PokerStars HUSNG Regulars Going on Strike

Heads Up Sit & Go players on PokerStars have decided to take action against the most recent rake changes the room has recently introduced by actively going on strike of a sort from November 3rd until November 11th (with the possibility of an extension). In this period, regulars will not battle each other on the tables, affecting the gross generated rake. The divisions encompassed by this decision spread from $60 to $1,000 buy-in games.

Regular forum poster and player ‘ibavly’ explained in a 2 + 2 post that these recent changes have created a situation where it is no longer profitable for regs to sit down and battle each other. Many of the active players have agreed to partake in this action as both a sign of solidarity and their way of demonstrating the discontent brought about by the rake increases.

According to ‘ibavly’, PokerStars will in fact lose more money by having regulars not playing each other than they will earn from the ‘fish’ action. The regs have come up with a calculation that supports the idea that the amount of regulars battling each other has brought significantly more revenue to Stars than the 20% rake increase will without these games.

While some believe that this move will not particularly concern PokerStars, as one of the posters pointed out, this is simply extra rake that will now be gone from the profits. HU games have been somewhat notorious for players waiting for fish to sit in and avoiding a battle with other regulars, but this type of action was not non-existent either, so there are things to consider.

Perhaps the amount of the rake lost this way is not enough for a company as big as PokerStars to really start worrying, but if these things pick up pace and more regulars start boycotting their everyday games or something along those lines, management might find themselves in a tough spot.

With everything happening recently, there have been more and more calls for creating a poker players’ union of sorts that would be able to coordinate actions such as this and perhaps negotiate on behalf of the more serious players, but also on behalf of the amateurs who are often not aware of everything that is going on.

Is this an isolated and relatively small incident, or are we going to see more in the near future? Will players consolidate to stand up for their common interests? Perhaps a unifying force that would bring a lot of players together could actually influence changes and make rooms think twice before they act.

Whether such a unifying force even exists out there is a completely different story.