I'd be very weary of Merge when they're reducing regs tables and slashing their bonus system - these are all signs of a business that's slowly sinking and they're desperately trying to plug holes before it all goes down.....Carbon has always paid on time over the years but with these recent changes the future is looking a little bleak

there's an explanation for Merge's recent changes that is much more likely to be true than this doom scenario.

Merge made a huge change be4 all theses subsequent changes: they integrated all their skins into one player pool. that was a big risk. they surely forecast how that would effect their revenue from customers who primarily bet sports, but there was no way to know for certain.

it seems most likely to me that Merge significantly underestimated how quickly and to what degree the fish on the SportsBook side would lose $$$ playing poker to players on the Carbon/Aced side. that money disappearing into players' accounts rather than company accounts through sports betting has caused a decrease in revenue they did not expect.

the changes they're making all aim slow and reverse that. decreased VIP points = decreased costs = increased revenue. limiting winning poker players' access to the SB fish means (they hope) these fish will lose $$$ at poker slower and have more available to bet sports.

one piece of the doom scenario is missing: slow cashouts. that's not happening.

So we see this and all the things Carbon are doing to ruin it for their regular players. Removing promotions, elite status, and leaderboards yet there are dickheads on here defending Carbon saying Carbon is great. ROFLz have ridges gentlemen.

GG Merge.

The automatically registering people for tournaments has got to be addressed, there is no way that that decision can be defended.

If people are having their tickets used while they are offline, with no way to even know that their tickets are even being used, it's just absolute theft.

Somebody at Merge has got to start standing up for the players at least a little bit.

how do you know? I get what your saying with SB fish donating, but this is the wrong approach and a sign of a company who either has terrible leadership or significant financial issues....either way I wouldn't be thrilled to be keeping a lot of money on a site in this situation

If they were so worried about the sportsbook fish then they shouldn't have desegregated in the first place. I think Merge should consider going back to segregated cash games, and desegregated tournaments with the following in place:

On the Sportsbook side:
-4 table cash and sng cap for all players. Everyone can play 4, no matter what. Mtt's unlimited.
-10% rewards through the vip points valid for any tournament or SNG.
-Same rake as now.

On the Carbon side:
-Unlimited tables
-Implement a program similar to Stars to encourage grinding. Should be able to poach a ton of players from WPN due to the superior software. I would consider making it a monthly program instead of yearly. This should get even more players to try for it since they don't have to commit to a full year. So for example if you reach the SNE equivalent in rake for the current month, then you would get SNE equivalent rakeback for the following month. Of course if people think a yearly system is better than by all means do that.
-Reduce the rake to Stars levels

-Maybe allow players to play both networks at the same time (at the expense of segregating Mtt's)

And do everything you can to get a Debit card withdraw option in place like WPN. I know it's doable because they used to offer it themselves.

Anyways, that's my humble opinion and if people like it including Merge management maybe they will consider implementing this. I think it could help please all sides and keep the poker side of things strong and profitable for them.

Satellite tickets are now handled this way. This is how WPN and PokerStars handle satty tickets, by registering players for the next available event...


This is probably the best guess I've seen in the public forums.

How do you know? Personally, I think he has a much better grasp of how online gaming companies think and operate after critically analyzing both of your statements. These are not signs of a failing, financially hurt business... quite the opposite in fact.

What data to back it up? Well there is anecdotal evidence in the cashout thread here on 2+2 where recently people are getting 8-10 day checks. Also you could look up the "June 2014 USA Poker Room Cashout Report" which summarizes the cashout data from all public forums with regards to Merge (and everyone else for that matter).


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Kahn

So does this mean if for say..I play the 9:30am ET $11 coupon satellite...and it ends at 11:03am and I end up winning it..will I then be regged for the 11am ET $11 1k gtd tourney automatically? Or will it auto reg me for the $11 early bird?

One thing is for certain, an affiliate believes a site is viable for new signups as long as the affiliate keeps getting their take. Once their take stops though, then the affiliates become outraged and the blood letting begins. By then it's to late for the players, their money is locked up and most likely will never get paid.

If you don't believe me, just go look at the affiliates here who were pushing their players hard into Lock poker for years until they finally stopped getting paid by Lock themselves. Then all of a sudden, they turned on Lock and acted like they were the victims and they were the ones who got cheated the most. They never mention they were the ones pushing all the new sign ups into Lock. That's what affiliates do. Until they stop getting paid, they won't warn their players that a site is about to go down in flames. As long as they keep making money from a site, they will keep pushing new signups into that site.

My advice to everyone, don't wait for the affiliates to turn sour on this site, it will be to late. Just keep the bare minimum on the site. Better to make small deposits into the site when needed rather than being stuck with a large balance when the fox enters the hen house. Which will happen.

^^^^

Some affiliates are responsible. Some affiliates act as player advocates and help them in every possible way. Some affiliates have spoken out against Lock Poker for over 2 years. Those same affiliates never offered Lock Poker. Or that Muchos garbage either. And yet again, that same affiliate pays the salary of the person who writes and maintains the Lock Poker "cashout thread' in hopes of warning as many players as possible to stay away. That same affiliate is also a professional poker player with considerable sums of real money at risk on any and all sites that they offer.

There are some posters who do nothing but troll. There some posters who act like they know what's going on but are in fact full of it. These same posters show up with the same false information over and over and over and somehow are still allowed to post. These same posters also lost their ass to certain affiliates playing Limit Holdem on the Merge Gaming Network and are bitter crybaby's about it. Those same posters would apparently tell any lie the could out of spite. Those same tired posters are going back on the ignore list where they belong.


