PokerStars Adds Chat Emoticons

If you've played on PokerStars in recent days, then you know about the all-new chat emoticons that have been added. A variety of emoticons exist within the chat area, including a standard smiley face, a wink, a shocked face, an embarrassed face, and a crying face for when that dreaded bad beat rolls around.

If you know PokerStars, then you know the site wouldn't be content with just the standard lineup of emoticons. Other icons you can bust out while playing on the world's largest online poker room include a thumbs up, a thumbs down, a picture of a stack of money, heart, and a broken heart. We're not sure when PokerStars turned into a dating site, but if you find the love of your life while posting the big blind online, then the heart and broken heart should come in handy.

PokerStars also added the following three "hidden" emoticons, which are only accessibly by typing in the following series of characters on your keyboard. These remind us of the "secret menu" at In-N-Out Burger and are sure to develop a cult-like following:

Fish: <'))><
Donkey: &-B
Shark: (^^^)

PokerStars has changed several areas of its main lobby, specifically filters. As text found in a Two Plus Two post explains, "We are improving the visibility of the elements that are below the list of games right now, i.e. filters and 'Show registering/upcoming' button, by bringing them to be above the list of games. For the 'Tourney' tab, we are also bringing out the text search to be outside the filters as a separate search field." Each filter has a green switch to toggle it on and off.

Forthcoming to PokerStars is a brand new deck of cards, which will be unveiled to the world in the TestPokerStars client sometime this month. The front and back of the cards have a very sleek, easy-to-read look to them. The lettering on the cards is painfully simple to read and it's a four-color deck.

As text on the same poker forum reads, "The deck will be only in four-color variant and the emphasis has been on simpler front and back of the deck. We are planning to release this to RM clients with the September client updates." If you have any difficulties whatsoever in reading the cards on PokerStars, you'll surely enjoy this deck quite a bit.

Other features that PokerStars' development team is currently working on include a filter for GBP currency games and a visual table customization for PokerStars' Mac client. Given that PokerStars has a handful of clients, including several regional variants and its main dot-com software, its officials cautioned, "The above changes would only take effect once your gaming client has been updated, which could happen at different times for different players. Please ensure you are running PokerStarsUpdate.exe to get the update."

According to PokerScout, which keeps tabs on online poker ring game traffic, PokerStars is the busiest poker site in existence. It has a seven-day running average of 23,600 cash game players and a 24-hour peak of well over 32,000. It has nearly 10 times the cash game traffic of its next closest competitor, the iPoker Network. Its major tournaments, generous player promotions, and stable of well-respected pros have kept PokerStars out in front of the poker industry.

Sign up for PokerStars to take advantage of the site's brand new features!