PokerStars announced changes to its VIP program and ring game rake structure Wednesday, planning to implement the new policies on New Year’s Day. The description of the changes, as posted on the Two Plus Two poker forum by “PokerStars Steve,” is lengthy, but we’ll do our best to summarize them here.
Rake Calculation
At PokerStars, VIP status is determined by a player’s VIP Player Points (VPPs). VPPs are awarded to players in a ring game hand based on how much rake is taken from the pot. For years, those VPPs were divided equally amongst all players who were dealt cards in the hand, a method called, appropriately, the “dealt” method of rake calculation. Starting January 1st, PokerStars will move to the “weighted contributed” method, meaning that each player will receive VPPs in proportion to how much money they contributed to the pot. So, if a player contributes $5 to a $20 pot, he will receive 25% of the VPPs from that hand.
This method will, of course, affect everyone differently. Tighter players will earn fewer VPPs than before, while looser players should earn more. PokerStars Steve commented that the new method will benefit players lower on the VIP ladder more than those in the higher ranks, although the higher players are, the faster they will be able to accumulate VPPs.
Ring Game Rake
PokerStars has removed the incremental component to ring game rake calculation. As it stands currently, a fixed amount of rake is taken for every “x” number of dollars in the pot. For example, in $1/$2 Fixed Limit games, $0.25 is taken in rake for every $5 in the pot, up to a maximum rake of $1. Those incremental calculations will disappear, replaced by a straight percentage calculation using “round half to even” rounding. The highest rake percentage will be 4.5%, but it could get as low as 1%, depending on the game and stakes.
“Round half to even” rounding means that whenever the rake calculation results in a half a cent needing to be rounded off, it is rounded to the nearest even integer. As an example, $0.345 would be rounded down to $0.34, whereas $0.375 would be rounded up to $0.38. Traditional rounding would have both rounded up to the nearest cent.
Because the change in rounding would result in higher rake for its customers, PokerStars has lowered the rake percentages and caps to make up for it. Right now, the typical rake percentage is 5%. As mentioned above, the highest rake after the change will be 4.5%. PokerStars Steve said that all of the rake changes will have the largest impact at microstakes games.
The rake cap for heads-up play at Fixed-Limit tables will be equalized for both games at specifically designated heads-up tables and tables with more seats at which only two players happen to be seated.
VPPs at Euro Currency Tables
PokerStars is modifying VPP multipliers at Euro currency tables based on the current exchange rate between the Euro and the U.S. Dollar:
Tournaments and ring games with 7 and fewer seats: 7x
Ring games with 8 or more seats: 8x
Pot-Limit/No-Limit €0.01/€0.02: 12x
Pot-Limit/No-Limit €0.02/€0.05: 10x
Pot-Limit/No-Limit €0.05/€0.10: 8.5x
PokerStars.be, PokerStars.dk, and PokerStars.ee players will be subject to the same new VPP and rake policies when playing games with people from PokerStars.com. Their VPP multipliers and other rewards may differ, however, depending on the site.
PokerStars Steve also reminded players that the site’s “fast moving ring games product” is on the way, scheduled for the first quarter of 2012. 6-handed and 9-handed hyper turbo Sit-and-Go’s may also be launched in January.
Below are the new rake tables, as posted by PokerStars Steve in his message to the poker community on the Two Plus Two forums:
