Q – Why is the network implementing the Fair Play technology?
A – The idea behind Fair Play is to try to give beginner and recreational players an opportunity to enjoy and develop their skills while playing poker. Online poker has matured significantly over the last 10-15 years and the gap between the beginner and advanced players has widened. It’s much harder today for beginner players to learn and enjoy the game if they’re getting beaten very quickly by the more advanced players every time they sit down at a poker table. These players need some time to develop their game and have some fun, otherwise most of them will look to other sources of entertainment and not play poker at all. We feel a good way of helping these players develop is to try and keep them amongst players of a similar skillset.

Q – Will winning players only be able to see and play against other winning players?
A – Winning players will still be grouped with a much larger pool of average and losing players. Fair Play has been set up so that different types of players are pooled together to ensure sufficient liquidity is maintained while still protecting the recreational players.

Q - Will there be enough liquidity to ensure high availability of tables?
A – As above, Fair Play will try to protect the players who are most at risk of losing their bankroll quickly from the more advanced players but overall there will still be high availability of tables to all player groups.

Q – How are player groups defined?
A – We use a number of different variables to determine this, such as rake, win/loss, earn rate, recent history, etc. This process will continually be improved and redefined as the Fair Play system matures .

Q – Will players know what group they are in?
A – Players will not receive any official notice within the client to say they are in a particular category. This may be something we consider in future but is not included for the initial rollout.

Q – Is it possible for a player flagged in one category to be changed to another category based on their level of play?
A – Yes, we will be continually reviewing player performance and we will try to ensure that all players are grouped within the category most suited to their level of play.

Q – Does a player’s category apply on Network sites other than their “main” site?
A – Generally, if the player’s play on another Network site is similar, then the player would still be categorised in the same manner as the main site. All player activity will be reviewed regularly and adjustments to the players’ categories will be applied accordingly.

Q – Can exceptions be made for recreational players who still want to participate in high stakes games?
A – Yes and these will be reviewed on a case by case basis.


Q – Are MTT’s and Sit & Go’s included in the categorisation?
A – Fair Play technology will not be applied to tournaments. We believe that recreational players do not lose their bankroll as quickly and therefore receive sufficient entertainment value and opportunity to learn while playing tournaments. All players will be able to access all Network tournaments.

Q – When will this be implemented?
A – The intention is for this to be rolled out in the latter part of this week or early next week.

I questioned this release date being both vague and very rushed and was informed that the Network team are in a very big rush to put this live "The earlier we launch, the better for everyone."

I voiced my disapproval of this and preemptively passed on the 2+2 communities disapproval of rushing something like this out but they were unmoved.

The update tomorrow will include the server work and some behind the scenes lobby work with another update required later this week or next week to pus the feature live.

Isn't this what stake levels are for?

For example - No limit cash games go down to $0.02/0.04.

A recreational or beginning player can easily self-segregate by playing stakes they choose to afford.

As a recreational player I don't need to be told which games I'm allowed to play!

I'm confused, can new players still sit at any table they want or are they restricted to beginner tables only?

This seems to indicate that there are restrictions on both beginners and pros.

Not being transparent in what level players are in is bad. Even worse is giving vague guidelines in which those levels are set. Opens up a huge can of worms.

Does this apply to all poker variants (aside from tournaments), or is it for no limit holdem only?

Yep. This is an absolute nightmare.

The fact that they're rushing this garbage out, and they can just arbitrarily decide who can play with who is a sure sign this network is busto.

This x 1,000.

A lack of transparency will create an entirely new form of rigtard. People will assume favoritism, and assume they are getting the worst of it. It doesn't matter if you actually engage in favoritism or not. When someone runs bad, the assumption will be that you "screwed them over".

If people think they no longer have a chance to win, because they think they have been placed in an unfavorable group, they will not redeposit. That is counter-productive to this program's goals.

Please reconsider this decision.

Yes you guys are totally right. The only way this program has a chance is if lock is upfront with everyone about whats going on and what level they are in. Also when is this educational information blitz on the program that you were talking about Shane? I would assume it would be before you guys go live. And it sounded like its for everyone that plays on lock, so will it be on the lock website?

This is the educational blitz.

Lock your days are limited you POS SCUM

Thank you for voicing the 2+2 community's disapproval of rushing "Fair Play." Could you also please voice the 2+2 community's overwhelming disapproval of "Fair Play" altogether and its corporate-driven abuse of poker ethics?

than...? I assume this means "Winning players will still be grouped with a much larger pool of average and losing players" than before lock's recent semi-segregation from the rest of the network, which has been reversed. Yes?
Again, these "answers" seem purposely vague and deceptive.

+1 x every negative feedback your network has received and will receive on fair play

And again, they think we are complete imbeciles.

pretty sure it's my own fault for expecting to actually learn anything from the educational blitz.

thanks for passing on these concerns and voicing your own input on the matter shane.

kinda figured they wouldn't budge but appreciate your efforts.

