Good morning.
As you may know, there was a scheduled outage overnight, to implement some changes to Sportsbook & Poker.
The changes to Poker were partly to prepare the site for major & exciting enhancements a little further down the line, & partly for changing some of the existing products.
It's mostly "detail" this time, correcting existing anomolies which have existed for a while, & changing things around to make them, on balance, fairer.
Bear with me, & I'll list the changes one by one.
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Cash Table "Buy-In" levels.
The minimum buy-in on all regular Cash Tables has been increased from 10 x BB (BB = "Big Blinds") to 20 x BB.
The default buy-in* has increased from 40 x BB to 60 x BB.
* What is the default buy-in? When you open a cash Table, UNLESS you type in your own choice, you are "defaulted" to a certain amount, previously 40 BB, now 60BB. Remember, you do NOT have to accept the default buy-in, you can type in any amount you wish, between 20x BB & 100 x BB, it's your choice completely.
As an example.....
On a regular 25p-50p Cash Table, the minimum buy-in WAS £5 (10 x 50p BB), it is now £10 (20 x 50p BB).
The MAXIMUM buy-in is unchanged, @ £50.
The DEFAULT buy-in goes up from £20 to £30.
You still have the right & ability to manually type in any amount between the minimum & maximum.
Note; - Action Tables, Deep Stack Tables, & Master Cash Tables are NOT affected by these changes in any way.
"Action" Cash Table Limits
These have now been extended to include Action Tables @ the 5p-5p level.
On "Action Tables" there is no Small Blind - BOTH the Blinds pay a "Big Blind". This generates more action, as there is more dead money in the pot pre-flop.
Any hints on what some of the exciting changes are going to be down the line?
Happy Hours
The "Happy Hours" introduced recently will continue as previous, however they will now be extended to cover ALL Cash Table Limits. This includes 2p-4p, 4p-8p, & the new 5p-5p.
During "Happy Hours" you get a 50% "Cash 4 Points" boost.
Sky Poker "Happy Hours" take place 7 days per week at these times.....
"Lunchtime" - 1pm - 2pm
"Evening" - 6pm - 7pm
"Late Night" - 11pm - Midnight.
Additionally, from time to time, additional Happy Hours will be scheduled.
Details of Sky Poker Happy Hours are HERE
Poker Points
The Poker Points awarded for cash games have been restructured to iron out anomolies, & make them fairer across the board.
Some have decreased, some have increased, overall the change is neutral.
Details of the new Poker Points at various levels are shown in detail HERE
Yes, all these changes start with immediate effect, they were changed during the scheduled outage.
Prefer not to be too specific as to "what & when", as experience tells us that it'll be like a stick to beat us with!
Most of them have been well trailed on here for some time, & some of them were on display - for those who showed interest - at SPT Luton.
The final pieces of the jigsaw are now in sight, although there will always be enhancements & new Products.
thanks for the reply, good news about the happy hour but gutted to see poker points decreased for the nl4 level.
That was wrong, & it had to be corrected.
Some players will approve, some not so much.......!
Eg 20NL tables were 5 points per 20 hands and only increased to 7 during happy hour, if this is still the case then 4NL players are still effectively out of happy hour!
I seen firstly that the 'happy hours' had extended to NL4 to great excitement, but after further reading of other implementations, even during these happy hours we NL4 players will be receiving less points for our play than we was doing in normal time this time last week.
Firstly less cash for our points start of year, now further decreases when it comes to C4P. Undecided wether to step up to NL10 where I will be more favourably treated or give up cash game poker completely and occasionally top up £10 for the odd £2 tourney.
Its a shame the same scheme that attracted me to cash game poker is gradually driving me away. Here the drawbacks far outweigh the advantages and as a regular player at NL4 i am a very frustrated customer.
Good luck with the future ideas, hopefully my interest can be regained after the changes! Arron.
Edit: it seems every change has no actual benefits to NL4 as a whole, how far will this go before C4P is completley removed for NL4 players for example. Oh well C4P's or none Sky will still get plenty of gamblers from betting section chucking there money around, until that stops, these changes will continue. Business is Business.
i fully understand any reasoning the suits have behind this and in no way having a go at yourself or anyone else. im just disappointed with this but its just another obstacle to overcome.
IMO if you are at 4nl - 10nl you should be focused on improving your game and winning money through actually beating opponents and not increasing your bankroll through C4Ps, this is not purely directed at you nor is it exclusive at 4nl, sure getting even £5 back is nice but if you are relying on this then you are not focusing enough on the poker.