There is a lot of confusion out there among players as to what the Merge Gaming Network is. There are two partitions of the "Merge Gaming Network" and they do not in any way share player pools. The two partitions are operated and function with very different sets of rules. This thread is an attempt to make it more clear to players by having a separate thread for each partition.

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The two partitions look like this:

Partition 1 consists of Carbon Poker, Aced Poker, PokerHost


Partiton 2 consists of SportsBook, PlayersOnly, SuperBook, and any other Jazette Enterprises company that feeds into the poker room (Jazette owns a few dozen smaller websites).


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This thread pertains to all skins on the second partition. Anything related to the first partition (C/A or PH) , should be addressed in this Merge Discussion Thread.


Also of note, Carbon and Aced Poker share the same cashier as all Jazette properties, although they do not share player pools. As such, all cashier issues for SB, PO, C/A should be addressed in the Jazette Cashier Thread.


Lastly, PokerHost is an independent skin with it's own cashier. Anything specific to PokerHost, can be addressed in the PokerHost Support Thread.



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Common Abbreviations:

C/A = Carbon Poker and Aced Poker (often grouped together as they share the same ownership and management)
SB = SportsBook
PO = Players Only
PH = PokerHost


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Kahn

If they are completely separate as you say, can you play on PO(until they ban you for winning) and Aced at the same time on different computers without fear of getting banned? I would assume there wouldn't be a problem since they are completely different games, but you know what assuming does...

The software is the same. The software will not allow one to run 2 instances of it at the same time. If one was to find a way around this and play both at the same time, one could invoke the ire of Merge Security Dept, which is an entity that has oversight over both player pools.


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Kahn

Do any of the skins in Partiton 2 have P2P transfers?

None have P2P.


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Kahn

Have any of the players that have recently been banned from cash games emailed and got any responses back? I've yet to really get any response.

No response here, but I wasn't expecting one.

In the back of my mind, I always knew they were going to do something to counteract the softness of the games. First they took away rakeback which made total sense. I expected the elimination of huds to be next, followed by limiting players to 4 tables and eventually anonymous tables.

But this move to just back off so many winning regs is just wild. So what is next for them? Back off break even regs as they start to win? Then once they do that, back off the next group of break even regs as they start to win?

To completely back off winning poker players is so bad for so many reasons. Just cut them down to a two table max.

FWIW, anyone considering hopping skins is just cray cray imo.

who are the regs that got banned for winning?

fwiw sportsbook/PO is pretty reg filled..

I don't have a list or anything, but by opening the lobby I could figure it out by who hasn't been playing.

The weird thing is, I have seen at least 3 different winning regs who play 2/4-3/6 nl multi tabling today. My guess is they will get the boot very soon.

Ya crazy, I checked at few times throughout the day/night today and definitely noticed some solid winning regs still allowed to play from 1/2 - 3/6...and also some of them don't even have a 4 table limit. Very unfair if u ask me. I know some of them are more recent accounts that I haven't really seen before the last month or two, so im guessing they get booted soon also. Sad state of affairs.

I tend to agree with you. I've made this argument to another poker network that was considering banning some winning players. Once you take out the cream of the crop, the games become softer and the weaker regs that are left start to win at a higher clip... it's a dangerous cycle. FWIW, I stoutly recommended against it.


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Kahn

Kahn

You did not answer his actual question. He asked if you can play on PO and Aced at the same time on two DIFFERENT COMPUTERS not the same computer. (Presumably from the same internet connection)

They will banned all regs soon or later, like douchebag said, using this system...
Fishs don't start tables so 2/4 3/6 soon dead etc... Strange i didn't see regs banned post here yet or i missed them. I would also like to know names of banned regs.
I have one in mind cuz i don't see him anymore since a while "Remindmeplz" or maybe he changed nickname...

Pretty please with sugar on top... What network was that?

I'm one of those regs and we play all the time

They haven't given me the boot but they just did relinquish my VIP without warning. What makes you guess they'll get the boot? Just because some regs have disappeared doesn't mean they got the boot.

Remindmepls still players there under Saturnrising

I think they are still fine tuning/backing players off right now. If you are a halfway decent reg who puts volume in over there and haven't been backed off yet, it is probably because they haven't gotten to you yet.

It took about five days for them to get to me after people started posting in here earlier this month.

That's just a guess though.

only reason I could possibly think of why some regs haven't been banned yet is because they lose a lot in the casino. Because I definitely bet a lot on sports over the years (and was def a loser in sports betting), and even I am banned for being a poker reg. I thought maybe they wouldn't ban me bc the amount I spend on sports betting. So who knows how they determine who to ban.

They will for sure get the boot, if they changed SN's it will just take a little bit longer. I know now of at least 10 regs that have gotten the boot within the last 2 weeks. So upsetting because they just added 5/10 back to PO

A question for others who got boot, how long have you been with them? I've played on PO for at least 5 years back to the cake days and the others I've talked to have been as well.

I also fit into that category since the cake days

interesting trend

I just spoke with the first person I knew of to get banned from cash games on Jazette. He also bet sports and casino as well as being a long-term customer.



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Kahn

How much did u win this year for example to be banned? very curious to know cuz maybe i'm the next

I have also been with them since Cake. I feel like I'm the only 200nl reg that got the boot. Seems everyone else plays higher. My winnings to rake ratio was around 1.1 to 1 for the year, so I was definitely not one of the people with a huge amount of winnings compared to rake paid. I guess if I had stayed at 100nl with the insane rake I maybe wouldn't have gotten kicked.

Another thing to mention is how dumb their table limit system was. It was broken and would let some regs sit on many more tables. Sometimes it wouldn't even let me sit 2 tables. If you are going to implement something so stupid, at least make it work right.

I really don't see why the changes were so drastic with no time in between. They cut the tables down to 4 November 1, then didn't even give it 24 hours before making it a 2 table limit. Then a few days later the massive bans. Why not at least give the 4 table limit some time, I think that would have been a good compromise on trying to keep the recs protected while not killing the poker room.

Also, like DouchebagSurplus mentioned, what exactly is their plan. Take out the sharks and breakeven regs becomes the new sharks. Once you are left with all fish there will still be fish who are better than other fish.

Lastly, these bannings have now become a huge advertisement for sharks to come to playersonly and win as much as possible before they get the boot. I expect the games to be very soft initially and then to get much worse in the next few weeks. The recs were actually more protected before the bannings as players only was pretty much under the radar of so many people for so long, which is why the games were good.

I think their plan is they have no plan and they don't really know what they're doing. They've had massive overlays on their weekly sunday for a long time and were bleeding money there. They started to tweak it every week as of a month or so ago but it didn't really help the overlays were still huge, especially for such a smaller site.