That's what I was thinking.. using the points for tourney's instead of the cash bonus. If you do it right you could win mirrions in rakeback .

And.. those wondering about ACR.. I think ACR is the ****! I love their software it reminds me of Tilt and PS. Once they get avatars it's gonna be the nuts IMO. I'd love to see more traffic over there on the PLO cash side though, that's all I really play. I had to deposit on Merge a while back because I noticed there was decent (compared to ACR) PLO traffic around mid-day. Now that I'm here I kinda like Carbon. Sucks that the VIP system went down but like I said in a post above I'm just gonna use the points for NLHE tourney's and hopefully bink one.

Yeap..I'm shilling for every US site but Carbon at the same time lol.

Your wording was confusing. I've no knowledge of this at this time. Perhaps others can chime in as to whether they see VIP or not on SB/PO.

Merge rules state 35% maximum rewards in VIP programs. PH uses a VIP program that has been approved for Merge operators for over 2 years. We have no reason to think that is changing. As you will notice, Carbon and Aced still cap at 35% so the cap rule remains unchanged.

--
Kahn

It's funny you argue you can't be a shill since you have supported two sites while I have done the same. I love Bovada, but I was asking people how exactly they ignore the shortcomings of Bovada and trash Merge for it. It's more of a desire to understand it overall.

You haven't recvied a cashout from 5 days ago? I'm not really worried about that. Sure, the times may be slower, but not by a significant margin. Also, Bovada has had issues with bounced checks in the past, so it's not like every site is clean. it's the US market, take it week by week, or day by day and you will probably have a better idea of what things are like.

You fascination with me is quite odd really. You claim that I make money from Merge... well, i guess Carbon, but my action isn't even on that site. The fact I bring up counter points hardly seems like a reason to say I am a shill. Is everyone who defends Pokerstars a shill? There VIP program is less now than it was 2 years ago. If so, then there are a lot of shills.

If you really want to argue I am a shill. Look at my posts in the NC thread of Microstakes LIMIT, looks at some of my posts in BQ. I have defended Bovada, and probably have even defended ACR (though my vision problems make that site hard to play). So, I challenge you to really build a case against me that isn't just cherry picking quotes from a thread that is dedicated to Merge. I have a lot of posts, and thus, a lot to draw from if you really want to destroy my credibility, but until you do that, I think you should be careful throwing around accusations that are not true.

Further, I challenge you to prove that over 10% of my action is on Merge. Seems like a "shill" would play on the site he is playing for and not publicly say where he does put most of his action. (I have a blog and twitter, it's not that hard to find where I play.)

Learn to harass correctly.

tldr

Let it be known that every attempt on your part to polish this turd will be exposed shill.

"1. Eliminate 50% of the small buy-in/small guarantees from the schedule. They clutter the lobby making it hard to navigate. They have very little incentive to play due to the very small prize pools. Finally, they are spreading an already small player pool thinner than it was before"
"

Use your filter. Real tough problem to solve.

Carbon Poker,

Bring back the triple draw and badgugi tournaments. They were not hurting anybody.


Those looking for the 2 a day freeroll its under tournaments- special. Not hard to find at all.

How am I not surprised that this is the only thing someone would pull from my post. Shocking how more problems aren't solved with this kind of constructive feedback.

You do realize he provided more than 1 point to why he wanted to eliminate 50% of the small buy-ins? Reading comprehension man, it does wonders.

Thanks for your insight shill.

Well I like all the low buy in's and since half your "problem" is they clutter your lobby I focused on that.

Maybe that affiliate kid knows the answer to this. Are there any original Poker.com employees left at Carbon? Or did they all leave now after the sale of the network has been in place for a few years?

Yes he provided 2 points. One the cluttered lobby. Two he feels the player pool gets diluted.

I disagree with both. I have not seen one overlay in any small buy in.

And as far as his later point about small players being able to take a shot on bigger tournaments there are a few $11 buy ins with 15 blinds throughout the day.

I guess for high stakes players it seems the changes were not good. I don't really know but if you are playing $2 $5 and occisional $11 buy in's this new schedule is great. Just need Badggi and triple draw back to switch it up here and there.

MichelleLee is a highly volatile, unstable character that has a blood feud with Merge.

Technically since I listed 3 reasons...wouldn't that make it 33% of my problem?

Do you play every single small buy-in on the schedule? I'm willing to bet that you don't. I didn't say to get rid of all of them. I said half, in order to make room for a few other tournaments that have bigger prize pools.

Anyway this is pointless and beginning to turn the thread in the wrong direction so cheers.

why the excitement over avatars? f that ha

Well since you missed it allow me to point it out:

1. They clutter the lobby making it hard to navigate.

yep you covered this

2. They have very little incentive to play due to the very small prize pools.
This is the point you missed. I mean you made a comment about shot taking but that doesn't really have a ton to do with this current issue. It's the same reason I haven't touched a single merge tournament since Oct 1st and was previous a micro grinder, I have no incentive to grind for a $1 $50 gtd, a $2.20 $100 gtd, a $5.50 $100 gtd tournament, or even a $2.20r $250 gtd that attracts like 30-40 people at most; it's just a glorified MTTSNG. I may have had problems with the old Merge schedule, but at least with that one I could play a micro tournament with more than 50 people, I can't really do that that often in this new schedule. There's the 1r $1k (which sucks with the new rebuy addon schedule and hopefully they realize it sucks because it overlayed last night whereas the last night before they changed everything it had a nearly $1900 prize pool), and a couple of $2r $500 gtds which aren't really micro tournaments anyway.

