To get more recreational players to their live events, PokerStars will be limiting the amount of packages anyone can win to one.

For a long time when a player wins a satellite to a live or online tournament at PokerStars they have been able to play further satellites for the same event, and if they win again they take the value of the package as cash.

As a result a small contingent of players have specialised in grinding satellites for the cash value of the packages, rather than the packages themselves.

This will be changing for live events, starting with the PokerStars Festival Dublin, where only one seat and one package will be allowed per player. In a PokerStars Blog post, Mike Jones commented:

While recreational players dream of winning the poker experience of a lifetime with PokerStars, a fortunate and skilled few win multiple packages and seats to our live events, when they can only use one of them. These players have taken advantage of a system that allowed them to profit from winning against recreational or less experienced players. While this hasn't been against the rules, it doesn't make for as enjoyable experience as we would hope. The practice has, in fact, been off-putting for many, as we are seeing an increasing number of recreational players not even attempting to qualify for live events. This means that they are as a group less likely to experience the excitement that comes from playing live and the further investment in the poker world that comes from playing in a major live event.

It appears that this change is largely targeted at the lower buy-in events on the live poker calendar, but likely will be rolled out across the board. This year for the first time the World Championship of Online Poker will be adopting the same policy.

Do you agree with these changes? Let us know in the comments: