A seven-figure online tournament met its demise because of technical problems this weekend when an ambitious event from the Winning Poker Network had to be halted mid-stream.

The Winning Poker Network is not a household name, sitting at just 30th in PokerScout’s cash game traffic rankings, but there are about a dozen sites on it like 5Dimes, True Poker, BetCRIS, and America’s Cardroom. Over the weekend, the network hosted a $1 million guaranteed tournament, which would have made it the largest prize pool for American Players since the big boys left the market after Black Friday.

Note that PocketFives does not recommend playing on WPN sites, which are not regulated in the US. We feel your account balances could be at risk.

The tournament got off the ground smoothly enough, but as time went on, players began experiencing problems like lag and tables freezing. Twice the tournament was suspended and resumed until finally, four-and-a-half hours in, it was officially cancelled.

While disappointing, cancelling a tournament because of technical difficulties is understandable. After all, you don’t want players to have to deal with issues the entire way, especially in such a large tournament (there were 1,937 registrants) with such a substantial prize pool.

The problem players had in this case, beyond the frustration of a poker network not being able to provide a stable, problem-free game, was that apparently because late registration was still open, the only remedy for players was to have their buy-ins returned. In other tournaments, poker rooms sometimes also dole out the prize pool based on chip counts or some other calculation. Players who were still alive in the event were, on the whole, furious that they wasted four-and-a-half hours for nothing.

Those who were still able to see their table eventually saw the following pop-up message: “Due to circumstances out of our control,we have been unable to provide a stable, fair gaming experience. Many players timed out, while others remained connected. As per our terms and conditions, the tournament has been cancelled and buy-ins and fees have been refunded to all participants.”

The ones who were happiest in this situation were the ones who busted out early, as they still got their money refunded without having to play for half a working day.

On Monday, the CEO of the Winning Poker Network went on Twitchto deliver a message live to the poker community about the problem. Speaking off the cuff, he looked distraught, saying, “Well, I don’t even know where to start. This has probably – and like you care – been one of the hardest… the hardest week of my life.”

While he did not say the problems were the result of a DDoS attack, something that has plagued some sites in recent weeks, he did say “someone” was messing with the site. Read about DDoS attacks at Merge.

The issues had been going on before Sunday and the CEO said that part of the problem was that in order to block unwanted traffic to the network, developers inadvertently blocked good traffic, hence the tournament issues. He said that things had been going smoothly in the days leading up to the million-dollar tournament, but he thinks it was because whomever was attacking the network was waiting for the big event. He blamed himself for letting the tournament go on so long, but he knew he had to just shut it down to be fair to everyone.

The tournament has been rescheduled for February 22.

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