It's PCA Week here on the PokerStars Blog, and as we pointed out yesterday, there may be no better time to try to win your seat to the 2016 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

One of those ways is this weekend's $700 25-package guaranteed PCA Mega Satellite. And it just so happens, we here at the PokerStars Blog have a $700 ticket to give away. That's exactly what we're going to do.

Wanna enter? It's pretty easy. All the details and rules are below.

Okay...here's how it works. You have until Wednesday at 14:00 ET to tweet us a picture of your PokerStars avatar playing a real money cash game or tournament on PokerStars. After that, we will pick one of the eligible entries at random and give that person a $700 ticket to this weekend's PCA Mega Satellite.

There are rules, of course.

The winning entry/tweet must...

1) Be following @PokerStarsBlog on Twitter.
2) Use the hashtag #PCAMega
3) Have an eligible real money account on PokerStars. You can get one here.
4) Include a screen shot of the entrant's PokerStars avatar playing a real money cash game or tournament.
5) Include a link to your favorite story from the PokerStars PCA archive.

So, what might an eligible entry look like? Something like this.

Ready...the contest is open...now!

Helping Hands, the corporate giving programme at PokerStars and Full Tilt, Amaya Inc. brands have announced they will be extending their partnership with Right To Play for a second consecutive year.

Right To Play is a global organisation that uses the educational power of sports, games and play to provide disadvantaged children and young people in over 20 countries around the world with learning, health and social skills to overcome the effects of poverty, disease and war.

Extending this partnership for a further 12 months will provide an additional donation of £300,000 (US $46,443) which will go towards training another 2,500 volunteer coaches throughout the world, allowing the charity to help transform the lives on another 400,000 children and young people. In 2014, PokerStars staff and playersboosted the Amaya donation by a further £100,000 (US $153,42), showing the compassion and charitable mindset that exists within the poker playing community.

Europe's richest and most popular poker tour, the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT), will officially support Right To Play for the current and coming season, with special charity tournaments already planned for stops in Prague, Dublin, and Monte Carlo. Team PokerStars Pros Jake Cody, Leo Margets and Fatima Moreira de Melo will remain as partnership ambassadors. The three recently witnessed how much of a difference Right To Play makes in childrens' lives during a trip to Uganda. Check out the video.

"After visiting the schools I felt really inspired by the work Right To Play coaches do there, their motivation and mental and physical energy is just amazing, they are a key element in the Right To Play program" explained Leo Margets, member of Team PokerStars Pro and Right To Play partnership ambassador. She went on to support Right To Plays methodology saying, "By playing and doing sports, kids have fun and it becomes a lot more natural for them to engage in the activities and absorb the key lessons."

If you live in many parts the Northern Hemisphere, you might have noticed things aren't quite what they were a few weeks ago. The sun is setting earlier. The rain is falling colder. Winter is, in fact, coming.

If you live in the Southern Hemisphere...well, good on you. Congratulations on surviving the cold part.

No matter where you live, think now of beaches, fruity drinks, and all the poker you can play for a week. Now, think about being one of PokerStars' most well-known champions.

Now think about this: it's PCA Week, and it may be your best chance to go to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure this year. Want to know why? We have all the details below.

So, how do you win your seat this week? You've got four ways.

1) Put together the PCA Puzzle: If you open up the CHALLENGES section of your PokerStars software, you will find a chance to collect six PCA Puzzle pieces. Find them all, and you will get a ticket to an All-In Shootout that awards a full PCA package to first place and $6,000 in other prizes.

2) Play the PCA freerolls: Every day this week at 14:35 ET, there will be a PCA freeroll. Each of those will lead to a PCA Freeroll Final on Monday November 9 that awards a full PCA Package.

3) Play the PCA VIP Bash: On Saturday November 7 at 14:30 ET, PokerStars will host a 25,000-FPP event. For every 673,125 FPPs in the prize pool, PokerStars will add a PCA prize package. In addition to that, PokerStars is putting up an additional five packages. Don't have 25,000 FPPs? You can get in via satellites that cost as little as 50 FPPs.

