Ring Games Changes on PokerStars

(official statement)

PokerStars will be making changes to NL and PL Hold’em and Omaha tables effective March 1^st.

These changes are being made after careful consideration of all information available, including feedback provided by players. PokerStars would like to thank all players who made suggestions about ring game buy-ins this past year for their input.

Time players must wait prior to rejoining the same table with less money

Currently players must wait 1 hour after leaving a NL or PL table before rejoining the same table with a smaller stack than they had when they left. On March 1st, this waiting period will be doubled to 2 hours.

NLHE and PLO Heads-up

Heads-up tables will continue to be offered with buy-in ranges of 20-50bb and 40-100bb. $2/$4 and $0.25/$0.50 NLHE had been offering only 20-100bb tables for several months to test a possible change. These 20-100bb tables will be removed at these stakes and replaced by 20-50bb and 40-100bb tables.

40-100bb tables will no longer have a buy-in label. 20-50bb tables will be labelled ‘short’ instead of 20-50bb. Tooltips describing exact buy-in details will remain.

High stakes ($5/$10 and up) heads-up tables will be changed from ‘fast’ speed to ‘normal’ speed.

PLO and PLO/8

20-50bb and 40-100bb tables will no longer be offered at Pot Limit Omaha or Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo. They will be replaced by unlabelled 30-100bb tables.

Euro PLO tables will change from 35-100bb to 30-100bb and remain unlabelled.

100-250bb tables will now be labelled as ‘deep’.

NLO/8

No changes are being made to No-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo tables at this time.

Implementation

All of the above changes will be implemented on Tuesday, March 1^st. Any new tables created after the change will be of the new table types. Existing tables of the old types will be removed as they become empty but some may remain until the next server restart.

Lobby Filters and Auto Buy-in Options will be changed in the next client release to reflect the new range of Hold’em and Omaha offerings.

Thanks
PokerStars would like to thank all players for their patience in waiting for these changes. It is important that PokerStars consider all options and opinions before making decisions about ring game buy-ins.

Dedication. It’s when players hit the table every day. They’re tough to beat, because they’ve stared across miles of felt and flipped over thousands of cards.

There’s also another type of dedication, which is when you show your appreciation for a special group of people. That’s why every player who reaches Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Iron status will receive special Iron Man medals each month, based on their performance.

Over the course of any month, players can achieve one of four status levels based on their daily accumulation of Full Tilt points. Points are credited at the end of a hand or when the tournament finishes. Check out the image below to see how you can qualify.

You can redeem Iron Man medals in our exclusive Iron Man Challenge Store for Tournament Tickets, cash bonuses, the chance to create your own tables, and more. The chart below shows the starting number of medals you can receive in your first month of the Iron Man Challenge, based on your performance:

Qualifying for our Iron Man Challenge begins January 1, 2011 at 00:00 ET and runs until January 31, 2011 at 23:59 ET.

Play More to Win More

In future months, you can earn additional medals in two ways:

• Maintain your current Iron Man Challenge level for consecutive months
• Move from one level to a higher one in consecutive months

The chart below shows the number of medals you can receive each month.

IRON MAN MEDALS

If, for some reason, you fail to qualify for any of our Iron Man Freerolls in a particular month, your status will be reset and you will begin earning medals at Month 1 levels when you re-qualify.

Iron Man Bonuses

As a reward for our Iron Man Challenge players, we are offering special bonuses that can earn you over $100,000 in additional prize money or extra Iron Man Challenge medals.

If you’re just starting out in our Iron Man Challenge, be sure to check out our One A Day Freeroll where earning just one point per day each day of the month will qualify you to play in a special $2,000 Freeroll.

Bonus Freerolls

For some players, becoming a Full Tilt Poker Iron Man is about more than medals. That’s why we offer you the chance to put your metal to the test in one of our four monthly Freeroll tournaments.

Compete for the first-place prize money and the chance to face the other three Freeroll champions in a four-player shootout tournament where the winner will walk away with an additional $5K.

