Cliffs:
-Cake says I need to clear 1K FPPs (~$200) per transfer
-I overly abide by their own rules and attempt to cashout
-While I cashout they change their mind and say I now need to clear 100K FPPs (roughly $20k in rake, I've paid roughly $4.5k lifetime)
-They say I can either clear this $15k+ rake or they will close down my account worth over $20k right now.



I've been playing on cake poker for the past few months and have been playing 200 and 400NL fairly regularly while cashing out with no real issues. When trying to do my latest cashout I was confronted with severe hostility from their security department despite me not breaking any of their rules - more so - having proof that I was in fact abiding by rules they sent to me.


On 11/25/11 I sent them a series of e-mails asking them about their play through requirements for my account:



*



So at this point it is pretty evident that they want me to play through 1000 FPPs per transfer that I receive, which have typically been in the realm of $5k-$20k transfers. No problem.

I easily clear play through by a long shot, attempt to cashout and they cancel my request without saying anything. This happens a total of four times in a row and then I am sent this e-mail this morning 12/15:


^^They say they outlined the policy to me 'many times' however I promise on my reputation's name the only policy that was ever outlined to me was the one noted 11/25 that I specifically had to e-mail them about, not them to me.

This e-mail clearly goes against what they told me on 11/25. So I ask for clarification:






I never felt like I was exploiting cake poker as I was playing a good volume of 200, 400NL 6-max there and playing their tournaments as often as I had time. I certainly never broke any one of their own rules. They had a rule set in place which I followed perfectly then they decide to change the rule on me later on. I thought I was being perfectly reasonable to allow them to change the rule on me for all future transactions.

This is problematic because I am not an ultra high volume rake kind of player. They want an additional $15.5k (roughly) of rake from me which would take me at least 8 months to complete I'd imagine. In addition to this, I'd likely make more money on cake and have it all stuck there. When the 15.5k rake passes I'd then have to wait even longer for the cashouts to process which could take me up to a year+ before I see my $20k+ potential winnings ever again. I'd be playing for a long time as a professional without ever receiving a payday and when it finally came I'd have to do it in $10K max chunks at a time. Finally, my friend pointed out that what is to stop cake from increasing their FPP count again if I reach this next number if they already increased it once out of the blue?

I've discussed this with a few friends before posting and they all feel Cake poker is way out of line so I'm writing in complaint for the first time here in IP and wondering if anyone else feels the same.

I've talked with Bryce about this issue, and he showed me the emails. I find it appalling the way that cake is acting in this situation, and they seem oblivious to the fact that they went back on their promises. I hope they correct this situation, and I for one will not be playing a single hand on cake until this issue has been resolved.

You should just cash it all out through p2p tranfers and be done with that pos site.

If they are forcing the asinine policy on you, then, at the very least, they should allow you to cash out up to $24,108, as that is the amount of FPPs you have earned. I was finally starting to consider cake poker again after they seized the $60,000 a legit player won against someone who "obviously wasn't playing rationally". If this situation is not made right, it will be the last time I ever consider playing on Cake Poker

you're a filthy nit picking bum hunter you deserve it whenever anyone sits down. at a table that you open you bolt instantly unless they have a -20bb/100 win rate minimum. so no wonder you won't clear 20k rake

Wow, that was the rudest exchange of emails (on their part) that I have ever seen from an online poker room when you have done nothing to deserve it and went above and beyond their requirements.

Total bs

That's very incompetent support right there. Not only are they rude when you have been nothing but reasonable, but their "like it or have your account closed" policy is alarming. I would not want to play there knowing that I can get my account closed due to new policies that were not mentioned previously. Especially if the new policies deal with cashing out.

If this does not get handled properly, I will never play on cake.

it's quite absurd how they come back on their words, OP was given a set of rules and didn't break any, I don't even see how they can think about enforcing that new ridic set of rules (I guess OP wouldn't have had that much money transfered to his account had he known he'd need to clear an FPP for every dollar)

since he has 20K in his account and received nearly 100K in transfers, I'd take a wild guess and say he already did that

and +1

OP, can you transfer your funds to 1-5 friends and have them pay you IRL or sth?

I was honestly quite scared to carry on e-mail conversation after that last ultimatum styled message. I didn't want to press the issue further at the fear of getting my account locked/seized by asking questions similar to that which you posed. Even posting this thread on here gave me mild anxiety because of how hostile the messages were phrased earlier.

I also wonder if I transferred this $ to someone else if Cake would apply my 100k requirement over to them which would be the worst thing imaginable to a friend that's just trying to help out. I just really don't know and after talking with friends they said the best place to start was posting a thread here and just continue playing as usual as things hopefully work themselves out.

Yeah I can understand the anxiety part, makes a lot of sense.

I feel for you man, I hope you can resolve this amicably and get your money somehow.

