PokerStars Slashes Cash Game Table Cap From 24 to 4

PokerStars Slashes Cash Game Table Cap
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  • Attreyee Khasnabis August 21, 2019
  • 3 Minutes Read

Adding to the series of changes that online poker heavyweight, PokerStars, has been making to its international portal is the drastic reduction of cash game table cap from 24 to 4.

This decision was announced by the director of poker innovations and operations for The Stars Group, Severin Rasset, through a post on the PokerStars Blog on August 20.

“As of today, August 20, players on PokerStars (.be, .bg, .com, .desh, .dk, .ee, .eu, .uk, .ro, .cz, .se, .fr, .es, .pt, .it) will be limited to playing four regular cash game tables at any one time, at all stakes. Table caps for all other games, including Zoom, will remain unchanged,” Rasset informed.

At a time when most major online poker sites are taking action to ensure a safe playing environment for their users, such as partypoker closing 121 fraudulent accounts and seizing $175,000 in funds, PokerStars has been introducing several changes to its platform. From banning the use of seating scripts to shortening the time banks given to players in cash games and making many changes to the use of third-party tools, PokerStars has been working hard to provide a safe and fair environment for players while at the same time protecting the interests of the recreational players.

This latest change has been announced following a trial of a six-table cap that was conducted in the fenced-in Italian market. This decision that is in line with the existing global practices was taken to prevent professional poker players from taking undue advantage of recreational players.

The company’s India-facing site, PokerStars India, was notably missing a mention in the blog post by Rasset. Given that the portal is still in the process of the building traffic, a rule limiting online cash game tables is probably not an ideal choice at the moment.

PokerStars Brings Down Cash Game Table Cap From 24 to 4

Announcing the decision to reduce the cash game cap from 24 to 4, Rasset wrote, “We understand that this change will have a very real impact on many players, particularly those of you who rely on multi-tabling as professionals. We haven’t taken this decision lightly, and we are confident this is the right thing to do for the future of the game. I hope that by focusing more on each table and winning more at those tables, you’ll find a way to adapt and continue as part of our community.”

Last year, PokerStars had announced that the Italian market would serve as a “major test” for a cash game change: A six-table cap on the number of cash tables one can play simultaneously. The announcement was made on the heels of another declaration from the poker giant regarding the introduction of the “Seat Me” policy which prevents online players to “table and seat select” based on specific players at the tables.

Rasset had explained the move by stating that both Seat Me and the new multi-table limit was meant to carry out the company’s primary goal of making the games on the site as sustainable as possible.

When this trial was announced last year, it received varying reactions. While poker pros like Phil Galfond were in favor of the move, with Galfond also applying a six-table cap to his poker venture – Run It Once Poker, others were not so happy with many regulars believing that it was PokerStars’ way of lashing out against winning players. This was around the same time PokerStars had revealed unpopular changes to its rewards programs that marginalized the highest-volume players. Some even wondered if the site was attempting to speed up games purely to hasten the rake collecting process.

After nearly 13 months of data collection and analysis, PokerStars on August 20 announced that not only will the cash game table cap be reduced, but that the cut would exceed the trial number of six and be set at 4.

The reduction of the cap from 24 tables to 4 means that more than 80% of multi-tabling potential will be taken away from professional players. Rasset stated that the data showed four to be the “optimum” number of tables. He also reiterated the company’s previously posted stance that reduction in multi-tabling should allow the best players to increase their win rates at the tables at which they play.

“We want to maintain a sustainable poker ecosystem and a platform that players of all abilities are excited to play on well into the future. Attracting and retaining new poker players is crucial to the future of the game. By reducing the table cap from 24 to 4, we are reducing the number of multi-tabling players and increasing the number of more casual one-table players at each table. This should lead to increased win rates on any individual table for the strongest players, while increasing the likelihood that single-table players will meet others like themselves. As a result, they’ll have more chance of experiencing winning sessions and continue to play in the longer term.”

Reactions From the Poker Community

Multi-tabling has been the crux of the fame and notoriety that many poker pros have garnered for themselves, with players like Joey Ingram playing around 50,000 hands in a single day for an “Iron Man” prop bet. Since multi-tabling is the core feature that attracts many players to the virtual felts, it is unsurprising that this decision has not been received well by many factions of the community.

While many criticized the decision on a TwoPlusTwo thread, many others believed that PokerStars might be trying to get professionals to play the higher stakes, so that newbies and recreational players don’t have to contend with the pros in the small-stakes pools.

This announcement does come at a rather precarious time for the company that is still struggling with declining poker revenues after failing to register $200 Million last quarter for the first time in three years.

Whether this move will be beneficial for PokerStars in the long run, only time will tell.

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