Yes, it is part of the 'accolades system' which we haven't focused on yet,
but the stars are simply awarded from any play: cash or tournament, so it there just to denote a players' level of participation to the site.

Cheers thanks,
David

When will this announcement be made? I saw this message myself when I logged into the client.

Actually I do agree, the issue is that America is huge across 3 time zones and had I put it any earlier I'd be excluding the west, and the tournament itself was designed to finish in about a hour and half.

Because there is no late registration, and its just 1 hour pre, I'm very happy with the field of 80 range. I know that this freeroll is for our regular players and is good just for the game play alone. But I'm not likely to change the time at this point because I simply don't want to exclude the west coast.

I think to be optimal, I'd have to approach promotions on an East and West coast separate basis moving forward and it is good to have this feed back as I did not want to exclude the recreational player. While a player may not be able to play every day, it is available every day, so I hope for the moment it is accessible to every player's schedule at least once or twice a week.

Cheers,
David

Hi as stated, I think we're about 1.5 weeks off at this point as from my first post on this subject was a 3 week window. This was told to me via the Merge guys as they want to launch it properly and it is a big task to redo the entire game type. The first week was spent in actual planning and review, so they should be starting the implementation.

I will recheck up on this in 1 additional week to see the progress, but they have told me it was 3 week window and I'm not going to question them as they've never let me down once for any of my requests.

Cheers,
Dave

Yes, I want to announce something asap, but I need to wait on word from accounting as not to cause issues later on by switching things up. Even a CEO needs to submit to the whips of the accountant. But likely Sunday evening at the latest.

Cheers,
Dave

I have a silly question, I'm moving from Carbon to Hero and have sent the email regarding the rakeback and all but what about accolades from Carbon. Such as accolades earned from winning certain tournaments or our stars. I was up to one gold star on Carbon and had an accolade from a tournament win. Can these be moved over or are they strictly specific to the skin they were earned on.

Oh and there are 4 time zones in the US, Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific.

I am aware of issues and right now we will take things more into consideration and get more feed back from my country manager for the region. But it is looking like our launch is being delayed as we are still working on the necessary documentation.

Cheers,
David

Hi thanks for the clarification, I did think there was more, but off the top of my head could only think of three (sorry Mountain!);
unfortunately, the accolades are only strictly site specific because it denotes the achievements for game play on that site.
But we look to create own set of accolades before September.

Cheers,
David

Sunday night by the latest,
Cheers,
David

can you get your network to add an option to auto close tourneys you bust out of and also to not have two congrat windows when you cash?

edit: also get rid of the 10 bb round and add 40 bb and 60 bb rounds

Why am I not getting RB? I won 100 bucks in the 300 freeroll and have played a few thousand hands. Haven't got a penny in RB. Oh and my stakes are 4nl and i've raked 26 bucks so far.

Did you email David to get you tagged on Hero? Do you get rakeback on any other Merge skin?

No i didn't know i was suppose to email anybody. What is David's email addy?

lol i just realized that david=heropokerceo. Still need his email addy though.

Email me at marketing@heropoker.com with your user name and I'll sort it out asap.
Cheers,
Dave

For the first two points, they are working on that with next major upgrade, but I'll get a time line on that and the last part of the 10bb round, etc. can you give me further details for what limits, games etc. I will forward that on. Unfortunately I don't fully grasp in what context you're stating that and if I really want to get a response I need to provide as much detail as possible.

Cheers,
Dave

*IMPORTANT NOTICE*
HERO POKER TO WITHDRAW FROM US MARKET BY MAY 25 (END OF DAY)
-EXISTING US PLAYER ACCOUNTS WILL BE CURRENTLY UNAFFECTED
-VOLUNTARY DECISION BY HERO POKER MANGEMENT

Dear Players,

I could have written this as a PR release or a personal statement, but I've decided to opt for addressing you personally.

Hero Poker launched as a Merge Network site on February 23rd, 2011 at the Aussie Millions. Our focus has always been long term so the events of April 15th, 2011 were not viewed lightly on any level. I have used my experience to continually assess our position. I have not tried to speculate or avoid the difficult decisions. As an executive, it is my responsibility to make clear decisions on complex issues and sometimes it is necessary to wait until a viable course of action is clear.

Our first priority is, and has always been, our players. The most valuable asset we can offer to our players is my professional industry experience as a former senior gov’t analyst, senior management consultant, and major industry senior executive. We are not operating Hero as an upgraded affiliate or fly-by-night skin. To that end, independent of the Merge Network, we have decided to stop servicing new US players and instead focus on upgrading our overall boutique service and general security of all our players. Our player base will continue to be part of the Merge Network and Merge Network maintains our full confidence and support in all aspects.

What I have learned over this short and intense period is that the players who are currently with us are aware of the overall situation and have made their choice, but they also deserve and have a right to the highest degree of corporate transparency and responsible management. For Hero, that is simply not possible if Hero Poker continues to allow signups from the US. This is a complex time for us as a newly launched company in arguably the most difficult period of our industry.

I want for our players to be secure in the knowledge that I am directly available and able to manage our player’s interests. Our players will not be forced to wait for an email or a forum posting from a site representative who doesn't have the answers because there are no answers from management. Hero wants all of our players to securely know, before anything occurs, that we have made preparations to ensure that our players are always in the best position possible, even if that means taking further proactive steps.

As an aside, I’d like to say this: I feel as though our player base is mainly composed of those players who really enjoy the game of poker. Many have commented that a majority of players are ‘regs’ or ‘grinders’’ signing up. In most cases, the true ‘regs’ or ‘grinders’ were the ones most severely affected by recent events as nearly all of them had virtually their entire net worth online. Many still have not received their funds while others cannot even think to play online as the experience was too traumatic in losing their financial security in a single moment.

I have personally been in contact with Vietnam vets, ex-Marines, and housewives whose children are off to college next year who simply love the game. Perhaps that is just our user base, but in any case, Hero's primary intention was never to actually engage the US market and so we are continuing with our original course of action. Except now, we are sharing this journey with some of the most dedicated poker players in the world. We respect that and take every player’s confidence and time at Hero seriously. To that end, we will continue to be active in our player’s respective communities.

The deadline of May 25 has been set to give players already in communication with Hero a few days to further consider. If there is a mad rush of sign-ups by players attempting to create an ‘insurance’ account, we will stop US registration earlier. Our objective and priority here is to take care of our existing players first.

Thanks & Regards,
David
Hero Poker CEO

I know this is a bit of an aside, but I don't get the difference between new player signs up and players currently playing in this sort of situation. Why does a site feel safe servicing players from a country, but not accepting anymore? I have seen this done before but never understood it.

sorry didnt realize some sitngos were different. i think most of the regular(not DON, bounty, all in/fold) 10 seated and multi-table nl holdem sitngos $22 and under have 5/10 blinds for level 1. the higher buy in ones seem to have a different structure for some reason.

also i was curious if they plan to lower the rake for turbo and super turbo sitngos/tourneys.

I'm not sure about other sites, what their logic is, but for us, it is about managing our player base. I'm not going to ignore the risk, but rather manage it, so by stopping sign ups and stopping marketing to the US, this may provide further space to prepare for a number of scenarios.

While nothing is controllable, as an executive I have to take steps where my management is as effective as it can be and I have less ability to prepare and focus if we continue to do marketing and gain new players from this particular market. For me this this a first prudent step after much deliberation.

In this case as well, being part of a network is a great thing as our players still have access to the entire network and also I can also focus on the original mass markets on our agenda. But I'm in the camp where I think preparation is best and so for Hero, this is more of a matter of giving us space to prepare and really make strong channels of communication with our players as well as upgrade our general service to all our members.

But to be clear, this decision and this continues to literally consume a majority of my business considerations and this for me was again, a prudent first step to be as responsible to our players first. And simply, could not in good faith, just continue as is. Whether right or wrong on a company growth position or effective or ineffective on a general political position, it is a decision and choice I felt was necessary to take now.

Also, a bit of clarification, Merge will continue to do the payments. This is an effort to better manage our existing player base.

I think you are 4 days too late Dave...... end of the world is today.


By the way, is this a Merge-wide situation or just Hero?

Hi Diana, just for Hero as all the things we'd like to do to upgrade our service by September, I'm also accelerating that for this summer instead. There really isn't a down side for existing players and it also has to do with the way I'd like run Hero as a boutique site. For the other mass markets I have a full marketing teams to handle those markets, but I still need to define and upgrade our level of service to make the level of quality and consistency stable.

Cheers,
David

Dave,

Thank you again for your work and your dedication to the players already signed up to your site. I can say my boyfriend and I love this site immensely and we have 100% confidence with whatever decisions moving forward with this site. I have spoken to several Omaha hi/lo players who have thought about signing up because I have bragged about the quality of service and site. I hope they make the right decision.

One other question: Does the Merge Network looking for a certain number of players it wants on its network without going over a number? If so, would that help with the issues currently effecting the network right now( such as payments, live customer support, slow play)?

Hey David,

I'd assume this means that as of May 25th, current U.S. players who've deposited on Hero will have the ability to continue to deposit in the future. Is this correct?

Thanks,

Steven (AmericanZero)