If some Lock pros are actually getting $250K / yr then...wow.
Would like some corroboration of that, of course.

I couldn't agree more, well said.

Problem with all this is there is a logical inconstancy here. You can't claim processing issues are behind the backlog when in fact there are no processing issues for ROW payments. TO boot do you believe the backlog is supposedly because it takes 10 weeks to monitor a transfer(seems far-fetched)? If so did lock guarantee anything would be done specifically about such a slow process ( IE hire more staff)? How is this anything you said any different then words out of shanes mouth? I like lock and promos are great so I can only hope it's not the case but fool me once......

Mel does make a very good point about staying with Lock as a pro to help with the players. I think this is often lost on a lot of people. If lock pros jump ship then who is left to help connect players to higher ups?

Melanie, 2+2 is not allowing Lock to promote its site until the promises that have been made are kept.

Will you and the other Lock Pros show similar solidarity with the players who are affected and stop promoting and wearing Lock advertising logos at public events?

I don't see why that's an important bridge at all given the site's current state of affairs. Plus many of the Lock pros still actively advertise the site along with a link where if you download the client through their referral, they benefit financially.

It kinda has this feel to it, but with more disingenuity...

http://www.break.com/usercontent/200...-skills-488721

You've made it worse for yourself.

It is one thing to just take their paycheck and make a few tweets, it is quite another to take up their line of rationale and engage in Shanespeak.

So do other sites that can turn around payments in a matter of days.

You're blaming the victim. This is not money laundering, this is not abuse of transfers, this is players attempting to actually receive some % of their money. This statement really pissed me off.

Before this thread you were just some girl who plays poker and promotes a shady poker site. Now you are actively shilling for and defending outright thievery. This makes you a thief.

I don't know what part of you thought this wall of text would actually fly.

Sounds about right.

How did that work out for Joe Sebok trying to help the players?

is she the only Lock pro selling action in the MP well there you go that's why she responded she just wants to sell her action so she felt she had to say something, she doesn't give a f*** about the players when she's tweeting $500 bounty on my head #comeandgetit trying to get more players on there to never see their money again, she's as shady has the company she's representing

But the truth is, jumping ship, breaking contract, and leaving Lock would accomplish absolutely nothing except dissolving important channels that the site has to the community, which are damned important channels to maintain in order for any of these problems to be rectified.

Despite your whole post being horrible I'm quoting this to emphasize the dissonance it takes to actively take money from a site stealing player's money

Why as a pro should you step down? BECAUSE BY USING YOUR NAME TO ADVERTISE FOR A SITE YOU'RE ENCOURAGING PEOPLE TO DEPOSIT ON THIS SAME SITE STEALING MONEY FROM PLAYERS.

Great in that case I can't wait for your post w/r to the ethics of the pros who represented the site for the "last couple of years". Wait... wait.... Yeah it won't come. Go slither away now.

Well there's 2 sides of this coin. If the money is there and people get paid out she made the right call. But if the money is not there, she's actively encouraging people to deposit and lose and she deserves to eat some flack.

The one constant is she keeps getting paid. She did comment that she feels responsible for the people that deposit because of her. I wonder if she'd put her money where her feelings are if things go sour as many expect them to.

Did any of the pros suggest firing all the pros in order to become more cash liquid? What exactly do the lock pros do for the site? Do you guys believe people sign up for lock because they have any clue who you guys are?

Melanie your post is an absolute tragggg. Better off being silent. The response you made is, let us say a little less than "pristine". ( I have pocket00s on lock, just think your position is absurd)

It's brave of Melanie to actually address the poker community on this, which is more than can be said for anyone else at Lock. Especially when they're right in the middle of a big castle/champagne/Rolls Royce party in Portugal.

