Poker Discussion
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CarbonPoker · Full Tilt · Cake Poker · PokerStars · Ultimate Bet · Players Only · Bodog
Greetings everyone, longtime reader first-time poster.
Last Saturday, the 16th, Pokerroom.com ran their Christmas tournament, which was advertised to every player on the site as a $20+2 NL MTT with additional prizes of an HDTV for first and Pokerroom merchandise for 2nd-10th. Cruising around the site, I thought about playing in said tournament, and when I popped into the lobby for said tournament, it advertised a $19000 guarantee. As there were only about 200 players registered at the time, the overlay was rather large so I decided that I would definitely play.
I won. $3,829.81 and a $2000 HDTV. For my first big score in an MTT. That's not why I am here today, however.
Yesterday morning I received an email from Pokerroom informing me that there had been a mistake in the payouts. They claimed that I was only due $404.75 and would thus have $3,425.06 removed from my account immediately. And oh, by the way, they were letting me keep my $22 buyin and, if I finished in the top 10, whatever bonus prize I earned. They didn't even have the decency to look into matters closely enough to realize that I was not only in the top 10, but the winner.
For a 265 person tourney with no guarantee at the $20+2 level, first place pays $1590 on Pokerroom. I looked it up. That, however, is not the point here. Pokerroom has decided that they can arbitrarily enter people's accounts and remove large portions of their bankrolls on a whim. They have also decided that, not only can they renege on claims of a guarantee, but they can also advertise "extra" prizes but actually use people's tourney buyins to cover the costs of said "extras" whilst systematically reducing the cash payouts for everyone in their tournaments.
Pokerroom's support team has handled this in a laughably unprofessional manner, ignoring all arguments about the meaning of the word "extra" and attempting to liken the situation to a bank accidentally putting extra money in your account and claiming that the money never belonged to us in the first place. This tournament ran for 5 hours and 15 minutes. Those payout levels were posted the entire time, and pretty much everyone who made the final table has screenshots of their payouts. A large number of players in the tournament likely only played in said event because of the overlay, and a large number of previously happy players who cashed in this tournament are now receiving either merely their buyin back or a one-of-a-kind, super valuable PokerRoom travel kit in lieu of any cash prizes. Not as extra prizes as advertised, mind you, but in lieu of actual prizes.
Scams like this cannot be allowed to continue. There are always concerns about legitimacy and legality in the online poker world (generally voiced by all our friends and family who don't play), but the poker world would not have advanced to the point it has if every major poker website was allowed to treat its customers in this manner. I have removed all remaining cash from my Pokerroom account, and I urge all of you to strongly consider how confident you are in the security of your accounts before doing business with Pokerroom.com ever again. I hope that you will all spread knowledge of this incident throughout the online poker community in the hopes that awareness leads to a positive resolution for all online poker players.
Thank you for your time.
Zander
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This reeks of financial trouble. Why would a site as large as PR lose all credibility over a few thousand dollars? I would not be a bit surprised if Bwin, the parent company, filed for bankruptcy within six months.
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zander
(United States)
1,694
Posts.
Joined
12-19-2006.
12-19-2006 9:32 PM
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In reply to
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Apparently support has now emailed other final table players and denied giving me money.
Is there any way this hasn't cost them at least tens of times as much money as just leaving things the way they were would have?
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It is embarrassing reading this about Pokerroom. I can't even play there anymore, and while I loved PR very much, posts like this don't make me miss it in the least. There have been many position changes at Pokerroom, and it is my understanding that Rod and Todd, the two moderators/gaming reps/all around great guys who used to post on P5's on PR's behalf, have moved on to greener pastures. Same with many of the other great staff at PR I've come to know - probably why we won't get a response from PR here.
Once a great site with aspirations of being the best, now a parody just hanging on.
Do the right thing PR, payout the players. After so obv grifting the customers I don't get how you could rationalize not paying, esp if you expect anyone who reads this to play on the site again. It is not like there aren't other sites around where they don't screw the players.
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This might take the cake as far as scams go. Reason being it's not from a scammer, but by a well know poker site. What a friggen joke!!! People say UB is bad, well don't forget to add PokerRoom to that list. If I ever won this and this happened to me, I don't even want to know what I would do or what I would feel like. Merry Christmas huh? Sheesh!
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Merry Xmas from Poker Room to you!!
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I too was gonna open a pokerroom account and deposit.......NOT now !!!
We all need to trust the poker sites we play on.....
Pokerroom obviously cannot be trusted..........
bye bye Pokerroom.......
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That's so sick man. Sorry to hear the stupid shit they have pulled. I say we all email pokerroom support and tell them that we were all thinking of depositing but because of this stunt they lost our business (even if you were never thinking of depositing). Maybe then they will realize all of the lost potential business and sack up.
Just sent this email:
Dear Pokerroom,
I was thinking about depositing on your site until I realized the shady stunts that you have pulled. Hosting a tournament that is a Guarantee Tournament means that you pay the players whatever the prize pool equals. If the # of entrants and $ of entries doesn't cover what you guarantee then it's called an overlay, you suck it up and you pay it. To pay the players their $ then go into their accounts and strip them of their winnings is the way you conduct business well I will just let you know that you lost thousands of dollars in revenue. You're reputation has gone to shit and your scam artist ways are being spread all of poker forums all over the internet. This is just one of the several posts going around:
I hope you choose to save face and pay these players and publicly admit to doing so. If you don't well you are going to have a very very very tough time getting any business after this shady shit.
Signed,
You're Lost Potential Customer
Sean
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I can hear COngress now, "recently an online poker room held a tournament, and then refused to pay the winners, we must put an end to online gambling!".
Pokerroom was my first home. It didnt take long before I realized there was better out there (ie Hollywood with better bonuses etc). They really could have been the best, but couldnt pull it off. They have the best name in the industry, I mean Pokerroom, whats better than that out there? They have screwed the pooch here big time, now its gonna cost them.
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Pokerroom is NOT gay...gays tend to dress well, groom themselves, and be open and honest [i.e. not closeted, furtive, secretive or scam artists]. Enough with the "gay" when you mean "sleazy".
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cmval
(Timor-Leste)
8,515
Posts.
Joined
09-10-2006.
12-20-2006 2:23 AM
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In reply to
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Just absolutely sick. GET YOUR MONEY OFF THAT SITE NOW....BOYCOTT OF POKERROOM.COM
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Is THAT why the flag next to GamesRep flag is now British?
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zander
(United States)
1,694
Posts.
Joined
12-19-2006.
12-20-2006 9:55 AM
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In reply to
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Apparently Pokerroom has decided that stripping moderators who support this cause of their positions and moving this thread from the main poker forums to the social lounge will make it go away quietly. Keep talking about this people, it clearly isn't going away. We haven't yet seen a major online poker site go down for royally mistreating their customers, but we might be on the verge.
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I remember when Pokerroom was highly recommended by this site.... Is there any way Adam or CAL can get involved to help you out? I've seen some problems get resolved on this site just by getting the right people in the mix
Guarantee means just that. not going back on your word, and for a business to do that, is just criminal
its worth a try
Adam?
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I FT'ed the 30+3$ Christmas Tourney on PokerRoom. I also got an e-mail where it told of the "Extra Prizes", which was a trip to the Maldives for first place and some PokerRoom junk for 2nd-10th. I signed up because I thoght this seemed like a great tournament. I placed fifth, and then I realized that with "Extra Prizes" they meant "Only Prizes". I can't beleive they give away they're own junk, saying the value is 150$ when that's what it costs in their store, and the prizes aren't added. For my sake, I don't feel "scammed" only that I got a deal which was much worse than it seemed.
Overall, I really like PokerRoom, have been there all the time I have played poker. I haven't experienced any problems except buggy software and slow replies from support.
I hope PokerRoom pays up, saves face, tries to do their business better so I can continue playing there, feeling safe, against all the wonderful fish.
Oh yeah. BTW. I haven't heard anything about my prize yet, it hasn't appeared anywhere in my account pages. I e-mailed them some questions and haven't gotten any answers. The tourney was on sunday...
Cokeaholic
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