Microgaming Changing Sit and Go Structures

Last week we informed you that PKR is abandoning its standalone online poker platform in order to join the Microgaming Poker Network (MPN).  This isn't the only huge change happening on the fast-growing poker network, however, as Head of Poker of Microgaming Alex Scott announced a change to the structure for sit and go tournaments on the company's blog.

The changes, which will take place on February 29, match changes that were previously made to the online poker network's scheduled tournaments.  Regular speed and turbo tournaments will feature a starting stack of 2,000 chips instead of the 1,500 players currently begin a sit and go with, while super turbo tournaments will remain unchanged with players starting off with 500 chips.

Other changes include the length of blind levels and time banks.  Turbo tournaments will feature six-minute blind levels instead of five, while super turbo tournaments will be increased to three-minute blind levels as compared to the current two-minute levels.

Additionally, players will now have 18 seconds to act before a time bank is activated in both turbo and super turbo sit and go tournaments.  Time banks will be increased to 30 seconds instead of the current 15 seconds in turbo tournaments, and will be increased to 15 seconds instead of 10 seconds in super turbo tournaments.

Some news that should be good for just about every player on MPN is that most of the sit and gos will be undergoing a fee reduction.  Currently, the rake on sit and gos on the network is 10%, and the plan is to have them reduced for most games to 2% to 8%.

However, if you like double or nothing sit and gos, you aren't going to be a fan of the rake changes since Microgaming will actually be increasing the rake from 15% to 20% for most of these games.  Games with a buy-in of €200 or more, however, will stay steady with a 10% rake.

Scott explained, "However much I dislike double ups personally, I also know that there are many players who enjoy playing them, so I am loathe to remove them entirely as some other poker providers have done. Instead, we will raise the fee on double ups. This 'phase out pricing' is intended to discourage double up play, particularly by new players (and potential colluders). I also feel it's reasonable that those who choose to play double ups should shoulder the burden of the extra policing required."

MPN will be hosting more sit and gos at the same stakes at once in order to make it easier for the multi-tabler to register for many games at the same time at the buy-in and type of game they prefer.

Also, MPN will be introducing some new games on a trial basis as well, including multi-table, super bounty, and survivor sit and gos.  The survivor games are quite unique since in these games the player with the shortest stack at the end of every blind level is automatically eliminated.

One more change is that Microgaming will be introducing a new type of super turbo sit and gos where blind levels go up after six hands instead of every three minutes.  This has worked out well on other networks since it discourages players from stalling and strategically attempting to take advantage of timing when the blind levels increase.

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