PokerStars Software News
PokerStars prides itself in never growing complacent. We always want to get better. Our programmers work every day to build new and exciting features for you to use in the PokerStars software. This page details some of the most recent upgrades to your PokerStars experience.
August 2009
* New Game – Mixed Hold’em / Omaha – Also known as ‘Round of Each’ or ‘HA’, in this new mixed format the game alternates between Hold’em and Omaha. In tournaments, the game changes each level and in ring games, the game changes every 9 hands. This game is part of the 2009 World Championship of Online Poker schedule and can be found in the ‘Other Games’ > ‘Mixed Games’ > ‘PLH/PLO’ lobby.
* Synchronised Tournament Breaks – Some multi-table tournaments on PokerStars now feature ‘synchronised’ breaks. Instead of going on breaks after certain intervals during play, all of these tournaments will go on break at 55 minutes past each hour. For example, a tournament that begins at 16:30 will go on break at 16:55, 17:55, 18:55 and so on.
Tournaments that use Synchronised Breaks are marked in two ways. First, if the tournament is selected in the main lobby, the side information panel will show ‘The tournament goes on break at 55 minutes past the hour’:
Secondly, the ‘Breaks’ area of the ‘Tournament Info’ window will also show this information:
* Further Improvements to Extended Registration – The length of extended registration is now shown in the ‘Tournament Info’ dialog, and we’ve improved some technical aspects of the system.
June - July 2009
* Auto Add-On for Rebuy Tournaments – Ever forget to add-on, or get frustrated by having to wait until the rebuy period ends before doing so? Now you can simply click ‘Auto Add-On’ and take your break. The option will appear towards the end of the rebuy period.
* Show Hole Cards When All-In (Ring Games) – By default, the hole cards are now turned face up when all players are all-in in a ring game. If you would prefer to keep your cards hidden until the showdown, you can uncheck this item in the ‘Options’ menu of the main lobby. The hole cards will only be shown if everybody in the hand has the option enabled.
* Detachable Controls – This beta feature will allow you to detach the Chat, Notes, Stats and Info tabs into a new window, which can be resized and rearranged. To activate the detached controls, choose ‘Detached Controls (Beta)’ from the table layout menu or press Ctrl-2 (Cmd-2 on a Mac) on your keyboard.
* New Extended Registration System – In our new extended registration system, the tournament will start play with full tables, and tables will open, close and balance throughout the extended registration period. Registration will remain open until a predetermined amount of playing time has elapsed (often up to 1 hour). Extended Registration is being rolled out to selected tournaments now.
* New Languages – The PokerStars client is now available in 25 languages, including Greek and Traditional Chinese.
* Improved Statistics for Draw Games – Switch to the ‘Stats’ tab at the table, and you’ll be shown useful information about your current draw session.
* Tournament Name and Buy-In in the Title Bar – A popular request, this information has been added to the table title bar to help you keep track of which table is which while playing multiple games.
* Graphics Tweaks – A number of small graphical tweaks have been made to improve the look and feel of certain themes, and to make the chat brighter and easier to read.
January – May 2009
* Sit & Go Rematch – One of the most-requested features in PokerStars history is here! Now, at the end of selected Sit & Go tournaments, participants will be prompted for a ‘rematch’. If all players accept, a new tournament will be created immediately – no need to visit the lobby and find the same opponents again.
* Ring Game Table Highlighting – If you play a lot of tables and sometimes forget which ones you’re sitting at and which ones you’re waiting for, this feature is for you! Now tables you’re sitting at will be highlighted in red, and tables you’re waiting for will be highlighted in purple.
* More Time Zones – PokerStars recently added time zones for Australia, New Zealand, Russia, China, Japan, and Brazil.
* New Languages – Now you can play and receive emails in 26 languages, including all major European and Cyrillic languages.
* Major Performance Improvements – PokerStars has worked hard to improve the performance of our software, and we now regularly have over 200,000 players online simultaneously without slowdown.
December 2008
* New ‘Slick’ Table Theme — You asked for more themes, and now you’ve got them. The new ‘Slick’ theme comes in two styles, one with retro-style chairs and one without. To change your theme, go to ‘View’ > ‘Table Themes’ in the PokerStars lobby menus.
