BBB is right, we have a few which are 1-2 weeks older than yours and we just ask for your patience - just a little longer, as we expect a very large batch to be processed this week.

Perhaps a silly question, but good to know anyway. Why are checks processed in batches as opposed to when they arrive? Seems to a layman that it would be easier and maybe less time consuming to process them more evenly as opposed to a big chunk at a time.

Client Downtime:

The client will be down for maintenance tonight, November 5th, between 22:00 to 23:00 server time. Any tournaments that are expected to finish during this downtime period will be cancelled. The total estimated downtime is one hour. We apologise for the inconvenience.*

Hey Nathan, never saw a response but just in case-

The Carbon-rep in the PokerMaximus 3 thread stated the double rebuys will be fixed before the series. Do you know anything about this?

Maybe a dumb question, but what's server time? Eastern?

Central iirc.

Hi, I'm not 100% sure, but I would take Carbon's word for it.

Right now it is 18:04 server time, so the maintenance window starts in just under four hours.

Update: This has been postponed until tomorrow guys.

Hahah I saw all the rebuys open up and I was like...I'm pretty sure those games last longer than two hours haha

Hello, I currently have a Hero account. Want to start playing on Black Chip.

I have rakeback on Hero, however I have not played any cash games on Hero for several months. I have however recently (last 2 weeks) played in tournaments using my VIP points on Hero.

I've heard that there is a waiting period (I believe 60 days) before you can get rakeback if you sign up on another Merge skin. If I open a new account with BCP and I haven't played any cash games in several months on Hero but I have played tournaments using points can I get rakeback right away on BCP?

Thanks!

Unfortunately, I think you would be looking at 6 months, from the last time you played on any real money games - that includes real money games you joined using your VIP Points. I'm sorry it's not better news. You're welcome to join still, and until that time has elapsed you'll be enrolled in our VIP Program.

I don't know the answer to that but thats never stopped me from answering in the past. Hell if its going to stop me now.

Last year when folks were asking if the Merge players funds were segregated, some of the skins said that they were in fact segregated and they were also held in some type of escrow account. Anyone who has had money in an escrow account knows that it takes some paperwork to retrieve the money. If the money is in an escrow account, Merge would need to document every penny that they want to take out. For efficiency and possible limitations on monthly allowed withdrawals this would probably need to be done in batches.

That could conceivably also be one of the reasons why Merge doesn't want to do p2p transfers. Transfers need to be done immediately. That would mean that Merge would need to set aside a large amount of rainy day funds, in addition to the segregated funds, in order have the money on hand to make the transfers.

^^ Boy, it sure would be nice to see someone operate an online poker business straight up. I get the idea behind escrow accounts and though I'm not extremely familiar with them, with the amount of money being deposited, you'd think their number #2 concern behind keeping the funds secure would be getting players paid in a timely manner. There is simply no good reason for delays over a month in this day in age. A big reason it's like that so often has to be by design, or incompetence, or just a lack of structure.

P2P takes a lot of the burden off of a network/skin. While true, a network would have to keep a lot of funds at the ready, they should be able to do this if they are as solvent as they sometimes proclaim to be. I guess that's where the liquidity issues people were speculating on came from.

your understanding of online poker banking is atrocious. you should have included that as a disclaimer before or after your terrible arguments.

not gonna spell it out, sufficed to say this is not an online store where you buy incense. things are a bit more complicated

Current online poker banking, perhaps. I guess I just come from a different perspective and don't accept the current model as the "be all end all" that we should just accept as the norm and move on. Businesses need to make money and turn profit, but shouldn't they be held to a decently high standard? Or at the very least, held accountable for some of their actions if not all?

Does anyone know if you get refunded for the $15 fee from getting a check?

I won a Maximus 2 event and requested a small withdrawal 7 or 8 weeks ago.
Then I finished 2nd in the 100K for a large cash, and am now concerned about adding another withdrawal to the pipeline as the first one is still pending.

Is having 2 withdrawal requests in the pipeline a problem?

IMHO, the banking model OLP (online poker) should use is the same model that day traders in stocks and commodities use. There is actually very little difference between us poker players and stock players. Only the product is different. We could take that a wee bit further with the option to treat winnings like 401K's. Or at least part of those winnings.

Again, IMHO, Merge's cashier, both present and future (apparently) is the biggest buzzkill ever.

It's all well and good to "hold businesses accountable" and "vote with your wallet" and all that, but that assumes a traditional above-board market. It all goes out the window in a gray/black market situation, which is what US online poker is. It's pretty ludicrous to assume the same standard of service, especially in light of BF.

I've written a rather lengthy explanation of how poker cashouts can be delayed, why they're processed in batches, etc. which I won't post here as it's largely off-topic for the thread, but in a nutshell there are a number of different steps and handoffs involved in a US poker cashout process, many between understaffed and antiquated batch-oriented systems, a very limited selection of either shady and/or offshore processors and the contractual requirements of each (account balances, minimum volumes, etc.), plus the security verifications involved and the amount of fraud and attempted fraud they must deal with every day. Every step in the process often requires a minimum of days, and by the time it's done you've often stretched into weeks and months. With even slight variations in payout volumes causing non-linear variations in those delays.

Poker players, especially US players, really need to wake up and realized the difficulties of processing US cashouts in the current environment. No poker site is writing you a check from their "player funds" checking account. The money is moving through a number of hands before the check actually gets cut. While I certainly believe that some online poker sites could "do better," so much of it is out of their hands as to make it really unfair -- and frankly, ignorant -- to be holding them as responsible for their level of service as you would your corner grocery store or Amazon.com. The situation in the US is what it is until something changes, so US players either need to suck it up and accept it, organize to influence the necessary changes in the government, or just STFU and take up another hobby.

i believe so - email vip@blackchippoker.eu

as far as i know you can only have one check cashout pending at once, max 2500.

How can anyone play higher than 100nl as a winning player if the most you can withdrawal is likely less than 20k a year? It makes no sense if you'll be waiting years to ever receive your full balance. How is Bovada able to get checks to US players within 3 weeks? I switched to Merge and like quite a few things about it, but this is a fundamental barrier a lot of players can't put up with.

A few months ago they would nod, wink, and tell you there are 'other options' for withdrawal (p2p) but now, not so much.

Just a reminder that the poker client will be down for maintenance tonight, November 6th, between 22:00 to 23:00 server time (starting about 2.5 hours from now). Any tournaments that are expected to finish during this downtime period will be cancelled. The total estimated downtime is one hour. We apologise for the inconvenience.

I had a massive chiplead in the $11 [1R1A] $3,000 Guarantee with 4 left. I am severely disappointed that the tournament was interrupted at this point. BCP Rep I would appreciate an explanation of why this tournament was started if it wasn't expected to finish.

Also I am assuming the remainder of the prize pool is split according to chip stacks?