Pokerroom Changes Blinds Structure after tourney starts

[Judgegammon]

Hi,
All correspondences have been forwarded to the gaming commision on your website as well as to cardplayer.com and any other 3rd party sites that I find will be informed. You are making a horrible decision here as the poker coommunity spreads these types of deceptions rather quickly. twoplustwo.com and many other forums are aware of what pokerroom has done here.
geeksmania: I suggest you rethink what you are saying and realize that you guys made an error in judgement thinking that no one would feel affected by your decision to change the structure of the tournament. Simply ignoring this issue will not help. The exhange that has been made here is offensive to me and im sure to the rest of the poker community.
Maybe if too many people bust out early of the 50k on saturday youll reset the blinds 3 hrs into the tourney? I hope you realize how this looks to the rest of the poker community. You stand to lose alot more then just $500 you stand to lose customers faith in your ability to provide a safe and fair game of poker.
Judge

[Judgegammon]

Email being sent to cardplayer magazine and was told it would be forwarded to a writer.


Hi,

This tourney was advertised by pokerroom.com 500+$0 Grand Tournament Omaha (day 1) Pot-limit Omaha (Real Money)
Buy-in: $500+$0 Status: Finished Tournament Started: May 14, 3:00 PM ET (7:00 PM GMT) End Requirement: 6 Hours 30 Minutes of play Entrants: 27 Tournament Info
This is the biggest Pot Limit Omaha tournament so far - and the first two-day Omaha tournament online yet! Expect a massive prize pool and massive action in this tournament which of course also features the Grand Tournament no-fee and 30 minute blinds trademark. After 5 hrs of play the field was down to 5 and pr stopped the tourney rather then after 6 2/2 hrs of play.
Day 2 rolled around and they reset the blinds to 20. Which has never been done before nor was it advertised. I then complained to pokerroom by sending the following email.



You are really alianating alot of your customers. I have also forwarded another problem. I paid $500 to enter the grand busted out in 15th only to see day 2 start with 20 blinds. THis changes the whole stratergy of play. I am awaiting pokerroom reply on this issue. I do want to speak to someone at pokerroom who is a software tech and I want to make this issue of discconects clear. I know to many players who are leaving and its shame bc support is usually outstanding but no one likes being told its their fault especially when its clearly not.
I want to continue to play here but these issues need to be addressed.
How can I speak to a tech on the phone? Someone who can actually assist rather then forward emails.
Please let me know
Thank you
Eli



A reply received by Robert at pokerroom (completely admitting to changing over tourney structure after it was advertised as 30 mins blinds levels.


Hi,

Thank you for your recent email.

The blind levels during the tournaments are raised to make sure that the tournament does in fact end as some of the players chip stacks are increasing. I can also see that the blind levels did actually reset on the second day of the Omaha Grand Tournament back to $10 and $20.
The description in the tournament information states the blind levels will increase every 30 minutes which they did, there are no details about the opening blinds on day 2. The blind levels were reset as there were less players in the final day of the tournament and a continuation of blind increases from the previous day could have meant a very quick end and a huge anticlimax to a big money tournament.

Should you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Regards,
Robert







This is another reply fropm pokerroom support named Scott who clearly says blinds should have remained the same

Regarding your query on the Grand Omaha tournament; I have escalated this query to my supervisor for further investigation, but will however state that the blind structure was planned to be the same for both days, so no player would have played a different strategy on day one with the intention of taking advantage of lower blinds on day two. Your query has been forwarded and you will be contacted accordingly with a resolution as soon as possible.

Should you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Regards,
Scott

PokerRoom.com Support Team



Final email to me claiming that they will only refund $100 + $8 ticket as a courtesy

Email from Pokerroom Hi Eli,

Thank you for your patience in the matter of the Omaha Grand.

We regret to say that some players did not like the way that the blinds were played on the second day of the tournament. In fairness, we have also received emails from players who played the second day and did enjoy the way that the blinds were set up. Unfortunately we are unable to make everyone happy in the matter. What PokerRoom has done is credit your account with a ticket $100+8 tournament as a goodwill gesture. This ticket is valid for the next 30 days and can be played on all $100+8 tournaments. This is our way our saying that we are sorry that you did not enjoy the Omaha Grand. Should you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Regards,
Darrin


P.S. I thought they cant discuss other peoples accounts.?????




I am very unhappy abut being royally shafted.
As a member of the online poker community and being self employed I would never advertise one thing and give another.
Pokerroom advertised a $500 tourney with 30 minute blind levels that day one would be 6 1/2 hrs of play. Day 2 would end once all players bust out.
THey then changed over the rules of the blinds without informing any players. They also claimed the 5 remaining players were happy they lowered the blinds which is a lie since they were all complaining about how theyh have 40k in chips with 20 blinds.



I believe the rest of the online poker community should have this info. I cant imagine what will happen next time too many people bust out early will pr change the tourney structure in the middle again?

PLease let your readers know about this situation. A link to the forum on pokerroom http://www.pokerroom .com/pokah/forum/mes sageBody.php?threadN umber=41802 THank you for your attn in this matter
Eli AKA Judgegammon

[SheridanCat]

Man, I have a short attention span. Can you summarize the issue?

