Home / Poker News December 2013 / PokerStars’ High Stakes Cash Tables “Zoom-Pokerized”
PokerStars’ High Stakes Cash Tables “Zoom-Pokerized”
Posted by: James Carter. - Wed, 2013-12-18 05:16
Contrary to what the headlines and the general public perception of the industry dictates, the bread and butter of every online poker operation resides in the recreational, smaller-to-medium stakes players, who have to show up in large numbers in order to make an operation viable. Various
online poker rooms have tried different approaches to protect their recreational players and to dilute the kind of ‘predatory environment’ that has taken hold of most of the higher stakes tables. Anonymous tables represented one approach, but PokerStars have come up with a different type of solution: starting with January 1, 2014, all their $50/$100
NL Holdem and PLO tables will be moved to the Zoom Poker format.
Launched in 2012, PokerStars’ fast-folding poker variant does away with any kind of read-based edges that more skilled players may secure over their hapless rookie opponents.
The new Zoom Poker tables will first be test-run on a select pool of players, in order to determine their true impact.
According to
PokerStars’ Ring Game Manager Nick Williamson, a special version of Zoom Poker has been in development for a while now, with the goal of eventually supplanting the traditional high stakes tables. Williamson said that the new Zoom Poker tables will completely eliminate table selection – previously a rather important skill in higher-stakes games – as well. While it does indeed look like the planned measure will effectively protect casual players, the fact that the skill element in the game will take a massive hit through them is also undeniable.
According to Williamson, instead of stalking their pray and spending time selecting tables, players will now be able to focus on the actual game.
Whether or not the change will be a permanent one hasn’t yet been set. If the loss of the skill element has a negative impact on the games, PokerStars are obviously ready to take a step back and re-instate the old tables.
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