PokerStars Software Update Released

Whether you're a Mac or a Windows user, nothing will stop you from signing onto the world's largest online poker site, PokerStars. The hardest working developers in the business offer a fully-downloadable client for Mac users, one of only two sites with this capability (Full Tilt Poker is the other). Recently, PokerStars rolled out a software update that has had the poker world buzzing. Massive threads have developed across the marquee online poker forums talking about what's included in the update to their favorite site. Let's catch the readers of PokerSoftware.com up to speed on what you can expect from this latest PokerStars software update.

Private Tournaments

Private tournaments can now be created for more game types. Want to challenge your friends to high-stakes Stud? Not a problem. What about just typical No Limit Texas Hold'em? That's possible too. In total, it's a breeze to create private tournaments on PokerStars. I'm amazed that this capability doesn’t exist on every online poker site. Not surprisingly, some rooms tout the ability to create private tournaments as a special feature in order to lure in new business. It is in high demand.

Western European Time Zone

The site now adopts Western European Time, or WET. This replaces Greenwich Mean Time, or GMT. According to a thread on TwoPlusTwo, the reason for the switch was to take into account Daylight Savings Time. In the U.S., clocks were rolled ahead one hour about two weeks ago after Congress mandated the early change.

Bug Fixes

If there's one thing you can count on, it's that when you play on PokerStars, your experience will be nearly bug-free. Think about it. I'm writing this article around 6:00pm Eastern Time on a weekday, approaching prime time on PokerStars and other sites that cater to U.S. customers. There are 195,000 total players online and 7,900 tournaments running. If one little bug was able to get loose on Stars, thousands upon thousands of players would be affected. According to the online poker forum, bug fixes were implemented for the hand replayer, automatic rebuying option, and waiting list feature. These should now work smoother than ever.

Changes to Find a Team PokerStars Player

A few "minor" changes have been made in this department. Members of Team PokerStars Pro are gearing up for All-Star Week, where they will take on members of the site in heads-up matches. It's sure to be an interesting experience for the PokerStars laymen who will battle against Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem, Chris Moneymaker, Vanessa Rousso, Daniel Negreanu, and others heads-up. Those five alone represent three World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event Champions, the runner up in the 2009 National Heads-Up Poker Championship, and arguably the most popular player in the world of poker. Other than that, they really haven’t done anything.

Many have called for a windfall of Deep-Stack games to be introduced on PokerStars, following a recent industry trend. In fact, The Venetian just released the schedule for its quarterly Deep Stack Extravaganza that runs concurrently with the WSOP. The Borgata has also announced a major deep stack tournament. In total, the event type has exploded worldwide. The 2009 WSOP will feature triple starting stacks for all players. A PokerStars representative explained on TwoPlusTwo, "I'm not saying that PokerStars actively seeks to protect weak players, but it's not smart for us to cater to strong players at the expense of everybody else. Cardrooms did that in the past and No Limit and Pot Limit ring games almost died out. I think we have quite a good balance right now."

The PokerStars Sunday Million is the largest recurring online poker tournament held, guaranteeing a $1.5 million prize pool every week. The $215 buy-in tournament kicks off at 4:30pm ET and regularly attracts over 8,000 players. It's one of the rare opportunities to turn $200 into life-changing money.

Check out PokerStars today.

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