Hey,
I've always played on Stars, the mtt's are great, the playerpools are great and the software is great. But as you all know, they have changed their rakeback to suit 'causals' which is fine, but I class myself as a casual player now and after spending hundreds on mtt's, I get back a few bucks at best? No thanks.
Any suggestions on where to play now? Stars lack of care for it's players is beyond me now.
Hey Matt,
Personally, I usually consider 888 and Party to be the best alternatives to Stars. Problem is, while 888 may have a pretty good MTT schedule, their rakeback system is probably just as bad as the one at Pokerstars (but unlike Stars, they were always bad at this), so it wouldn't really solve anything.
I've never played on PartyPoker before, but I've been told that their MTTs are good, and many of my horses have included them in their schedules. I have also heard that they at least claim to focus more on "players who start games and keep the action going” in their rewards system, no idea whether or not they actually do. Obviously, I can't say anything about their software either.
The fact is that the entire world of online poker is changing lately, and there is little we can do as players except put up with it.
Rakeback is hardly a consideration in MTTs since the ROI in them is alot higher than the rake which is a flat 10% (or less), so you dont lose alot of money from rake playing MTTs.
The lowest rake and the fishiest players are in GGNetwork (Natural8). 5% rake in MTTs and an option to buy/sell action. The $T builders doesnt even have rake... You also get 30% EV rakeback in a form of a roulette with prizes. Also, you start with 200BBs and theres ante from the beginning.
If you talk about SnGs, then you should definitely change from stars, but I dont know what site is best for them
For cash-games the best sites are on the Microgaming network (Unibet, Betsafe, Betsson) - the rake has the lowest cap of all the networks. The most you can rake in a hand is 3bb. And you get 30% rakeback for life if you sign up through the right refferal (otherwise you will have to level up). If you are a fan of HU cash this is the best place. The rake is capped at 1bb and there are microstakes HU tables.
The annoying thing is that they removed the sitout on next bb option, so you will have to wait for the right time to sitout before the bb hits you and if you use a HUD you will gather only the hands and stats that you put chips in the pot.
There are also MTTs there that start deep-stacked and have long blind levels, IDK what the playerpool is like skill-wise though...
For HUSnG, Tigergaming has the lowest rake of 5% for micros.
I hope I helped! 
