A lot of people - especially in countries where poker is not a decades-old tradition -, are wary to play online poker for real money for various reasons.

The most relevant reasons are:
1. "I don't trust my skills at poker - why would I risk my money?"
2. "I'm not too sure about those operators - can I really trust them my credit card data?"

And even if the previous are overcome:
3. "Online payment is a pain in the a** - it's not convenient!"


That's three of the reasons why PokerStrategy.com is so successful and drives many genuine new players to the tables:
- we build confidence (by being a beginner-friendly poker school & by making people think: "Wow, they even invest like $50 in me - maybe I can do it!"
- we make sure a player doesn't need an initial deposit while he is still wary or lazy about it


While we also do larger-scale ad campaigns, we also love to build another win-win-situation with our customers: we give a monetary incentive to members who want to recommend PokerStrategy.com to others.

For every referred member, you can earn $10-$100 - and a lot of members convert, as you can get your money even if they just play with our initial free $50 bankroll!

The good thing:
Next to doing something for your bankroll (or more - some of our members literally refer thousands of members to PokerStrategy.com), you also do something for poker: making it more popular and grow the player base.

Infos on our referral system:
http://www.pokerstrategy.com/tell-a-friend/

Facebook group for our referrers:
http://www.facebook.com/PokerStrategy.com.Affiliates

This is another cheat from PS.

Here you have example of what happens if you use TAF program.
http://pl.pokerstrategy.com/forum/th...tuser=0&page=1

Bellow short summary: (same problems for several people)
1. User recruits several friends.
2. Those friends ARE VERIFIED (ID, phone calls etc.)
3. Those friends gets 50$ starting capital and gets certain number of SP points through playing on affiliated poker rooms.
4. User requests payment from PS for recruiting those friends.
5. Payment is declined because according to PS support those friends did not pass verification !!!
6. User asks on forum and through ticket system for explanation.
7. The only explanation he receives is that according to PS TAF rules PS can decline payment to anybody at will.

This happens all the time !!!

The funny thing is that those friends WERE VERIFIED by security of PS before they got starting capital, so it was OK.
But when user asks for payment for recruiting those friends, they are not verified and breaking PS rules.

To make things worse support is giving missleading and stupid advice like:
Write a ticket to security and ask how each friend broke rules or which rule?
Security answers that it is secret and they do not give this kind of information to anybody.

If a user asks too many questions on forums and still demands answers he is perma banned - problem solved for PS.

Well i`am obv no worker of ps, iam just a long time member since start of 2006 and i have to say this is ********..... pokerstrategy has a good support and their TaF ( Tell a Friend ) system is working. Their not scamming at all.
I mean they have over 3 million users, why the hell they should scam u cause of maybe a few bucks ? I think u get it yourself.

i can`t understand why everybody is hating so much against them all the time.
Seriously you are posting here a polnish thread.... and now u think anybody here speaks polnish ? Where is the evidence you have to make such a big statement here?!?!?!
I have myself some refereals and know many people who brought tons of players through the TaF programm and we had never any kind of problems...

I mean you have to see that they are even not stupid, they are long enough in the business and when a players for example means he has to make 5 Accounts over differents names on the same computer obv he will not be able to cashout his TaF money...

And that they don`t give out any informations, while they are checking the point is so standart.... Go here in the forums and check some threads about FTP or pokerstars. You never get informations about it.... Because it is standard and they will not give u any tipps for cheating next time better

There are two types of identity checks:

1. Those on receiving the free $50
Here, we need to balance the needs of honest players who do not want to be bullied vs our need to block fraud.

As this results in a chance that fraudsters still get their money, we need the second type:

2. Checking TaF payout requests
We re-check the players and with the better information we have after them playing, we again try to improve our decision.

Example:
Someone brings 5 friends, all seem to be legit and get the $50.
Later on, you see all of them having 15-16 SP (after the first payment tier) and all sharing their cookies.

