PokerStars announced this past Monday that there will be revised pricing taking place beginning Monday, March 28th. The ‘revised pricing’ is basically a rake increase across several gaming options of the online poker brand. Vice President of Corporate Communications for Amaya Gaming as well as PokerStars, Eric Hollreiser, stated in the Corporate Blog of PokerStars that after a review of the current business environment and pricing policies in place across the competitive landscape of online gaming, the changes were decided upon.
The following changes were highlighted by Hollreiser in the blog. Spin & Go rake will be increased 1% for buy-ins ranging from $1 to $30. The $3 buy-in Spin & Go will be the only exception, having a 2% increase in rake. Multi-table tournaments will see a rake on add-ons and rebuys. A five percent increase will take place in multi-table tournament hyper-turbos. No Limit and Pot Limit cash games, especially heads-up gaming, will have a rake increase in percentage and cap.
Overall, PokerStars has estimated that the rake will increase by around 4%. For many, it seems the changes are being put in place to push professional high-volume players from the tables. Grinders would normally take part in heads-up cash games in No Limit and Pot Limit as well as the hyper-turbos to be able to play as many hands as they possibly can.
In efforts to try to show the changes in a positive light, Hollreiser emphasized that even after the changes, PokerStars would still have the lowest overall pricing, aka rake, of any major online poker operator. The pricing changes are only for specific games while others have not been changed. Hollreiser pointed out that in Sit & Go and Cash Games, PokerStars has a significantly lower rake than their competitors.
These changes come on the heels of PokerStars launching in the United States within the borders of New Jersey. It will be interesting to see how the rake changes as well as entrance into New Jersey affects the overall traffic of the top online poker brand.
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