Profiling PokerStars Software Updates

In this article, we’ll recap the last few months’ worth of software changes at PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site, and let you know how the alterations will affect you.

In October, there were three major changes made, the first of which was to the normal speed ring game tables.  The site has reduced the time it takes for card dealing, pushing the pot to the winner, and pausing between hands.  These timings are now exactly the same as they are on the fast tables.  The remaining differences between normal and speed tables remained the same.

The second big improvement came to the filters.  Now, there is a “Cap” checkbox in the buy-in section of the ring game filters.  A limit group has been added to the Hold’em ring game filter and a speed section has been added to all tournament filters, including the ones for sit and gos.  The “Turbo” checkbox has been moved there as a result.  There were several checkboxes added to the “Format / Variant” section such as Shootout, Satellite, and Sit and Go.

The last major change in October was the default table theme.  The PokerStars default table was switched from “Classic” to “Black” and players who were using the Classic theme were asked if they wanted to switch.

November represented one of the biggest updates in recent years at PokerStars.  The first major new feature was “Find Seat.”  This feature lets you select a full ring game and, after you sit down, the new button will look for an empty seat at another table of the exact same type as the one you are currently seated at.  This feature was added to the “Session Options” menu, which can be accessed by hitting Ctrl+S.

Bet slider options were added, as the mouse wheel can now be used to move the bet slider without having to select the table first.  Just hover your mouse over the bet slider and any scrolls will affect it.  There are several options for this behavior, as you can choose to increment in small blinds, invert the mouse wheel, or jump the slider to the clicked position instead of by a blind.

The final change to the bet slider was the ability to customize your own bet sizing shortcut buttons.  Those are the small buttons that will display pre-defined pot bet amounts.  These are off by default, but you can turn them on within the Options > Bet Slide Options section.

A bar will now show up next to the Time Bank button that will run down as your time to act expires.  The time bank button has been adjusted to show you whether it is activated and there are bar counter and numerical countdown timers.

A feature that many have asked for came true in November when a detached chat box was offered. There is an option to auto-detach the window for newly opened tables. There is also a “merged” mode when you are playing at more than one table.

Another big feature added was tournament summaries saved to your hard drive.  This makes entering data from playing in a tournament an automated task if you use one of the popular hand history tracking programs like Holdem Manager or PokerTracker.  This needs to be turned on from the Options > Tournament Summary Options area of the lobby.  There was also a sit and go auto-close option that will initiate once a tournament ends and the table will silently close in the background.

There were a couple of filter improvements, the first being “Advanced Filter Group for Ring Games,” which allows you to filter by minimum players seated, average pot, average stack, VPIP, Players/Flop, and Hands/Hour.  The sit and go filter now allows you to sort by players currently registered and by number of total entrants.  Finally, there is now an “Apply Layout to Active Monitor” option that will help you arrange tables if you use a multi-monitor setup and options menu regrouping.

In December, a few new things popped up at PokerStars including font changes.  Ring games you are waitlisted on will be in blue, bold, and italics.  Ring games that you are seated at will be red, bold, and italics. Tournaments that you are part of will show the “State” column in red, bold, and italics.

There are also now volume sliders for all PokerStars sounds.  Also introduced was a bracket for heads-up tournaments, which shows the pairings of opponents and how the tournament has progressed. The last new feature was a game that combines No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha.

Home Games were added in January, which are designed to let you create and manage your own private poker club.  There is now also a customizable VIP club progress bar so you can choose between Stellar Rewards and Milestones or VIP Level to track your progress.  Finally, automatic seating when you accept a seat from a wait list was added.  This way, you will be automatically seated and don’t have to click on a reserved seat anymore.

Visit PokerStars today.