Tessa Munt, Member of Parliament for Wells and a member of the Liberal Democrat political party in the UK, had a bit of verbal finger wagging for the 37-year old singer, telling The Daily Mirror, “I’m outraged by this. It directly targets his fans, including children. The money he makes should go to addiction charities.”

Much of her ire stems from Williams’ own personal struggles with addiction. In the early 1990’s, when Williams was in his teens and early twenties as a member of the pop group Take That, he began drinking alcohol to excess and using cocaine. It eventually became such a problem that he almost overdosed in July 1995 the night before Take That was to perform at the MTV Europe Music Awards. As the years went on, his most significant problem became addiction to prescription drugs, many of which he used to battle depression. In 2007, Williams checked into a rehabilitation clinic in Tucson, Arizona to help get himself off of a variety of drugs including Xanax, Seroxat/Paxil, and Vicodin. He has also fought alcoholism and nicotine addiction. Munt feels that Williams is taking advantage of problem gamblers, a group with whom he should easily sympathize.

While many Williams fans are excited to try out the new site, others have similar opinions to Ms. Munt. Interestingly, however, not all who are against the idea of the poker room oppose it because of the potential gambling aspect. Some members of the fan community on Robbie Williams’ official website are upset that special Robbie Williams prizes (including the chance to meet the man himself) are being offered on a poker site, rather than just to the loyal fans at RobbieWilliams.com.

“…I fell [sic] that this opportunity to join a special online community (er hello? don’t we have one of those already HERE) and the potential for that community to have access to special perks and benefits (which by rights should also be offered here at the same time) threatens to alienate and offend the Friends here on RW.com,” one fan wrote on the RobbieWilliams.com forum. “People are bound to want to join up because of the potential benefits and rewards that Chrissie has outlined above. It is human nature to not want to miss out on something special from our favourite singer.”

“If perks are to be made available, the logical place to have made them available first surely must have been here [RobbieWilliams.com],” she added.

Robbie Williams Poker bills itself as a place for “…having fun with your friends and keeping up with the Robbie Williams community.” No real money is required to play, though it is possible to spend money on the site. Every player gets free play money chips every day, which can then be used to play in games like normal. As players win, solve “missions,” and unlock achievements, they collect experience points (XPs). These XPs are used to advance “levels,” which allow users to unlock more content. Poker winnings, in addition to being used to continue to play poker, can also be used to customize player avatars or buy power-ups that temporarily increase XP and chip earnings. Virtual chips have no cash value and cannot be withdrawn from the site.

The other form of currency at Robbie Williams Poker is “gold.” Gold can be purchased for real money and can be used to enter exclusive tournaments and gain access to restricted items in the avatar shop. Gold purchases are completely optional and are not required to play most of the games at the poker room. The vast majority of tournaments are freerolls, most of which reward winners with chips, avatar items, and even gold, while some do offer real prizes.

Robbie Williams Poker essentially follows a similar model as that of many “Free to Play” online games on the market today, except that it is packaged in a gambling wrapper. Typically, “Free to Play” games use some sort of credit system, allowing customers to play as long as they have credits remaining. Usually, free credits are rewarded every day so that everyone can get a decent amount of game time for free. Players then typically have the option to purchase additional credits to extend their play time or purchase a secondary form of in-game currency (compare this to “gold” in the case of Robbie Williams Poker) that offers additional benefits. The players that are able to advance the farthest and acquire the most valuable/powerful items (ex: weapons, armor) are usually the ones who commit real money to the game, but many games often have in-game economies that players can use to buy and sell items and game currency, allowing even those who don’t pay to have a rich gaming experience, albeit at a slower pace than those who do pay.

Despite Robbie Williams Poker’s status as a non-gambling site, it still adheres to the same rules as many real-money poker rooms, such as no chip dumping, no collusion, and no bots.

The promotion is quite simple. All players have to do for a chance to win is play at any real money ring game table. The good news in this promo is that everyone has the same chance to win. High stakes players are at no real advantage over micro stakes players. The bad news is that it is all luck, as the way to win is to be dealt into a millionth hand (ex: 74,801,000,000 or 74,950,000,000).

