Poker in the News — Weekly Round-up for February 22, 2019
By Brian Cullingworth, Last updated Feb 22, 2019
Pokerstars Cuts Mtt Reward Points By 55 Percent
The reduction will enable us to place even more focus were we know it matters most, Poker Innovation and Operations Director says
A PokerStars blog post has received mixed response from players detailing a cut in multi-table tournament (MTT) rewards of 55 percent effective February 15, 2019.
The rewards point earning rate for scheduled tournaments has changed from 100 reward points for every $/£ 1 in tournament fees paid to 45 points.
All other formats are unaffected, the blog post reads.
“This is a reduction in the overall amount of rewards some players will receive, but made in an area that we believe will have the least impact on their experience and enable us to place even more focus where we know it matters most,” Severin Rasset, Director of Poker Innovation and Operations for PokerStars said.
Later in the year, the company intends rolling out several improvements to the Stars Rewards programme which it says are based on customer feedback. The following areas will be changed:
The value of Stars Rewards Chests will be more than tripled, while the frequency of earning them reduced by a similar factor.
The boost feature will be removed and the majority of the value customers earned from the boost “transferred” to the value of the Chests.
The implementation of new, simpler rules on how customers move up and down the six Chests levels. Moving up a Chest level will be achieved by earning 10 Chests over a rolling 28-day period and every progress bar will have a 28-day expiry to complete, after which the Chest level will move down.
The implementation of a new ‘Exchange’ feature which will give players the option to trade in their partial progress for an immediate reward.
Roberts First Woman To Win US Poker Open
Takes home title and $218,400 first prize
Lauren Roberts became the first woman to win a U.S. Poker Open title, and marked her first live tournament career win, when she defeated Koray Aldemir heads up in Event #3 – $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em to win $218,400.
Roberts outplayed a field of 91 entries including well known poker pros Stephen Chidwick, Sean Winter, Brandon Adams, and Erik Seidel.
Top nine finishers were:
1) Lauren Roberts – $218,400
2) Koray Aldemir – $159,250
3) Stephen Chidwick – $113,750
4) Brandon Adams – $91,000
5) Sean Winter – $72,800
6) Ralph Wong – $54,600
7) Rodger Johnson – $45,500
8) Jerry Robinson – $36,400
9) Alex Foxen – $27,300
Chidwick On A Heater At 2019 US Poker Open
Clinches second win of the series
Englishman Stephen Chidwick has won his second 2019 US Poker Open title of the 2019 series and the fourth in the US Poker Open tournament overall after making nine of a possible fifteen final tables.
Chidwick took down the $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha event for $351,000 after defeating Cary Katz heads up.
“I’m kind of expecting to wake up at some point, and winning is definitely not getting old. This is a lot of fun,” Chidwick said after the win.
The poker pro who has accumulated over $ 22 million in total live career earnings, also won the first event of the series $10,000 No Limit Hold’em, pocketing the $216,000 first prize. He finished third in event 3 for $113,750 and 6th in event 4 for $25,200.