4) Play the PCA Mega Qualifier: This Sunday at 13:05, PokerStars will host a massive $700 PCA satellite that guarantees 25 packages. You can start playing qualifiers for that right now. They cost as little as $1 apiece. What's more, the PokerStars Blog will be giving away a $700 Mega Qualifier ticket this week. Stay tuned for details on how you can win it.

So, ready for some sunshine, sand, and poker? Visit the PCA Week homepage for all the details.

Oh, and you might want to follow us on Twitter now at the @PokerStarsBlog account so you don't miss this week's giveaway.

After a busy weekend, we look back at all the results both live and online.

Weekend highlights

--Niall Farrell wins the EPT Malta Main Event and €534,330.
--Byron Kaverman wins the EPT Malta High Roller event €480,300.
--Nerd2121 wins the Sunday Million after a six-way deal $97,087.10

Round up of latest results

The big news from the weekend focused on events in Malta. In what proved to be a speedy final table, Niall Farrell won a first prize of €534,330 in the main event, after a heads-up deal with second placed Alen Bilic.

It proved something of a thriller, and not just for the tempo, with the likes of Daniel Dvoress and Sam Greenwood, regular high rollers, reaching the last six. Read the full report on the PokerStars Blog.

That left the High Roller event to conclude the EPT Malta festival, won by Byron Kaverman. As Marc Convey reported for the Blog, Kaverman is a player who never accepts he's beaten, coming back from the brink to defeat Mukul Pahuka heads-up.

It's not easy to get a room full of people to agree on anything, but the last six of the Sunday Million proved it was possible. There was another huge turnout in the Sunday Million, won by nerd2121 after a six-way deal. Read the full report by Martin Harris.

Last but not least the Sunday Warm up was won by Belgium's donalddrik for a first prize of $79,790. Check out David Aydt's report here.

Here are the results in full.

EPT12 Malta Main Event
Players: 651
Prize pool: €3,157,350
Places paid: 95

1. Niall Farrell (United Kingdom) €534,330*
2. Alen Bilic (Bosnia & Herzegovina) €440,000*
3. Jaroslaw Sikora (Poland) €265,840
4. Giulio Spaminato (Italy) €203,640
5. Rainer Kempe (Germany) €161,340
6. Sam Greenwood (Canada) €125,660
* denotes heads-up deal

EPT Malta High Roller
Entries: 210
Prize pool: €2,037,000
Places paid: 31

1. Byron Kaverman (United States) €480,300
2. Mukul Pahuja (United States) €290,100
3. Mikalai Vaskaboinikau (Belarus) €204,500
4. Ihar Soika (Belarus) €165,800
5. Vladimir Dobrovolskiy (Russia) €131,180
6. Roberto Romanello (United Kingdom) €96,620
7. Bryn Kenney (United States) €72,730
8. Kevin MacPhee (United States) €53,150

PokerStars Sunday Million (November 1, 2015)
Entrants: 5,573
Prize pool: $1,114,600.00
Places paid: 810

1. nerd2121 (Germany) $97,087.10*
2. prusakowski (Poland) $72,134.15*
3. Steve "mcnallyville" McNally (Mexico) $103,755.48*
4. bigbluffzinc (Canada) $103,236.80*
5. Wivil (Canada) $100,061.63*
6. arsendark10 (Russia) $66,259.09*
7. 1HL7 (United Kingdom) $25,078.50
8. PKRisMYstar (Romania) $13,932.50
9. bah23 (Bulgaria) $8,916.80
* denotes a six-way deal leaving $20,000 for the winner

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up (November 1, 2015)
Entrants: 2,525
Places paid: 360
Prize pool: $505,000.00

1. donalddrik (Belgium) $79,790.00
2. Ashley Jones (Belgium) $59,928.35
3. john4kos8 (Cyprus) $42,925.00
4. medmar (Argentina) $29,542.50
5. Herzblatt250 (Germany) $22,472.50
6. bRe3za (Germany) $17,422.50
7. beigale777 (Japan) $12,372.50
8. A.Tricarico (Belgium) $7,322.50
9. João Mathias "joaoMathias" Baumgarten (Brazil) $4,292.50