But, if you are one of the lucky ones to be dealt into a milestone hand, you could receive quite the windfall. Anyone dealt into one of the millionth hands will receive a base cash prize of $20 plus $60 multiplied by the number of VIP Player Points (VPPs) earned during the previous 50 hands at that table (note: it’s the VPPs at that table, not across all tables). For example, someone who is dealt into a milestone hand and has earned 28 VPPs in the previous 50 hands at that same table will win $1,700 ($20 base prize + $60 x 28). Whoever wins the milestone hand will have their prize doubled.

And then there is the Mega Milestone hand, the 75 billionth hand, where the stakes are increased dramatically. Those dealt into the big hand will receive a base prize of $10,000 and have added to that $1,000 times the number of VPPs earned at that table during the last 50 hands. Thus, using the same example from above, a player who has earned 28 VPPs during the past 50 hands would win $38,000. And again, the winner of the hand will see their prize doubled. If you are one of the lucky ones to be dealt into the 75 billionth hand, by all means, do not fold pre-flop! In one of the lesser milestone hands, there could actually be some justification for doing so if the VPPs earned leading up to the hand wouldn’t produce a large enough jackpot to make up for the loss of a buy-in, but only the very highest stakes players would have a chance to be at risk of a loss in the Mega Milestone hand.

If the pot is split, every player who won some piece of the main pot will see their prize doubled.

Remember, tournament hands do not count in this promotion. Cash games are what matter. The overall hand number can be seen at the top of each table, so it is always easy to see how close the next milestone is. Best of luck to everyone!

Card Rush is a very simple promotion. For every 15 Party Points a player earns, PartyPoker will award one Card Rush card. Players can then check their accounts to “scratch off” the cards to reveal their prizes. Every card will award some sort of prize. Players can collect up to 50 cards per day, though if that maximum is not reached, any Party Points earned towards the next card will carry over to the next day.

Each Card Rush card will contain one of the following prizes:

Party Points – 10, 20, 50, 100, 150, 250, 750, 5,000, or 25,000
Cash – $1, $2, $3, $5, $10, $50, $250, or $5,000
Freeroll Entry – $2,000 (prize pool), $3,000, $5,000, $7,500, $10,000, $15,000, or $20,000
Card Rush Race Points – 1, 3, 5, 10, or 20

The Card Rush Race Points listed above can only be earned via Card Rush cards. Every point collected will count towards the Card Rush Race leader board standings, where players can win more cash prizes. The player who finishes the promotion with the most points will bank $9,000.  The top ten finishers will all win four-figure amounts, on down to $100 for 151st through 200th place. Additionally, the players who finish in every 20th place from 220th through 2000th, called “hot spots,” will win $50.

The freeroll schedule is as follows:

$2,000 Card Rush Freeroll – March 2nd at 13:00 ET
$3,000 Card Rush Freeroll – March 4th at 13:00 ET
$5,000 Card Rush Freeroll – March 3rd at 13:00 ET
$7,500 Card Rush Freeroll – March 5th at 14:30 ET
$10,000 Card Rush Freeroll – March 3rd at 14:30 ET
$15,000 Card Rush Freeroll – March 2nd at 14:30 ET
$20,000 Card Rush Freeroll – March 4th at 13:00 ET

Unfortunately, if a player wins multiple entries to the same freeroll, no substitute prize will be awarded in place of the extra seats.

As already noted, the Card Rush promotion will run through the end of February, though it is limited to 1.8 million prize cards, so it could end earlier. Additionally, as a small bonus, PartyPoker will award every player their first card after only 5 Party Points, rather than 15.

PartyPoker just completed its January promotion, the VIP Rake Race, exclusive to Palladium and Palladium Elite players. Thousands of dollars in cash prizes were awarded to the top Party Points earners in each loyalty group every week of the month.

PartyPoker is currently ranked as the second largest online poker room in the world in terms of cash game traffic, according to PokerScout.com. It sits in the middle of the clear top three, way behind PokerStars, which has a seven day average of 26,000 cash game players, and the iPoker Network, with 4,000. PartyPoker is just ahead of iPoker with 4,550 cash game players.