But let's be honest, why should she be the one to make some valiant ethical statement and give up free money when there are like 20 or 30 other "pros" who are obviously going to stay silent and keep sitting around collecting their paychecks? How many of you can really say you would do the noble thing if you were in this position?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusi...responsibility

Diffusion of responsibility is a sociopsychological phenomenon whereby a person is less likely to take responsibility for action or inaction when others are present. Considered a form of attribution, the individual assumes that others either are responsible for taking action or have already done so.[1] The phenomenon tends to occur in groups of people above a certain critical size and when responsibility is not explicitly assigned.

Her representation of the site in spite of players getting screwed allows her to continue getting paid while claiming she's staying put in order to look out for the well being of said screwed players. If poker doesn't work out she at least has a bright future selling used cars. GG reputation.

Melanie, I appreciate and respect you being the first Lock pro to speak publicly about this matter. I agree with those expressing the sentiment that you shouldn't be singled out for all of the venom simply because you're the only one willing to respond.

However, I am disappointed to say that your post, while long and covering a multitude of topics, is extremely flawed and reads like an affirmation of recent Lock propaganda.

First off, much of your post focuses on the controversy of you selling pieces in the Marketplace while representing Lock. You complained that people were inappropriate in confronting you there, and insisted that your reputation in the Marketplace has been impeccable. But here's a news flash for you, Melanie:

Nobody cares about the Marketplace. That's not what this is about. People confronted you there because it was the only way to get your attention to this issue -- something you were apparently ignoring for quite a long time. I guarantee that most people wouldn't bother you in the Marketplace if they felt you were making a good faith effort to get to the bottom of the shadiness at Lock. Instead, you appeared to be practicing avoidance, so people confronted you in a place where it would be hard for you to continue ignoring the matter.

Now let's get to the more important issue: Lock itself.

Here is your explanation as to why you are not leaving Lock:

The above paragraph is self-righteous nonsense.

Your "responsibilities" at Lock are simply to promote them and to attract new players based upon your reputation. You do not work there in a customer service or player advocate capacity. You do not have access to sensitive company information. Simply put, customer service is not your job, nor have you made any attempt in your nearly two years at Lock to assist players during the countless scandals that occurred on the site.

Indeed, even you admit that you have no power there:

Absolutely true.

Your only power to improve the situation involves laying down a public ultimatum to Lock to either come completely clean, or you're walking. Either way, it improves the situation. If they come clean, the players win (or at least they will know the true situation). If you walk, it makes a powerful statement to Lock -- and the poker world as a whole -- that the site is so shady that one of their pros walked away and gave up a lucrative sponsorship in disgust.

You are not exercising this power because you want (or need) the money.

When you wear a Lock patch and appear as a pro on their website, it clearly says, "I, Melanie Weisner support Lock Poker and endorse it as a great and safe place to play."

People see your face on the website, or perhaps read your tweets, and say to themselves, "Well, I respect Melane's intelligence and judgment. She's a grinder like me. If she recommends Lock, it's got to be a great place to play!"

You talk about concern for your friends. Would you recommend to your friends to deposit money on Lock right now? What about your mother? Would you want her depositing money on Lock? If the answer is NO, then you are doing a disservice to your friends and fans by steering them toward an obviously shady site.

Moving along...

You claim that your goal with Lock right now is to get some honest answers:

However, you then go on to post a collection of grossly untrue and misleading Lock propaganda, which was likely spoonfed to you in Portugal by Jennifer herself.

Ugh. Where do I start?

How can you confirm that the latest transfer issue (i.e. the refusal to cash anyone out who had EVER received a transfer) is an "100% true issue"? What does that even mean? Are you saying that Lock has a valid reason for canceling clearly innocent people's cashouts?

You talk about the "behind-the-scenes-issues with processing", and how that somehow affects non-US players just because Lock also serves Americans. That's a complete lie. That is Lock's excuse so they can explain why they aren't paying non-US players for several months, when all other sites (including US-facing ones) manage to get it done within hours or days. You claim it's because of legitimate issues with processing, but in reality it's because Lock is broke.

