#Fairplay: Improvements to cash game decision times

We have already made sweeping changes to the partypoker software as part of our #Fairplay initiative, designed to make poker safer, fair and fun for all of our players, and the next improvement is coming to you by the weekend.

Cash game decision times are being reduced, following your feedback, to help improve player experience and make the games more enjoyable. Rob Yong, regarding the current decision times, “…the settings are very old, so we are aligning with the industry standard for a faster more exciting game.”

All cash games, with the exception of our fastforward tables, will be updated from Friday 28th June. Currently, No Limit Hold’em (NLHE) cash games allow 15 seconds to make a decision pre-flop. This remains the same, but post-flop decision time has been reduced from 20 seconds to 15.

Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) players currently have 25 seconds to act before the flop is dealt. This will reduce to 15 seconds, in line with NHLE cash games. Post-flop, PLO players will have 20 seconds to act.

Cash Game Decision Times

| Current decision time | New decision time
NLHE cash games preflop | 15 seconds | 15 seconds
NLHE cash games postflop | 20 seconds | 15 seconds
PLO cash games preflop | 25 seconds | 15 seconds
PLO cash games postflop | 25 seconds | 20 seconds

The main reason for these changes is to improve player experience by making cash games faster and more exciting to play.

We are also working on a new and improved time bank system, which will be rolled out in the near future; further details to follow soon.

Making Poker Fun and Fair Again

The first five major changes occurred on June 17th, 2019 as part of #Fairplay. This included banning HUDs, creating new aliases to render the databases anyone had complied obsolete, removing downloadable hand histories, and making it impossible to observe cash games without beeing seated at the table.

You can read Rob Yong’s statement here, and watch the video below to see how the recent improvements to the partypoker software prevent new or recreational players being unfairly targeted.