Online Poker Players Organizing Boycott Against PokerStars
In response to the recently-announced changes that PokerStars plans to implement on Jan. 1, 2016, the poker community has begun to organize movement for a boycott to take place Dec. 1-3, 2015.
According to a post on the TwoPlusTwo forums, a thread on the Russian Gipsyteam forums was created to announce plans for a boycott. TwoPlusTwo poster I from Russian wrote that the Russian thread spawned 130 participants within the first 24 hours.
Thanks to the additional momentum gained from the TwoPlusTwo thread and the mobilizing efforts of Dani "Ansky" Stern, that number of planned participants has since grown to well over 1,000.
"We are organizing a strike/boycott of PokerStars from December 1-3, starting at 12:01 a.m. EST," Stern wrote in the TwoPlusTwo thread. "We ask everyone who values the game of poker at all, recreational or pro, to show their support. We especially ask those who put in high volume on Stars to do so. Please do not play a hand of poker on PokerStars for those 72 hours. It goes without saying that games are likely to be softer on those days, and we hope that you can resist the urge to play because of that. I truly believe that these changes will bring about devastating effects to the online poker community."
In addition to asking those who participate to sit out from PokerStars games, the boycott also asked those involved to make a withdrawal from their account "of any sum comfortable for you."
Scrolling through the list of participants, Stern will be joined by notable poker players Ben "Ben86" Tollerene, Dan "Danny98765" Smith, JC "PrtyPsux" Alvarado, Peter "Apathy123" Jetten, Phil "MrSweets28" Galfond, Ola "Odd_Oddsen" Amundsgaard, Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo, Jack "jackziyang" Salter, Doug "WCGRider" Polk, Sebastian "taktloss47" Ruthenberg, Mike "tîmex" McDonald, Emil "Maroonlime" Patel, Sam "Str8$$$Homey" Greenwood, Steve "Mr. Tim Caum" O’Dwyer, Timothy "tim0thee" Adams, Nick "nabourisk" Abou Risk, and Elio "smokrockflock" Fox.
According to PokerScout, PokerStars, the world's leading online poker site, has a seven-day average of 14,500 ring game players at time of writing. Some would make the case that those involved in the boycott are actually assisting PokerStars in achieving its overall objective with the changes, and the effectiveness of the boycott is still to be determined.
PokerNews will continue to monitor this story as it develops.
*Lead image courtesy of Svilen Milev/FreeImages.com.
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