The plaintiffs in the case are, in alphabetical order, Daniel “Ashman” Ashman, Brad “Yukon” Booth, Thomas “tommyboy83” Koral, Greg “Captain Zeebo” Laverly, Dave Lizmi, Daniel “King Dan” Smith, Joseph Sanders, and Dustin “Neverwin” Woolf.  In the description of the Third Cause of Action in the 42-page complaint, the eight men list the dollar amounts of their damage claims: Ashman – $154,863.50; Booth – $500,000; Koral – $20,000; Lavery – $140,000; Lizmi – $500,000; Sanders – $100,000; Smith – $20,000; and Woolf – $300,000.

The complaint spends most of its pages detailing the cheating scandal, in which Excapsa/UltimateBet insiders used a software exploit to see players’ hole cards and play “perfect” poker, allowing them to win millions of dollars.  Eight Causes of Action are listed in the suit:

First Cause of Action – violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
Second Cause of Action – Conspiracy to Violate the RICO Act.
Third Cause of Action – Conversion (essentially, the civil brother to the criminal act of theft).
Fourth Cause of Action – Interference with Prospective Economic Advantage (the cheating caused the poker players to lose money and move down in stakes because of dwindling bankrolls, causing them to lose out on more potential winnings).
Fifth Cause of Action – Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress
Sixth Cause of Action – Unfair Business Practices
Seventh Cause of Action – Fraud (Excapsa promised “fair and honest” poker games, while intentionally cheating the players).
Eight Cause of Action – Negligence (Excapsa promised “fair and honest” poker games, but failed to properly protect its players).

What the plaintiffs are seeking falls into two categories, monetary relief and equitable relief.  The monetary relief is broken down into five parts: compensatory damages, triple damages (because it’s a RICO case), full restitution, punitive damages of not less than $10 million, and attorney fees.  With equitable relief, the court orders the defendant to do or to not do something.  In this case, the plaintiffs are requesting “an accounting of all benefits, consideration, and profits received, directly or indirectly, including, but not limited to, the imposition of constructive trusts with tracing” as well as “any restrictions that may be appropriate on the future conduct or activities of any person or organization as justice may require.”

At the heart of the lawsuit is the plaintiffs’ desire to regain money lost, though they likely know that even should they win, the odds of receiving much of anything is slim.  In the complaint, they state another reasons for the suit, essentially wishing for the entire truth to simply be revealed:

“Plaintiff’s [sic] bring this action, among other things, to vindicate their right to discover how they were cheated and by whom, and to receive compensation for their injuries.”

The complaint added, “…plaintiffs have been forced to bring this action so that an impartial tribunal – not the perpetrators of the fraud – can determine the facts as well as the damage plaintiffs suffered.”

Formerly a pro at Full Tilt Poker, Weisner is primarily a tournament player, specializing in heads-up Sit-and-Go’s.  According to the tournament tracking site SharkScope.com, she ranked near the top of the leader boards in terms of total profit in several categories in 2010:

Any game with stakes $301-$1,000 – 11th
Any game with any stakes – 20th
Any game on Full Tilt Poker – 17th
Heads-Up Hold’em with stakes $301-$1,000 – 9th
Heads-Up Hold’em with any stakes – 14th

Despite being slowed down online by Black Friday, Melanie Weisner still ranked 8th in short-handed super turbo Sit-and-Go’s with $301-$1,000 stakes.  At one point, she actually held the number one ranking for heads-up Sit-and-Go’s, across any site, period.

According to PocketFives.com, which tracks multi-table tournaments (MTTs), Weisner, who has played under the screen name “Callisto 5” on PokerStars, ranks 2,356th for MTTs worldwide.  She reached as high as 607th back in August of 2010.  Her largest cash according to the site was just over $50,000 for a 3rd place finish in the PokerStars $530 Sunday $500K guaranteed tournament on August 1st, 2010.

While her live tournament resume isn’t nearly as expansive as her online one, she has been ramping up her brick-and-mortar game as of late.  This past fall, she had a successful run in Europe, starting with a 3rd place finish in the £1,000 No-Limit Hold’em event at the European Poker Tour (EPT) London stop (£15,300/$ 23,914), followed by a 4th place finish in the £5,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em event at the same tour stop (£20,000/$31,260).  A week and a half later, Weisner placed 33rd in the $10,000 World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) Main Event (€27,500/$36,736).  She has two live wins under her belt, both in Ladies Events.  The first was at EPT Prague in 2009, while the second came at the EPT Grand Final in 2010.

