The latest in a line of innovative online poker variants from PokerStars looks like it will be called “Unfold.”

Details on how Unfold will work are scanty, but as it says on the box, it looks like the game will give players an option to unfold their hand at some point in the action.

The existence of the new game was alluded to in a PokerStars tweet early on Monday morning

A few hours later, the PokerStars blog announced the retirement of Showtime Hold’em from the cash game lobby, concluding with another enigmatic hint:

“But, as one game steps down, the crew of poker remixologists at PokerStars finish cooking up something new to add to the rotation. No comment for now, but we reserve the right to reverse that statement – or Unfold it, if you will – very soon.”

And then kudos to Pokerfuse, it did some digging and was able to make some educated guesses about how the new game will work.

Variations on a theme

The previous new games that PokerStars has released in this way have all taken the basic game of Texas Hold’em and added a minor tweak to make things more interesting.

The simple tweak that created Showtime was to leave all folded cards face up for the duration of the hand.

At the time, Dan Price, PokerStars ring games manager explained:

“Will conservative players be forced to loosen up to avoid being labelled as nits? Will aggressive players still be able to represent strong hands with multiple cards exposed? Will you keep bluffing the opponent folding big hands… until they catch on?”

So with Unfold, the tweak should be in giving a player who has folded the option to get back into the hand.

Based on a look at the images and file names, Pokerfuse speculates that the new game will add an extra street which will be an “Unfold round.” Exactly when the extra round will appear, whether it will be available in every hand or be randomly allocated is unknown.

What price the option to unfold?

The option to be able to unfold after seeing the flop or any other street, is an incredibly valuable advantage. That’s the sort of option valuation that investment bankers struggle over even with some pretty advanced math tools.

It will be interesting to see how PokerStars handles the quid pro quo—for surely players won’t just be given the option for free. There may be a cash payment required to be allowed to unfold, or perhaps some handicap is imposed such as restricting the possible winnings to bets taken after the hand is unfolded.

The uncertainty and bluffing that makes poker such a fascinating game looks to be preserved with the unfold option.

Players will quickly work out that in order to maximize their value, they will have to mix in bluffs as well as made hands when deciding to unfold. There should be a game theoretical solution to how often a player should unfold as a bluff.

More innovations on the way

One of the advantages that online poker has over live poker is that operators can use technology to change the game in ways which would be impossible in a live game.

Perhaps the two biggest game innovations brought to market by the poker operators have been fast fold games and lottery style sit and go tournaments.

Fast fold games automatically move a player to a new table and new hand as soon as he folds a hand. A physical impossibility in a casino.

Games like the PokerStars Spin & Go offer random prize pools with games lasting only a few minutes. They work because the statistics work for large volumes of games.

Both poker variants have made the operators substantial profits. More importantly, they have served to introduce poker to a broader audience that doesn’t have the patience to sit through several hours of a traditional online multi-table tournament.

PokerStars is actively looking to find the next blockbuster poker game that will have real mass appeal.

PokerStars Director of Poker Innovation and Operation, Severin Rasset explained:

“The common goal of these innovations is [to] continue to maintain a high level of engagement from our active players, to reactivate players that may be tired of playing poker as it is today, and to speak to potential players that haven’t discovered the game yet.”.

VIP Changes promised investment in innovation

When PokerStars revamped its VIP program a couple of years ago, high volume regular players lost a lot of value when benefits were refocused towards recreational players.

At the time, PokerStars explained that part of the savings would be spent on game innovation. That didn’t look like much compensation to players who were making their living from playing online poker.

However, those same regular players should now be benefiting from their ability to work out profitable strategies that give them an early advantage in the new variants that PokerStars is putting out.

Unfold is coming soon, but a full launch will probably have to wait for the next rotation of the cash game offer. Showtime Hold’em retires today, Fusion will probably replace it, with Unfold following after that.

With effect from July 17, players at PokerStars.it will be restricted to playing a maximum of six cash game tables simultaneously.

The decision was announced in a blog post by Severin Rasset, The Stars Group’s Director of Poker Innovation and Operations.

Players complain that games are too slow

Rasset explained that one of the most frequent comments he has received is that “the games are too slow due to opponents taking too long to act.”

PokerStars carried out some research to find out if this was the result of players multi-tabling rather than focusing on a single table. Surprisingly, the research found that the average time to act was around the same for single tablers and multi-tablers, “with multi-tablers even acting slightly faster than average in some situations.”

The devil is always in the detail. On closer examination PokerStars found that although the multi-tablers’ average reaction time was about the same, this average was distorted by the distribution of action times.