The weekend's top winners

$215 Sunday Million: nerd2121 (Germany) $97,087.10
$215 Sunday Warm-Up: donalddrik (Belgium) $79,790.00
$530 Sunday 500: pokerjoe485 (Austria) $53,547.72
$215 Sunday Supersonic [6-Max]: vindog03 (United Kingdom) $45,196.38
$109+R Sunday Rebuy: mjw006 (Australia) $42,751.20
$109 Sunday Kickoff: eze88888 (Argentina) $29,456.65
$11 Sunday Storm: xxstimpyxx (Belgium) $26,983.73
$215 Sunday 2nd Chance: ADZ124 (Canada) $26,724.30
$162 Sunday 6-Max: 1Don'tStop1 (United Kingdom) $19,674.95
$320 Saturday Super-Knockout: Makitra (Russia) $19,667.03

Click here for all the weekend's major results on PokerStars for the weekend October 31 to November 1, 2015.

Image of the weekend

EPT Malta main event winner Niall Farrell

You don't already have a PokerStars account? Now is the perfect opportunity to get one. You can open your account here.

Congratulations if you were a winner this weekend on PokerStars, and if not the next weekend is never that far away. Either way send your thoughts and comments to us on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog.

It's November already, and as the month kicked off on a Sunday that meant another round of big Sunday tournaments on PokerStars, highlighted as always by the marquee event, the $215 buy-in Sunday Million. This week's Milly drew another huge turnout of 5,573, thus building a prize pool of $1,114,600 (besting the $1M guarantee), and after almost 12 hours of poker it was Germany's nerd2121 rising above them all to claim the victory.

nerd2121 won following a six-player final table deal, which meant the $97,087.10 nerd2121 earned for the win was actually a little less than the amount won by three other players, each of whom made just over $100K on the day. Here's the story of how they all reached the final table and made their deal, as well as how nerd2121 managed to outlast them all.

By the seven-and-a-half-hour mark that big group was down to 100 players, with 10BadBoy10, Simon "Sirocko" Christensson, and AllStar_7474 topping the counts.

About two hours after that they were down to 18. By then former leaders AllStar_7474 (39th, $2,173.47), 10Badboy10 (49th, $2,006.28), and Simon "Sirocko" Christensson (51st, $2,006.28) had each been eliminated. Meanwhile 1HL7 had risen to the top of the counts with a stack of more than 8.3 million -- about three million clear of anyone else at the time.

Pablo238 (18th), BiigplayAA (17th), and ModzillaPL (16th) were the next players knocked out, earning $3,288.07 apiece. alwayswin222 (15th), Rafa Gitti (14th), and camba_jichi (13th) then fell, each earning $4,959.97. Then Thiago "tgrigoletti" Grigoletti (12th), Virgilik (11th), and Tomas "T 54 T 97s" Paiva (10th) were knocked out, each cashing for $6,631.87.

With bigbluffzinc the new big stack with over 15 million, the final table was underway.

Seat 1: PKRisMYstar (Romania) -- 3,023,824
Seat 2: arsendark10 (Russia) -- 3,782,296
Seat 3: Steve "mcnallyville" McNally (Mexico) -- 7,481,214
Seat 4: prusakowski (Poland) -- 11,063,049
Seat 5: bah23 (Bulgaria) -- 1,892,597
Seat 6: Wivil (Canada) -- 6,368,982
Seat 7: bigbluffzinc (Canada) -- 15,208,493
Seat 8: nerd2121 (Germany) -- 4,519,821
Seat 9: 1HL7 (United Kingdom) -- 2,389,724

On just the second hand of the final table, the short stack bah23 open-pushed for about 1.84 million from under the gun, Wivil reraised all in from a seat over, and everyone else stepped aside. bah23 showed [5d][5s] and Wivil [Ah][Kc], and after the board came [Kd][3h][Tc][Th][7h] Wivil's kings were best and bah23 was out in ninth.

