Backstory-- Long time lurker, never posted but have some familiarity with the community. Play a ton of live poker, little online when too busy for live.

I mainly play on Bovada since I am US based but have had issues with depositing there so I tried Carbon Poker yesterday - deposited 200 to test the site out. Played some PLO for a few hours, lost and figured I would deposit today and start grinding on Carbon permanently.

Logged in this morning and was notified my account was BANNED and to contact support.

4 hours later support said it was a rejected deposit, so i called my bank they said they approved the deposit and it cleared. Live chatted with support and they then informed me they banned my account because of a 'relation' with another player (Player B) and that his deposit bounced sometime in 2013 and their software detected a relationship so my account was banned until he paid his bounced deposit or I paid it for him. The other person has the same first name and is from the same city as I but we haven't been friends in years and I have no relationship, friend or family to him whatsoever.

Disclosure: I know Player B, we were friends in high school and used to play live together and some online at each others house on our own computers and accounts. I am sure at some point he played on my computer or I played on his but that was at least 3 years ago and we never account shared. About 2 years ago I floated him 500 for a live game, he lost, and never paid me back. So we haven't been friends since. He lives over 2 hours away and I don't even have his phone or email anymore so their solution was: A, I pay his debt or B, I chase him down and make him pay.

I encourage you everyone to think long and hard about playing on Carbon if they have ever had anyone near them or that they are friends with that play online. Based on Carbon's policy, durrr not paying on his debt to jungleman means anyone who has ever been in the same room as durrr is responsible for that debt and they will freeze your account and funds until their debt is paid one way or the other. This is an extemely slippery president to set. I asked for explanation or further details and all they could say is their software detected a 'relation'.

I have receipts for all aspects of this story including chat transcripts, bank records, deposit slips, and anything else as necessary.

Please share and comment on this thread to keep people aware.

Sounds like a pretty reasonable policy to me.

They are a private company and can chose who they wish to allow to use their services.

IMO dont join your friend in what he did

What do you do in my position? Pay his debt even though it has nothing to do with me and I have no relationship to him? Or chase him down? We aren't even friends and he owes me money... How is that reasonable to ban me because I used to know him. I used to know a bunch of people.. Someone used to know serial killers, someone used to know rapists.. guilty by association is never reasonable...

I never joined in anything, I didn't even have a Carbon account when he played. I understand he shouldn't have did what he did but what is to stop them from saying someone you chatted with online or played live with bounced a check and ban anyones account. Poker is a community, we all know tons of people and as durrr and other guys have shown, anyone can not pay their debts...

stars does this as well, reasonable from their part imo, specially with new accounts since they probably just assumer its your friend under another name/account. gl

What is relation? Stayed in the Wynn while he was there at WSOP? Played in a tournament with him once? That is so scummy to hold someone accountable for someone you used to know not paying. Thats like someone stealing something and then them telling you to pay for it or you can't shop there. Agree it is private business but it is poor form for paying customers.

What constitutes relation? What would you do now?

Prolly the shared computers part. Did this friend use your computer to play on carbon? What was his screenname there?

What's the value of the debt?

Do you still have funds on the account, and if so, are they sending them back to you?

Edit to add: Just saw now that you lost your money at the tables. Yeah, don't see the problem here - they can refuse to do business with anyone they like, as long as it's not for discriminatory reasons.

Slippery president ITT.

Also, OP, your post reads as though you didn't intend to be entirely forthcoming about your relationship to this guy.

And as others have observed, there's no scam here. Carbon is perfectly entitled to refuse your custom.

This is why I would never make use of any of those 'get a friend to join' promotions on any online site.

Sorry about your situation OP and I went through something similar with Merge/Carbon in 2010, which was finally resolved in 2014.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...postcount=5561
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...postcount=6138

I too played on the same computer at some point as someone else had, that ended up owing money. The main difference in your case seems to be, they are giving you the option to pay the other players debt off. I agree it sucks but if you're expecting to find some way to get your account reinstated without the debt being paid, good luck with that. I think the only reason I was finally able to get my account reinstated after around four years, is because my relatives account was on another poker skin that's no longer on the Merge network. If not for that, I presume I would still be banned as well.

