Do you think it's good for the future of poker and growth in number of recreational players that stars is adopting a very, very popular system that many big e-sports games have started to use which is a randomized chest where you pay a set $$$ like $3 to randomly get something worth 0.02 to $500+ similar to a slot machine with very poor return on investment - but in our case we are paying with our rakeback essentially to potentially get money back , or tickets, or bonuses etc ?

Or do you think it is yet another very poor direction that amaya is taking with pokerstars?

https://www.pokerstars.com/en/blog/c...s-166435.shtml




I emailed asking if they can release the odds for the prizes to see how much of a cut we are getting but was told they do not have that info at this time to release.






(Making this thread since we finally have a confirmation on what the VIP rewards system is going to turn into, was posted in the other 2016 made VIP thread but was buried 1200 posts in, in a discussion on if stars is going to start stealing deposits - thought it was good for everyone to know what to look forward to (or plan to ditch stars) by summer.)

At what point are they going to offer a game where you pay 10% rake and high card wins?

pay 50$ and get a boost of 5x pocket aces at nl5 games.

Hurts regs, recreationals probably find it interesting especially if stars promote the big chest winners which i assume they will. I think if stars didn't have that press release where they told the public that some players will see up to an 85% reduction in rewards then regs wouldn't be so apposed to it.

If stars follow this change up with a reduction in rake for certain formats like: zoom, plo, hyper hu's, spin & go's etc then we regs wouldn't be so disgusted with the change. The regular tables where regulars bum hunt anyway probably won't care for this change, other formats though tis alot different as it will action in those games which isn't even good for the site either.

The variance of this form of rakeback (if we exclude the top tier prizes) may be still lower than the variance of poker itself so it's OK as long as it brings the right kinds of opponents to my tables.

The second thing;
"yet another very poor direction that amaya is taking with pokerstars".

Just another way for them to be less transparent, be less reg-friendly, and try to make the site more about gambling than poker.

Yes, and soon games won't run at all. I already see every day how my HS games run a ton less frequently than before and there are multiple recs at my format that are upset at how long it takes to get games off. This will spread to lower stakes and numerous players will be taking their 'fun' money elsewhere; whether it's to another poker site, to sports betting, to a casino or elsewhere, I obviously don't know

I'm assuming the new RB system is going to be complete garbage overall and probably ~5% or less effective RB for someone like myself. I hope Party steps up (I've already talked to Pads (OurSurveySays)/management and helped him/them get a dialogue going with us HS players in the $5k turbo chat (long before the public announcement of the new RB system)) and improves their software and I will do everything I can to get games running over there

Im glad I headbutted Stars to the chest a long time ago

Will it still be possible to make a living as a Stars Rewards Chest pro if you can't beat the poker games?

I think this is the only way. If you win you get nothing but basically empty chests. Just move to some former soviet country and you are good to go.

And is this good? Probably not. Even the recs can figure it out you ain't getting anything decent back 99% of the time.

Seriously. How many times can you misspell Cheats?

what happens with starscoins?

nothing. starscoin are still existent

"You will also earn StarsCoin from Chests, and will continue to be able to redeem them in the store at the same rate for cash rebates, tickets, merchandise, and more."

well this sounds aids

Can I buy chests for micro transactions and trade the loot on steam

Down, down, down Stars goes <3

They really are a bunch of ****ing idiots, I couldn't come up with a system this ******ed if I tried

i know right lol

lets put a RNG on all the players rakeback

It really is insane.

1) you play a game of chance raked so much you prob won't profit
2) your no.1 opportunity to profit is in the form of rakeback
3) the amount of rakeback you get is determined by chance
4) this rakeback often comes in the form of tourney tickets or casino money
5) to actually get your rakeback you must first participate in a game of chance (tourney or casino)

^^^ Not true for all formats by there press release, they made it sound like if you play cash games you will only get from the chest starcoins & $ & nothing else. It is tailored based off of the games you put your volume into it, atleast what there press release stated.

What a crap rakeback system. If players want to gamble with their rakeback they can do so already. Looks like an attempt to (1) hide how bad the rakeback is and (2) push poker players over to casino etc.

Until they give figures for what % this amounts to then it's a meaningless system. They can vary the prizes to be any % they want. Party Poker pays a very transparent 40%, what's your number Greedstars?

So where should I go, 888 or Party? NL2 reg

In their email Stars mentioned up to 85% reduction in rakeback, so something in the ballpark of 4-5% it's gonna be. On top the randomness of the rewards with the top-prices counting into the 4-5%. So unless you are one of the lucky 0.00000001% who hits a top tier price it's probabaly more in the area of 3-4%. 3-4 vs 40%........easy choice.


If you can rake >=25$/week, Party obv best choice.

It's like someone inside Stars is deliberately trying to run down the entire network. Amaya did the same with Ongame too fwiw, used to be one of the biggest networks in the world and they destroyed it in record time.

I've met Severin a couple of times (the guy who's always signing all these major change messages and seems to be their head of online stuff) and he seemed like a really sharp dude to me. I find it really hard to believe he'd come up with crap like this.

Oh well, gonna be so good for all of us when competition toughens up and people finally realize what a bull**** site Stars is.

wonder if players playing 5/10 and more will be able to participate this time.