A little less than 10 minutes later, the blinds were still 125K/250K when PKRisMYstar open-raised all in for about 2.87 million, then it folded to Wivil in the cutoff who reraised over the top forcing folds the rest of the way. PKRisMYstar turned over [As][Ks] versus Wivil's [Jc][Js], and while the flop brought a king there was a jack as well as it came [Kd][Jh][6h]. The [6s] turn meant PKRisMYstar was still drawing live, but the [Jd] river made quads for Wivil and PKRisMYstar was done in eighth.

About 20 minutes after that Wivil was at it again, min-raising to 600,000 from middle position. It folded to 1HL7 in the big blind who three-bet all in for almost 2.2 million, and Wivil called, turning over [Ac][Qs] to 1HL7's [Ad][9s]. The board rolled out [Tc][8h][2c][3h][4s], meaning the kickers played and 1HL7 had been eliminated in seventh.

The final six played on a short while longer, then paused the tournament to talk about a possible deal. At that point Steve "mcnallyville" McNally (12.33 million) and bigbluffzinc (12.24 million) were nearly even at the top of the counts with Wivil (11.66 million) not far behind in third. They were followed by nerd2121 (7.46 million), prusakowski (6.56 million) and arsendark10 (5.84 million).

Both "ICM"-based and "chip chop" figures were shared with the group -- leaving aside $20K for which to play in both cases -- and after some discussion they all were able to go along with the "chip chop" numbers and soon play resumed.

They continued on into the tournament's 12th hour, then with the blinds up to 200K/400K a hand arose that saw arsendark10 open-raise all in for just over 3 million from late position and get one caller in prusakowski from the small blind. arsendark10 had [Ah][9h] and prusakowski [Qc][Th], and the [5d][3d][5s] flop kept the at-risk player in front. But the [Td] came on the turn then the [Qs] on the river to give prusakowski two pair and end arsendark10's run in sixth.

Eight hands later Wivil opened from the cutoff with a min-raise to 1 million, nerd2121 reraised all in for more than 11.3 million from the small blind, then when the big blind folded to Wivil called all in for about 6.34 million total. nerd2121 had [Ad][Kc] and the edge over Wivil's [Ac][Jd], and five cards later -- [Th][Qh][4c][3h][3c] -- nerd2121's hand was still best and Wivil was sent railward in fifth.

For a short while the four remaining players were close to each other in chips, but then nerd2121 began to push out in front. Then with the blinds up to 300K/600K, nerd2121 opened for 1,358,750 from UTG and prusakowski called from the small blind. bigbluffzinc then shoved all in for almost 13.3 million from the big blind. That earned a reraise-shove from leader nerd2121, forcing a fold from prusakowski.

bigbluffzinc turned over [9c][9s] while nerd2121 had that pipped with [Ts][Tc]. The community cards came [7c][4s][8c], then [6s], then [7s], and nerd2121's two pair was best as bigbluffzinc was outsed in fourth.

Not long after that they were in the same level when Steve "mcnallyville" McNally opened for just over 1.3 million from the button and both prusakowski (small blind) and nerd2121 (big blind) called. The flop came [Kc][9h][Jc], and it checked to McNally who continued for 2,250,750. Only prusakowski stuck around. The turn then brought the [3d] and a check from prusakowski, after which McNally shoved all in for just over 6.18 million and prusakowski called.

McNally turned over [As][Kd] for top pair of kings, but prusakowski had a straight with [Qc][Ts], and after the inconsequential river fell McNally had been stopped in third.

That set up heads-up play with nerd2121 starting out with the advantage with 33,793,916 to prusakowski's 21,936,084. After a few minutes nerd2121 had whittled away nearly all of the latter's stack having chipped up over 52 million while the latter fell below 3.5 million when the final hand took place.

It began with nerd2121 shoving all in from the button and prusakowski called with what amounted to about three BBs after having posted the big blind. nerd2121 had [Qd][4d] which turned out to be ahead of prusakowski's [Th][2h], and after the board came [Ah][7c][8d][3s][Js] it was all over -- nerd2121 had prevailed.

Congratulations to nerd2121 for overcoming this week's huge Sunday Million field to earn the victory and nearly $100K, and kudos as well to the other five players who made it to the final table table, thereby ensuring themselves nice paydays as well.