* Additional Time Zones — As promised, PokerStars now offers even more Time Zones. In addition to CET and ET, PokerStars has added support for PT (Pacific Time, UTC-8), MT (Mountain Time, UTC-7), CT (Central Time, UTC-6), WET (Western European Time, aka GMT or UTC), and EET (Eastern European Time, UTC+2). Please see the explanation and illustrations of how to adjust your time zone.
* Find Satellites Quickly — PokerStars was the first major online cardroom to offer this feature, and now we’ve made it even more accessible by placing a list of satellites directly in the tournament lobby for major events.
You can also still use the satellite hyperlinks in the main tournament lobby to quickly navigate through satellites and their targets, as before.
* Block Tournament Announcements — You gave us your feedback, and we listened. The ‘Block Automatic Tournament Announcements’ feature (available in the ‘Options’ menu of the main PokerStars lobby) will now hide announcements in the chat box too.
* Increase the Size of Your Chat Text — Now, resizing your table increases the size of the chat box font as well – great for players with high resolution screens.
November 2008
* Time Zone Selection — PokerStars now offers a choice of time zones to players. Choose your time zone, and the lobby clock and all tournament start times will be displayed in your local time. To adjust your time zone, use the ‘Options’ > ‘Time Zone Settings’ menu option or click once on the lobby clock.
PokerStars currently offers Eastern Time (ET, UTC-5) and Central European Time (CET, UTC+1). More time zones will be added in the near future.
October 2008
* New Games and Tournaments — PokerStars now offers two new games – 2-7 Single Draw Lowball and Badugi – and three new mixed game formats – 8-Game, Mixed Hold’em and Mixed Omaha Hi/Lo. You can find the new games under the ‘Other Games’ tab. To learn how to play the new games, visit our Poker Games page.
* Keyboard Shortcuts — Now you can quickly activate commonly-used features and options using your keyboard.
Here’s a summary of the shortcuts:
| Windows | Mac OS | Feature |
|---|---|---|
| Ctrl-L |  -L |
Login |
| Ctrl-4 or Ctrl-S | -4 or -S |
Cashier |
| Ctrl-F | -F |
Find a Player |
| Ctrl-P | -P |
Find a Team PokerStars Pro |
| Ctrl-T | -T |
Find a Tournament |
| Ctrl-R | -R |
Registered in Tournaments |
| Ctrl-Y | -Y |
Waiting on Tables |
| Ctrl-I | -I |
Instant Hand History |
| Ctrl-U | -U |
Muck Losing Hand |
| Ctrl-D | -D |
Don’t Show Winning Hand |
| Ctrl-C | -C |
Copy Highlighted Tournament ID, Table Name or User ID to Clipboard |
| Ctrl-9 | -9 |
Tile Tables |
| Ctrl-B | -B |
Reset Table to Default Size |
| Ctrl-0 | -0 |
Cascade Tables |
| -H |
Hide PokerStars | |
| -Q |
Quit PokerStars | |
| -1 |
Show Lobby |
* Hide Lobby Images — Don’t want to look at Greg Raymer’s face while you play? Simply uncheck the ‘Show Lobby Images’ item in the ‘Options’ menu.
* Hide Lobby Banners and Pop-Up Messages — We get it – you’ve seen that message about fast tables a thousand times. Well, now you can disable it, by clicking ‘Don’t Show This Message Again’.
You can also hide the lobby banners, by clicking the close symbol in the top right-hand corner. The banner won’t appear again until a new message is available.
* Remember My Buy-In Amount — Always buy into a table for the same amount? Simply check this box, and you’ll never have to enter the buy-in again, saving valuable time and clicks! Your buy-in will be remembered separately for each game and limit.
* Improved Registration for Sit & Go Tournaments — If you’ve ever tried to join a Sit & Go but found that it was full by the time you had a chance to register, this feature is for you!
To use it, simply highlight any Sit & Go tournament that is running or completed, and click ‘Register To Any’. You’ll automatically be placed in the next available Sit & Go of it’s type.
You can also use this feature by registering for a Sit & Go as usual, and checking the ‘Automatically try to register to identical tournament if this one is already full’ box. If you’re on a slow connection and keep missing out on tournaments as a result, this should help!
