Thanks buddy.

Hi Sam. Every now and again, Stars lures me back. A couple of weeks ago, they gave me an instant $25 bonus (plus 10 SpinGo tickets) on a $100 deposit. I took the free money and put it on Unibet, obviously.

Hey Arty


Got $10 and the Spin and Go tickets for depositing $50 or something like that - but screwed up and pressed the deposit button twice, so all that was left of my 'gift' after paying double the service charges was about $2

Guess Stars must hope that the deposit bonuses will encourage people to feel more free about spewing? But they've set up such a bleak environment ... it's like they're giving a $5 off ticket for a movie that they're charging $100 to see. And then when people don't want to spend $100 to see a movie, they raise the price to $125 ...


It sounds like Unibet still 'charges $10 for a movie'? So that sounds really nice Have been meaning to check them out for ages! Guess have just been too wrapped up in my whirlwind schedule of slacking and napping to have the time Have played a bit on Bodog/Ignition though, so maybe that's about the same ...


Cheers Arty!!

11 weeks to go till 2017 still no details about the vip program in 2017.

It's not going to be good.

its rake decrease for Pokerstars pros with beard.

lol

I have a feeling it will be good for the game.

you mean for beaten down ecosystem?

Can we hear the story about Mooshoo again?

We will hear buzzwords like "recreational" and "ecosystem", which has no definition.

Dnegs will have something good to say

At the end of the day, whatever the changes are, I don't think Stars will lose a ton of players because of them. People are still going to play at Stars for many different reasons and the site will continue on as the no.1 online poker site.

When you look at all the other poker sites out there and weigh everything up (not just VIP programs), I personally don't see any other site as being better or being able to match the overall poker experience you get at Stars.

I personally think that a lot of those still playing full-time will end up playing 'live' more and continue playing on stars on a more 'part-time' basis, rather than switching to other online poker sites.

I agree with a trend whitch you describe in part 3. I also agree, that stars won't lose big part of their's playerpool, but start of RIO poker, which will be supported by huge number of regs (for free) may force them to rethink their's strategy. IMO its crucial to support RIO during it's first months, because the need liquidity to be able to encourage recreational players to play there. So in shortterm playing there my be EV-, but in longterm is for sure very EV+. So I hope, that at least some of the regs will do that. Specially if they will offer lower rake (IMO almost sure).

I think some people will move on to live poker or other forms of poker. But there are enough 18-35 year old males who are addicted to chasing "the poker dream" (if such a thing even exists anymore) that they are prepared to grind $15k/year for a living.

We are literally years away from Stars seeing RIO Poker on their radar and making a plan to try and crush them. I hope RIO takes over the market but it's an uphill battle from hell.

$15k/year net income is a lot more than what many regs could make with a dayjob in their countries. They are not chasing the dream - they are living it. My poker hope for '17 is that stars seperates player pools east/west passports or countries.

This is just plain wrong. I just went to Romania for business purpose and my colleagues there where all making 1.2-1.8 as normal consultants. Germans and americans in the same position would make ~5-6.5k €/$. No one was a rocket scientist, not even a senior consultant.

It is true that many people have to live with less than 650€ a month, but from someone with a PC, the brain and the persistence to grind full time i expect more.

(Just an example)

So you are saying "just plain wrong", because a job that usually pays between pretty decent and very well, nets people 14-22k in a country where 15k is a lot of money according to another post? Doesn't really compute..

I'm wasting time on twoplustwo while I translate a contract of employment from Slovak. It's basically for an office girl doing invoicing and things like that for 450 euros per month, 40 hours a week - and compared to the former Soviet Union countries wages in Slovakia and Romania are high. Also GermanGambler probably visits these people in some major city.

I think the question is though, are the skills and abilities of a 15K per year poker player comparable to GG's business consultant or are they comparable to those of the office girl? - because if people think the latter they should hire some people on minimum wage.

Do not worry! The Scheinbergs are buying back Stars to make poker great again.

Its sad that they gonna increase the rigg for the pros.

It is plain wrong that 15k is a lot of money in these countries. Try to live with 15k in Bukarest or Odessa and you will understand.

What i was trying to say: 15k is the lower end for a decent job even in these countries. Stupid micro grinding will not bring them anywhere.

It's called "online" poker, nobody forces you to live in one of those cities if you make only 15k. But you can move to a place where that money provides you with a decent living. That's the point people in this thread try to make.

80k is a lot of money in most places in the world, but try living of that in Monaco, Zürich, San Francisco or Singapore. You might have to, if you own a sandwich shop there and want to avoid the headache of getting there daily. It's kinda different if you work from home in your underwear.

As I was saying.

Yeah, if one earned that little then in Sobrance a house would cost 18 whole months' salary.

http://www.nehnutelnosti.sk/okres-sobrance/domy/predaj

Not that I would want to live in a backwater like that, but some people are from there and do.