Regards,

T

[Judgegammon]

Pokerroom ran a tourney that was supposed to be a 2 day tourney. Being small turnout on day 1 after 5 hrs of play it got to be 1 before the money. So they stopped the tourney right there instead of the play continuing another 1 hr as advertised. Then on day 2 the blinds were reset to 10-20 while players had 40k in chips. This to me was either a glicth or on purpose. Alot of people watching couldnt believe it. I got mad and emailed support and got a reply stating it was done on purpose. Then I get lies saying it was a glitch. Supposidly pokerroom tourney director has responed to my posts here denying this. Its in the internet forum.

Copy of email from pokerroom below detils why they even reset the blinds. So to say it was a glitch looks horrible. Point is if i knew tourney will stop and have blinds reset then i wouldnt worry about building a big stack early to handle the blinds when they hit 600.
Anyways copy email below

Hi,

Thank you for your recent email.

The blind levels during the tournaments are raised to make sure that the tournament does in fact end as some of the players chip stacks are increasing. I can also see that the blind levels did actually reset on the second day of the Omaha Grand Tournament back to $10 and $20.
The description in the tournament information states the blind levels will increase every 30 minutes which they did, there are no details about the opening blinds on day 2. The blind levels were reset as there were less players in the final day of the tournament and a continuation of blind increases from the previous day could have meant a very quick end and a huge anticlimax to a big money tournament.

Should you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Regards,
Robert

[theredpill5]

Was this done so they didn't have pay out as much money or something ? How does Pokerroom gain by doing this ? This does seem extremely wrong to me. It probably was on purpose but how does Pokerroom gain from this. Please explain.

[Judgegammon]

I dont know what they saw them gaining they made terrible decision they claim it was a glitch I dont know what to believe all I know is I demanded my $500 back which I finally received. I think it damaged their reputation bc the issue is still unresolved for others who played as well and then for some that didnt even play they didnt like seeing the responses. For some reason I got chewed up here as if i was in the wrong for complaining I cant imagine how one can take that view but so be it to each his own. I did get refund after a wrestling match but I am happy in the end run things worked out.
Judge

[Mammux]

I have a really short attention span. Can you summarize the summary?

-Magnus

[holdem2000]

Wow, I'm shocked that they gave you any refund at all, let alone your full $500. Certainly they're at fault for making a poor decision, one that has some impact on you, but it would have the same impact on all the players equally. I doubt any other sites would give you anything, I know partypoker wouldn't. Good to hear there's a site around with such good service, even if they made a mistake it's clear their intentions are in the right place.

[GHL]

I'd say get over it.... I'm assuming it was a software glitch.... if you have ever worked in IT these things happen....

be happy that they gave you some money back....

[Zetack]

[ QUOTE ]
Hi,
All correspondences have been forwarded to the gaming commision on your website as well as to cardplayer.com and any other 3rd party sites that I find will be informed. You are making a horrible decision here as the poker coommunity spreads these types of deceptions rather quickly. twoplustwo.com and many other forums are aware of what pokerroom has done here.
geeksmania: I suggest you rethink what you are saying and realize that you guys made an error in judgement thinking that no one would feel affected by your decision to change the structure of the tournament. Simply ignoring this issue will not help. The exhange that has been made here is offensive to me and im sure to the rest of the poker community.
Maybe if too many people bust out early of the 50k on saturday youll reset the blinds 3 hrs into the tourney? I hope you realize how this looks to the rest of the poker community. You stand to lose alot more then just $500 you stand to lose customers faith in your ability to provide a safe and fair game of poker.
Judge

[/ QUOTE ]

And you came and posted this in this forum after being soundly trashed in the Zoo about it for what purpose exactly?

Dude, they glitched the tourney in way that had absolutely no affect on you whatsoever. Except of course that you might have played differently had you known the glitch was going to happen.

Then the poker site gave everybody involved in the tourney a 108 dollar tourney ticket.

Then the poker site came on and explained multiple times about the error and apologized for it in the thread you started to bash them. And you persisted in calling them liars.

Ok, so if you had made the final day with a huge stack, maybe you would have a legitimate beef with what happened, but your complaint is just ridiculous.

I'll repeat my example from the other thread. I'm playing a MTT that pays the top 12. We're down to 43 and I'm short stacked and go all in with a marginal hand and get busted. A couple of minutes later the tourney glitches and crashes. The site decides to divide the prize pool amoung the remaining players. Well gee, if I'd known the tourney was going to crash and they would divide the prize pool among the survivors I wouldn't have pushed. Well boo hoo, how does that entitle me to anything?

Suppose further that the site decides to refund the entry fee for everybody who busted out before the glitch. Well that's just damn fine customer care in my book. What a great site.

So fine, the squeaky wheel gets the grease and you got 500 bucks out of them (did they let you keep the 108 dollar tourney ticket too?). It doesn't validate your point at all.

If I were you I'd be singing these guys praises not finding new forums to trash them in.

*shrug*, but that's just me I guess.

--Zetack