All told, Melanie Weisner has won $388,002 on the live tournament circuit.  She currently ranks 74th on Epic Poker’s Global Poker Index.

“Melanie is a perfect fit for Lock. Passionate, relentless in her dedication to the game and incredibly intelligent,” said Lock Poker’s CEO Jennifer Larson in a press release. “Players like Melanie give us the true insight into the product and player experience that we need to become the best. Partnering with our players is the true path to greatness.”

The 25-year old Houston native said, “I am thrilled to join a team of world-class players and talented peers such as Chris Moorman, Matt Stout and Leo Margets.  I feel very honoured to be a part of this exciting and growing brand, and look forward to representing Lock around the world.”

Wendeen Eolis first wrote in Poker Player Newspaper that the initial word of the change surfaced last Friday at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, the latest stop on the European Poker Tour (EPT).  The publication verified the rumor with a PokerStars “insider” later in the day.  PokerNews has also corroborated the story, receiving a statement from “top officials” at the world’s largest poker room which read:

“PokerStars announced today that Gabi Campos has decided to step down from his position as Chief Executive Officer, effective Feb. 1, 2012, to pursue other opportunities. The company thanks Gabi for his hard work and commitment and wishes him the best in all his future endeavors. A search for Gabi’s replacement is under way.”

Campos was named CEO of PokerStars in July 2010 and officially stepped into the position on October 4th.  He had plenty of online gaming experience already, coming over from 888.com’s B2B arm, Dragonfish.  888’s financial figures were down when he left, but that was not because of Dragonfish.  Under Campos, Dragonfish saw its revenues increase by 33 percent from 2008 to 2009 and the business unit contributed about 20 percent of 888’s overall revenue.

The previous leadership of the company remained in place when Campos joined, ensuring a smooth transition to Campos’ reign.  PokerStars’ founder, Isai Scheinberg, stayed on as Chief Technical Officer, while his son, Mark, became Chairman of the company.

Campos is now the third high profile PokerStars official to leave the company in less than a year.  The first, European Poker Tour tournament director Thomas Kremser, announced his departure in May 2011.  Earlier this month, John Duthie ended both his stint as a PokerStars pro and as the CEO of the European Poker Tour, which he created.  Both Kremser and Duthie cited the desire to seek out new “challenges” and “ventures” as reasons for their exits.

Big names more familiar to poker fans have split from PokerStars, as well.  About a year ago, 2004 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion Greg Raymer, a mainstay at Stars and one of the most well-spoken and outspoken advocates for poker in United States, ended his affiliation with the online poker room.  Last month, 2005 WSOP Main Event champion Joe Hachem did the same.

“It’s been a great run with PokerStars and I’m proud of my association with the people and the company,” Hachem said in an official announcement at the time. “But it’s time for me to pursue other career opportunities and it will be fun to have some down time to spend with my family. I look forward to the future with much excitement and anticipation and will always have fond memories of my time at PokerStars.”

Despite the loss of U.S. customers since Black Friday, PokerStars still remains the largest online poker room in the world.  According to PokerScout.com, Stars has a seven-day average of 26,000 cash game players, six times as many as the next largest site, PartyPoker.

Well, as it turns out, they are finding games elsewhere.  According to PokerScout.com, the go-to site for online cash game traffic analysis, PokerStars.com and PokerStars.fr, its France-only site, lagged behind the rest of the top online poker sites for the first week of January.  PokerScout directs the blame for their early year struggles at the player protests of the last week and a half.

Of the top ten sites in terms of cash game traffic, only one – PokerStars.fr – lost players on the week.  Its 10 percent dip in ring game players caused it to drop from seventh to ninth in the rankings, falling behind the independent room Winamax.fr in the competition for largest French internet poker room.  It appears that a strike by angry players is the immediate cause of the traffic decrease.  Organized on the site clubpoker.net, the strike involves over 120 of some of the highest volume players at PokerStars.fr, including some Supernova Elites, the site’s highest VIP level.  The players who have refused to play at PokerStars.fr since the start of 2012 reportedly raked more than €5 million last year.

