PokerStars brings an end to short stacking

Posted on March 3, 2010 by John Trevors for Luckyroom.com

With an announcement that may well significantly reshape the landscape of online cash games, PokerStars has recently established a timetable to review the current minimum and maximum buy-in on NL / PL real-money tables. What this means? The current minimum buy in to the classical NL / PL cash game tables at Pokerstars (20BBs) undermines the quality and profitability of the game, giving players an incentive to ‘shortstack’; Critics of this practice argue that short stacking is bad for the game and discourages action significantly as it reduces the level of skill involved. On the other hand, fans of this regular unsurprisingly claim; that critics of this strategy are in reality simply jealous or misinformed and believe that shortstacking is simply a profitable strategy which is formed naturally in the field of online poker.

PokerStars have brought the issue to surface in the past, by adding a category of tables in the cash game lobby with a minimum buy in of 50BBs. The solution was not enough to satisfy a large chunk of pokerstars.com players seeking changes. What kind of changes will take place? It is hard to say, but major online poker rooms seem to be moving in the same direction by issuing higher than normal buy ins. Full Tilt has a 35BB minimum at the tables, while Party Poker and Everest have announced a change in policy to buy in. Absolute and UB maintain minimum fee at 20BB similar to poker rooms hosted on the Cake Poker Network.

PokerStars brings an end to short stacking

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