PokerStars Ups Maximum Zoom Poker Tables to Eight

According to a report on Pokerfuse, the maximum number of Zoom Poker tables that can be opened at one time on PokerStars has been increased to eight. Pokerfuse explained the change: "Previously, players were limited to 24 tables at once, and a single Zoom table counted for four regular tables. This meant only six Zoom tables could be played at the same time. But, following yesterday's change, a Zoom table now just counts for three regular tables, permitting up to eight Zoom tables – if a player can keep up."

Zoom Poker was introduced in mid-March on the world's largest online poker room and has been a hit ever since. The concept is similar to Rush Poker on the old Full Tilt.

Players are fed into a pool and as soon as their action in a hand ends, they are taken to a brand new table with a new set of opponents where a new hand begins. PokerStars players can enter up to four times in any Zoom pool.

According to the traffic ranking site PokerScout, PokerStars is the largest cash game site in the world and holds down a seven-day running average of 27,600 real money ring game players. Its 24-hour peak is nearly double that number. Zoom Poker allows players to achieve VIP milestones faster and, at the same time, has caused PokerStars' cash game traffic to rise 11% year-over-year.

The reviews from members of the poker forum PocketFives have been largely positive thus far, with one U.K. player reporting, "Zoom Poker as been quite kind to me so far, though I was down $100 this week. Today, I was two-tabling and turned $50 into $360. You have to know when to call it a day. It's the type of game where you say, 'One more hand and I'm finished' and then you're still playing an hour later."

Also as part of its most recent software update, PokerStars rolled out table customizations, which allows users to change the felt color in each PokerStars theme. This beta feature is still a work in progress, as PokerStars officials explained, "Initially, all Nova, Black, Classic, and Slick themes will support this functionality, but we will expand it to all themes around mid-May. We also plan to add more functionality to make it even easier to get the table look and feel that is perfect for you."

Hold'em and Omaha play money games recently received table groupings in the PokerStars lobby, and PokerStars plans to roll this feature out to real money games in the near future. PokerStars revealed, "To this end, we will release a feature that groups together all ring game tables of the same type. Clicking 'Seat Me' will quickly place you at a table with an available seat from this group of tables. You can also click the '+' icon to expand each group and see individual tables."

PokerStars had added a "Fold and Watch" button to Zoom Poker tables, which allows you to fold your hand and then watch the action at the click of a mouse. There's also now a button to shuttle yourself to the next hand, which eliminates any and all downtime.

PokerStars has added an auto-refresh of the "Stats" and "Info" tabs: "The 'Stats' and 'Info' tabs on the tables will now automatically refresh after each hand. This has freed up some space, so we are adding 'X places paid' for tournaments. Please let us know what you would find most useful in this tab for both ring games and tournaments." This sounds like it will be a fluid feature of the PokerStars client.

Finally, the software gurus at PokerStars have added two new hotkeys – "Activate Next/Previous Table" and "Zoom Fold and Watch" – which will give players even more functionality online.

Don't forget that PokerStars offers fully featured downloadable clients for Mac and Windows machines. Sign up for PokerStars today.