Cake Poker
"We have our Cake, and eat yours too!!"

Cake CS has always had a "holier than thou", we do what we want attitude. It amuses me to see their business crumble due to their stupidity, lack of innovation, CS, and general hard headedness..Im only sorry that black friday may have helped them out some, after all their skins ran for the hills. hell at their peak business a few years ago sportsbook and playersonly skins on cake were shamelessly beating their pants off within a few months of opening up..

"Do not request another cashout until you have earned enough FPP
Doing so could result in account closure and the seizure of your funds."

Be nice if they posted this on the front page of their website for all to see...

Im sure theyll say they have right to amend any rules at their own discretion at any time, probably somewhere in the TC, but trying to strong-arm a player into shutting up by threatning his roll is insane.

I don't get it. You say you have been playing "a good volume" of 200nl and 400nl yet you have only paid $4.5k rake lifetime?

Either way though it's total bs on cakes part and hopefully you can get it resolved.

Are the people saying "customer service" not noticing this is a security personal?

This IS scary, and like the poster above I've never seen any site carry that tone, but it's not just a tone, there's some legitimate threats in there.

I'm gonna have to think about this because I don't know what the best course of action is off hand. Usually when rational/reasonable people are involved the solution comes to mind pretty quick, but I agree with you OP that this is a really bad and touchy situation because those emails are hostile.

Actually, can you just transfer the funds back from where you got them? Also, why did you need 100k? Are you leaving anything out, like are you running some sort of cash out service? I don't think there's a whole lot wrong with that and am not asking these questions to point a finger, but rather trying to see Cake's side so that I can figure out wtf the best corse of action is. Without knowing fully though I would imagine transferring it back to where it came from would be the best solution.

I'm occupied doing a lot of things. I play stars MTTs several days a week, I play on other sites such as William Hill and True Poker. I've played ~40k ish hands over the last 2.5 months on cake specifically. Not stellar volume by Nanonoko's standards or even yours, clearly, but for me given time constraints and how many tables are available on the site, I think its perfectly respectable. This is also a pretty minor point to harp on, imo. I admitted in my closing paragraph that I'm not a rake machine so take what you will. If I were a rake machine this thread never would have existed in the first place.

I think you're both wrong, but I do hope you get your money.

In you post you say you'd have to take 10k chunks at a time. Is that the max that can be withdrawn in a single transaction at Cake? This obv isnt the most important part but I'm just gathering details.

Regardless, good luck with this man. I'll be following.

I could transfer the funds back to other people but that would be a huge hassle for everyone. I have been cashing out funds transferred by other people. As I stated in the OP I was playing and cashing out and this was a non-issue until this morning. This should be irrelevant to Cake's actions taken by them this morning though. As Jkarioun noted, I would never have taken in this many transfers *ever* if I had known cake poker was going to place these requirements on me.

To the savvy 2p2'r doing some basic subtraction with the above information, I did not cash out $80k worth of Cake money in this time. I don't know for sure what the # is but I would estimate it to be ~$40k. I have transferred some to other people as well. I've paid over double in play through requirements during this time so I wasn't even skirting by the rule.

If this is problematic for Cake then they may happily apply the restrictions they feel like making when it is known to me which is why I was more than willing to abide by this in the future as I stated in an e-mail to them.



10K is max cashout and they tend to take a while for cake to process. So even when I'm done raking it would be a while before I see the $ anyhow.

So you were using Cake as a bank

Am I getting trolled now? This is the first and last troll post I'll respond to but:

No, unless I'm allowed to go to bank of america and play 1/2 6-max, then no, I wasn't using it as a bank. I don't really see how this is remotely not clear to anyone. I paid $4.5k in rake and plan on paying more in the future to some extent depending on what happens. That has to mean something, unless the bank fees since OWS have gone up without me knowing in the past few weeks. /my troll

Did you sign up through an affiliate, and if so, have you tried seeing if they can help you?

Yes I have signed up through Rakebacknation and when I've asked them for help in the past they haven't been very helpful. From what I've read in other cake threads the only one that seems have a strong alliance with the Cake network is Rakebrain.

Based on the information above it sounds like you're gonna need to go through the hassle of transferring people back the money. This is a much better position than I thought you were in and in no way excuses their emails, but dude I actually thought you were going to lose your money and now I I think it's down to having to bend to get it.

Also, I understand the point that they told you the requirements and don't think you should have to do anything, but I think you need to get the money settled rather than argue with them over that because securing the money is what is most important and this agent is obviously unstable.

Again, gl though.

glad cake put a stop to the bs, u clowns try and charge us american players 25%ish vig . when u can cashout in days.thanks for price gouging when he have our arm behind our backs. fu bro. clear everything

So stating the obvious is trolling?

You are a low volume low/mid stakes player who has $100k in transfers. You are using Cake as a bank and they called you out on it.