PokerStars Removes Heads-Up Cash Tables

Almost three years ago, prior to Amaya’s takedown, PokerStars tweaked the Heads-up Regular Cash tables lobby in its attempt to slow down a destructive behavior called bumhunting. So the poker room came up with a neat system labeled by the community as King of the Hill (KotH). What the system did is fairly simple: it prevented the regulars who played exclusively against weak opponents - aka bumhunters - to monopolize the Heads-up Cash tables. In other words, if the bumhunter avoided playing against a decent player and sat out, he would be booted out by the system and the player wanting action would step in instead and take over. If the bumhunter wanted a piece of the pie, he would have to play against other regulars also.

Great decision right?

Well, not so fast. While the Heads-Up cash tables were indeed cleared of those pesky bumhunters, the problem remained: tens of HU tables opened across the lobby and only a few people were getting real head-to-head action which is a completely waste of money for a big company. That’s where Amaya’s recent change comes in.

Only a few days ago, the company that took over PokerStars in 2014 announced the next (somehow obvious) move: the closure of the Heads-Up regular cash tables and the emergence of the Heads-up Zoom tables. The closure happened a few days ago on February 12, 2016. The message PokerStars sent to all the Heads-up Cash players sounded like this:

Doug ‘WCGRider’ Polk: Yah, I Get To Play Now

As expected, many Heads-Up regulars started berating Amaya’s latest decision on the 2+2 forums and of course, a new petition is out asking that PokerStars revert the move. Since that’s not happening any time soon (or at all for that matter), many are already predicting the death of the HU poker format. Why?

First of all, because the Heads-Up play is not that Zoom-friendly in the first place. Although the Zoom Heads-Up tables have been in the PokerStars’ lobby for quite some time, their popularity is far from dominant. Any Heads-up match is about game dynamics,:reading your opponent’s soul and tilting him with your aggression or your timely hero calls. That was why the game was created in the first place, to play against a SINGLE opponent enough so that you can profitably read him like a book. At Zoom, you play against multiple foes and the game dynamics change dramatically.

Secondly, many decent but not top Heads-Up players will have to call it quits since they have become losing targets overnight. Besides the weaker player, the decent regular will have to worry about the good or top regulars who will dominate the HU games like never before. In other words, the new change is basically the King of the Hill on steroids and like the bumhunters, the decent regs will disappear, replaced by only the top players at any stake.

So who’s actually winning, you may wonder? The clear winner is of course PokerStars who will get more action - thus more rake - (no sure how long though) while restricting the HU cash game to Zoom only. The other winners are the top 2% to maybe 5% HU players on the site, standouts like self-proclaimed ‘best No Limit Heads-Up player in the world’ Doug ‘WCGRider’ Polk.

Polk is one of the few (if not the only one) pleased with Amaya’s latest tweak. As he said in the 2+2 forums:

‘WCGRider’ complained about the lack of play after the King of the Hill was first introduced and about being ‘punished’ for being the best at the game. He said weaker foes play a lot more hands with the recreationals and that he hopes the Zoom format will change that. He also predicted two possible outcomes in the light of this new tweak: the first involves the death of the HU cash format while the second is all about the recreationals not feeling as ‘hunted’ as before, jumping on the Zoom bandwagon and creating action for the weaker regs also.

Which outcome is likely to happen?

Editor’s Take: Next Step? HUSNG!

Unfortunately, most of the poker community is more inclined to take the pessimistic approach. The mid tier regulars aren’t the only ones truly affected; the recreationals will also feel the negative impact before long. Forget about the whole ‘improving the recreational player experience’ thing, since they are bound to play against the very best, they will lose money at a faster pace and upon realizing this ‘undeniable’ fact, they will give up playing the format. The 95% of the Heads-Up cash players left on the outside will look for new games, probably the 6-max cash format and will soon become regulars in those poker games. As a result, the cash games in general will become tougher and the edges smaller and smaller. Which means a WORSE recreational player experience in basically ALL cash games from top to bottom.

And there’s more: in the PokerStars’ lobby there’s a Heads-Up format still untouched but with pretty much the same problems as the Heads-Up regular cash tables, especially at medium and high stakes - the HUSNGs. So don’t be surprised if PokerStars changes that format in the foreseeable future turning it into a random player pool, no-table selection much like Spin & Go without the variable prize pool. Smaller edges again and one clear winner. Who? Why PokerStars aka the House of course!

What do you think? Are the Zoom-only changes good for the recreationals or bad? Will Heads-Up Poker survive? Share your opinion with the rest of the poker community by commenting in the section below.