Btw. this affects only a tiny fraction of players and payouts (~1%) - but obviously, these cases will be discussed a lot whereas the 99% of the cases where it worked out fine are not discussed a lot

All in all, a million people got their $50 bankroll at PokerStrategy.com - and hundreds of thousands of them being successfully referred by our members. It's just a nice scheme as players are the best ambassadors of the game and by our TaF programme, are incentivised to leverage their ambassador qualities.

Your explanation suggests that playing from the same IP/comp is not allowed by PS.
I would agree with that explanation if not for one reason:
Many times users asked if they are allowed to recruit people from the same houshold using the same computer (family or roommates)?

The answer from PS support was always YES!!!
PS support even wrote that it is OK with PS but as with some poker rooms it could create problems they advised that in such case those houshold members sjould register to different poker rooms to avoid any problems.

They never ever gave any clues that it may cause potential problems with payments from TAF.

I do not have data to how many % of such cases exists, but judging from TAF forum section of polish PS it is for sure more than 1%.

Hey hatehypocrisy,

I'm not talking about one family meber that also plays.

I'm talking about 5 accounts with different post address that all gather 15-16 SP and are all sharing the same machine ultimately.

This is of course just an example - and I will not dare say the chance is 0.0000% we don't do mistakes also with honest customers. I don't even think doing no mistakes is possible considering fraudsters are also smart people - but I think we're pretty good and do our best to do everyone right.

That it's just a few cases can be seen by the fact that a large chunk of our >1,000,000 free50 bankrolls given out to players were created by our refer-a-friend programme - and compared to that, the number of complaints is small (although of course it is always necessary to further improve on that).

Hey Xanatos,

If that is the case then I agree that your decision not to pay TAF bonus was correct.
The problem is that in many cases complaning members were writing totally different story, but it is a matter of trust.

I do not have any reason to trust them. I admit that in some cases their explanation looked a little suspicious.

However I would like to draw your attention to lack of profesionalism within polish PS support. Maybe it is only my personal oppinion but I think that when one of them ask complaining user to write a ticket to security and demand that they give detailed reason for not paying and another (or security) writes that they are never giving this kind of information (to avoid fraud/internal rules) something is horribly wrong.

Trust me it happens way to often that 2 or 3 members of your staff give totally diferent answers.

I have made $130 with the PS.com TaF system. $100 have been paid out. Just thought I'd share the info.

While there are bad things about pokerstrategy (sorry Xantos- all BSS players don't like SSS players ) I can only say good thinngs about PS TAF program. There are mistakes and maybe sometimes it doesn't work great but lets be honest for people from poor country (which Poland is still obviously) it is quite big amount of money (let's say you create 5 fake account on your friends you can make probably around 400-500$ if you add money from TAF).
I remember when I tried to encourage my friends to pokerstrategy they were much more interested in taking "easy money" rather than learning the game.

That's one of the reason I like pokerstrategy cause they don't discriminate players from poor countries and they offer all that player free 50$ dollars.(what is not that common)
Still frankly speaking they have to do all of this security job especially in poor countries where that money is much more interesting for scummers.

I have no idea were are you from but I have to clear up few things:
1. Poland is among top 20 economies of the world so describing it as " obviously poor country" only proves your lack of knowledge.
2. There is no way anybody can make 400$-500$ by creating 5 fake accounts for 3 reasons:
a) you can not withdraw 50$ before you clear it (like bonus)
b) chipdumping to "safe" account is very risky and easy to detect by poker rooms (which especially monitor those "PS affiliated accounts with 50$ starting capital" some rooms even have "bankroll protection mechanism" wich makes this process even more difficult).
c) all fake accounts could only qualify fo 10$ bonus each for clearing the minimum number of strategy points (rake based).

I like how you skipped my post stating my success with the TaF program.

I was wondering if you realize how pathetic your trolling of this sub forum seems? Honestly you come across like someone who tried to scam and failed.

Congratulations !!!

OK you shared this info, and how is it usefull in this thread???
We are not discussing 80%, 90% or maybe even 95% of those who received money for TAF, but those who did not.

I think 80-90-95% of people recieving money is quite a lot. I would guess more cheated. But you're probably just throwing numbers anyway.

I wonder what makes your 1 case of not recieving more important than my 1 case of recieving?