“But, multi-tablers’ deviation from this average is much higher. Or, in plain English, they act fast on average but can suddenly slow down drastically on all their tables. If you are a multi-tabler yourself, you will know why this happens: when there is an important decision to make at a table, all other tables must wait. And, of course, the more tables being played the more frequently this situation can happen.”

The average time to act may be the same, but from the perspective of the other players at the tables, the experience of playing with a multi-tabler is frustrating.

High volume players will be most affected

The table caps will apply to regular cash game tables with caps for other games such as Zoom remaining the same.

The limit of six tables has been chosen because Rasset says that 99.7 percent of players play six tables or less. Nonetheless, he acknowledges that this change will upset some players:

“I am acutely aware that behind this percentage, we have players with a personal story. Some of them might rely on poker for a living. I understand that this announcement will not be seen as good news by these players and that facing such a radical change will be difficult.”

For the highest volume players, those playing 16, 20, or 24+ tables the six table limit will have a drastic impact. Rasset expresses his hope that when limited to six tables these players will focus more and therefore win more.

He makes no mention of the importance of volume based VIP scheme rewards which form an important part of any professional player’s income.

PokerStars has been reducing these rewards over the last five years or so, in an attempt to re-engineer their player ecology to create a better playing experience for casual players.

This strategy has worked out well for the company, at least financially. Stars Group CEO Rafi Ashkenazi has praised the impact of the VIP scheme changes during both quarterly and annual earnings calls.

Liquidity is unlikely to be an issue

Rasset explained that the test will be evaluated by the changes seen in the deviation from the average time to act, plus any feedback that PokerStars receives from players.

What Rasset did not mention was any impact on liquidity. For most poker sites, multi-tabling by a minority of players helps to fill tables that would otherwise run shorthanded or not at all.

Liquidity is important for online poker operators because casual players can be deterred from playing if they can’t find a seat at a table at the stakes and game variant that they prefer. They also tend to leave tables which become short-handed.

PokerStars has the largest player base of any poker operator, so liquidity is a much less important issue for their poker room. Nonetheless, liquidity in the Italian regulated market is limited.

Cash game traffic at PokerStars.it currently averages around 600 occupied seats. This figure will reduce with the implementation of the new policy. The question is by how much, and whether the reduction actually matters either in terms of revenue, or quality of the player experience.

Given PokerStars’ dominance in the market, the trial may well be a success in Italy, at least in terms of reducing unpleasant delays in the action.

So long as there is no concomitant reduction in liquidity that deters casual players, the.com and .EU PokerStars sites, which share a player pool can expect the same limitation to be imposed when the experiment ends.

PokerStars has already awarded a staggering number of $30,000 Platinum Passes to the 2019 PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold’em Championship (PSPC) but there is much more to come.

The online gaming giant is enlisting the aid of its PokerStars Ambassadors to award the next batch of passes in something called the Platinum Pass Adventure.

Jason Somerville, Jaime Staples, Andre Akkari, Felix Schneider, Fintan Hand, Benj Spragg, Liv Boeree and Igor Kurganov were all charged with creating unique ways to award the next set of passes and they’ve outdone themselves with some of the most interesting contests ever seen in the poker world.

Although most Platinum Passes have been handed out to players for poker achievement the Platinum Pass Adventures went a different direction and make it possible to qualify for the 2019 PSPC without playing a single hand of poker.

Somerville launches “Next Great Twitch Streamer”

Jason “Jcarver” Somerville single-handedly changed the poker world when he carved out a unique niche on Twitch and brought poker to a new audience.

Now Somerville is asking players to follow in his footsteps and become the “Next Great Twitch Streamer”.

Contestants will have to log at least 150 hours during the four-month contest period but beyond that, they will have a fair amount of freedom.

Contestants can be amateurs or professionals and they can even play in the play-money games or real-money provided the majority of the action is on PokerStars.

Somerville will select three finalists and then the rest of the PokerStars ambassadors will help decide the ultimate winner. They will judge the contestant based on the criteria of chat interaction, average concurrents, additional hours broadcast, live cashes, presence in Twitch Poker community and the ability to fulfill the role of Twitch Poker Ambassador.

You can opt into the contest by sending your name, Twitch page, country of origin and a short paragraph about yourself to [email protected] by July 27th. The winner will be chosen on Nov. 15, 2018.

Find “Your Ultimate Sweat” with Jaime Staples

Brothers Jaime and Matthew Staples recently completed one of the most audacious prop bets in history by taking a year to get down (or up) so that they weighed roughly the same amount.

