Who's sitting out?

[GreekStein]

As most people already know, stars have made some changes that aren't good for poker. Obviously they hurt pros a lot.

As a result, people are striking by not playing on stars for 3 days from today until the 3rd december.

I'm not a huge stars player anyway so it's easy for me to sit out and I will do.

I have read a few posts on facebook from players I respect like Trigg and Sam Razavi who seem to not be partaking and was a little surprised by that but very keen to hear people's opinions on it.

Are you taking part? If yes/no, why?

[Tal]

Nice to see they're protesting and coming back in time for the Sunday grind.

Stars must be quaking!

Or is there a good reason for this timing?

[Ironside]

I might play for a couple of day less pros means +EV for us RECs plus more chance of an overlay

[rfgqqabc]

Nice to see they're protesting and coming back in time for the Sunday grind.

Stars must be quaking!

Or is there a good reason for this timing?

I think asking people to boycott when it is probably most effective, i.e. the super Tuesday might overlay tonight, lots of tournaments might not run. It wouldn't be effective to ask people to do it on Sunday as stars doesn't need as much regs liquidity then and it would be much harder to organise the same level of boycotts on a Sunday. It's not like cash players can protest on their own, no one would notice on a Sunday anyway.

Negreanu went on Joe Ingrams podcast last night and I've heard apart from his Chemical Ali joke it was pretty dull and he didn't really say anything. He did concede stars were wrong to change sne as its a two year program but it's a bit late for that lol.

Timing is because the changes have just been announced properly and it would be hard to organise prior to having the information. I'm not sure what you expected Tal, poker players (pros) have to join together to be heard, it's been less than 30 days and less time than it took Negreanu to write a blog.

[teddybloat]

Been told that lobbies at 100s + in husngs are empty.

Heard a bad 30s reg open sitting the 1k lobbies and non of the high stakes regs sat him. He would be snap sat at 60s if he tried to open sit. So for him to hold a lobby at 1k is incredible.

All groups at 60s + are largely inactive. So much reg battling that would have been on going is off. Recreationals for the first time are going to be forced to start a game rather than being able to join one.

Be interesting to see if everyone holds their nerve if some regs take advantage of the unprotected lobbies

[arbboy]

Been told that lobbies at 100s + in husngs are empty.

Heard a bad 30s reg open sitting the 1k lobbies and non of the high stakes regs sat him. He would be snap sat at 60s if he tried to open sit. So for him to hold a lobby at 1k is incredible.

All groups at 60s + are largely inactive. So much reg battling that would have been on going is off. Recreationals for the first time are going to be forced to start a game rather than being able to join one.

Be interesting to see if everyone holds their nerve if some regs take advantage of the unprotected lobbies

Fancy a 3 day comeback by Camel like the good old days destroying the recs in the $1k heads up stts. 

[teddybloat]

All turbo lobbies from 60 right up to 5k are empty too.

So he can play as high as he likes lol

[SuuPRlim]

anyone wants to bet if stars go back on the SNE changes i'll book the action

[nirvana]

Hope the 2.20 8 game MTT at 7.40pm still gets going

[Doobs]

All turbo lobbies from 60 right up to 5k are empty too.

So he can play as high as he likes lol

1k and 500 hypers running

[teddybloat]

its going to get interesting there:

the players open sitting are a group of players living together in bali.

they have been battling the 1k regs to be allowed to open sit the 1ks for around a year now.

the guy holding the 1k lobby now is 1rake1. you can read about the politics here:

http://www.husng.com/content/interview-1rake1-part-1

http://www.husng.com/content/interview-1rake1-part-2

its a pretty political act for them to come in an take lobbies whilst the rest of the regs are sitting it out.

the higher divisions are policing the strike pretty hard, there have been a few regs from lower divisons taking shots in the lobby. they are probably going to have to get used to playing high stakes regs in their grind for a while from now on.


the other guy holding lobbies is adonis112 ie olivier busquets

he's never been an offical member of a division as he doesnt multi-table. again interesting to see a high profile highstakes reg taking lobbies - although he does take lobbies uncontested in his regular grind.

[arbboy]

http://www.onlinepokerreport.com/18857/how-online-poker-resembles-gym-industry/

This is a great article.  Being a gym rat back in that era i can totally relate to the writer and how the industry has changed for the better for the vast majority of consumers.  Obviously there are some 'losers' but these are in the big minority.  As a result gyms now make a lot more revenue for their shareholders.  Pretty sure this is the angle stars are looking at it from.

[rfgqqabc]

So why haven't all these actual recreational friendly poker rooms experienced big growth, or any growth?

The 2nd biggest site is 888 and I think that's due to pros providing liquidity over anything else.

[DropTheHammer]

So why haven't all these actual recreational friendly poker rooms experienced big growth, or any growth?

The 2nd biggest site is 888 and I think that's due to pros providing liquidity over anything else.

Do you play on 888? They offer lots of bonuses every day for people just logging in, tickets, free sports bets etc. And also frequently offers lots of reload bonuses which i think is a great attracter of recs and what all sites should do if they truly want to attract/keep the worst players - reload bonuses.

[rfgqqabc]

So why haven't all these actual recreational friendly poker rooms experienced big growth, or any growth?

The 2nd biggest site is 888 and I think that's due to pros providing liquidity over anything else.

Do you play on 888? They offer lots of bonuses every day for people just logging in, tickets, free sports bets etc. And also frequently offers lots of reload bonuses which i think is a great attracter of recs and what all sites should do if they truly want to attract/keep the worst players - reload bonuses.

Yeah, last week I had 78 tournament tickets with approximately 0.01 in value. Never got a ticket I've used or a sports bet. The depositor bonuses are good/true, doesn't every site do that though? My dad went back to stars after being offered what he felt was an insulting redposit bonus.