PokerStars players are either going to love or hate the recent new changes to its software to speed up dealing. For fans of speed, well, they have to be pumped because a lot of the games just got even faster! And due to player feedback, it looks like a good amount of the players will be fans.
The biggest change comes in the Hyper Turbo Sit & Go tournaments. The games previously had a 16 second time limit to act but now it’s been moved to only 12 seconds. On top of this, a few other changes have been made to speed things up including dealing cards once both players are all-in and time taken between each hand.
All other Sit & Go tournaments have had changes as well to increase speed, but not quite as big as the Hyper Turbos. Regular speed Sit & Gos will have 16 seconds to act on their hand which is a decrease of 2 seconds. The time for a tournament to start will also be reduced from when everyone has signed up and sat at their table.
The other tournament formats will also been given changes. Hyper-turbo satellites will have the same rules at the Hyper Turbo Sit & Gos. When players are all-in, the community cards will be dealt twice as fast. There are also a few other time reducers for tournaments, but expect these changes to be made periodically throughout the weeks.
Ring games will see the same similar changes. Cards dealt after an all-in will be dealt twice as fast. The start of a new hand will be increased by a second. The delay when the first hand of a session is dealt at a table used to be 15 seconds, but has been changed to only 10 seconds now. PokerStars admits that ring game changes will not be too significant in relation to the number of hands player per hour, however. Either way, all these changes make for a much faster poker experience. If you are a fan, go out there today. If you aren’t, try it out and see if a speedy game actually is what you were looking for.