PokerStars Adding Social Sharing Options

If you haven’t already heard, PokerStars, now firmly entrenched as the busiest online poker site in the land, is adding a way to share hand histories to popular social networking sites. That’s right, PokerStars has jumped on the Facebook and Twitter bandwagons.

Initially, the feature will be hidden from view and then activated once PokerStars’ developers are finished testing. Text found on PokerStars’ software update page explains, “We are adding the ability to post your hands directly to your Facebook and Twitter accounts. This feature will be accessible via a small star in the chat area. The feature will initially be turned off until we finalize the testing, and then we will turn it on.”

A small red icon with a white starburst appears in the chat and follows the outcome of the hand. The option to post to sites like Facebook and Twitter will undoubtedly make it easier for you to seek advice from friends and poker mentors on how you played a hand. Who knows, you might even get a random commenter.

In addition to the hand sharing improvements, PokerStars revamped its note-taking feature as part of its latest update. The site explained, “You can now differentiate between a player who just has a colored label and a player who actually has a textual note. The presence of the 'N' icon would indicate that there is text, while the lack of it would indicate that you have just assigned a colored label.” This should make it painfully easy to see whether you have a note on an opponent.

You can also assign a label to a player by left-clicking. In order to enable this feature, just navigate to “Options” and “Player Notes.” Then, check “Left-click player to assign label.” PokerStars explains the allure of this seemingly simplistic feature: “This will allow you to see the labels menu by just left-clicking a player - very handy for quick note taking! You can now have more than eight labels and there are also various other small improvements.”

While PokerStars’ chief rival, Full Tilt Poker, has been effectively shut down after its gaming license was revoked by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission last week, the world’s largest online poker site recently announced a tentative schedule for the annual World Championship of Online Poker, or WCOOP.

In a thread on PocketFives.com, PokerStars officials unveiled a 62-event WCOOP schedule, complete with a $5,200 No Limit Hold’em Main Event. The 2011 WCOOP is penciled in for September 4th to 25th and, unlike previous installments, is primarily timed for European online poker players given the site’s departure from the U.S. market in April.

One PocketFives.com member from Australia advised, “How about a few more events starting earlier at 06:00 or 08:00 (or alternatively later 16:00) to give Australian/Asian players more of a chance to participate. These events look/sound awesome, but they are almost impossible to play for people in our region as currently scheduled.”

Following the idling of Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars is firmly engrained as the largest online poker site in the world. According to PokerScout.com, it boasts a seven-day running average of 22,200 real money ring game players, more than five times its next closest competitor, PartyPoker. PokerStars has seen its cash game traffic grow by 15% following Full Tilt Poker’s license being revoked.

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