So Ive just fired up tables and got a popup message from stars saying 'holdem manager 1 software is now banned, please read our updated terms on prohibited software. Anyone else had this for HEM1/2 or PT4? I cant view the 'updated terms' because it just takes me to the UK website where there arent updates

PokerStars what they will do, is very bad for them.
They want to push the players to no longer focus on volume.
They want more money for them.
Players will be forced to focus on winning at the tables, play more carefully to play max 2-4 tables.
The old personal of PokerStars they knew what they are doing and have been successful
They try to make more money but will get reverse.

u sure it wasn't the tn1 message?

So how much money would it take to start a new online poker site to compete with PokerStars since they've basically just given up their second to last remaining edge over the competition?
(the only remaining edge being the player pool)

Realistically.

I ask because I know some ballin south african dudes that might be keen to put a couple mil toward it

yes from other thread:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...postcount=3161

If that is a serious question: Way too much money for it to be profitable. Ones that have a shot are already existing decent networks.

From HM2 site dated 6th October:

Due to new rules implemented by Amaya (parent company of both Poker Stars and Full Tilt) recently both the color coding and auto rate features in Holdem Manager 1 are no longer compliant with their new terms and conditions on 3rd party software.

We have updated those in Holdem Manager 2 to be compliant with the new rules however we will not be updating HM1 because we officially stopped supporting that product and doing updates over a year ago.

We encourage you to update to HM2 to make sure you are compliant and avoid any action being taken on your Poker Stars or Full Tilt account.

Regards,

Fozzy71
Customer Support
Hold'em Manager

U have enough money to make 10mirrion lifetime award yourself though tbf

whats the award for 10mm lifetime?

But I thought they were not doing FPP anymore ?!?

They do it's now called **** poker players

This had to be part of the plan when Amaya was purchased...

Would Isai have sold if he knew what was going to happen? Did he know?

It is my understanding that when a company is sold, especially a company of this size, negotiations include clauses to not do things exactly like this.

I don't see how Amaya can be worth billions and also absolutely need to do this. Is this really for the good of the game? I don't understand really how one could argue that it is.

There are no billion dollar winners on stars and there is no possible way any group of lifetime online crushers have taken more out of the games than stars/Amaya.

Why play here? Has anything in any way gotten better for the players since the sale?

These are only pending for a certain amount of time. Could've easily been a year and now they can run roughshod through all the regs.

Why on earth anyone thinks a competitor will suddenly decide to spend hundreds of millions, potentially billions, of dollars to rival Pokerstars is beyond me. The market for online poker has been in decline for years - the last thing their competitors will do is take a huge leap of faith (and a lot of money) to make BE sne regulars happy in a dying industry

I didnt even know there was rewards for making 5M and 10Mvpps. What are those ?

https://www.pokerstars.com/vip/hall-of-fame/

Well the 2016/2017 versions of this thread are going to be really busy :-)

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/28...d-chat-1500299

This is how Stars used to think about the VIP club...

https://www.pokerstars.com/en/blog/p...le-033890.html

I'm not sure how can you concede that regs make up the bulk of the player pool then in the same paragraph claim these changes only effect "1%" of the pool. Your views on the pools composition are so highly distorted i'm split between whether or not you're just a not so elaborate troll.

I don't know how you can say regs aren't required for the bulk of stakes after conceding they make up the bulk of the player pool, your position is utterly nonsensical.

Amaya paid $5 billion for Stars.

$100mio will get you nowhere if you start from scratch. It's not like all of Stars competition is broke, there are some deep pockets around. You can be pretty sure they all crunched the numbers and apparently came back with the same sad result: It's just not worth it, the risk-reward doesn't work.

Everyone knew.

Exactly. Until the entire US market comes online globally (many years down the line), no one will even think about starting a new site. Especially given how many other governments are ****ing with regulation and trying to squeeze money out of operators.

Tbh those rewards seems a bit lame to me compared to the achievement. Not a big loss here

No one would ever start in business if they all thought like that ! The Stars business model will become obsolete it is just a question of when.

I'm in the business of starting businesses..

Some people like to invest their money in a smart way, others don't. Maybe you find someone willing to put up a cool billion for you to start a new poker room. But it's not like just one competitor of Stars decided not to take a big shot of them. Not a single one is willing to invest big money, that should tell you something.

Maybe that sentiment changes after Stars follows through with all of that, but right now I highly doubt it.

From the SNE pursuit thread. We should be able to calculate exactly who is better and worse off without all the bs spin once this information is released.