The thread was started last month by a high-volume tournament player who posted an email he received from support which states “punitive measures will be introduced, up to and including a loss of playing privileges,” if the player continues to stall during the tournament.

It spawned a 500-post heated debate among players discussing issues of legitimate timing out vs. strategic stalling, and maintaining good “game quality” for recreational players.

Twenty days after the thread was created, PokerStars representative Steve Day clarified the poker room’s position and hinted that there was no policy in place to punish players slow to act.

“It is not current PokerStars policy to take action against players who are regularly acting slowly at tournament tables. I sat down with the lead of our poker specialists team to review the topics discussed in this thread and ensure future support responses are aligned with current policy,” he wrote.

However, it was conceded that if players did continue to use stalling as a strategic play to maximise winrate, without concern for the overall detriment to game quality for other players, then new policies may be introduced.

“If current game conditions are such that optimal immediate financial results are achieved by behavior that is disruptive to the overall playing conditions on the site, and players do not choose to moderate their behavior for the greater long term good of the poker environment, then we at PokerStars will need to change the playing environment through policy/rules change and effective rule enforcement,” he cautioned.