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Greetings everyone,
I am the winner of that Pokerroom Christmas $20+2 event last saturday about which you have doubtless heard huge amounts of rumours. Here is the most brief of summaries on what has happened.
1. In the tournament registration lobby this tournament was advertised as a 19k guaranteed. On the front page of the website it also advertised "extra prizes" such as an HDTV for first. As there were only roughly 200 players signed up, I joined for the huge overlay, as did several others.
2. I won the tournament and received $3,829.06 and a $2000 HDTV. Top 40 were paid, and the payouts are still listed on Pokerroom's website as they were that day.
3. Monday Pokerroom emailed me, said they had overpaid, accessed my account without permission, and deducted $3,400 from my account. They did the same to 39 other players. We were all told that we could keep any extra prizes we earned at the FT. However, they factored in the value of the "extra prizes" when determining their new payouts, meaning they were not indeed extra but paid for by the entry fees of the players, and decided that they would not honor the word "guaranteed."
4. After a huge outcry from the community and several posts by yours truly on their forums, they announced that each player would receive a $10 tournament entry ticket and each FT player would receive $100. As I found this unfair to everyone in the event, particularly to those of us who earned large paychecks that day, I posted my discontent. Shortly after, a moderator contacted me, apologized for the misunderstanding, and told me $2000 would be deposited in my account. I immediately received $2100. I informed the rest of the FT about this and they were all told that I did not in fact receive any extra money, and they would be getting only $100 each.
5. I later contacted support regarding the TV, was told promotions would contact me, and when I asked about the removed funds I was told that they had redeposited the $2100 because they withdrew too much from my account originally. The next day, however, I received an email from Support telling me that the $2000 was for the TV and not, in fact, an apology or an over-withdrawal as they said to my face.
6. I wrote a lengthy letter explaining my position to Support (it's on page 59 of that giant forum at Pokerroom). This morning I received another email from support telling me they will be in touch about the television they owe me.
In short, the security of the online poker world is threatened here. A major poker site has reneged on its guarantees, falsely advertised the prizes in its tournaments, wrongfully accessed players' accounts and removed funds at its own discretion, refused to pay out as advertised on its tournament page, and generally used every means of deception to keep its loyal customers from getting their due. The forum we disgruntled players have formed has been repeatedly unstickied and moved to various areas of the site, and at this point multiple moderators have been stripped of their duties and multiple posters on the forum have received 10-year bans. If we countenance this sort of behavior, then we cannot feel secure deposting our money with these firms. I urge all of you to communicate your displeasure with this situation to pokerroom, to inform everyone in the online poker community who may also be affected by these transgressions, and to think very carefully about whether pokerroom is the sort of place you feel safe depositing your money.
Thank you for your time and support.
mvzander
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