Players Have Mixed Reactions Towards PokerStars New Rake Prices

PokerStars announced two significant changes coming to the rake structure of its multi-table tournaments (MTTs) this week and not all players are very welcoming of the change.

PokerStars announced via a blog post that rake prices on all MTTs that have a $20 or less buy-in will soon increase. The online poker giant is also introducing a decrease in rake prices for all Time Tourneys, no matter the amount of the buy-in.

There has been no mention of the exact percentages and prices for the rake changes but players will not have to wait long to find out as these price changes will be rolled out on Monday, March 26.

PokerStars has once again caught players off-guard with this announcement and Severin Rasset, director of poker innovation and operations of PokerStars tried to explain the rationale behind this decision.

In a statement, Rasset said,

Pricing is a key commercial consideration for every business and we will increasingly use a dynamic pricing model that gives the greatest flexibility to respond to market dynamics. The changes we make to our pricing are based upon various factors including customer behavior, commercial and promotional considerations, and the overall long-term
sustainable health of the ecosystem

Poker Pros Share Their Views On Social Media

Poker players took to Twitter to air their grievances over PokerStars’s announcement. Doug Polk, who has since cut ties with PokerStars said in a sarcastic Tweet that he’s amazed at how poker pros who are signed with PokerStars as ambassadors continue to stand by the company despite decisions and changes like these, which are not welcomed by the poker community.

A couple of players backed Polk saying that PokerStars will soon find things backfiring as more players transfer to other poker rooms for better rakes and prizes. Another popular eSports player, Leviathan, followed up with a comment, saying that PokerStars was like an abusive dad that “you wanna love but they do everything to make you hate them.”

Pokerstars is like an abusive parent, you wanna love them but they do everything to make you hate them

— Leviathan (@LeviathanLoL) 20 March 2018

In PokerStars’s defense, many players are saying that the increase in the lower-stakes tournaments will be so small that players won’t actually feel them. One player with the handle ‘kraemer’ said in a Cardschat forum that the fact that Time Tourneys are becoming cheaper will actually be a good move to attract recreational players.

In the blog post, PokerStars also highlighted the fact that the gaming industry is currently changing rapidly, with many changes coming especially on the regulatory front. This has pressured PokerStars to “evolve” and “adjust to changing conditions.” And raising their prices might just be one of the things the company is doing to be able to stay afloat.