I understand everyone has posted this already but have to add my story:
- Been away for a week or so
- First chest i get is a 3400pts chest, clear it, got 2$ + 43 starscoin. Thats pretty much 1 dollar per 14$ rake. Surely only ppl playing <100 games yearly will win 1k in chests.

I will keep on playing mtt on stars for some part cuz some things are too good value but will transition to party for sng play. Party has too little mtt traffic but i'll move to 888 for mtt and party to grind the stupid hero sngs. At least they got rakeback and tbh 888's series are getting bigger every 4 months.

Rather than calculating your rewards as a "percentage of rake paid as measured in Hold'em Manager/PokerTracker", it might be more useful with this system to consider rewards as a "percentage of money that you have contributed into the poker economy".

Those numbers might be more informative and meaningful, and consistent with PokerStars' stated objectives:

(my emphases)

In the long-run, this system has the potential to increase the profitability for high-volume poker players by allowing them to win more money from actually playing the game, rather than receiving rakeback/bonuses/etc.

Previously, a big chunk of money went to rewarding high-volume, regular, players. Now, it appears that a big chunk of money will go to rewards and promotions for recreational players. If those recreational players continue to lose money at the tables, they'll now have more money to lose ('cause they'll get bigger rewards) and therefore, skillful players may now have more opportunities to win.

In effect, rather than formerly "earning" most money from rewards and a little in winnings, it is possible that skillful players will mostly "earn" money from winnings with a little in rewards.

If PokerStars succeeds in this endeavour, then that should mean a bigger and more successful operation for them, but might also lead to more profitable opportunities for players. If it doesn't work, then y'all can go play poker elsewhere with a rewards program that you prefer.

Except they dont, recs dont get any more money or bigger prizes. They get shiny coffins with BS Inside. "Entertainment experience"

It is useful to remember this:

poker economy / ecosystem = Pokerstars profit


Wrong. Everyone loses. Rakeback Cut = Rake Increase. There are no 'bigger rewards'.

They claim to

"[...]enhancing the experience for recreational and new players, leading them to deposit more money on our site"

2p2 community is highly biased in the direction of skilled/interested players in relation to the total stars player pool.
But there are a lot of net depositors here as well and from a rnd guess at least 80% of their reactions to the chests were negative, in the style of "wtf do i have to open this thing for 0.10 tournament bucks and 0.20$ in starscoins, are you kidding me?" (and imo rightly so, independent of whether someone receives 3.09$ who has just got 3$ before or whatever marginal differences chests make to low volume / recreational / micro stakes players in relation to old system).

It seems there are two separate claims here:

1) The CEO of a multi-billion dollar organisation, under the gaze of public market scrutiny, with clear legal accountability for what he says, announces a pretty clear and credible strategy to grow a business by shifting rewards and tailoring their products and promotions for recreational players. This CEO is familiar with the details, is in charge of the organisation, and is making the decisions.

2) A pair of anonymous clowns on an internet discussion board making claims without providing any sources or evidence to support their claims.

Forgive me if I believe (1) over (2).



As it happens, and just for the sake of complete transparency, I've also known (1) for several years, and respect his leadership & honesty.

They've claimed publicly several times in the past that rake increases would be reinvested in promotions/rewards with a focus on recreational players, it was a lie every time. It never happened. You can't be so naive to genuinely believe that this time it'll be any different.

several 1 million dollar freerolls, boosted card matches, all stars promotion, sponsoring big sports stars, etc.

Do you run Amaya's PR firm? Just having a Title of CEO doesn't mean you know anything. This CEO just proves he doesn't listen to customers (who pay his salary).

Also, this CEO was in charge of Amaya who was just caught making political donations in both the New York and Pennsylvania elections through shell companies. Amaya's actions violated USA election laws. That CEO is a real standup guy.

Only ex bronzestar players, or maybe some chromestar, are potentially making more rakeback than before, IF they play only during boost time, and IF they are net depositors.
And then, they are still getting for each chest a ridiculous reward equivalent to a small fraction of a dollar. They gain so little starcoins each time that they have to open a ****load of chests and play for months in order to convert their starcoins to the smallest cash bonus available in the store.

I don't see what sane mind could possibly conclude that this will enhance their playing experience.

ALL THE REST, pretty much everyone playing higher than 0.02/0.05, wether they are net depositor or not, are getting royally screwed.

wow now even josem trolling us all lol

Remember when 50% deposit bonuses were a recurring thing?

Good times..

No, you're wrong.

Your allegations relate to events that took place prior to Rafi being appointed as CEO of either PokerStars (late 2015) or Amaya (March 2016):
"...The $25k donation at the heart of the matter was made at a Cuomo event in Manhattan on February 25, 2014 by “a lawyer from Florida.”

However, Rafi didn't become CEO until around 20 months later, in November 2015: Canada’s Amaya Gaming has named Rafi Ashkenazi (pictured) the new CEO of the Rational Group, the parent company of Amaya’s PokerStars and Full Tilt brands

So maybe this is the solution:

I'm just glad I didn't "contribute into the poker economy" lol

Ok then the amount of money I have contributed into the poker economy (the amount of money wagered on poker sites in my history of playing), is probably about 10s of millions of dollars. Much more than thousands of bronzestar players.

Not trying to defend the poster above me, but wagered and contributed are totally different things. But this has been discussed many times

how the **** are there actual people out there who dont understand this, let alone professional poker players

On a side note, according to Rafi on the same earnings call,

He does mention that the deferred payment to the Scheinbergs will no longer be an issue, and there will be more free cash flow from this month on that Amaya is going to invest into marketing, however,

Rafi does also talk about the intention to increase the external (not from Poker) acquisition of customers to Sportsbook and Casino, incl. efforts to grow the affiliate network for Casino.

A brief analysis of the earnings call has been posted at CalvinAyre, but it's better to read the whole transcript.

It only depends of your definition of "contributing" and "poker economy".

Does anybody know what makes the points needed for a chest to go up and is it possible to get it back down?

My platinum chests were opening at 10250 and the RB seemed reasonable but they have now suddenly gone up to 20000!

Does anyone know what percentage% rb this works out for an old school supernova?

Is it lower than 20%?

yeah it's def lower

Plus it can change so you have to take that into account. Since the start my platinum boxes have been 10250 but they have now basically doubled to 20000 effectively halving my RB.

!

Remember when they cut first, then completely deleted Battle of the Planets (most attractive SnG Promo i remember) and announced they would use the money for other Promos. Never heard of again.