The Microgaming Poker Network (MPN) is on the attack against short-stackers. The network plans to experiment by eliminating the ability to buy in as a short stack in some of its games starting on December 1.

Head of Poker at Microgaming Alex Scott announced these changes in a blog post entitled “The End of Shortstacking?” The experiment will begin with disallowing short-stacking in Pot Limit Omaha H/L (PLO8) games. In other words, players will only be able to buy in for 100 big blinds.

This means if you make a deposit of €30, you will no longer be able to hop into a €0.25/€0.50 PLO8 game since the minimum buy-in for this game will be €50 instead of the €15 it currently is.

If the experiment proves successful, Scott announced the changes would be gradually rolled out to all of the Pot Limit and No Limit Omaha and Hold’em games on the network. However, if the experiment fails, Scott mentioned the network would quickly revert back to allow short-stackers to buy into games.

It should be interesting to see whether the experiment works. Microgaming is testing it on one of the less popular poker variants on its network, so even if it fails, there won’t be much collateral damage.

Scott has good reason, however, to believe these changes will succeed. In his blog entry, he discussed how 85% of players already buy in for the maximum amount allowed in games. In other words, even if the changes were rolled out to all games on the network, it wouldn’t change the buy-in habits of most players.

It is common belief that players who buy into games for the maximum amount abhor short-stacking players. It is often difficult for these players to play their normal deep-stacked game when there is a short stack in the mix.

While short-stackers might be upset about this decision if it is rolled out network-wide, they should maybe think twice before moving to another network that will still allow short-stacked play. Scott pointed out in a study that players who were normally buying in for 30 big blinds and instead started to buy in for 100 big blinds turned out to be more successful. He also pointed out that players who buy in for 30 big blinds pay more proportionally in rake.

MPN is currently ranked in 11th place in ring game traffic with a seven-day rolling average of 750 players according to PokerScout. That being said, this test could change the landscape of ring games, as if it proves successful, other networks that were unwilling to take a risk that might alienate many of their customers could follow suit.

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