11/1/15 Sunday Million ($215 No-Limit Hold'em) results
Entrants:  5,573
Prize pool: $1,114,600.00
Places paid: 810

1. nerd2121 (Germany) $97,087.10*
2. prusakowski (Poland) $72,134.15*
3. Steve "mcnallyville" McNally (Mexico) $103,755.48*
4. bigbluffzinc (Canada) $103,236.80*
5. Wivil (Canada) $100,061.63*
6. arsendark10 (Russia) $66,259.09*
7. 1HL7 (United Kingdom) $25,078.50
8. PKRisMYstar (Romania) $13,932.50
9. bah23 (Bulgaria) $8,916.80
* = denotes a six-way deal leaving $20,000 for the winner

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As the November Nine starts play at the end of this week a familiar face will be vying for that World Series of Poker Main Event title. Pierre Neuville, former Team PokerStars Pro from Belgium, will start fourth in chips. Perhaps his run to a possible bracelet spurred Belgium's run at the Sunday Warm-Up final table. Three Belgians would made it through the field to reach the spotlights. A.Tricarico would finish in eighth place but donalddrik and Ashley Jones would battle heads-up for the title. After a quick match, donalddrik proved victorious winning $79,790.00.

From the seventh hour to the eighth hour of play !Weak4Ever! was showing at the top of the chip counts with three full tables remaining. A brutal turn of events would leave !Weak4Ever! out in 19th place. The quick action would continue as mxny (Russia), q3timmy (Sweden), and Back2rich642 (China) bounced in 16th through 18th place all earning $1,868.50 before the half-way mark of the eighth hour.

SoilyMcDiapR would lose with kings versus joaoMathias' ace-deuce, and then suffered another blowout with ace-nine versus beigale777's ace-eight. After a flopped eight, SoilyMcDiapR waddled home with $2,575.50 in 13th place.

The name joaoMathias should sound familiar if you follow the PokerStarsBlog for all its -COOP and Super Tuesday coverage. Most recently João Mathias "joaoMathias" Baumgarten made the final table of the Super Tuesday in January earning $9K in ninth place and earned $7K during SCOOP's Event #34-M finishing in fifth place. Baumgarten would start off the ninth hour of play with slightly below average chips and only 12 players away from $79,790.00.

Two eliminations in the first three hands back from the ninth hourly break set up hand-for-hand play. Baumgarten would get another shot at a Major title after Hoegh93 shoved pocket treys [3c][3d] on the button right into beigale777's aces [Ac][As] in the big blind. After a clean [Kc] [2c] [2s] [8s] [Jc] board, our final nine started play below:

Seat 1: beigale777 (2634276 in chips)
Seat 2: Ashley Jones (4710408 in chips)
Seat 3: john4kos8 (6119026 in chips)
Seat 4: medmar (3318547 in chips)
Seat 5: joaoMathias (1678922 in chips)
Seat 6: bRe3za (1773422 in chips)
Seat 7: A.Tricarico (1830665 in chips)
Seat 8: donalddrik (1886580 in chips)
Seat 9: Herzblatt250 (1298154 in chips)

One of these days Baumgarten's luck in Major final tables will turn around. But, this was not that day.

With the blinds at 50K/100K ante 10K and about to move up joaoMathias would three-bet shove 1.25 million over a min-raise by Ashley Jones and call by medmar. Ashley Jones folded but medmar covered and called with [Ah][Ks]. Baumgarten's queens [Qd][Qh] failed to make it past the flop [Ad] [9h] [5c] [Kh] [2s] finishing without the winner's share again in ninth place ($4,292.50).

Six hands later with the blinds now up to 65K/130K ante 13K Ashley Jones was back but not folding this time, shoving pocket kings [Kc][Kd] over the top of an early position push by A.Tricarico. The Belgian was trying to better a seventh place finish here in 2013 but a bit behind holding [Ad][Th]. The lack of aces on the [4s] [5d] [9s] [Js] [Jd] board shipped $7,322.50 to A.Tricarico in eighth place.

