PokerStars’ Online Poker Tournaments to Pay Deeper

From today, PokerStars will be paying more places in the majority of its online poker tournaments to give “more people more fun by winning more often”.

If you play online poker tournaments, you will acknowledge the initial goal for most players is to finish in the money. Once the initial goal is reached, anything can happen. You may not win the event or finish on the final table, but at least you will likely walk away from the tournament in profit (K.O. events being the exception) and with another black line on your Sharkscope, PPL or Playerscope profile.

Now [geolink href=”https://www.pokernewsreport.com/pokerstars”]PokerStars (review)[/geolink] is giving players the opportunity to walk away in profit more often by extending the number of places paid in the majority of its online poker tournaments. According to a post on the PokerStars blog, the site is extending the payout structure for around 70% of its most popular tournaments to give “more people more fun by winning more often”.

The Evolution of PokerStars´ Online Poker Tournament Payouts

Writing for the blog, Mike Jones – PokerStars´ Operations Manager – explained that PokerStars´ online poker tournament payout structure had originally been adopted from the live poker scene of 2002. In those days the majority of events paid 10% of players, leaving 90% of players with nothing to show for the time and effort they had spent at the tables.

Over the years the payout structure for PokerStars´ online poker tournaments has been altered to pay 11.1% or one-in-nine players, then 12.5% or one-in-eight players and so on. At the beginning of this year, the world´s largest online poker site changed the payment structure for the majority of its online poker tournaments so that 18% of players – or one-in-five-and-a-half players – got paid.

From today, the tournament payout structure will be changing once again for most events, but not all. Most tournaments that until last week were paying 12% of players will now pay 14% of players. Those that paid out 14% of players will change to paying 16% of players. 16% payout structures will change to 18%, and 18% to 20%. The changes are subtle and most players won´t even notice them.

The online poker tournament structures that won´t be changing are those already paying 20% of players, those at the higher buy-in levels, and progressive knockouts – in which only half the buy-in goes towards the prize pool and the other half becomes a bounty on the player´s head. According to Jones, around 30% of the weekly recurring tournament schedule will see no changes at all.

Player Reaction to the Deeper Payout Structures Mixed

The consequences of the changes to PokerStars´ online poker tournament payouts is that players will finish in the money more often, but not win so much each time. It will likely have the effect of consistent – but net depositing – players keeping the bankrolls intact for longer, and long-term profitable tournament players not achieving as much profit as before.

Reaction across social media and the online poker forums has been mixed. The verdict from players has generally been a thumbs up – some commenting that the deeper payout structures will enable them to play in tournaments with larger buy-ins, potentially winning more money than they could have done before. Other players have been more cynical of the changes:

“We want more people to win so they reinvest their winnings in further tournaments = more rake for us” #PokerStars

— Martin Jacobson (@Martin_Jacobson) September 9, 2017

One further likely consequence of the new tournament payout structures is that more players will enter more tournaments – expanding the prize pools further. If you fancy having more fun by winning more often – potentially with more prize money up for grabs – visit PokerStars today. Alternatively, if you have an opinion on the new tournament payout structures, let us know by leaving a message in the comment box below.