A player representative from clubpoker.net plans to meet with PokerStars representatives at their offices in the Isle of Man this week to discuss the issues at hand.  A similar meeting is in the works for players at PokerStars.com.

As for PokerStars.com, it did actually see a 5 percent increase in cash game traffic last week, but that is still far lower than its competitors in the top ten.  PartyPoker.com saw its traffic rise an amazing 29 percent, though PokerScout.com attributes that to a VIP rake race promotion which started January 2nd.  The iPoker network’s traffic rose 12 percent.  The aforementioned Winamax.fr, as well as PartyPoker.fr, rose 10 percent.

All of the commotion stems from changes PokerStars made to its VIP program, effective January 1st, as well as rake changes that it planned to make, but postponed due to push back from the poker community.  The biggest issue was the change from the “dealt” method of VIP Player Point (VPP) calculation to the “weighted contributed” method.  In the former method, which had been in place for years, every player who was dealt cards in a cash game hand received an equal share of the VPPs allocated to the table.  In the new, “weighted contributed” method, only players who put money in the pot are awarded VPPs, and they are awarded in proportion to how much money they actually risked.  For example, if by the end of a hand, a player had contributed $5 into a $20 pot, he would receive 25 percent of the VPPs.  Those who folded pre-flop without putting in any money would receive nothing.

This change made high volume players angry, as most high volume players play a very tight style of poker, folding pre-flop more often than not.  With the new system, they will lose out on thousands of VPPs that they would have received in the old system.  On top of that, the upper level VIPs, such as those of Supernova Elite status, receive many more Frequent Player Points (FPPs) per VPP than those on the lower end of the VIP scale.  Those FPPs can be redeemed for cash and valuable tournament entries, which means that high volume players will lose out on even more.

Many players see the change as a “cash grab” by PokerStars, as the site will profit from the difference between what high level players will lose and what lower level, mostly recreational players, will gain (these players typically play a looser style, which will mean that they’d earn more VPPs with the new system).

Many PokerStars players participated in a “sit-out” protest on the site at noon on January 1st.  In this protest, players opened up the maximum number of tables, took a seat, and then sat out, the goal being to prevent hands from being dealt.  Since it was organized on public forums, PokerStars knew it would happen and quickly kicked players off tables and restricted them to one table at a time.

PokerStars also planned to lower rake across the board to make up for some of the VPP losses, but postponed these changes, as well as proposed rake cap changes, in response to player objections.

The three online poker rooms on which Belgians are eligible to play are PokerStars.be, Partouche.be, and GPWin.be.*  Unlike countries such as Italy and France, Belgium did not ring-fence itself from the rest of the internet gaming world, so its players, despite signing up through a “dot be” site will still play at tables with competitors from other countries.  Thus, the online poker experience for players on PokerStars.be will be the same as those who play on PokerStars.com, while Italian customers may only play against other Italians on PokerStars.it and French players may only play with one another on PokerStars.fr.  GPWin.be is the Belgian offering of GoldenPalacePoker.com, and as such, is part of the iPoker network.

It appears that Partouche.be may be the unique room of the three, as Partouche Poker is an independent poker room accessible only by residents of France.  Since France restricts its citizens to French-only sites, it would lead one to believe that Partouche.be will be a separate site for Belgians.

The Belgian online gaming regulations, passed in 2011, are a bit controversial because of how restrictive they are.  Belgians are only allowed to play at the sites on the approved list and face criminal penalties if they are caught playing on unlicensed sites.  The four largest internet service providers in the country are set to IP block sites on the Belgium Gaming Commissions “black list.”  Additionally, all online gambling operators must be associated with a brick-and-mortar casino.  PokerStars.be has teamed up with Circus Groupe, specifically Casino de Namur.  Partouche already has four casinos in Belgium, the first of which opened in 1995.  Similarly, there are also a number of land-based Belgian casinos in the Golden Palace family, so GPWin.be was set in that regard.