15 minutes later with the blinds moving up again to 80K/160K ante 16K beigale777 laid out a min-raise as john4kos8 shoved for 4.97 million from the big blind holding big slick [Ac][Kd]. Beigale777 eagerly called for less with queens [Qh][Qc] but once again ace-king would defeat the ladies [Jh] [9h] [As] [2h] [3s] as beigale777 earned $12,372.50 in seventh place.

Despite minor pecks at discussing a deal towards the end of the ninth hour of play, nothing would materialize six-handed. And that would leave two players with a lot less money after this hand. With the blinds escalating to 100K/200K ante 20K a three-way preflop all-in broke out between bRe3za, Herzblatt250, and john4kos8 who covered all holding pocket tens [Ts][Th]. Neither Herzblatt250's sixes [6d][6h] nor bRe3za's [9c][Ac] could catch the tens on the [5s] [7c] [3s] [Qh] [Qc] board as bRe3za collected $17,422.50 for sixth and Herzblatt250 $22,472.50 in fifth place.

Donalddrik tried again during the five minute break to stir up dialogue but was met with a wall of silence sitting third in chips and heading into the tenth hour of play:

Seat 3: john4kos8 (9465822 in chips)
Seat 2: Ashley Jones (7821273 in chips)
Seat 8: donalddrik (4845240 in chips)
Seat 4: medmar (3117665 in chips)

Another double elimination would get us to heads-up play.

Just five minutes back from the break with the blinds holding at 100K/200K ante 20K and Ashley Jones now holding the chip lead, john4kos8 would shove 2.9 million over Ashley Jones' min-raise and medmar joined the party with a shove for 2.7 million. Starting the hand with 12.8 million, Ashley Jones made the call with kings [Ks][Kd] facing john4kos8's [Ac][6c] and medmar's unlucky jacks [Jh][Jd]. A flopped set of kings [3c] [As] [Kh] [3s] [2d] pushed medmar out in fourth place ($29,542.50) and john4kos8 in third ($42,925.00).

Despite starting with a 18.8 million to 6.3 chip deficit, donalddrik would even the score within eight minutes prompting Ashley Jones to cry uncle to donalddrik's request for a chop talk audience and pause play to discuss... in Belgian. This author only understood "let's play" after a few minutes from donalddrik as Ashley Jones asked for a little too much as the cards rolled out to the felt again.

After the final two swapped the chip lead a few times donalddrik would finally pull away after winning seven hand in a row. With the blinds up to 150K/300K ante 30K donalddrik held a 21.9 million to 3.3 million chip lead and min-raised from the button. Ashley Jones shoved holding [Ts][Kd] as donalddrik made the call with [Jc][9c]. Ashley's Jones' top pair came with a flush warning [Kc][2c][2h]. The flush missed the turn [9h] but not the river [6c] as donalddrik claimed this week's Sunday Warm-Up title and $79,790.00!

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up results (11-01-15)

Entrants: 2,525
Places paid: 360
Prize pool: $505,000.00

1. donalddrik (Belgium) $79,790.00
2. Ashley Jones (Belgium) $59,928.35
3. john4kos8 (Cyprus) $42,925.00
4. medmar (Argentina) $29,542.50
5. Herzblatt250 (Germany) $22,472.50
6. bRe3za (Germany) $17,422.50
7. beigale777 (Japan) $12,372.50
8. A.Tricarico (Belgium) $7,322.50
9. João Mathias "joaoMathias" Baumgarten (Brazil) $4,292.50

Even if you are not from Belgium, there's still a chance to become a Sunday Major champion Click here to get an account.

PokerStars today unveiled a comprehensive plan to enhance the playing experience and to re-emphasize the fun and social aspects of online poker while attracting and retaining more players to the game. Poker is a fun game that we love and our responsibility is to make sure that every player at PokerStars -- advanced, recreational or new - can enjoy this game as much as we do.

We believe that the combination of a new VIP club program, the release of innovative new games and broad-based consumer marketing campaigns - including new campaigns featuring Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar Jr - will put the poker ecosystem on the right tracks to deliver growth for the years to come.

Investments in research and development will bring new innovations to the game beginning in the first half of 2016 and continuing throughout the year to increase play from existing customers and attract new players.

