"Pokerstars 7" - New Pokerstars Client Coming Soon - Report

At the Pokerstars London "VIP party" on Saturday, all of us present were given a preview of the new Pokerstars client. Referred to as "Pokerstars 7", it's apparently the first new client in 10 years, and I'll do my best to recount the details of the 30 minute presentation.

To make this clear from the start - the tables will not change, and the themes will not change. This is a client update that's compatible with the current backend; we saw the client running on the current live servers. It's not completely ready yet and I'm sure some of the things we saw will change based on feedback. Everyone present (plus some others I imagine) are apparently getting access to the closed BETA in a few weeks and I'll post information on that as and when I receive it.

Here's a photo from the Pokerstars VIP event during the presentation:

http://i.imgur.com/fcW4n.jpg

And two screenshots from the Pokerstars blog. One of these is from a Flash demo and the other is from the working BETA (I believe in that order);

http://i.imgur.com/2pN2m.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/qkUfX.jpg


The main changes all have two aims - making the software more friendly for recreational players, and reducing the number of mouse clicks to get playing.

Signing Up

Apparently there's already a new signup process in place which requires just one page of information, so I took a screenshot:

http://i.imgur.com/DYXrn.png

The page we were shown also included an image upload tab, so it's possible that Stars will start asking for a verification document as soon as you open your account.

App Bar

On the right of the picture, you can just about make out the new "App Bar". This had buttons such as Settings, Hand History, etc. It'll replace the current mess of the Requests/Options drop down menus and reminded me of the new Table Themes layout. There was also mention of new apps - someone on 2p2 seems to think this could include HEM/PT4 as there was a vague mention of "3rd party macros" being replaced but I can't really see that happening. Something that was mentioned as a possibility was a calender for MTT players to put in their favourite tournaments and then auto-reg them which it would be great to see.


Cash

This seemed to have the most changes. For starters, the initial tab will display 3 play-it-now options of your favourite stakes, very similar to the iPhone app. Imagine this but with three of these tables with that information it and three Play Now buttons:

http://i.imgur.com/hI6MH.png

You'll be able to select the stakes and the game type, so you can start playing instantly. There are also two option lobby modes - normal, which is like the current lobby but with the filters moved to the top FTP style, and grouped tables - this is already available in BETA mode on the current Stars software (Options -> Beta Options -> Group Similar Tables):

http://i.imgur.com/xdTud.png

SnG

We didn't get to see the SnG tab but we were told it'll be similar to the cash tab in it's changes, with 3 Play Now quick tables and grouped SnGs (not 100% on the second one)

Tournaments

Disappointingly for a tournament player very little about tournaments - it was mainly focused on cash. Obviously the app bar has some potential with the calender option which would save a lot of clicks but they were barely mentioned other than that.

Live Events

The picture I posted earlier shows how these will change, although it's missing the scrolling bar we were also shown under the main suggested satellite which will show other options. A drop down box lets you change the destination you want to play events for, and as always the more comprehensive lobby option will be available easily.

My Thoughts

I'll hold off on making a final judgement until I see the client in the BETA, but the changes generally seem well thought out and about time. There still seemed to be a lot of wasted white space and a bit too much text in the standard lobby but it's definitely a step in the right direction. As an MTT player I'm obviously disappointed that the only section I use didn't get much attention and I really hope that some time is put into making the lobby easier to use and replacing some of the text with icons which FTP always used so successfully to make the lobby easier to read. I think the Play Now button could also work great with MTTs - a player chooses his stakes and game type and it offers 3 different MTTs, maybe one late regging and two coming up soon which they can register for in one click.

I'm glad the changes generally seem well thought out.

Yuk.

I prefer to use drop down menus with meaningful text descriptions and item groupings.

Personally I don't like pressing difficult to interpret pictures, and always having to hover over icons to read their pop up text to see what they will do. OK its quicker once you know what they do.

I can only guess they want to make it more 'child' friendly. ' :) '

Spoiler: Show

Waiting for the children to throw their toys out of the pram at these opinions.

I think one of the main problems at the moment is that the item groupings are rubbish. I've been using the software for years and I still struggle to find certain options. Some stuff is in Advanced Multi-table Options while similar options are found under Table Display options.

I definitely agree that the new settings should have meaningful text descriptions, and while they did show us the Settings panel it was a very quick demonstration. Clicking on the Settings app made the whole lobby change to a settings panel with navigation down the left hand side. While I imagine this will mean there's way more space for choosing options and they'll be able to group them better, it's also going to be a pain to change anything in there when multi-tabling because it's difficult to find space to have the whole lobby open.

Screenshots up on the Stars blog:

http://i.imgur.com/2pN2m.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/qkUfX.jpg