* New PokerStars Lobby Theme — Our new ‘PokerStars Black’ lobby theme is now the default setting when you open the PokerStars client. If you want to change your lobby theme, click ‘View’ in the top menu bar, select ‘Lobby Themes’ and make your choice.
* New Client Tabs — You can now find what you are looking for even quicker, with two new added tabs. Our new ‘Steps’ tab allows you to quickly find PokerStars Steps satellites. When in ‘Events’, click the live event tab of your choice (‘EPT’ for instance), and then click ‘Steps’. You can also find out about how to enter tournaments for players in your country by using the new ‘Regional’ tab in the PokerStars lobby. Click ‘Tourney’ and ‘Regional’ for a list of tournaments open exclusively to players from your country.
* Filtering and Sorting Features — To help you find the exact poker games you are looking for, we have added several powerful new filtering and sorting features to the PokerStars game lobby.
The new Ring Game Filters allow you to narrow down the selection of games you want to find, by listing specific elements such as maximum number of players, table speed and stakes. The new Tourney filters work the same as the Ring Game ones, but also allow you to set parameters such as game type, buy-in, status and format. The filters also have a text-based search option, allowing you to simply type in the details you require, the results of which will be updated in the lobby. All filters can be found under the main lobby window.
Our new sorting function allows you to customize how you want game details to be listed. To find this feature, right-click anywhere in the bar that runs across the top of all lobby windows. This will open a new window, where your sort options can then be selected.
* PokerStars software now available in Russian — To coincide with the growing popularity of poker in Russia, PokerStars players can now choose to see the lobby in the Russian language. To activate this option, click ‘Language’, ‘Play in’ and select ‘Русский’.
* Turn off Sit & Go Tournament Lobby — Sit & Go players now have the option of going directly to the table in any Sit & Go that they have registered in, without having to view the tournament lobby. Click on 'Options' then 'Advanced Multi-Table Options'. There you will see 'Auto-open Sit & Go tournament lobby'. If you un-check this option, your Sit & Go lobbies will no longer pop up. When the tournament begins, your table will appear.
If you sign up for a lot of tournaments at once, this may take a while to get used to. Since tournament lobbies will no longer appear on your desktop, you may want to look under the 'Requests' menu and check under 'Registered in Tournaments', to make sure that you are not logging off while still registered for a game. The PokerStars software will also remind you as you log off.
* Receive emails in your preferred language — hundreds of thousands of PokerStars players are now using our software in their preferred language. Now you can make sure you ALWAYS receive emails from PokerStars in your language too. Simply open the PokerStars software and log in, then click on Languages, and select ‘Send me emails in…’, then choose your preferred language.
This means you can, if you wish, use the PokerStars software in English, but receive emails from PokerStars in French, German, or any of the other languages we support. However, this doesn't affect the language you receive your hand histories in. To change the language in which you receive hand histories, click on either the hand history links top left on the table window, or click on the chip rack and then click 'Instant Hand History'. A new window – Instant Hand History – will open. Click on 'Options', then select your language from the drop down menu. This is independent of your software and email preferences.
* View hole cards after folding — if you can't remember what cards you folded during a hand, now you can get a reminder. Just mouse over your player icon and the cards will reappear. To turn this feature off; click on the chip rack, select ‘Options’ and un-check the ‘Display Folded Cards’ option.
* Mac client — the PokerStars software is now available for Macs. Mac users, go to our Mac download page now to start playing.
* Resizable lobbies — You can now make your main and tournament lobbies as big as you want. Simply click on the edge of the lobby and drag with your mouse until the lobby is your preferred size. This upgrade also features a scroll bar in your tournament lobby that makes it easier to look at the payout table.
* New Languages — If you’d like to see your PokerStars lobbies in a different language, this upgrade gives you several new choices. There are 13 available languages, including the new additions, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Hungarian. Click on ‘Language’ and ‘Play in’ on the tool bar at the top of the PokerStars lobby to make your choice.
If you have any questions about any of PokerStars features, feel free to write our customer service team at support@pokerstars.net.
Note: All references using dollar signs ($) are for illustration only. Betting on PokerStars.net involves zero cash value 'play money' chips only.