PokerStars also plans to roll out new policies that will reinforce the fundamental elements of human competition by limiting certain software programs that may provide an unfair advantage to some players.

For more than 95% of our players, the most obvious change will be the introduction of the VIP Steps program and changing our variable FPP currency into a constant value which will be called StarsCoin. This will simplify the reward system and enhance its visibility during play, so that players can follow their progress in real time. VIP status players from BronzeStar to GoldStar will continue to be able to receive up to a similar level of rewards to what they receive now. In some cases, players will receive less; in some cases, players will receive more, but it's very much in the same ballpark.

PokerStars will also revamp the loyalty program to effectively incentivize and reward more players and to encourage competitive play over high volume play. The changes will result in improved rewards for the vast majority of players. Approximately two percent of players - including our highest volume and high stakes players - will have significantly reduced rewards. The reason we are focused on the highest status levels is because these rewards have become so enticing that we have inadvertently altered why some people play and how they play. We are introducing these changes to move towards a more balanced long-term poker economy and to return the game back to one that rewards skill via winning at the tables rather than playing primarily for volume.

A Summary of 2016 Changes

Introduction of VIP Steps
• Simplified rewards mechanism replaces FPPs, Stellar Rebates, and Milestone Rewards with StarsCoin.
• StarsCoin value will be one cent each for all statuses.

Reducing Rewards for High-Volume and High-Stakes Players
• VIP Club rewards will be capped at 30%, impacting mainly high-volume Supernova and SupernovaElite status players.
• PlatinumStar status will have up to a 10% reduction in their overall rewards.
• In recognition of the players who have already-earned SupernovaElite status or will by the end of the year, the benefits cap for players who earn Supernova Elite in 2015 will be 45% in 2016.
• No VPPs for pot-limit and no-limit games with blinds of $5-$10+, 8-game $10-$20+, and other limit games with blinds of $10-$15+. This change is implemented due to high transaction costs and operation costs of monitoring these games.

We will soon have a dedicated web site for details and will post that as soon as ready.

Third-Party Software Restrictions
Technology liberated poker from the constraints of bricks and mortar and allowed poker fans to discover the game at their own pace in their own home on the internet. While the tactics of the game may have evolved, poker has stayed true to its core - it's fundamentally about human competition, which is something that needs to be protected. The game should be about combining logic and an ability to steel your nerves to make that big call or bluff; it shouldn't be about clicking a button because harvested stats tell you to. For this reason, we are on a path to eliminate many of these technological advantages that are used by a minority of players.

People have differing views on where the line around third-party software in poker should be drawn; it's certainly something that we constantly debate and review. Technology can aid, but it shouldn't take over.

Today, we want to make clear that the line will be drawn to preserve poker as a battle of wits and a test of heart. This will only have a direct effect on a small proportion of players and builds upon our responsibility to provide a level playing field for all players.

The new restrictions on third-party software will extend recent changes to our third-party software policy. Last month, we reduced data mining in Zoom!, restricted the use of heads-up displays, and limited the use of Spin & Go seating scripts.

Our intention is to expand these restrictions through major changes within our own software that we will communicate in more detail through 2016. PokerStars wants to offer fun, fair and competitive games of poker globally. These changes aim to help us achieve that goal.

Product Innovation & Marketing Investments
We are also continuing to invest heavily in marketing that reaches new audiences and re-ignites the interest of lapsed players. Earlier this year we announced the signing of two of the most popular athletes in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar Jr. They've already been involved in some of our most successful promotions ever. Soon, they will be part of the biggest global consumer marketing campaign in PokerStars history.

Our investment includes the most significant research and development initiatives in years, some of which will come to market in early 2016, including a standalone PokerStars branded app that we believe will bring a brand new twist to poker. Later in the year we're planning an even more bold take on poker that we believe will be very exciting.

The changes to the PokerStars VIP Club will come into effect from January 1, 2016, and new policies on third-party software will come into effect throughout 2016.

We are confident that these changes will improve the playing experience for all PokerStars players and will drive increased play and more players to the ecosystem.

Eric Hollreiser is Vice President of Corporate Communications for Amaya Inc. and PokerStars.