we need at least a month, probably three to have any valid observations

I'm quite sure that regs aren't moving to 888. The rb system is allso crap plus the client is hideous and cashing out takes days and they screw you withe the currency exchanges.

The competition isn't PokerStars vs 888 vs PartyPoker.

The competition is poker vs Candy Crush vs Hearthstone vs Netflix vs etc.

Come on try harder please. You are talking about 2 different things.

Sure companies in the poker industry share an objective to a certain degree, to create the biggest possible poker industry.

But that is not companies their only goal. It's true that today a lot of companies seem to me more focused on top-line growth than bottom-line, and it's easier to grow your top-line when the industry is growing.

But ask the Pokerstars directors to pick between:
*growing Pokerstars top-line with 5% while the poker industry grows with 0%
*growing poker industry with 5% having a 1% impact on Pokerstars its top-line

And the answer will be 100% the first option. You are also not talking to idiots, it is very clear that Pokerstars its top goal is not maximizing the growth of the poker industry. Anyone that has half a brain and understands their strategy knows that. The Scheinberg's their old strategy was significantly more geared towards that goal, though I'm sure it wasn't their main priority either.

Poker sites have started holding on tight to their recs in the 2010s, so it has become cheaper to attract recs from the outside world than poach them from another poker site.

As well as PokerStars, I'm on 888, William Hill, Red Kings and Party Poker, but currently have nothing in my Party Poker account; that will probably change soon enough, as I intend to use Party Poker a bit more.

Although the PokerStars reward system is confusing and not at all transparent, I'm still making money on the site and it so far has not affected me too much. I mean I play small stakes and have been hammered by the rake for a while, so I'm still hammered by the rake and not much has changed. I should have a proper look at prize structures across sites, but I think PokerStars is competitive there at least, even if the rakeback is less.

For me the fundamental things that stop me from really just playing on other sites is that PokerStars is super busy and I like playing things like sit 'n' gos, where actually it takes a while to even find enough players on some other sites. On PokerStars I can easily get like 8 or 9 tables started.

Also, the software. The software on PokerStars is a lot better than any other site I play on, even though they make a valiant effort to have attractive software, it's just falling behind.

I am about to begin playing on stars. This is a bit concerning

Avoid the pain and misery and play somewhere else

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...mRI/edit#gid=0


tracking my chests there , mostly play micro PLO + mtts
(yes I have way too much time on my hands found this neater than notepad / want to do my part to keep showing how **** the rakeback cuts are that amaya has hidden from majority of player base :P Also seems I am running hotter than EV so far)


edit:

also gl reading that mess LOL it's 1 am


2nd edit:

**** it added a TLDR just read top right ignore the rainbow all over the excel sheet will keep it updated for probably first month out of my own curiosity, maybe someone else will find it interesting

my eyessssssssss

This. Online poker is D-E-A-D. Been jumping sites, tables at all hours of the day and all I see are bots and nits. You can tell which one are the bots because they will sit for hours at games that are cancer. The nits and regs quit the game pretty quickly.

This is great I'd really like to know what your bronze chest boosts are?

215 pt boost every 8 hrs , blue was 200 pts

Thanks Were they always this, or did you ever get higher boosts and they were moved down to this?
Would be interested to know if they try to lull people into false sense of security with higher initial boosts.

In any case, you've been moved from potential 12.67% rakeback (blue560/boost200), down to current 9.88% (if u stay on bronze and your boosts remain the same).
You put in more volume/generated more rake and you got less rakeback.

Just so you know, I had quite similar number 280/675/1400 (red/blue/bronze) but then my bronze points were bumped up to 2350 and it does not look like it will come back to 1400. Hopefully it will stay at 1400 for you but if not enjoy while it lasts.

Wooohoooo just got my lowest coin total in a bronze chest - 6 !! It was nearly enough to play one hand in the deal.

I guess you received something worth $1 with it like a $1 Spin&Go ticket ?

So you should not complain.. 75% of the time it will be worse than $1.06

Good post.

I don't think that's right - in the minds of many recreational players, the choice isn't between various brands, it's the choice between what form of entertainment they seek.

I imagine that the vast majority of the big poker sites' new customers are not people who have played on another online poker site in the preceding few days - and that people who stop playing on their existing poker site (whether that be PokerStars or Party or 888) primarily don't go play elsewhere, at least in the short term.

I think this for two reasons:
a) I think that a chunk of recreational players don't think of playing on "PokerStars" or "888" or "Party" even though they may be familiar with those brands - instead, I suspect that people think to themselves, "I'm going to play poker now." I suspect that like everything else in life, people have a preference for a particular brand out of convenience/habit/etc., rather than treating poker as a special category where people make a new brand decision every time they play.

b) Of the most common reasons that I suspect cause people to stop playing - because they got angry, because they forgot to start playing again, because their account balance hit zero - none of them particularly seem to lend themselves to go and play on another online poker site. If your PokerSite balance hits zero, it seems to me that the choice is to top-up (on that site), or to not top-up. It seems unlikely to me that someone would play on PokerSiteA until they went bust, and use that moment to choose to play on PokerSiteB - at that moment, they already have PokerSiteA open in front of them, and it's much easier just to re-deposit there.

Those three imagined top-three reasons to stop playing all, however, point to doing something else with their time - to watch a movie, play a sport, go be sociable, etc. That's why I think those are the things that PokerStars or 888 or Party are competing against.

I think that most of poker sites' customers don't have such memory issues. Rather, some of them don't want to return after busting their rolls, as they remember well how bored they were.

If they do leave some money unattended, some of the sites are quick enough to remind them about their balances. At least Stan James was sending me reminders about money being in my account while my balance was nonzero. Ad emails from Stars also contain the info about the cash and StarsCoin balances. Pokerhost doesn't do this, though.

A new player might stay or go, depends what they are thinking.
If balance hits zero, a common response (after deposit bonus is done) might be 'This site is rigged, I'm going to play somewhere else.' Because all players feel they are the best/stand a good chance.
They might equally think: 'That was really unlucky, all those beats. I'm gonna win next time!'
Or if they notice they keep losing to the same players (bumhunted or whatever), They might think 'Damn, always the same players, they must be bots/pros. I'm going to try somewhere else next time.'
Or they might stay: 'Already downloaded this one, I can beat these guys, run good is due.'

Who knows what people are thinking?

It was a £10,000 freeroll ticket.

So if stars award a lower amount of coins with tickets/cash it means that the three prizes - coins, points & cash/tickets - are not independent of each other?

I'd also be interested to know if other players are seeing a delay between paying rake and the points being allocated towards your chest. I had around 240 points left of 3400 and won two large pots in a row. The points did not move. I then played another few minutes then suddenly it changed - gave me my chest and points towards the next one.

This used to happen with the VPP system also, it looks like a deliberate bug.

Yeah I had same problem, bar didn't move till after I had finished playing lol This happened when they first started the chest system. Also I notice it used to say 'Boost In' instead of 'Boost On' causing more confusion at the beginning about what and when a boost was.

Similar issues with the bar and the progress. Several times it filled up after quitting the session. Are you guys playing what games I play 100% zoom.