Pokerroom Changes Blind Level Structure mid tourney

[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

[Kevin K.]

Sounds like a bad deal, for sure. They shouldn't be changing blind structures on the fly.

What do you think a writer at Card Player Magazine is going to do?

[2ndGoat]

If it were me, I would feel a 100+8 ticket is more than enough compensation... if no one knew the blinds would be reset, no one could plan for an unfair advantage. They 20 minute blinds instead of 30 is pretty weak, but being refunded 20% of my entry certainly would have kept me from a rant on the zoo.

2nd

[PokerRoom.com]

There was a glitch in the blinds structure for the Omaha tourney, the blinds weren't supposed to go back to 10-20 at day two. This was unfortunate and I can understand that it was an annoyance for some of the players.

The tournament stopped after roughly 5 hours the first day, which was actually correct. The rule was to break after 6 Hours 30 Minutes of play OR if only 20% of the players remain, whichever comes first. Our mistake was to not communicate the second part of the break rule more clearly.

We do however feel that this thing has been somewhat blown out of proportion. Please consider the following things about this issue:

1. The low blind structure affected all players, and didn't give an unfair advantage to any specific player.

2. The Omaha tournament had no "juice" (house fee) whatsoever, and the glitch was not intential and certainly not something we profited from.

3. We have given all players in the tournament a tourney ticket worth $108, regardless whether they placed in the money or not. They also got an explanatory e-mail at the same time. In addition to this, we will of course locate and fix the glitch so that it won't happen again in the future.

To sum it up; We are sorry about this inconvenience and have taken measures to both make it up to the players as well as preventing the same thing from happening again.


Henrik, PokerRoom.com Tournament Director

[xLukex]

[ QUOTE ]
There was a glitch in the blinds structure for the Omaha tourney, the blinds weren't supposed to go back to 10-20 at day two. This was unfortunate and I can understand that it was an annoyance for some of the players.

The tournament stopped after roughly 5 hours the first day, which was actually correct. The rule was to break after 6 Hours 30 Minutes of play OR if only 20% of the players remain, whichever comes first. Our mistake was to not communicate the second part of the break rule more clearly.

We do however feel that this thing has been somewhat blown out of proportion. Please consider the following things about this issue:

1. The low blind structure affected all players, and didn't give an unfair advantage to any specific player.

2. The Omaha tournament had no "juice" (house fee) whatsoever, and the glitch was not intential and certainly not something we profited from.

3. We have given all players in the tournament a tourney ticket worth $108, regardless whether they placed in the money or not. They also got an explanatory e-mail at the same time. In addition to this, we will of course locate and fix the glitch so that it won't happen again in the future.

To sum it up; We are sorry about this inconvenience and have taken measures to both make it up to the players as well as preventing the same thing from happening again.


Henrik, PokerRoom.com Tournament Director

[/ QUOTE ]

Nice post.

[Judgegammon]

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.



Tourney director states there was a "GLITCH" The blinds shouldnt have been reset?????
WAIT are you guys reading my email reply from Robert at pokerroom stating the blinds were purposely reset.

POKERROOM is lying can you guys not see that? On pokerroom support says blinds were purposely reset and then the tourney director comes in here and says it was a glitch.
Judge
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

[Judgegammon]

Woops got cuto off but here is pokerroom admitting to PURPOSELY RESETTING THE BLINDS Tourney Director you are a liAR!!!!!!!!!!1


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

[KingMarc]

Cry me a river.

[PuckNPoker]

I see a guy foaming at the mouth at a keyboard lol.

Hell hath no fury like a person who has lost all ability to reason.

[PokerRoom.com]

Unfortunately, one of our Support members gave an incorrect e-mail reply to a question. Apparently he saw the low blinds structure and incorrectly assumed that it was a planned feature, and not a glitch. I will look into this to make sure that the Support routines are looked over, so that in the future Support will double-check with the developers before making a statement about what is a glitch and what is a planned feature. So, yes, our Support made a mistake and gave you an incorrect e-mail response and for that we are sorry.

That being said, I feel that we must put this into perspective. After all, so far we have:
*Admitted our mistake, and explained the situation.
*Given a ticket worth $108 to each player in the tournament.
*Worked on fixing the problem, so it won't happen in the future.