In what appears to be an effort to resolve loyalty program differences that have seen two boycott attempts by high stakes players, Pokerstars has agreed to meet with a player delegation in Montreal today (Tuesday) to discuss issues of mutual interest.
Tweets and forum posts from Dani Stern, Daniel Negreanu, Isaac Haxton and Daniel Dvoress indicate that they will make up the player delegation travelling to Montreal for the meeting, which will be held at the head office of Pokerstars parent Amaya Gaming.
Pokerstars has previously stressed that its overriding drive to focus more on recreational players means that its amended stance on VIP and loyalty programs is unlikely to change, and there have been questions regarding the real impact of the two boycotts held so far (see previous reports).
In his tweet Negreanu suggested that the meeting today may not be specifically about the high stakes player dispute; he wrote: “Off to Montreal for a player meeting with @PokerStars as part of an agreement to have regular meetings with players on all things poker.”
One of the issues that may be discussed is the recent lockdown imposed this week without warning by Pokerstars on high stakes player Jason Mo’s account.
There has been speculation that the lockdown may be due to Pokerstars’ initiative against the use of third party software by players, something that the company clearly feels strongly about judging by blog comments and forum posts in the past by company spokesmen.
Another topic may be the company’s methods in combatting bot users, which include a highly detailed set of rigidly enforced video recording directions imposed on suspected third party software users if they want to keep playing.