New PokerStars Rake and Structure Changes

http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/tournaments/sitandgo/

During my session today whilst playing, Pokerstars introduced the new raked games and totally confused my poor Table Ninja lol. Not only did it confuse him, it totally confused me as well, as $3.38 games started loading up too. I was like "What the hell is that?? Looks like a $2 and $3r 180m combined!" Geez.

Overall I think its a good change, because it standardizes all the buy ins and isn't random numbers of rake now. So here's the lowdown;

Blind Level Times
The blind levels have changed too now, where Turbos are now 3 mins long compared to 5 mins, and non turbos are 6 mins compared to 10 mins. However, I have also seen and even slower 15 minute game, unfortunately also at the same price and name as a non turbo. Seems kinda confusing I'm sure, hopefully they will change it so its more easily distinguishable.

New Additions
They've also added hyper turbo one man STTs, at an "experimental" $5 stake, which are 2 min blinds and you start with 500 chips. Super turbo mayhem!! I'm pretty confident they will catch on easily.

Another great addition is the KO Turbo 9 mans, which has upgraded from the non turbo speed, which means you will get paid for knocking out players, which I'm sure is great to encourage those big stack bubble owning situations!

The $3 rebuy turbo tournament has been downgraded from a turbo to a non turbo. So before it was 5 min blinds and now its 6 mins. Even though its only 1 minute extra, with the flatter structure it means that it will take substantially longer to finish.

Standardized Structure
They've also introduced a flatter structure to the games. In 9 mans it used to be t200, t200 with 25 ante, t400+25 ante, t600+50 ante etc. Now its t200+20, t250+25, t300+30, where the ante is always 10% of the big blind. This structure seems to be throughout all games, whether you play 9 mans or 180 mans its the same. This is good especially for multi tabling... not so confusing!

Multi-Registering 45 Mans and Below
It seems that you can now multi register in some MTT SNGs now. For a while you could do it in the 180 mans too but it seems they've taken it off.

Added Time
I'm not sure if this is a new addition of if I've only just noticed it now. But Pokerstars has decided to give us more time as tournaments progress, which is great for us multi tabling freaks! You will get an extra 5 seconds in turbos, and 10 seconds in non turbos per 5 blind levels. On MTT SNGs, you will also get an extra 60 seconds for reaching the final table.

Speed vs More Blind Levels
The introduction of the 3 minute and 6 minute blinds to everything makes everything faster, compared to the old 5 minutes and 10 minute blinds. But with the flatter structure, it might mean that they even each other out, and not actually be shorter/longer at all? I'm not sure, but I'm looking forward to my session tonight to find out.

Either way, I'm happily adaptable, so I don't mind. However, it has to be said that their steeper structure before would allow for fish to make bigger mistakes, because they don't realize how quickly the blinds get better. Only time will tell. But one thing is for sure... the more simple you make things, i.e standardizing all these structures, the better and [probably] more players will come.

Rake Changes Conclusion
MTT-wise, the rake changes hasn't really effected us. A [turbo 180m] $2+0.20, $7+0.70, and $11+1 becomes $3+0.38, $5+0.43, and $10+0.85. We get a cheaper "discount" but with MTT SNGs, the rake doesn't effect us as much because of the number of players playing means our ROI is gonna be higher then the 45 mans and lower. I'm sure at higher stakes this is going to be better for them, but for me I cant say for them.

STT-wise, the rake has increased. The STT's favourite $15+1 is now a $10+0.85. This is a huge drop in buy in prizepool and a much higher percentage of rake. The STTs are gonna be less beatable then before, but in saying that it is going to be substantially easier to get Supernova and take advantage of the Pokerstars VIP program by risking less money. Now a $1k roll is all you need to be able to get this status! Now more then ever are we gonna be seeing more breakeven regs who are living off rakeback.

Overall, I think these changes are good. The $1, $3, $5, $10 buy in levels make it a lot easier to climb stakes, not a huge jump like the $2s to $7s to $12s. The whole standardization of the blind structures, times, and buy ins all lead to everything being a lot more simple for the average Joe, which is great. It will be interesting to see how these changes effect everything... but Pokerstars is very good at making quick changes if things are right.