PokerStars introduces Split Hold’em and enters India

Last few hours brought two pieces of news from PokerStars. The well known poker room introduced another format, and announced it will be entering the market of India.

Recent days haven't been too good for PokerStars. On May 26th the company introduced higher rake in MTT games, which was criticized by many players. Daniel Negreanu as always tried to show the things optimistically, but he did so so.

Now PokerStars is rolling out another change. It's about a new format known as Split Hold’em. “This is one of many new games we have been working on at PokerStars. We think it will bring new challenges and area to test poker skills somewhere where we are all pioneers”.

The rules in Split Hold’em don't differ much from traditional Texas Hold’em. The biggest innovation is that we have two flops, turns and rivers, and the pot is split. To get it all you have to win on both boards. Currently we have such limits available as 0.02/0.05$ up to 10/20$.

The introduction of Split Hold’em will also be for PokerStars the start of “Seat Me” Global System. It will stop table selection and using scripts.

India
The country with 1.3 billion citizens is a great target for poker rooms. So far only national operators were offering their games there, but it's soon about to change.

PokerStars announced it will start operating in India next month. Exact date is April 17th. To do it PS has to start cooperation with Sugal&Damani, online gambling company that operates in India.

As we read in the press note, PokerStars India will be available in most states (there are 29 of them) where online gambling games for real money are legal. Players from other states will be blocked.

Games will be available both on PC and mobile applications. If you're hoping millions of players will join the global pool, you're mistaken. The room has already informed that PokerStars India will be separated from other markets. It's a similar solution that has been applied till january 16th in Spain, Portugal, Italy and France.

All games on Indian PokerStars will be played out in rupees, of course with all most popular formats and tables. PokerStars also promises local versions of Sunday Million and World Championship of Online Poker.

It's worth adding that there are more than one thousand professional poker players in India nowadays. In 2016 “The Economic Times” informed that online poker market in India is worth 120 million dollars.

This seem to punish hands with polarized river values like PPs or suied connectors and favor hands that make pairs, sounds like a very nitty game

seems like the point of this is to create many split pots which favor stars. If you have a strong hand on board 1 your opponents will be more likely by far to beat you on board 2 due to card removal.

They should even charge full rake for every board dealt, and they have a dream game on their hands. If you were ever tired of splitting pots and paying rake, it's probably not for you. They aren't even trying to be subtle for some time now.

I've played some 2 board in home games, and it is fun, but first thought I had about this is how often pots are getting split and stars is still taking all the rake.