The name is slightly familiar to me, probably from the mtt tables. He's had good results at the stakes he and I were playing before OPR stopped tracking Carbon in 2015.

The German accounts are most likely a bot ring. It could possibly be a stable though too. They play very similar, they never play each other heads up, but there's always one sitting hu from 25-500. It also appears the german accounts also move in shifts. They're always on no matter how weird the hour is for Germany as well which is a give away. I used to get action, but after a little while when one refused they all started sitting out on me.

I've sat with a few Germans who just spewed stack after stack. I'm talking over 10 full buyins at a single table, so not all Germans are created equal.

I hear what you're saying though. Def something fishy happening and it's been going on for years. However, although traffic is meh, the games are still pretty juicy. But any time more than one of these players joins the table, I'm out.

There's one guy, maybe from Poland, who I've seen multiple times sign in from another skin and sit at the same table, taking up two seats. Almost the exact same username and stats are damn close. Pretty ballsy.

Recently I've been ****ing around on merge a couple hours a night from 50-200. There are a couple German accounts that are def human, but they are colluding. They killed the site a while ago by sitting 3-4 Germans/Austrians on every single table (lol and merge did nothing). Now the site is dead they conveniently only sit one per table. It's just way too coordinated. The Spanish and polish accounts I've played are grinders obviously, but nothing out of the ordinary. Greece accounts are 100% colluding (again merge does nothing).

There certainly are some fish in the games. But when the rake cap is $4 dollars from 10nl-200nl you're not going to make much, if any. You're sorta just playing for ****s and giggles at that point. Even if you use the reload bonuses (20% rb?) you can't expect the grind anything up with rake that high.

Time for me to complain but I've run really bad in pretty bizarre ways the few k hands I've played. Few nut flush vs second flushes HUHU and 3H, guys are flatting/backraising huge pairs when it doesn't make sense, flopping sets in 3b pots for days HUHU etc. Strange to say the least.

Now that sports betting is legal in USA, combined with how far online poker has declined, you would think sites would be extremely protective eradicating bots/ collusion. The fact that they aren't is troubling and I wouldn't be surprised in the least if some of these bots/ strange play are operated by the site.

Bots and collusion I'll buy. Site operated bots and strange play operated by site is a big stretch imo. You could always switch over to mtt. If there are bots there, they leave a lot to be desired.

These sites are run by criminals. They will do whatever it takes to keep making money. Including stealing, cheating, and defrauding their customers. I've played on enough of these small networks to know better.

If you were in their shoes/ a criminal... and your site was failing... how would fix it? Easiest solution is running your own bots and raising the rake. The bots don't need to be that good, just good enough stack fish and put regs in close spots where the rake does the rest. There's >20% chance the site is on it. They're not stupid.

As I said before, my last few k hands on this site I'm ~20 bi below ev playing short handed NLHE. Running bad could be part of it but being way under ev is also indicative of bots and collusion. Either way the site is a joke.

Guess you should take your play elsewhere. Seems like a +ev move. Or change gears and play tournaments. Overlays galore and no bot problem.

Wow a lot of allegations there. Not much you’ve said makes sense though.
1) carbon’s rake isn’t unusual and they constantly have reload bonuses which I can’t say for other US facing sites .
2) you’ve played enough on these sites to know better - obviously not if you’re still playing them and complaining
3) there’s a greater than 20% chance the site is running bots - would love to see your math on this estimation, or did you just make up and spew a number?
4) last few k hands - lol. Tiny sample.
5) being way under EV = bots and collusion. It literally has nothing to do with those things. It is a comparison of results when all in to equity when all in. If anything imore than variance, it would indicate a rigged RNG, not bots or collusion which in no way impact all in ev.

I've played on merge for a long time. I probably have more hands logged on merge than on all the other networks I've played on combined. It's a shame they capped winning players combined with the cash out crisis a while ago. They have the best software I've ever played.

Merges rake is high. There is no/ sporadic at best action on the site. The reload bonuses bring the rake down but it's still high. The amount of regs, fee fish and almost no games does not justify the rake they are charging. If you feel different then youre simply ******ed/ don't know any better.

If you've been around (which is an obv no) it's worth the risk to play on multiple small networks due to the low regs and the sporadic whales/drunks that might donate. Especilally if you're better at HUHU and short handed play.

From your response you sound pretty salty bruh. Are you one of the German ****s that refuse to start tables/ bumhunt/ always button me? Sounds like it. Maybe instead of sitting out in lol 50-200nl you should just get a job that pays.

Irt being below ev and bots/collision- you should do some reading/ research before making posts that show how stupid you are. The bot ring threads proved the correlation between bot/collusion rings and running way below EV. Rub some brain cells together and maybe something will fire.

