It’s beginning to look as if boycotting PokerStars isn’t a particularly effective tool for convincing the online poker giant to change their VIP policies. This revelation comes as he second organized boycott of the company in a month failed miserably.
The most recent PokerStars boycott by high-stakes players was set to take effect on January 1 and about 1,600 players signed a pledge promising to participate. While the site did see a slight decline in traffic on January 1, it’s been business as usual ever since. (Apparently a New Year’s resolution to boycott PokerStars is doomed to the same fate as a resolution to exercise and eat less cake.)
The motivation behind the boycotts is a recent change in PokerStars’ VIP policy that seriously reduced the amount of rakeback that went to high stakes players.
That particular change was just one of many moves that PokerStars, and other online poker operators have been making lately in an effort to make the poker ecosystem a friendlier place for casual players. Besides reducing
Not surprisingly, these moves have met with resistance from the legion of poker professionals who make a living preying on casual players.
While the boycotts themselves haven’t been all that effective, there have been a few high-profile players who simply left the site entirely, including Ike Haxton and Alex Miller.
In a recent posting on 2+2, Miller explained his action saying:
As a four time Supernova Elite, I know what it takes to rake 1M VPP in a year. It’s a tough grind. For most of the players who do it, it is an all-consuming commitment more intense than most full time jobs.
While Miller is correct in his assessment of life in the online poker world, he’s also unlikely to change the minds of poker operators who rely on casual players to keep their businesses afloat.
More boycotts are planned for later this year.