Big boo boo, PokerRoom in doo doo

[mvzander]

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

[Royal Flush]

Did they break the T's + C's at any point?

[tikay]

This post made me chuckle...

as far as i can see the worst thing is taking the money back. fine it wasnt meant to be 19k guarteed. too bad, thats what you paid out. you can't just then go into someone's account and take the money back. i didnt mean to call all my chips on that gutshot, doesnt mean i can go into the guys account and take back what i lost!!

what if they had cashed out their winnings and was enjoying a nice hooker or two. Is a PR rep gonna kock on the door and say "actually, we made a mistake. we want our money back. unfortunately since you bought that girl with our money, we're taking her too"

its all B.S.

Feel free to write as you see it snoops. Trust me.

[tikay]

Is that skin (Pokapoker) still going? I opened an account in very similar circumstances about a year ago. I successfully logged a couple of months ago but failed when I tried last week. I sent an e-mail to support but it got bounced back, I assumed it had folded, I had no money in there so i didn't bother investigating further.

Anyone seen James Browning recently?

Poka-Poka changed network recently. James Browning is alive & well, too!

[sledge13]

Disgraceful....no one should ever play there again

[Sheriff Fatman]

Is that skin (Pokapoker) still going? I opened an account in very similar circumstances about a year ago. I successfully logged a couple of months ago but failed when I tried last week. I sent an e-mail to support but it got bounced back, I assumed it had folded, I had no money in there so i didn't bother investigating further.

Anyone seen James Browning recently?

Poka-Poka changed network recently. James Browning is alive & well, too!

Its moved to a network (I think its the old Dobrosoft network) along with Full Contact Poker.  You have to download the software again from the PokaPoka website.

Seemed pretty dead both times I logged in to have a look - but that was a couple of weeks ago.  I don't expect it to pick up a lot of traffic though - there doesn't seem to be much publicity about it anywhere.

Sheriff

[boldie]

Disgraceful....no one should ever play there again

I agree...completely outrageous. I also don't get that; in this market that has just gotten MUCH more competetive because most sites are now after the same  smaller base of players (IOW Non-Americans) a site like pokerroom would make such a MASSIVE PR blunder. I am sure just paying out the 19k would have been cheaper for them as this will lose them quite a few customers.

[snoopy1239]

Did they break the T's + C's at any point?

I think there's a term that says they must pay out the pay-out that is advertised on the tournament info page.

[I, Zimbra]

It has to be false advertising if they don't pay it; players signed up to that event purely because they saw "$19 Guarantee" on the tourney software.

Pokerroom was never high on my list of places to try out, shuffle it into the "No, really, don't bother" pile.

P.S. On a recent note, Tribeca did cancel a $20k Guarantee tourney I think, a month or two back, when a server disconnect meant that only 20 or so people were able to sign up for it. There's a thread on it, somewhere around here.

The difference though, was that the Tribeca tourney was cancelled mid-game and all buy-ins refunded, rather than being allowed to complete - so no prizes were paid out in the first place. The burning issue with the Pokerroom saga is that the tourney paid out to players and then the next day the room took back all the winnings...

[barhell]

It has to be false advertising if they don't pay it; players signed up to that event purely because they saw "$19 Guarantee" on the tourney software.

Pokerroom was never high on my list of places to try out, shuffle it into the "No, really, don't bother" pile.

P.S. On a recent note, Tribeca did cancel a $20k Guarantee tourney I think, a month or two back, when a server disconnect meant that only 20 or so people were able to sign up for it. There's a thread on it, somewhere around here.

The difference though, was that the Tribeca tourney was cancelled mid-game and all buy-ins refunded, rather than being allowed to complete - so no prizes were paid out in the first place. The burning issue with the Pokerroom saga is that the tourney paid out to players and then the next day the room took back all the winnings...

I wouldn't pay 20$ to enter a 19$ guaranteed tourney?

[I, Zimbra]

AH, the pedant police are out in force.   

Insert 'k' in appropriate location.

("Sir, Move away from the quote button and put your hands behind your back...." )

[mvzander]

Hello again,

Just wanted to let you all know that pocketfives.com, one of the major internet poker forums, has decided to withdraw all advertisements for pokerroom.com until this situation is resolved.  I would hope that all internet poker forums and all online poker players will stand together in this show of support for the players and the community as a whole.

Cheers,

zander

[ifm]

Keep on fighting Michael!!

I know a very high raker on poker room, i shall bring this to his attention.

[Wardonkey]

I think you'll get your money but PokerRoom's reputation may not be redeemable...

[matt674]

I think you'll get your money but PokerRoom's reputation may not be redeemable...

what reputation? 

i first started playing on pokerroom back in 2002 when i started playing online poker but only because it was the only site that my steam-powered wind up PC didn't have to download, as soon as i got the money together to treat myself to a laptop so i could download a proper site i've never been back.