Pokerstars, Daniel Negreanu Issue Statements on Planned Changes

Published on December 9th, 2015 10:02 pm EST

Pokerstars and the face of Pokerstars, Daniel Negreanu, hit the online poker community with a double shot of statements earlier today regarding the site's planned changes to its VIP program.

Earlier this month, a number of Pokerstars' higher limit players elected to stage a three-day strike to protest the site's planned changes to its VIP program. These changes, which go into effect next year, will see PlatinumStar, SuperNova and SuperNova Elite players earn substantially less in rakeback. The changes, according to Pokerstars, were necessary to order to help stabilize the poker ecosystem.

The impacted players, as you can probably guess, were not happy with the changes and the way that they were communicated. Many of these players felt as though Pokerstars had broken their trust by reducing rewards that had been promised for the next calendar year.

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Pokerstars and Daniel Negreanu both issued statements earlier today regarding the planned changes.

Pokerstars said that the planned changes will still be going ahead in 2016 and that the recent strike had no impact on their decision.

Daniel Negreanu said that the changes were originally supposed to be implemented in 2015 but that Amaya's CEO, David Baazov, elected to delay the move for a year. Negreanu also revealed that Pokerstars' previous management team was going to implement the changes as well.

Pokerstars said that the poker ecosystem needs these changes and that the recent strike actually helped to prove their point, as depositing players "lost at a much lower rate than they have all year" during the three-day sitout.

Daniel Negreanu said that the changes should have been communicated to the poker community better and that he was taking personal responsibility for the gaffe.

Pokerstars said that there was no intention to deceive players.

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Pokerstars revealed that the site will hold four $1 million freerolls in 2016 to inject money into the poker economy. According to Negreanu, these freerolls will provide significant value to regular players as they will be more likely to win money.

In addition, Pokerstars said that there will be a number of other promotions announced in 2016 that will have a positive impact on player's bankrolls, as well as a number of new events and products.

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There is still quite a bit of resentment towards Pokerstars for the way that they announced the changes to their VIP program. Will they be forgiven in 2016? We'll see.

Source: Pokerstars.com - Four $1 Million Freerolls Planned for 2016

Source: FullContactPoker.com - VIP Program Changes at Pokerstars


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Filed Under: Online Poker Rooms