At the same time the laws are restrictive, they are also vague in some regards.  There is some question as to whether or not player winnings are considered taxable income, a question that will hopefully be answered with a future update to legacy gaming laws.

All customers of the online poker rooms must be at least 21-years old and in a method somewhat similar to the old Cryptologic rooms, players must verify their identity with the cashier via paper mail once they have either deposited or attempted to withdraw more than €3,000.

Some online poker rooms who were not invited to the party are helping themselves to a drink, anyway.  PartyPoker and other rooms on the iPoker network are still allowing Belgians to play on their sites, saying that the online gaming laws may be against European Union law and are “unenforceable,” a stance not unlike that taken by poker rooms once serving players in the United States.

*Other news outlets have reported incorrectly that Casino770.be (or Casino777.be) is the third online poker on approved list, likely because on the published list, it is grouped with the other two other online poker rooms, while GPWin.be is grouped with the online casinos.  The groups are not labeled on the document.

Word of the Duthie/Stars split came out on the Two Plus Two poker forums Sunday afternoon, but people wanted to know why the respected Brit was no longer with the world’s largest online poker room.  Of course, since this was the internet, it was all but guaranteed that the jokes would fly.  Problem was, some didn’t catch the web humor.  It all started with the post referencing the recent rake and VIP program changes by PokerStars, “Is this because he’s unhappy with the new way Stars is now distributing its VPPS?”

Amidst the chuckles and sarcastic remarks in reply to that obvious joke were serious comments such as, “wow, stars is really taking this protest stuff seriously, they seriously revoked his team pokerstar [sic] sponsorship for protesting vpp changes? so sick”

They continued:

“Wow is this a joke, John Duthie I salute you, takes a lot to speak out when you know there’s a good chance it will cause you personal loss.

“The EPT has no doubt had a maybe huge part in PS becoming so big in Europe, and is this for real, he protests (didn’t realise there had been one, any link please?) and gets dumped, are PS having a bad day, not thinking straight?

“If I was Barnard Tapie i’d be on the phone to him now!”

Monday morning (EST), Duthie himself made an appearance in the thread, confirming the initial rumor, but quashing any other sinister rumors.  “Hey Guys….I’m afraid this decision had nothing to do with the VPP situation or the ‘Sit-Out’; it was quite simply that I didn’t want to renew my contract which expired 31st December. There was also no Tweet to this effect. All very self-centred to be honest.”

“Love the idea of being ‘Tribune of the people’ but sadly this is not the case,” he added.

John Duthie has been popular in the UK poker community for a long time, but it was in 2000 that he became known to a wider audience, as he won the inaugural Poker Million televised tournament for £1,000,000 ($1,426,330).  He has 13 total World Series of Poker (WSOP) cashes and two final tables, including a runner-up finish in the 2009 $10,000 Heads-Up World Championship.  In his live tournament career, he has earned $2,774,963.

In 2004, John Duthie made his biggest mark on the poker world when he founded the European Poker Tour.  Now in its eighth season, the EPT has grown to be one of the most popular live tournament series in the world, featuring a dozen stops in ten different countries.  Once a tour that many thought had no chance to compete with the monster that was the World Poker Tour (WPT), the EPT has capitalized on both its partnership with PokerStars and the continued worldwide growth of poker to now be respected as much as the WPT and WSOP.  Duthie still serves as the CEO of the Tour.

UPDATE: Duthie announced that he is also resigning as CEO of the European Poker Tour after this article was posted.

The changes made by the world’s largest online poker room revolved around two things: a switch from the “dealt” method to “weighted contributed” method of calculating VIP Player Points (VPPs) and a simplification in rake calculation, including lower percentages and new rake caps.  It is the VPP calculation change that has people up arms.

Prior to the change, PokerStars used the “dealt” method of VPP calculation, which meant that every player who was dealt cards in a ring game hand would receive an equal share of the VPPs that were awarded to the table.  In the new, “weighted contributed” method, players are awarded VPPs relative to how much they contribute to the pot (overall VPP calculation for the table remains the same).  Thus, players who fold pre-flop receive nothing, while those who battle it out for the pot receive the bulk of the rewards.