Not worth getting into most of your post. I want to focus on how you think collusion or bots could possibly impact how the cards roll out when you’re all in. Please explain.

BTW it’s unfortunate that you feel compelled to hurl around childish insults left and right, even though I did nothing of the sort in my post.

Read the bot ring threads.

Imo justified to insult anyone that tries to call me out on something but doesn't know what the **** they're talking about who's also a hypocrite. There's not a single reg willing to play HU and I always get buttoned. Seeing how these games almost never fill up you must be one of these regs. if you truly believed in your last posts you wouldn't mind play huhu and short handed instead of bumhunting and buttoning.

Regs these days are just a bunch of parasites

You seem like you’ve got some serious issues, and no I don’t think I will go and read a 1000 page thread to prove something that makes zero logical sense. But hey anyone who questions your wild accusations deserves to be flamed right? I’ll just let you cry and scream cause you can’t beat the softest site on planet earth lol.

Lol from your post history you play micro stakes.... need I say more? You know nothing of the online poker climate.

Your post history also has many more posts complaining about bots and collusion than I do?

You could branch out and play tournaments where bots and collusion doesn't appear to be a major concern. Just sayin...

Haha I was 100% sure you were going to search my profile and posts for something to criticize. Way to deflect from the insanity and complete lack of proof for your many claims. You have no idea who I am or what my history is but evidence and logic don't seem terribly important to you. It's now apparently a pissing match about who plays higher stakes? Please just leave and take your whining spew elsewhere, nobody here is interested. Bye!

Folks weren't buying his spew in the Global thread, so here he is. Breaks up the monotony.

Every person who plays midstakes 1. Knows how serious bots/collusion is and 2. Knows how to identify them/ what to look for. If you look back at earlier posts itt respectable, midstakes regs brought up bots and collusion just as I have.

The stakes you play is relevant. Tons of people who grind micros simply don't know any better/ aren't informed. To be playing micros in 2018 and making the claims you are is just... lol.

Seeing posts like yours is tilting. I'm tired of being polite and patient with people like you. I also see you live in pdx. Your replies make way more sense now.

Goodsaint lol grinds those dinky little 500gtds. Tons of money in those bro!

Yep. And no angst about bots and collusion. Dependable monthly cash outs. I ain't mad and I ain't worried.

Why is everyone on here acting like such a little biatch

Anyone know if there is a June deposit bonus?

I am finally thinking of taking the plunge to upgrade to High Sierra on my Macbook Air. Does anyone have experience with Carbon on that O/S? Is it working OK? Not so good? Thanks.

A few days ago, I saw a notice for a June deposit bonus come up in one of those popup boxes like the ones Merge uses for tourny announcements. Also said something like "lowered clearance requirements". It only came up once that I saw. I was multi-tabling at the time so didn't write the code down, but I'm sure it was the typical 'JUN100PK' format.

The next day I tried to deposit using 'JUN100PK' and then 'JUNE100PK', and both times it said that they were incorrect promotion codes. The Poker Promotions page is still listing the May deposit bonus, so either the June bonus announcement was a mistake or they changed their minds after the first announcement or something. I would write Customer Support about it, but twice in the last month I've emailed them with a question about HUD's (once using their website form and once as a stand alone email) , and they've never answered.

The traffic for micro cash games did seem to grow a little bit after the ACR thing, but the last few days there have been even fewer players than before. Sad to see. It's been forcing me to play more and more at Bet Online, which as a US player seems to be my only other option for cash, since I won't play on Bovada or whatever its called these days, or ACR. I really prefer Merge's software, but BOL seems to be gaining players, and offers a free HUD, "Zoom" and "Spin and Go" clones, and just announced they've added more tournaments and increased prize guarantees .

You must not be very good because if you were you would be have been banned long ago. No wonder you're always running around crying about how nlhe is dead, you suck at it, that is why it's dead to you.

Disclaimer to my post of June 18th:

Just so no one gets the wrong idea, I have absolutely no affiliation with Bet Online and receive no compensation of any kind to post about the features of their site. I was just listing some of the reasons why I'm playing there more, since I'm able to play less and less on Merge. If micro cash game traffic picks up and Customer Service becomes responsive again, I'm more than happy to continue spending the majority of my playing time on Merge as I mostly have since I became a member on Sportsbook in 2009.

I have accounts on both Sportsbook and Carbon, but have been playing mostly on Sportsbook for a year or so, after Carbon took away the ability to color code and tag players and Sportsbook didn't. Carbon recently re-instated those features, so I guess they found out that they were more important to us "recreational" regs (since these days all the sites claim they cater primarily to "recreational" players) than they originally thought.

Any time I have deposited on Carbon for the bonus, I just get in LiveChat and request the bonus (in my exp, it's never automatically applied). I've always been credited with the bonus within the hour.