Russian players suspended

The fact that you check the zoom pool for Russian flags makes me enjoy life and delay suicide.

Maybe he's doing it, because he expect most Russian players are bad players, but hopefully this isn't taking to long. It all depends on the situation in the Ukraine, but I expect it will take a while to make a end of the situation there.

Cheers,
SDK1987

I was in the lobby trying to figure out why the PLO5 game had no players at the time, and looking for the usual names in the PLO10 and PLO25 lobbies, and it hit me that there were no Russian flags showing.

It seems to have prompted an influx of new names to the Zoom games, so not sure whether people are coming to Stars thinking the games will now be softer without the Russian players.

Even without the ban, the ability for them to get funds on and off the site would have been restricted by the wider sanctions so I suspect it will be a while before they return, as there seems to be little likelihood of a cessation of hostilities.

I did like that one of the regulars had switched his avatar to a "Say No To War" icon prior to him disappearing. Something of a bold statement on his part at the time.

I did not come to a conclusion if it is good or bad that the russians are banned. There are a lot of bad fishes but also some good regs.

A reg will play 4 zoom tables but a fish probably only 1. Is the russian reg to russian fish ratio more or less than 4:1?

Originally posted by hanz007
I did not come to a conclusion if it is good or bad that the russians are banned.

Banning or otherwise restricting players (e.g. limiting them to only certain formats, like MTTs only) for any reason other than illegal behavior is pretty much always bad. Many times, it can't be helped, because it happens due to local regulations - which arguably do more harm than good in the first place too, but that's another thing.

It's obviously bad for the players who are no longer able to join, but the shrinking player pool also tends to harm other players, especially if such a large player base like the one from Russia is cut off. Also, keep in mind that not only recreational players are affected by this, some Russian players may rely on poker returns as part of their income too.

I hardly played any poker at all this week, so this is actually the first time I heard about this, and I'm not aware of the entire background behind this decision. I hope that this will only last for a short time, though, and that the Russians will be back at the tables soon.

Originally posted by hanz007
Is the russian reg to russian fish ratio more or less than 4:1?

You mean 1:4 right? I feel it's more like 1:20, but then again I am not sure about cash games.

Party Poker cash games have gotten much softer all of a sudden.

Originally posted by arthurbentley
Party Poker cash games have gotten much softer all of a sudden.

That's good news for you. To bad I can't play there anymore with the Dutch regulation rules on the moment.

That's good news for you. Too bad I can't play there anymore with the Dutch regulation rules on the moment.

You should be happy, your country cares for you.

I guess so, but I always played with money I won with freerolls.