A second PokerStars boycott by high-stakes and high-variance players is apparently failing to create a discernible dent, at minimum on the website’s traffic figures.

Around 1,600 players signed up for the protest, according to organizers.

The previous week, while Sunday, January 3rd remained on par with figures from the same day the previous week per industry number-cruncher PokerScout.com, while traffic dipped on January 1st, the first day of the strike, it actually rose on January 2nd, in comparison with the same day.

Of course, it’s impossible to understand simply how much the sudden dearth of high stakes players is affecting PokerStars’ daily rake, and whether all the players who pledged to sit out have in reality proved real to their word.

The boycott, which is due to end Thursday, January 7th, has been organized by a number of groups including WeArePokerPlayers.com and Tiltbook.com, in addition to a quantity of high-profile, high stakes players on the 2+2 forums, in protest towards an overhaul that is major the VIP system, which took effect on January 1st.

PokerStars announced in November that these changes would consist of scrapping Supernova Elite rewards for 2016, despite the achievement with this status being a process that is two-year.

Boycott Backfired?

PokerStars claims that the changes are created to improve the poker ecology, however they leave high-stakes, high-volume players high and dry.

While these players represent a few of the site’s most avid, long-term, and high-ranking players, they tend to be net-withdrawing players rather than the hordes of net-depositors that the on-line poker giant is anxious to attract.

The first boycott took place between December 1st and 3rd, with 2,600 players joining in the sit out. But that occasion clashed with the PokerStars Christmas Festival, so traffic figures remained comparable, except that those high-stakes players were changed with lower stakes players attracted by low buy-ins and jackpot rewards.

While PokerStars is likely to have raked less through that duration, it declared itself vindicated by the December boycott.

‘During the three-day boycott we recorded the healthiest consecutive three-day ecosystem results of the year with steady net gaming revenue, even though our net-depositing players lost at a much lower rate than they’ve all year,’ wrote Eric Hollreiser, VP of Communications for PokerStars and Amaya.

More Boycotts Planned

The players that are affected undeterred, nonetheless, and are determined to exhibit PokerStars that they can make the operator’s life hard.

And much more boycotts are planned in the future. WeArePokerPlayers.com has launched a campaign searching for 5,000 signatures to accept at the very least a strike that is month-long while other protestors have actually suggested that a 10,000-player boycott could reduce PokerStars’ rake by just as much as 30 percent.

On New Year’s time, Ike Haxton became the second pokerStars that are high-profile to resign in disgust at the changes, following exemplory case of Alex Millar, who severed ties using the site prior to the holiday period.

‘As a four time Supernova Elite, I am aware what it takes to rake 1M VPP in a year,’ wrote haxton on 2+2. ‘It’s a tough grind. For most of the players that do it, it is a commitment that is all-consuming intense than most full time jobs.

‘Many of those have actually relocated far from their homes and families to pursue it,’ he added. ‘Finding out, just as you approach the finish line, that your efforts won’t be rewarded as you expected them to be is brutal. I cannot in good conscience continue to endorse a poker web site that treats its players this way.’