You throw around terms like "money laundering" and "abuse of the transfers", as if either has been a real problem with Lock's active players. Not a single one of the myriad of longtime Lock players complaining on 2+2 is a money launderer or transfer abuser. Not one. These are all dedicated grinders like you who play poker for a living, and just want their rightfully-owed money. Lock has stolen their money and accused them of criminal behavior.

Even if there is money laundering and so-called transfer abuse, this should be incredibly easy to determine without affecting a single innocent party. I could teach a 9-year-old how to look at an account's history and determine whether it is a legitimate player or someone receiving transfers just to cash out. It has been two weeks since these issues have been brought to light, and not a single person has been made whole. It would take all of 5 minutes to clear these falsely-accused people, many of whom were already waiting months for their cashouts. For you to dismiss these issues as "money laundering" and "transfer abuse" shows a completely cavalier attitude and naivete as to what is really going on.

The rest of your passage above begins every sentence with "We have been told". Exactly. You've been told. The person "telling" you and the other Lock pros is a habitual liar and scammer, whose only goal is to stretch out this disgusting Ponzi scheme for as long as possible.

Jennifer Larson and the rest of the Lock management team has ZERO credibility at this point. You can talk about the improvement of Skrill cashouts "by June" (why not immediately?) and the supposed proper communication of transfer playthrough requirements. These are all empty promises, and are designed to buy time. By your own admission, you have no visibility into knowing if any of these are true. Jennifer is telling you to wait another 1-2 months and everything will get better. How often did we hear that same song and dance from Shane, Rizen, and others at Lock, only to see things get WORSE, not better?


Okay, so you've been given some concrete timeframes. Then what? Do you promise to resign if Skrill cashouts are not moving at a 1-2 week pace by June 1? Do you promise to quit Lock and publicly denounce them if they don't immediately fix this transfer-cashout fiasco and reverse the incorrect cancellations?

It sounds to me like you're just telling us to wait and see if Lock is keeping its promises, without any promise of action on your part if they don't.

I'm guessing that this is not an accidental omission, but rather leaving yourself an out to worm your way out of this commitment, blaming it on the DOJ or payment processors some other nefarious enemy of poker.

By the way, "the ship can be righted" is a great description of what Jennifer is trying to do. She's hoping that, given enough time and stalling, enough deposits will roll in between now and June so she can pay out a few players and make it look like cashouts are working again. This will then instill confidence into a lot of Lock's critics, which will translate to more deposits, and all of a sudden, the problem will appear to go away.

Except it won't. Because Lock still won't have the vast majority of the money they claim to have on deposit.

Why don't you and the other Lock pros demand that Lock hire a respected third-party company to audit their accounts and confirm that the player money is there? You don't think this action is warranted at this point? Or do you just not want to know the answer?

If you and the "other pros" are serious about getting to the bottom of this, get a hold of me, ChicagoRy, raidalot, JimAfternoon, or any of the other vocal Lock critics who can give you a list of relevant questions to ask your boss.

Otherwise, you are just paying lip service to a situation you either barely understand or displaying willful ignorance.

I look forward to your response.

Very well said.

This also smacks of what Howard said about keeping Bitar around...'hey, we needed him to help unwind the mess, right?'

No, that's not how being a grown-up works. If you find yourself party to a relationship with a cancerous entity, you separate yourself from it. Immediately.

^ this

When this does come crashing down, any lock pro who would offer to give their salary back to the community it was stolen from would be making a PR move worth far more in future earnings than the $ surrendered.

Another thieving poker site.

When have Lock pros ever been a channel for anything, ever? Rizen was a regular in the sub forum and then disappeared at the first sign of trouble. No worries though, he left Shane to be the punching bag. You yourself say you aren't privy to a lot of the pertinent information.. so what kind of channel are you pros anyway? The only channel we have ever had was Shane. Unless you count the numerous lies support churned out.

Breaking contract was the play for all of you. Months ago. Reputation is everything in poker. But hey, all those FTP guys are still popular, right?

.