Cake Poker Takes On Short Stackers
Many long-time online poker players have a personal loathing for short-stackers—those being the players who bring the smallest bankroll required to the table (say the minimum of 20 big blinds instead of the more typical, and sportsmanlike, 100 big blinds), making it so that when savvier players with deeper stacks take big bold actions, even successful they prove thoroughly unrewarding.
Of course, those on a tight budget say, “Waa-waa, cry me a river!” Never the less, those players are apparently in the minority—or they’re at least (and quite obviously) not bringing as much money to Cake Poker’s table. Because CakePoker is taking action to help protect its deeper stacked player base.
But it’s not just that players come to the table with a short stack that upsets their fellow players. It’s that they do so with the intention of doubling up nice and quick before taking their money and running. In poker lingo, that’s colorfully called rat-holing.
Rat-holding dminishes play at the table to total luck because those players only enter the pot when they have a choice hand. Where’s the skill and strategy there? And unfortunately for many, it’s happening more and more often.
So what’s Cake Poker doing about it? As of April 8th they will raise the minimum buy-in at No Limit cash tables up to 30 big blinds. Not the first to make such a move, this follows Full Tilt Poker’s recent decision to raise the minimum buy-in at their NL Hold’em cash tables to 35 big blinds. We expect to see more of this edging out of short stackers to occur across more online poker rooms. Which means that players who really play poker will find a whole new enjoyment in online poker all over again.
