Yes brother! I am also extremely concerned by this. I am not a super grinder nor sne (who btw I really feel for after Stars’ changes to vip system), but I have been extremely demotivated by the recent developments at Amaya. I am currently a goldstar on Stars, and although I have no real aspirations as a rakeback pro or even a regular pro, I always at the very least had my eye on continuing up the ladder. It is called PokerSTARS for a reason, after all. 

Whatever, que sera sera I guess. But what really concerns me is the potential changes to the 3rd party software they announced. I am an avid HUD user, and believe me when I say that I rarely if ever use any stats (other than maybe vpip/prf ratio) vs recs.; they are so unpredictable I usually try to avoid them altogether (I play mainly shortstack sng 180 mans as my bread and butter games). However, vs regs., I am always checking other stats…fold2cbet/cbet/rfi/sb limp/ sb raise/fold2steal/3b vs steal etc.. These stats vary alot reg to reg: some regs rarely blind steal, others rarely do not, etc..

My point being that recreational players are not going to benefit much at all by a banning of a HUD. AFAICT all that will happen is that regs will suffer vs other regs, and will be unable to play as many tables, thus affecting both Amaya’s bottom line, but more importantly regs’ ability to multi-table, with NO DISCERNIBLE BENEFIT TO ANYBODY, including Amaya. 

But methinks there is more to all this than meets the eye. With regards to the vip changes, I saw a recent ChicagoJoey interview with Kanu7 (who resigned over the sne issue from TeamOnline recently). He seemed to feel that either Stars was simply making poor management decisions, or that they were looking at selling the thing off soon. My guess is the latter. 

If they do ban 3rd party software, I hope they incorporate a HUD into their own software is all. I feel for the devs at HM and PTR mind you…