PokerStars to Trial New Multi-Tabling Limit in Italy
Everyone who has played online has experienced it: you're playing a cash game, enjoying the speed of the game that internet poker affords, only to have that one player at the table continue to run out their time bank as you and the other players at the table lose precious poker time - and see fewer hands per hour as a result!
It can be frustrating, and maybe you have been a culprit. After all, when you're trying to grind out ten tables at a time, there are going to be moments when a decision at one table takes your attention away from the others. The Stars Group is acutely aware of this matter, and has devised a plan to minimize such delays.
“[That goal] is achieved by creating an atmosphere where the game is fun, fast and enjoyable for all.”
Following the recent trial introduction of Seat Me to prevent online players to table and seat select based on specific players at the tables, PokerStars announced earlier this week that starting July 17, they will be testing another new feature: limiting multi-tabling to six tables max.
As Severin Rasset, Director of Poker Innovation and Operations at Stars Group, explains in the blog post, both Seat Me and the new multi-table limit are means of carrying out the company’s primary goal of making games on the site as sustainable as possible.
“[That goal] is achieved by creating an atmosphere where the game is fun, fast and enjoyable for all.”
Seat Me was introduced in 2017 in their Spain, France and Portugal markets where Stars tinkered and tested the system over time until they felt it was optimized for player experience and game sustainability. In Thursday’s blog post, Rasset revealed that the company plans to roll out Seat Me in Italy soon, with intentions to bring it to PokerStars.com assuming they find positive effects on the market as expected.
As they test Seat Me in Italy, Stars also plans to trial the six-table maximum multi-table limit on PokerStars Italy to analyze the impact of the change before launching in other domains in the future. The six-table max limitation will apply to regular cash games, while the current limits for Zoom and other games will remain the same.
While the change shouldn’t affect a large percentage of users — according to Rasset, 99.7% of their players already play six tables or fewer at a time — the Stars Group believes the change will help speed up games and improve the overall poker experience for customers.
Justification
The premise for the multi-table limit came from frequent complaints of certain players taking too long to act and thus slowing games down. While a look at average time to act did not reveal a significant difference between multi-tablers and those who play only one table at a time, upon closer look, there is an importance difference in the two groups' speed of acting data.
Namely, multi-tablers have a greater standard deviation when it comes to time to act, meaning that while they act fast generally, there are more times where they will drastically slow down action on several tables. Anyone who multi-tables or has attempted the tall task would attest that when you have an important decision on one table, speed of acting at other tables suffers while a decision is made or the hand in question plays out.
“...We expect that winning more will be achieved by playing a wider range of hands and giving more action, which will lead to a much more fun game for all players.”
During the trial period, Stars will collect data to compare changes in deviation from average time to act, looking at players who go from playing more than six tables at a time to six or fewer. They will also consider player feedback in their research, to help determine if the change is a positive one for the games and players on the whole.
The expectation and hope is that the six-table max limitation will lead to fewer long delays at the tables, which in turn should improve the experience for all players. For multi-tablers who have to reduce their regular number of games, Stars expects that those players will actually be able to win more as they can focus more at each of their tables.
Rasset explains further how the change is expected to improve the overall experience, both for players who reduce their number of tables, and for those who already play six or fewer.
“In light of previous changes, we expect that winning more will be achieved by playing a wider range of hands and giving more action, which will lead to a much more fun game for all players.”
Time will tell if the latest Stars innovation improves the player experience and overall game sustainability. If Stars indeed finds positive results, players across PokerStars clients can expect to experience both Seat Me and the six-table multi-table limit when they log on to play poker in their respective countries.
The Stars Group owns a majority shareholding in iBus Media.