If it were me and it once was, I would try to find out how much is owed, then decide if it's worth it to you to pay it off to be able to play on Carbon. The way I looked at it at the time was, even though frustrating, the fault was mine for not being more careful about accessing my account and the potential for it being linked to the account of others. Yeah it sucks but from the pokersite's POV they have to do what's best to protect themselves.

As a matter of fact I've had this situation with Bovada/Bodog and Pokerstars as well, with Bovada it was a very low amount owed which they eventually waived because I told them the relative was deceased but with PokerStars it was a larger sum and I ended up paying it off to get my account reopened. (FYI this was all back when family, friends and I first began playing online poker around 2008, being ignorant to the potential consequences of playing on the same computers, locations, etc). The point is, in my experience it's not unusual to be required to pay the debt of another player account if linked to being accessed from the same computer(s).

Why let me deposit 200 then ban same day. The software is instant so you can't say it took 36 hours to make the connection. And he isn't a relative, he was a friend of a friend who came over a few times when a group of us would play together. Can't confirm he ever played on his account on my computer but I have since bought a new computer so I have no idea what they think our relation is. His debt is >1k and I a don't understand how I am being banned for that. If I didn't lose the 200 and binked 4k my assumption has to be they would do the same thing without warning since nothing changed. Pretty scummy to let me deposit then ban account instead of blocking deposits. What if I hadn't been cautious and deposited my full intended 10k... Pretty scummy to associate me to their debts. Electric company doesn't turn off my utilities because my neighbor didn't pay his bills and once had dinner at my house. Surprised so many people think this is legit decision

Seems like a pretty standard policy, but the site is shady as **** anyways. I am on my 3rd skin after they ban me down to 1 table because heaven forbid I want my money and choose to cash out, and not keep much on U.S. serving site. Meanwhile, some of the winningest regs (won much more than me) get to mass table.

WPN and Bovada both better options imo.

I don't think that it is legit at all. But I don't think that Carbon has a bright future anyway, so resolving this might not be worth your aggravation.

WPN?

I'm not going to attempt to address too much of this, you seem frustrated, I understand, I've been there. The player being a relative or not is besides the point, the point is they somehow linked the two accounts and you even admit it's possible the player and you have played on the same computer and/or location, that's all it takes for an account "relation" to be established.

I shared my experience with you so maybe you'd understand that it's not an isolated incident on Carbon or against you.

op, at this point there's nothing to do except pay or play elsewhere from your side, and we've told you how it it, but thats not what you want to hear. gl.

I appreciate the input and and I understand it is their right to do it but my point is that it is wrong and people need to be aware how loosely it happens even when the relationship only loosely existed.

How many other accounts do you have on the merge network?

As you bought a new computer, its highly unlikely that they link you due to that. My guess is that you have either had an account on carbon before or logged into a different skin on your old computer with your current home address, then used the same address on this carbon account. This would take some time to look into and thats why your account was banned a few hours after you deposited/played

His SN is?

I'm assuming Bovada doesn't let you deposit for an equally nonsensical reason?
A new computer wouldn't change his IP address.

Then you should know that usually when someone says "XXX site" banned/scammed/stole etc that the people leave out the important information. They don't just make a connection because you guys have the same first name and live in the same town, that's just silly. You really don't believe that or expect us to believe it do you?

You state that you have a new computer and that your friend didn't play on it so I believe that you are leaving something out. What that is I don't know but it doesn't really make sense that they would turn away business from someone with out having a very good reason.

What was your SN and friends SN? You've never had an account on any Merge skin? Why do you have issues with Bovada? What is a slippery president?

Wait, durr and jungleman are playing on carbon now?

while it is possible, I find it unlikely that he has the same IP address as ~3 years ago

the thing is he used your computer, ive heard that stars does this kind of stuff over transfer, you just have to be careful and avoid being related to other accounts overall tbh.