Just on a side note - we also opened a small Facebook page to keep in closer contact with our affiliates:
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/...com.Affiliates

Reason is it's hard to keep in close contact with them otherwise through 18 language pages and/or monthly newsletters.

Criticism is also welcome there

First of all I have never used TAF program so I am not waiting for any money. I just had serious doubts about TAF in general.

I only wrote here to put some new light on this matter. I do not know whether it is 80%, 90%, 95%. or even 99% what I try do is to make a point that if PS is as legitimate and respectfull company as they claim to be they should clearly explain all reasons for not paying TAF to users who used it and not use an excuse "we can stop any payment as we like because it is written in our rules"

They should either make this process tranparent or stop bs... claiming how respectfull and professional they are.

It's okay, you don't have to be a knight in shining armour crusading for prospective TAF signups. I'm sure they will conclude that it's honest based on the fact that 1 million people have received a free $50 so far.

I think you proved my point.

I think it's pretty obvious that explaining how a system passes or fails members makes it easier for fraudsters to beat the system.

It's company policy pretty much everywhere not to explain the criteria required concerning security checks.

I have to suport hatehipocrosy in this one. The problem is easy to approach. Just dont give the money to all refered people. Do the process in the right way since the beginning. My brother and i play poker in the same pc, we dont have another pc. I ask pokerstrategy if can refer my brother and my wife, both living with me. The answer: yes, no problem, you are welcome. Ok, my wife dindt pass the verification process, but pokerstrategy says to her that she still can use the deposits bonus. What? She didnt pass the verification process but poker strategy still want the rake she can generate with her own money. Pleaseee! What is going to happen when she generates the 15 sp that give me 10$. Is she going to pass the verification process that she didnt pass previously? I dont think so guys. So the process its not as fair as pokerstrategy wants to sell to the people. My recomendation, if you dont get the 50$ go to a site diferent from the one you selected with ps. Other recomendation: dont refer people. Easy dont refer people, you arent going to get paid.

P.D. Sorry about my english, im in basic level course now. Hablo Español!

That is what I am talking about !!!
There is no information that reffeering people from the same houshold will effect in not paying TAF bonus.
PS staff sipport recruiting people from same household and then refuse TAF bonus.
It is simply not fair and that is my point.

I'm not sure if I understand why you quoted my message here?

First, your English is easy to understand, don't worry about that.

Second, You are wrong. I for one got paid $100 so far, and there are plenty who did.

# Last Activity: Today 12:26 AM

# Last Activity: Today 12:50 AM

Same spelling mistakes, one logged off 5 minutes before the other logged on.

This is the worst sock puppet attempt ever. Any credibility you had just went out of the window by making fake accounts to try and support yourself.

Were you also making multiple accounts at pokerstrategy to try and steal money from them? Is this why you're so unhappy you got caught?

1. I am not an elephant but I can not prove it on the internet
2. I made only 1 account on PS and got 1 staring capital
3. I have never used TAF program as I was always convinced it is "shady"
4. I got banned for writing similar posts like I write here.
5. As your location shows Gibraltar I guess you work for PS and got paid for writing about "conspiration theories"

I will give you the following example:
A lot of people advices save sex or idealy only having 1 partner.
Somebody is having sex all over the city with no precautions.
Then he claims that safe sex and precautions are worthless because he is not using any of them and still haven't got AIDS.

That is a summary of your post

It's funny that the sock puppet account you created
registered, made a post in this thread and then never logged back in again.

You talk about how you want honesty, yet you yourself create fake accounts to try and push your own personal agenda.

Do you really expect anyone to believe that this "hollandor" account was anyone other than you? ...

1. He makes the same spelling mistakes as you
2. He was registered on the same day as your other posts in this thread
3. He has never logged into 2+2 since

Now instead of mindlessly pushing your own agenda. Why don't you ACTUALLY tell everyone why you're making these posts all the time?

Make your 25th post be the first honest post from you, because I doubt anyone still believes you have everyone's interest at heart. You only care about yourself and about derailing every intelligent discussion thread on this forum.

Oh and please don't insult our intelligence by logging back into the hollandor account and claiming you're real.