That was slightly harder than you might think considering Jaime weighed 305 pounds and Matt weighed 134 to start the challenge. By the time the smoke cleared they both weighed 188, which won them $150,000 from prop-betting extraordinaire Bill Perkins.

Now Jaime Staples is paying it forward by challenging contestants to enter their own Ultimate Sweat.

It doesn’t have to be weight-related this time around and contestants must simply set a goal and document their journey.

“I wish people could have their own Ultimate Sweat experience. Now thanks to PokerStars you can!” said Jaime Staples.

“I am giving away one Platinum Pass to the PokerStars Players Championship and you get to set your own challenge. Lose weight, learn to play Omaha poker, read a book a day, run a marathon. Anything! Submissions open July 1st. Good luck to you all on #myultimatesweat”

Igor, Boeree challenge the mind

PokerStars Ambassadors Igor Kurganov and Liv Boeree are taking a more cerebral approach to the Platinum Pass Adventure and have developed a series of puzzles and tests to challenge each players game theory and critical thinking.

The contest is officially titled “The Next Poker Brain” and the preliminary rounds of multiple choice questions will take place July 18, Aug. 8, Aug. 29 and Sept. 19.

The 10 contestants with the highest total scores will advance to the final on Oct. 3. The exact structure of the final quiz is yet to be determined but the winner will walk away with a $30,000 Platinum Pass package.

“What we’ve always loved most about poker is the strategy of the game and how it constantly challenges you to think deeply,” said Liv Boeree.

“Much of this translates to better decision making in everyday life. So when PokerStars gave us two Platinum Passes to give away to our followers, we immediately knew we wanted to do something around rationality and logic.”

Many paths to 2019 PSPC

The aforementioned promotions are the most high-profile events giving out Platinum Passes but there are plenty of other opportunities to qualify for the enormous PSPC.

Andre Akkari will be giving a pass to a lucky winner who plays the Brasil Series of Poker.

Felix Schneiders will be hosting a monthly nine-handed Sit & Go called “Bro Battle” in Cologne, Germany, where each contestant gets a seat in a special home game on Sept. 2 where the winner walks away with a Platinum Pass.

Fintan Hand and Benj Spragg may have the most abstract of all the Platinum Pass Adventure contests.

Each week the pair has been running unique challenges every day like Photoshop challenges or Lodden thinks or a Lookalike competition.

Each day Hand and Spragg pick winners that receive entry into a final tournament on July 29 that awards a $30,000 Platinum Pass. It just might be the best way for casual poker fans to get a trip to the gargantuan 2019 PokerStars Players Championship.

For those keeping track at home, just over 120 players have picked up Platinum Passes for the 2019 PSPC with plenty more to go. By the time the PSPC takes place in early 2019 there will have been a total of 320 Platinum Passes awarded to players from around the world.

The playing field for Portuguese players on PokerStars got significantly bigger this month.

PokerStars announced that Portugal would finally be joining a player pool that already includes players from Spain and France.

It’s a win for players from every country as they’ll all enjoy a wider selection of games to play. PokerStars is the first operator that has been able to unite the three countries for online poker.

PokerStars is set to host a series of tournaments with millions of Euros in guaranteed prize pools to celebrate the new union.

More games, better rewards

A bigger player pool means more games, bigger prizes, and better rewards for PokerStars players in Portugal, Spain, and France.

The infusion of thousands of Portuguese players should help solidify PokerStars Europe’s position in third on PokerScout’s worldwide traffic report behind only Asian network IDN Poker and the global PokerStars site.

“We have worked hard to become the first operator to bring the benefits of shared liquidity to Portugal. Our players will see a huge increase in the variety and scale of our tournaments and promotions and will enjoy more excitement, more competition and more fun!” said Guy Templer, COO of The Stars Group.

“This dramatically strengthens our offering and demonstrates our commitment to the Portuguese market.

“We look forward to working with the Portuguese regulator to further improve the poker product offering for Portuguese players, and additionally hope that Italy will soon progress so that their players can also enjoy the significantly better experience that shared liquidity brings.”

€5 million Trio Series for PokerStars.eu players

PokerStars is kicking off the newly-unified Portuguese/Spanish/French-facing site with a new Trio Series that will offer €5 million in guarantees spread across 78 events including a €250 Main Event with a €500,000-GTD prize pool.

The Trio Series will run from June 3-13 and buy-ins start at just €1. There will also be a number of freerolls to Trio events for new depositors in Portugal, Spain, and France.