To most, the basic idea behind the change should make sense: reward the players who build pots.  The uproar stems from the impact that people believe this will have on PokerStars regulars, the loyal, highest volume players.  These players, the ones who make a living playing poker or are very serious amateurs, rely not just on their skill to make a profit, but also on the cash rewards earned through PokerStars’ loyalty program.  These players also tend to be very tight players, a style of play which makes it easier to massively multi-table and even out some of the peaks and valleys that inevitably haunt daily grinders.  Because they are tight, they do a lot of folding pre-flop and thus, with the new “weighted contributed” method, will not, on average, receive as many VPPs as they did before.  On top of that, the higher a player climbs on the VIP status ladder, the more Frequent Player Points (FPPs) he receives per VPP; these FPPs are what can eventually be redeemed for cash (in addition to the Milestone Cash Credits for hitting certain VPP numbers).  Thus, the highest level players are expected to take a healthy FPP hit.

The players who will benefit from the changes will tend to be looser, lower level, recreational players.  They will not receive as many FPPs per VPP and therefore will not have the breadth and quality of rewards from which to choose compared to the high VIP status players.

As Two Plus Two poster “MSauce” wrote, “This means that almost all the high volume regulars will lose money, the recreational players will gain very little, and stars will gain all the rest.”

One player estimated that a player who would have earned 1 million VPPs in the old system and reached Supernova Elite status would receive $41,200 less in total rewards because of the combined loss of Milestone Cash Credits, FPPs which would be redeemed for cash, and free tournament entries.  He went on to estimate that the rewards redistribution would result in a maximum of $7,200 going to lower level players, meaning that PokerStars keeps the remaining $34,000.  Again, these are just estimates given by one player, but his point is that the regular, high volume players will be seriously hurt by the new policies, while PokerStars will profit.

Company rep “PokerStars Steve” readily admits that the VPP change will benefit the online poker room, saying, “It’s difficult to predict accurately how much savings will this change generate, but our preliminary assessment, if play remains the same, is in the range of 1.5% to 2% of gross rake for the ring games.” He added, “We planned to use this money to reduce the rake and invest in marketing and other initiatives that bring recreational players to the site.”

As he said, PokerStars did reduce the rake in an effort to make up for any potential lost rewards.  Players were still upset about the rake caps at some tables, but those complaints were minor compared to the change to the “weighted contributed” method.  The change was made, for all intents and purposes, to make the games more attractive recreational players, who, as stated earlier, tend to play looser than regular grinders.  Casual players typically get bored playing against ultra-tight players and because casual players re-deposit more frequently than regulars, PokerStars wants to do what it takes to keep them having fun and on the site.  Additionally, regulars make their profits off of the casual players, so the more “fish” on the site, the better it is for the “sharks.”

The outrage was so strong that a mass sit-out, an “Occupy Pokerstars” of sorts, was organized on the Two Plus Two forums, led by the aforementioned “MSauce.”  The plan was to get as many people as possible to open as many tables as possible at noon EST on January 1st, take a seat and simply not play.  The goal was to sufficiently disrupt the games so as to get the attention of PokerStars and work towards a resolution of the problem.

Of course, since this was organized on a public forum, PokerStars learned of it and began to take action.  The online poker room suspended the changes to the rake structure (including rake caps) so that they could be evaluated further, though it still moved forward with the switch to the “weighted contributed” method of VPP calculation.  Additionally, PokerStars offered to host a meeting with a handful of players at its offices in the Isle of Man to discuss the issues.  These moves were well received, for the most part, by the poker community, but the weighted contributed controversy still remained, so the protest proceeded as planned.

PokerStars was ready for the sit-out, too.  Protesters who attempted to open up table after table (up to as many as 24) and sit-out were cut off at the pass.  Players who joined the protest were removed from the tables and allowed to play at only one at a time.  This response by PokerStars happened almost instantly, so it was obviously programmed into the poker software in anticipation of the sit-out event.

That is not to say, however, that the protest did not work.  While the event itself did not last long, all the discussions and planning leading up to it grabbed the attention of PokerStars and it does look like there are reasonable people on both sides willing to work on a resolution.  It remains to be seen if the players will get their way, but stay tuned to Poker News Daily for any updates as they are released.