PokerStars to Pay Out More Tournament Places Starting Sept. 11
PokerStars has been a frontrunner in changing tournament payouts, among other things in poker, with the goal of improving the experiences of the majority. On Thursday, PokerStars announced it will be making yet another small change to tournament payouts in a continued effort to improve the experiences of tournament players on their site.
Deeper Payouts
On Sept. 11, 2017, PokerStars will be making the payouts of most of their tournaments deeper in order to pay out more players who buy in. On the PokerStars blog, PokerStars Operations Manager Mike Jones explained the reasoning behind the change.
“It’s clear to us that paying more places has a direct benefit to most of our players.”
While traditional live tournament payouts used to be only for 10 percent of the field, meaning nine out of ten players in a tournament would walk away with nothing, that number has gradually increased in both the live and online arenas. PokerStars has been a major proponent of increasing the percentage of players to cash in tournaments, as well as smoothing out payouts so more than just the top few finishers can get a good payday.
Background
The trend in tournament poker, both live and online, has recently been toward paying out higher percentages to improve many players' tournament experiences, as well as support the tournament poker economy.
According to Jones, over the years they have been gradually increasing the percentage of players paid out from 10 percent to 16.6 percent, and then upped it to 18 percent for most tournaments in early 2017.
As a result, one in 5.5 players who enter any given tournament get a return on their initial investment, meaning that many players who would have had a losing experience (when fewer players were paid out) actually win. Jones explains their reasoning.
"We want more people to have more fun by winning more often."
Monday's Changes
The changes that take effect on Monday will also be gradual, as the payout percent increases by two percent in several tournaments. For example, tournaments that were previously paying 12% will go up to 14%, those paying 14% will increase to 16%, 16% will move to 18%, and 18% will bump up to 20%.
Approximately 30 percent of weekly recurring tournaments will not be affected, including Progressive Knockouts, many high buy-in events, and tournaments already paying 20% of the field.
According to Jones, “The changes will be subtle and most players will only notice when they realize that they're experiencing the thrill of cashing a little more often."
Jones also explains on the blog how the planned change fits into their overall mission.
"It's been years of tinkering to get to this point, and we'll keep working to create the best overall playing experience."