Shane, perhaps you could tell your joke of a site to try paying out players. I had £400 stolen off me by Lock because they refused to let me cash out via any method. I hope your site dies, and soon, but just after you rape as much rake as possible off people with this new system.

I also have concerns about the lack of transparency in the formula for determining level. For a network that enjoys abysmal levels of trust from its players, this is disheartening, if not totally expected. It seems likely that net withdrawers will be the primary target of segregation, with the formula getting 'tweaked' until these players are grouped accordingly. I play very little cash, so I won't be directly affected, but obviously this could send ripple effects through the Revolution ecosystem in various ways.

1. Why was fairplay prioritized over other, more marketable software upgrades?

2. Have you considered how much American players will really want to play poker in a supervised cardroom, where a black box decides who plays who?

You seem to have missed a few of the questions asked in the "questions for fair play" thread:

- Once you are in a group how often can you be moved to another? Hourly? Monthly?

- How often will a player be re-evaluated to determine class?

- what % of money lost currently comes from the bottom group?

- Will the beginner tables be strictly for new sign-ups, or will players who redeposit also have access?

- What is the exact breakdown of top/middle/bottom tier players from each site on the network? Lock players have been assured that only a small % of us will be included in the top tier and I would like to see the official breakdown, at least from Lock but preferably all of them.

- what are the projected growth numbers that are expected from this change?

- What is the extra revenue generated by Fair Play Technology going to be used for?

- What about limits and forms where one is not a top winner? (many of us play multiple games and may be a huge winner in one and a huge fish in another)

- How for back will it draw data from [determining what level we're in]?

- When you say the majority of players are in the middle / lower group, does this mean the majority of people playing on any given day? Or does this number include every account ever made on Lock.

- Will all your pros auto be put in the top group even though some of them might be breakeven players?

- why doesn't lock just go to all anonymous tables, seems likea move that would be possibly less outcry over?



If there is a real formula for determining where a player lands then let us know what it is. Seriously. It should be obvious to you guys that if we aren't able to see the formula used then this whole thing immediately has no credibility.

The information blitz has been reduced to this FAQ while they rush the product to market.


I can tell you now the process that I was sold this on isn't the same as the process that we are seeing put in place.

My only hope now is that as we see it implemented the effects on the lobby aren't as bad as players are expecting. If they get the levels set right and Fair Play delivers on what both the network and we agree on (a better balanced ecology) then this really can work out. It all hinges on the launch day and what you players really see when you first log into the lobby with Fair Play.


1. The idea that something needs to be dont to better balance the poker ecology was prioritised because it really is important. We aren't alone in our move to create a more sustainable environment and I completely support the move. The execution is the only thing Im not overly comfortable with.

2. Our concern is how to best provide a sustainable cardroom so all players can continue to have somewhere to play poker. Sometimes when something for the greater good its going to cause headaches for a certain group, but that doesn't mean its not the best thing to do for the greater good.

The FAQ that was released is the extent of the information they wish to disclose at this time.

In defence of the formula from both this FAQ and my subsequent conversation with management I get the strong feeling there will be a lot of evaluating of this when it is launched and I can see for the initial period a case for the formula to be analysed and re-evaluated and quite possibly changed as they work to get the right balance.

I don't care if they are planning on changing it on day 2. the formula used for day 1 needs to be released and there is absolutely no excuse for not doing so.

And how absurd that they ask us for our questions then only answer the most simple ones extremely vaguely. This is being released next week and we still don't know 75% of the stuff we want to know about it. Will the extra questions be answered before the release, shortly after, or ignored forever?

I can tell you now the process that I was sold this on isn't the same as the process that we are seeing put in place.

My only hope now is that as we see it implemented the effects on the lobby aren't as bad as players are expecting. If they get the levels set right and Fair Play delivers on what both the network and we agree on (a better balanced ecology) then this really can work out. It all hinges on the launch day and what you players really see when you first log into the lobby with Fair Play.

So even the Lock rep isn't sold on how this is going to work. He was told one thing and now they have changed their implementation. I have a bad feeling about this.

Don't know why I expected more out of the faqs.

The information blitz has been reduced to this FAQ while we rush to get the product to market!

What a ****ing surprise that Lock comes up short on another promise. Lock is finished folks get a clue! This is a last ditch effort to raise capital before they run for the hills.
Locks management is a joke and they are in way over their heads in this debacle of a poker site. Fair play technology isn't even their idea they are copying it from other sites but have neither the mental capacity or the technical ability to implement it. Shane can't explain how it works because they haven't a clue how its going to work either.
It's a learn as we go type of scenario and what they are gonna do is collect all the highest profit players and put them in a small pool comprised of other high profit players. There isn't a formula other than bottom line profit. Whoever takes the most from the site gets screwed.

Can't you get a sense of Shane's frustration in his post above? He knows that it's all bull**** and you can hear in his verbiage...

Lock owes me thousands of dollars and I have come to the realization that its never gonna come. The lies from this team are endless! If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck then it's a ****ing duck!! There is way to much evidence pointing to Lock screwing over everyone.. They do it every week with some new hairbrain scheme to rip off their own players.