 108k
48 PLO: (sb + bb) = (30k + 60k) = 90k


----------------
I like the NL 2-7 Single Draw structure, particularly the "antes" being a significant aspect. (I cashed in a SNG last night on the test site and it felt fine. It's also nice to reraise in the small blind and get called with a pat 86!)

The Mixed Hold'Em and Omaha/8 Tourney structures look good and are pretty standard (20 min. combined levels - 10 min of level 1 in a limit, 10 min. of level 1 in NL/PL).

Waiting for Badugi/8-game and please add a sub-$5 PLO MTT tourney!

Actually, there's a weird thing in the current build (should be fixed soon) which means that the mixed games display NL and PL games as 'Stakes' rather than blinds. For the purposes of NL/PL, Stakes are double the Blinds.

In actual fact the figures for the levels you quoted are:

PokerStars
levels 41-48
TD27, LHE, LO8 - stakes: 12k/24k
Stud, Stud/8, Razz - stakes: 12k/24k, ante: 1.5k
NLHE - blinds: 5k/10k, ante: 1.25k
PLO - blinds: 5k/10k

41-43 button games: (sb + bb) = (6k + 12k) = 18k
44-46 stud games: (6*ante + 1 bringin) = (6*1.5k + 1.5k) = 10.5k
47 NLHE: (6 * ante + sb + bb) = (1.25k * 6 + 5k + 10k) = 22.5k
48 PLO: (sb + bb) = (5k + 10k) = 15k

TD27, LHE, LO8 - stakes: 36k/72k
Stud, Stud/8, Razz - stakes: 36k/72k, ante: 4k
NLHE - blinds: 15k/30k, ante: 3k
PLO - blinds: 15k/30k

levels 49-56
41-43 button games: (sb + bb) = (18k + 36k) = 54k
44-46 stud games: (6*ante + 1 bringin) = (6*4k + 12k) = 36k
47 NLHE: (6 * ante + sb + bb) = (3k * 6 + 15k + 30k) = 63k
48 PLO: (sb + bb) = (15k + 30k) = 45k

... so the jump isn't quite as big as it looks.

The ante pressure is supposed to steadily increase from each group of games to the next, but there are intentional drops for Stud and Omaha due to the larger average pot size in those games.

I do think the 8-game structure will need further tinkering before it's deployed on a large scale. Any further feedback is most welcomed.

i don't think stars controls the number of these tables. they just create a new one whenever there is atleast one person at all existing tables.

this would be very nice. why do you think they won't do it bobo?

THIS


Also - I have a customer, using Vista, and every time he tries to enable custom background > browse, it freezes his stars client and tables, and has to be closed from the task manager. We even tried updating today, and it still crashed. UAC is off entirely on his pc.

My only thought is to backup his stars folder, uninstall completely, reboot, and reinstall a full stars install package.

Alex,

Are there going to be any real cash game sngs with the mixed games?

Can there be an option in the filter to hide tables we're already sitting at? Or perhaps this is somewhere where I'm not aware?

stop 30 tabling! it won't be an issue.

Any chance of stars starting up a Stars Million SNG Steps system?

Also the ability to buy into the Stars million with $W's would be awesome.

Yes, but not straight away. Play money games will come first, then small stakes.

Exactly when real money will be available depends on how well testing goes for the other games.

Give an option to automatically add-on for MTTs OR make the table pop up when it's time to add-on. It's so annoying when you 8 table and dont notice the tourney until cards are back and you haven't added on.

+1

Huge +1, it's so annoying to have to wait for 89 tables to finish and you miss part of the break to make sure you don't miss the add-on.

At full tilt I can change the background by right clicking and choosing one of them. Id like this option on stars, it really helps that I can mark a table where my image is bad.

i cant even find the games on the test site when will you begin testing

http://overcards.com/wiki/moin.cgi/ModManager

I edited my script to be Alt+Right-Click