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Kahn

explains a lot. GG synergistic.

Lol, amazing...

Calling you out on this one. Post the stats for everybody to see here. You have my permission. The one and only time I sat at a table with you, you whined and cried and moaned, as well as berated every single player at the table like a crybaby. Feel free to post every hand from that one time we were at the same table, including chat. I would most enjoy for everyone here to see you for what you are.

On a side note, thanks for reading all my posts even though you stated years ago I was on your 'official' ignore list. I know you had your employees and other affiliate 'friends' write me on your behalf on the boards here as well as through PM to get your message to me. Just shows what a real coward you are and have always been.

Now prove or stfu up here and never reply to a post of mine again.

I just won a Sunday Jun 22 - Big Ticket coupon that expires in 89 days. However when I spoke to live chat support they said I wouldn't be able to use it down the road. wtf do you have an expiration date of 89 days then? Pathetic software glitch that needs to be fixed

If I'm included as one of those posters, I'd love to see those stats too. It would surely be hard for him to come up with those stats considering he doesn't know my username.

As far as those coupons go, one thing that bothers me is that the support email stated that the players would be entered automatically to a tournament as long as there was still a late registration. It sounds like someone could win a coupon and find themselves a entered into a tournament that has already been playing for a couple of hours. That would greatly devalue the coupon not to mention make it impossible to withdraw from the tournament.

Kahn is such a piece of **** for continuing to defend Merge only because they pay him. He cant possibly actually believe all of the bull**** he spews. Also, talking **** about beating someone in limit holdem confirms this.

We need to start a petition to ban this guy from the forums. He is a leach and a drain on the poker community. He is nothing more than an arrogant entitled shill for these sites. What value does he bring to the poker community? Get his ass out of here.

Trust me, the player he hints at beating, me, is nothing but a lie. I am waiting and will wait until he dies for the proof. The thing I don't like about this guy is that he will pile lie on top of lie and nobody ever calls him on it. I am calling him on it. Most likely he crawls back into his shell and claims I am on ignore again, which we all know is another lie. So just to be sure, to those of you not on ignore, please insist on him posting his stats against me. Everyone wants to see them. Until he does, he's a coward and a shill. If he proves me wrong, I will bow to his feet and call him God.

I won't be as nasty as these other people but I think it's obvious that Kahn has zero or nearly zero credibility and has a long history of being an apologist for some completely unacceptable practices from poker sites.

no, we dont. no, he's not

what value does he have here? well here's one: he asked this thread for suggestions to make Merge's new tournaments schedule better. the consensus? bring back Rebuy/Add-Ons and bring back Badugi MTTs. then he brought this threads suggestions to decision makers at Merge.

what happened? they brought back Rebuy/Add-Ons and brought back Badugi MTTs.

anything else from the last month or 2? oh yeah, as a matter of fact he informed people on Players Only that the skin would be leaving Merge, iirc (could be wrong) be4 any official announcement was made. definitely weeks before the switch.

let me explain why your post is so stupid and would be a guaranteed negative for every player who posts in or reads this thread. after Carbon closed their official forum on 2p2 there has been exactly one person who has the ability to take players' problems to Merge management. that person is Kahn. "hey let's kick the one person who could help ppl ITT with a problem at Merge out of the Merge thread b/ herpa derpaderpa herp derp."

seriously, what a great idea. any1 see any downside there?

disclaimer about my bias though obviously: Kahn is not my affiliate and i don't know him.

next time you have a problem on Merge and support is being predictably infuriating run a little experiment. PM SynergisticExplosions and ask for his help. then wait. and wait some more. then after he does nothing b/ he has no capacity to help any Merge player with anything, ask Kahn for help. the sick thing is he would probably still help you.

^^^ What are you talking about people on Players Only that the skin would be leaving Merge. PO is the only skin I have ever been on and still am on as we speak

Yeah, bashing players about things you have no idea about because a few trolls post inaccurate information is definitely being a responsible affiliate. The people you have working for you don't even have the slightest clue wtf is going on w/ online poker and show as much every time they post. The fact that anyone takes you seriously as a professional when you attack players and act like Merge doing what they are doing is ok is beyond me.

And DrawNone, he is not the reason the schedule was changed, as much as he likes to think he was. They talked to multiple affiliates and players before they changed things. He also bashed every single idea that people posted ITT about what changes needed to be made until AFTER they finally changed them.

Cliffs: He was against lowering GTD's, against shorter late reg, against adding things to the schedule, against limiting reentries. He didn't change his stance until it was clear they were changing these things after asking a large group of people what they thought.

And Players Only is still a Merge skin. Before you start spewing jibberish defending him know what you're talking about. You're referring to Poker Host and everyone knew they were leaving in like October when they got cut from the schedule the first time.

Very well said. While Merge may make you scratch your head sometimes (MOST of the time really) it still is the best option for SOME players.

...My confidence in the network has decreased for sure though.

I think he meant Poker Host.

There's some truth to that. It's easy for someone to say something to the effect that they contacted the network and such and such a change is going to be made, and make that statement sound like that person implemented the change when in fact the change was made because of a groundswell of feedback from the many players who wanted that change.

It's also easy to make an email from support sound like insider information. CarbonRyan had a real tough time getting info from the network, I can't believe that an affiliate has anything but an even harder time getting info. He does sometimes get info before the rest of us but I think that he has greatly overblown the extent of the info that he is getting from the network.

Before Jazette bought into the Merge Network, Kahn was super critical of it and lashed out that it was a shady business. The moment it became part of Merge all criticism of Jazette ceased. It's important that folks understand that Kahn is a business person and that his opinions aren't necessarily objective.