As if banning people from cash games and stripping rewards wasn't enough of a kick in the nuts. The entire network is on a continual downward spiral and it's very disappointing.

I just can't wrap my head around why a POKER site that makes it's money off of rake wouldn't want players (winning or losing) to play as many tables as they want. They can't really believe that the winning players would win all the money and then all losers would quit right? Losers will lose no matter what and they will either re load or leave.

I mean look at sites like Pokerstars that have excellent player rewards. They specifically reward mass tabling and there are always fish on the site too. Somehow they continue to grow as a company.

Merge is possibly the dumbest group of people ever assembled to run a company. Don't try to rationalize anything they do or your head will explode.

For example: Over on the Carbon/Aced/ Host side of things they changed the nightly $215 stacks from 7,500 to 5,000 Friday night. I log in Saturday and see that they changed it back to 7,500, yet today I log in to play it and it's back to 5,000. Makes sense right?

Think of Sportsbook/PlayersOnly (Jazette) as a Sportsbook/Casino with a small poker room on the side, not as a poker company.


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Kahn

He who owns the cashier for a poker network owns the poker network.

I'm pretty upset that my rakeback deal is gone. What kind of bull****?

Not sure why they won't lift the bans and table caps for mtts with all the overlays they've been having recently.

.

Rakeback has been gone since the beginning of 2013...


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Kahn

I've been worse off than Jared, or whoever that hugs guy was since the end of 2012 until recently.

I don't know if it is true, but i spoke to someone in player's chat that told me the poker side of their company is ran by a third party. All of the decisions are made by that company and Sportsbook has not been making all of these changes that have been going on lately.

If by players chat you are referring to live chat in the client, they have almost no real information of anything going on and are borderline ******ed. In all honesty Khan is probably your best source for information. Sports Book is certainly the ones making these changes and completely separated from the rest of the Merge network to protect their sports betting fish. To go above and beyond that they intentionally started banning winning regs from cash games who were winning too much.

From what I understand, Players Only (Jazette) basically owns and runs the entire Merge network now. No one knows with 100% certainty though.

Has anyone here played on both Carbon and Sportsbook before? How would you rate the toughness of the two player pools? Sportsbook seems ultra soft to me. I've been beating $25NL at like 17bb/100 over 35,000 hands. (I know small sample, but enough to get a handle on the games) I just can't decide if player rewards would be better if a player pool is a lot tougher....

sportsbetting fish

It's all fun and games until Sportsbook bans you.

From what i have heard its all 1-2 and up guys. Don't think they would be paying much attention to a micro player like me

I was thinking about the bannings...do you guys think it could be players that they suspect are bots? I am not naive enough to think these things do not exist. I'm not saying this is the case just bringing up a different idea.

Well, I know I'm not a bot. I do however play 1-2 or above typically, but will play anything from .25 .50-3-6. If you are winning marginally then there is nothing to worry about. If you continue to crush the games I would be weary. I'd just cash out any significant winnings and keep the bare min you need to play on. Sure, they will pay you after you get banned, but how long will it take?

Well I was banned and I'm certainly not a bot. I also personally know another player who was banned as well.

Hi guys, 3 questions...

1.) So far nobody in here has said they have been banned from Sportsbook, only PlayersOnly. Can anybody say they have been banned from Sportsbook?

2.) Do these bans include MTTs or just cash games?

3.) For anybody who has been banned, how long did it/is it taking you to receive your withdrawals compared to normal times?

Thanks

hello.. Just giving update on my withdraw "after being banned from PO.." I sent for it on 11/5. I did receive it around 11/24.!! Hope that is relief to some of you.. Also anyone else that was banned from PO pm me please. I am new to site and would like to make some contacts..

I have been playing on carbon and sb for a while now and posted a solid winrate in 2/4 3/6 plo and nlh on both sites. I have not been banned, but they have done something different to me. I was talking to a friend yesterday and he informed me that the 5/10 nlh games have been good on sb. Thats weird bc I don't see any 5/10 nlh games in my lobby so I messed with the filters to see if it was my doing and I could not see them. He told me he just got done playing and I had to see this for myself so I went to his house and guess what?!! 5/10 nlh sure enough tables open and people are playing, but my account is blocked from viewing them. I was furious and contacted support and see below their bold face lies! Thoughts?

[IMG][/IMG]

Well at least they didn't ban you completely like me I've had to play the occasional sit and go just for fun and have to deal with all the butt hurt sit and go players who rage constantly.

I have gotten two withdrawals though so I guess it's something, but they've been coming slower.

I play all the high stakes on both sites carbon / sportsbook. I would rate sportsbook cash game toughness at 5.5 and carbon at 8-9 sometimes 9.5 all there high stakes regs are over 100-200k lifetime winners (n0tfkneasy ucantescape, mrpolarbear, catman 0ox2o0, and a few others) but carbon usually has 1-2 games running vs sports book which has more 2-4 and 3-6 available. Seems like there are always reg sitting by themselves on carbons higher stake games. my guess is because no one really wants to play with them.

so from what Ive read so far It seems as if player from po have been banned not sports book. but Im up a **** ton on the site and I currently have a 2 table sit limit. I have friends that play on the site as well that currently have 4. I spoke to another live chat person and they actually trasnfered me to a poker specialist and I was told "due to a management decision your account has a 2 table limit only and can not be changed" so with all that being said it seems as if they are limiting the tables for sb players to play on. however there systems messes up a lot and sometimes allows me to sit 4-6 games. Ive actually noticed when I start losing a bit and tilting some it allows me to site more games lol????

wish we had more regs in some of our games all these fake regs and new fish have no class and wont stfu in the chat box. thank god for chat ban eh?

and for any of you that want to make the change to go to carbon for cash games. GOOD LUCK im a pretty big winner on sbortsbook (up like 70k+ since 10/1/13) and am a brake even player on carbon! games are insanely more tough on carbon imo

U said u were break even on Carbon cuz regs there are better and yr message is like hey guys come to SB there is a lot of fish. I really don't understand...

Do NOT listen to Luv, he is a clueless idiot. 70k, I don't think so. I've played with him plenty. Nobody making that much in 2 months on that site

So why the **** are they banning a lowly 200nl player like me while others can play having made double what I do in less time.

And yea it's pretty dumb to talk about the softness of the site. That's why the games were good for so long because it flew under the radar. Not like I give a **** anymore anyway, but it always makes me laugh when regs advertise how soft the site they play on is.