Back in the games after a 2 month poker vacation!

And it's good to be back! I've been very busy with RL these past 2 months, with my master's degree taking most of my time. A lot has a changed on Pokerstars lately, and that meant some good news and bad news for me personally.

Of course, the worse news is the very significant VPP/hand drop. I'm down to about 0.18VPP/hand at 100NL, about 25% less than before. However, there have been a lot of significant benefits to these changes. First of all, they gave me an extra month to focus on getting started with school, so thanks Pokerstars! I realize the extra month you can take off is insignificant for most Supernovas but for me it was quite a nice boon. 

They also reduced the monthly VPP requirement to 6500, so about 14% less. Doesn't quite make up for the VPP loss per hand so i'll still have to grind more than before per month to keep Supernova, but it's not that bad. You also don't need to reach 100,000VPP this year if you're already a Supernova, so I can basically grind only 6500VPP/month until the end of the year and still keep it going into 2013. I may or may not need this but as a mostly "casual" player now, it's always nice to have the option.

But the two major benefits i've noticed are these ; first of all, a significant rake reduction (roughly 10% across the board with a slightly dropped rake cap at 100NL, not bad at all!). This should help my small winrate which is always nice, especially since i'll need to play more hands/month. The other thing i've noticed is that the number of shortstack leechers has dramatically dropped. I only played a quick 2500 hands session today so take it for what it's worth, but that's still amazing news for game quality!

Overall I think the changes were necessary, especially considering Zoom poker is just around the corner. To have the Zoom pool polluted with 8/6s and leeching shortstackers would have made for some unfun/bad games all around, so overall this was a much needed change by Pokerstars. With all that they've given to make up for it, i'd say things are looking good for 2012, and i'm pretty psyched to be back in the games. Best of luck to you sicko grinders that are still going for Supernova Elite, and see you at the tables!