Almost 18 months after unveiling the Stars Rewards program, PokerStars has announced major changes to the program and multi-table tournament grinders will see the biggest negative impact.

Beginning this Friday, MTT players will earn 55% fewer reward points for all tournament fees paid. Those players, who previously earned 100 reward points for $1/€1 in rake paid, will now earn 45 reward points for every $1/€1 in fees.

“This is a reduction in the overall amount of rewards some players will receive, but made in an area that we believe will have the least impact on their experience and enable us to place even more focus where we know it matters most,” Severin Rasset, PokerStars Director Poker Innovations and Operations, wrote in a blog post on PokerStarsBlog on Monday.

Rasset mentioned online tournament series like the World Championship of Online Poker, Spring Championship of Online Poker and the Winter Series which wrapped up in January in Southern Europe as areas that will receive “even more focus” as a result of this change.

Rasset also pointed out other changes to the Stars Rewards program that will come later this year.

• Stars Rewards Chests will be more difficult to earn but will have a corresponding increase in value.
• Players will no longer be able to take advantage of the “boost” feature at any time. The value players earned from this feature will be transferred to chests instead.
• The method for moving up and down the six Rewards Chest levels will be made easier to understand for all players.
• Players will be able to “exchange” their current progress bar for an immediate reward if they believe they’ll be unable to complete that progress bar before it expires.

Stars Rewards was released in July 2017 as a replacement for the PokerStars VIP program. PokerStars provided no timeline for the other changes to the program.