What’s more, the winner of the Sit & Go tournament will go on to play three of our red Full Tilt Poker pros in consecutive heads-up matches. Beat one pro, and we’ll give you $5,000 on top of your previous winnings. Beat two pros, and we’ll give you $10,000. If you are a Bronze, Silver or Gold Freeroll winner and beat all three, we’ll give you $50,000. But, if you are the winner of the Iron Man Freeroll and scoop all three matches, we’ll give you an extra $50,000 for a total of $100,000!

Qualify for any Iron Man Challenge level in a month and a Tournament Ticket to the corresponding Freeroll will be credited to your account. Our monthly Freerolls will be held on February 12, 2011, followed by our four-player Sit & Go on February 13, 2011. Our heads-up matches will take place on February 19, 2011.

Bonus Medals

If you’d prefer not to play in one of these monthly Freerolls, you can exchange your Freeroll ticket for additional Iron Man medals. If, for example, you qualify for our Gold Freeroll in your fifth month, you can exchange your Freeroll ticket for 70 Iron Man medals, as shown below.

This means, by reaching Gold in your fifth month and exchanging your Freeroll ticket, you will collect a total of 170 medals for the month. You may decide whether you would like to opt in or out of a tournament at any time before the monthly qualifying period ends.

You can exchange your Freeroll tickets by going to your personal Iron Man Challenge page in the “My Promotions” section of the game Cashier, and then selecting the “Ticket Exchange” tab.

Iron Man Plus

For those of you who go beyond 500 points a day, we have Iron Man Plus. By earning a minimum of 1,000 Full Tilt Points in a day − and qualifying for any of the four Iron Man Levels − you can earn extra Iron Man medals for use in our Iron Man Store. With each new plateau you reach, you will earn more medals − up to 20 extra medals per day. See the chart below for all the details.

To track your progress, click on “My Promotions” in the Cashier, and then click on the “Iron Man Challenge” link.

Start playing today and see if you have what it takes to become a Full Tilt Poker Iron Man.

Start your real-money poker career without any risk by playing in a Freeroll tournament today. Our daily Freerolls are open to all and with over 900 Freeroll tournaments every month, you can earn your share of a prize pool worth $85,000.

Freeroll poker tournaments allow you to win real money without making a deposit or paying an entry fee. You can learn what it’s like to play when there’s real money at stake, without the risk of losing any of your hard earned cash. If you win, you can use that money to build a bankroll and play in higher stakes games, just as Team Full Tilt’s Chris Ferguson did when he turned $0 into a $10,000 bankroll with the Chris Ferguson $10K Challenge.

Our 12 daily satellite Freerolls are your chance to compete for big money. Each offers 250 places in our weekly $1k Freeroll tournament, which is only available to satellite entrants. If you finish in the top 250, you will be automatically registered in the $1k Freeroll, taking place every Sunday at 15:40 ET and paying 90 places.

If you’re new to poker, Freerolls will help to improve your game. In addition to No-Limit Hold ‘em, we offer Pot-Limit Omaha, HORSE and Razz Freerolls to help you sharpen your skills and knowledge of these free poker games.

How to Play in Freerolls

All you need to do to play in a Freeroll is:

Set up an account:

1. If you haven’t done so already, download Full Tilt Poker and install the software on your computer.
2. Create an account.

Now that you’re ready to play:

1. Once you’re in the game lobby, click on the “Lobby” tab, “Choose Lobby View” and “Standard View”.
2. Set the filters in the browser area to Tournaments, then select All, All, All Types and Freerolls/FTPs.
3. Scroll down the game list to find the Freeroll of your choice.
4. Click “Register Now”. Registration opens one hour in advance for daily Freerolls and 24 hours before Country Specific Freerolls.

The Daily Freerolls are open to all. The Country Specific Freerolls are limited to residents of specific countries or regions.

Freeroll Schedule