We’ve had a ton of activity on our New Jersey poker community page here on PocketFives. Threads have been blowing up with players from the Garden State talking about the soft launch of intrastate internet gambling and online poker sites today, including Borgata Poker, WSOP.com, and PartyPoker. A variety of issues were reported ahead of the official launch of legalized and regulated internet gambling.

“Finally got on WSOP.com and got my free $10,” Dennis Dlorican Lopez posted on Thursday night before saying that he was having issues getting verified. Earlier in the day, Lopez told PocketFives, “I went to the download page and clicked ‘Play Now,’ but nothing happened. I tried three browsers and nothing happened, but there are some people who were able to get onto WSOP.com and play micro-stakes cash games. The site sent you a verification e-mail and gave you $10 to try it out.”

The soft launch kicked off at 6:00pm ET and was scheduled to run for eight hours. Lopez said that he also visited BorgataPoker.com, but was having issues firing up the software, which is powered by bwin.party. “I was able to install and download it with no problems,” Lopez told us. “Once I registered, I logged in, but it said I couldn’t play because I was outside of New Jersey. I live smack in the middle of New Jersey, so I am nowhere near a border.”

Chris ChrisWirth Wirth was another PocketFiver downloading and installing software in New Jersey as part of the soft launch. Wirth told PocketFives’ New Jersey poker community, “I have logged in 3 or 4 times and every time it took several tries to get past the location verification.”

Not everyone could even get to the verification step, however. Take rtheusa, who vented, “WSOP won’t download even with the link from their e-mail. Borgata lets me download, but not deposit. Tropicana doesn’t have poker and UP, once downloaded, keeps giving me errors.”

Dedonkefyspent his Thursday night in a car and posted his myriad adventures: “WSOP.com keeps telling me cannot download since already running, which isn’t true… Borgata and Harrah’s kept telling me I was not in NJ. Rode along with a reporter from the AP trying to log in. Yes, I know, very classy that we tried to log in at McDonald’s, a rest stop, and Buffalo Wild Wings.” You can read the Associated Press story by clicking here.

Morristown, New Jersey’s Joey Ginzo was a bit frustrated, posting, “Can anyone get onto Borgata? Saying I am not verified. Wonder if it’s because I had a recent address change? Also geo-location issues like anyone else. They better have this all worked out before the ‘hard’ launch next week. If we can’t get on, why would a casual player jump through hoops?”

The hard launch Joey Ginzo referred to is set for next Tuesday, November 26 assuming all goes as planned. Geo-location issues seemed to permeate multiple sites, much like we saw in Nevada. However, given there are five days remaining until New Jersey’s official launch, one would expect these setbacks to be cleared up.

We’ll keep you posted on the latest from New Jersey right here on PocketFives.