The Trio Series comes hot on the heels of France and Spain’s very own version of the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), which smashed its guarantee of €10 million to hit over €11.7 million awarded to players.

PokerStars Europe also hosted the French Espania Hold’em Series (FRESH), which attracted over 30,000 unique entries and paid out over €6.1 million.

The inclusion of Portuguese players on PokerStars Europe should help boost those numbers even further and create some eye-popping prize pools.

Will Italy be next to join PokerStars Europe?

With Portugal finally onboard with PokerStars Europe, there remains one big outsider: Italy.

The Italian poker market is one of the biggest in Europe but it’s taken a bit of a hit thanks to restrictive legislation in the country. The country passed a digital tax in 2017, which obliges companies to play a three percent levy on some internet transactions.

The Italian PokerStars site ranked slightly below PokerStars.pt according to PokerScout’s traffic reports.

Italy signed a pact with France, Italy, and Portugal last summer with the intention of allowing cross-border play.

Unfortunately, there has been speculation that Italy is second-guessing the commitment over fears of money laundering.

Right now it’s the Italian poker players who are suffering as they have to deal with much smaller player pools and prizes than the rest of Europe.

A legal fumble is threatening to derail the entire case against former Amaya CEO David Baazov and two other men for insider trading relating to Amaya’s purchase of PokerStars back in 2014.

Baazov’s lawyers are alleging that Quebec’s securities regulator — the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) — accidentally shared private information with the defense. Specifically, the AMF is accused of sharing more than 300,000 privileged documents.

The problem is that six weeks into the trial, AMF wants the documents back. Baazov’s defense is calling it an “abusive procedure” and looking to get charges in the case stayed. It’s the third time lawyers have attempted to get the charges tossed.

Baazov faces five charges in total including influencing or attempting to influence the market price of Amaya’s securities.

Defense claims “violation of rights”

Earlier this month lawyers for AMF asked the judge to remove the aforementioned documents from disclosures.

Baazov’s representation quickly responded by filing a motion for a stay of charges for all defendants citing “repeated errors.”

The lawyers claimed that denying access to evidence in the middle of an ongoing trial represented a “violation of their rights”.

The trial is currently in week seven and scheduled to get at least 11 more weeks before the parties complete their proof.

Lawyers from Baazov also represent Benjamin Ahdoot and Yoel Altman. The legal team has already attempted to get the charges dropped two times before.

The first time lawyers moved to have the charges tossed due to an unreasonable delay in getting them to court. The second time lawyers argued the prosecution was late in disclosing evidence.

The judge, Salvatore Mascia, rejected both motions.

Stars Group stock hits record high

When Amaya purchased PokerStars for $4.9 billion in 2014 it instantly became the biggest online poker business in the world. Forbes hailed Baazov as the new “King of Online Gambling”.

The honeymoon didn’t last long. Baazov took an indefinite leave of absence in the spring of 2016 after the AMF filed five charges against him. Specifically, Baazov was accused of sharing private information with investors prior to Amaya’s purchase of PokerStars. The investors then used the information to buy up company stock months before the stock price peaked.

Since then, Rafi Ashkenazi has taken the reins of the company as CEO. He both moved the organization to Toronto and rebranded Amaya as The Stars Group.

Baazov’s ongoing case hasn’t seemed to have much of an effect on the Stars Group. The company just posted another solid annual earnings report thanks in large parts to its efforts to diversify with rapidly expanding casino and sports betting operations.

The Stars Group stock price hit a record-high of $47.30 CAD earlier this month. The company’s stock has been on the rise ever since it announced a potentially game-changing deal to purchase Sky Betting & Gaming for $4.7 billion in April. Stars stock has remained fairly steady over the last seven days hovering around the $46 mark.

It’s easy to forget that Baazov also attempted to take PokerStars private in 2016 but was ultimately unsuccessful. As of 2017, Baazov still owned a four-percent stake in the company, however.

High-profile Baazov case continues

The case against David Baazov continues to make headlines in Canada. Some are calling it the biggest alleged case of insider trading in the country’s history.

Regardless of what happens with the new motion, the AMF has taken some heat over its handling of the high-profile case. Baazov’s lawyers have already filed to get the charges dropped due to delays in the proceedings.

In addition, a rabbi named Momi Pinto sued the AMF for infringing on his family’s rights in a raid that took place in their home. The raid was in relation to the Amaya case.

The judge in the Baazov case, Salvatore Mascia, will consider the new request to stay the charges this Thursday.