PokerStars is getting greedy

I love PokerStars. Their software has allowed me to enjoy playing poker for free for over seven years, honing my poker skills at no cost other than an investment of my time. However, I must say that PokerStars is getting greedy. I can think of no other reason why they'd increase their entry fees for sit and gos, which they've recently done. This is not the first time they've increased their entry fees, and it probably won't be the last. The problem they're likely to run into by doing this is a drop in sit and go revenue. Players will react by gravitating to other poker styles, and even other poker sites. Basically, what PokerStars has done is to disrespect their players, who are their bread and butter; they're essentially shooting themselves in the foot. Since software has a fixed cost, but can be deployed on essentially an infinite number of servers, PokerStars was already in the racket of printing money. Now they want to print more by cutting into what they used to distribute to the players. It's shameful. When I consider how ticked off this behavior makes me, a play money player, I can only imagine how outraged real money players must be. PokerStars is essentially stealing from its own customers!

Let me illustrate what a devastating effect entry fee increases can have. My sit and go sweet spot is the $50,000 wagered level. What you wager on a sit and go is the buy in plus the entry fee. I've played three different structures at this level:

 buy in  entry fee   entry fee pct   when

$50,000       $800       1.57        2012
$45,000     $5,000      10.00        2014
$44,000     $6,000      12.00        2016

Technically, the 2012 structure has a slightly higher total wagered amount ($50,800) than the other two, but it's in the same ballpark. Let's apply these three different structures to my sit and go results, and compare. Here are my current sit and go place counts:

place  count
1        216
2        253
3        251
4        207
5        163
6         93

        1183

Here are the profits I would have made had I played all of those sit and gos at a particular structure:

structure       profit

2012        $8,588,600
2014        $2,666,500
2016        $1,292,800

As you can see, this latest entry fee increase means I'll make less than half the profit I would have made had PokerStars not pulled the rug out from under me. That's highway robbery! I'm pissed off.

buy_in entry players hands place winnings

 44000  6000       6    35     3        0
 44000  6000       6    57     1   171600
 44000  6000       6    13     6        0
 44000  6000       6    39     2    92400

delta: $64,000
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $4,461,800
balance: $12,503,604