3. Finally, they are spreading an already small player pool thinner than it was before"

I don't know why you are talking about overlays when he is talking about dilution. What does overlaying have to do with a diluted player pool? The fact remains a bunch of mini GTDs does dilute the player pool because of spreading buy-ins across multiple tournaments, I don't know how you can really dispute this to be honest but I certainly welcome your opinion.

For the record (I'm assuming you play on Carbon at this point, if you're not that might explain your overlay comment) over the last few days there have been PLENTY of overlays in the micro and low stakes tournament. On the first day it was as bad as 50%+ overlays in some of the micro tournaments (mainly rebuy centric), but those have since been cut down gtds or removed. There still however remains overlays even today. I do check up on the schedule whenever I am home to see if Overlays are happening and they are indeed happening every day. May not be as bad as the first day, but they are still happening.

I don't understand why PokerHost doesn't have the bigbuyin/smallGTD tourneys on their schedule... Below I highlighted all the tourneys I would play but are missing from PokerHost:



I heard that they remove the highroller because they get fined by merge when it has an overlay, which I at least understand. But why are all these ones absent?

Having a ton of very low BI's helps create a more stable poker ecosystem. Merge imo is doing a stellar job. They have unfortunately dropped the 50 seats promotion, but the mere fact that they passed their 150k guarantee last week is encouraging. That 40k saved monthly, will no doubt reduce some of the other overlays I have been seeing at the micros and satellites. I had a friend play a satellite with 3x $60 mtt tickets guaranteed.... According to him, the satty had a $132 overlay. Other sites may pay out quicker, or have better RB, but Carbon/Merge is where it is at for true grinders.

Lifecooler, you have 9 posts and it shows. You sound like a total noob who is so gullible and who thinks that the poker site has any desire to do what's best for the players. It goes to show that you should spend some more time reading the thread before actually posting. Reading your post I was reminded of some wide-eyed country boy with a straw hat visiting the big city and naively trusting what all the con-artists and hustlers throw his way. What Merge rep (since there is none) do you expect to come here, read your suggestions, and then, exciting by your brilliance, go running to his bosses to implement your awesome ideas? Try reading the post for several pages so you don't embarrass yourself in the future.

They just had a pop up announcement that nightly guarantees were being increased. I did not see exactly which ones but it looked like a list of about 5 tournaments.

I've been playing there exclusively for at least 2 months now (Bovada). I just found out about the sinking ship that is Merge after reading posts for 1.5 hours and getting a PM. Looks like I left Merge at the perfect time. Anyway, no one is saying that we're not angry at the lack of a VIP or real rakeback program--I am, very much. Everyday I put in a lot of volume and I think to myself how I'm getting screwed over in rakeback. But it's obv they have no intention on ever changing this. I play there because at the end of the day they have the player pool, plenty of SNG's, an awesome MTT schedule, NL and fixed Limit cash games running all the time (except for maybe 4 a.m. to 7 a.m.), and fast cashouts. Though they could add some improvements at least it's a site where a good player can earn some money.

Though I hate to admit it, or even write about it, here is a truth: rakeback is/was a tool that sites used in competition with each other when the U.S. market was thriving pre black-Friday. As such they hardly need to use it anymore. If you're a live pro then you make a living one-tabling with zero rakeback and having to tip the dealer on top of that. Rakeback is not meant to turn slightly losing or break even players into winners, it was for competitive marketing purposes--purposes which no longer exist. Of course, I'll take any bonus or pseudo-rakeback I can, but at the end of the day a winning player can win without it. But yes it sucks b/c we are so used to it.

So you're advocating him sulk and whine like the rest of everyone else in this pathetic topic instead of actually providing constructive feedback? His post was the first decent post in this thread in DAYS yet you're criticizing him for this because "YOU SHOULD NEVER TRY TO INSTITUTE CHANGE BECAUSE THEY WON'T LISTEN TO YOU"? Nice.

Keep doing what you're doing Lifecooler. Maybe nothing will come from it, but maybe something will. The only thing he loses is the 2 minutes he took to write up that post, but he has everything to gain from it. The rest of you should take a note instead of doing nothing productive and proclaiming the sky is falling or the network is trash, provide some actual constructive feedback on the Merge tourney situation or the VIP situation. I'm not at all suggesting to not criticize, just do it constructively. Instead of saying "THESE TOURNAMENTS SUCK BRING BACK THE OLD GTDS", why not put your explanation in a rational post such as Lifecooler's?

It's probably more likely something gets done with the Tournament schedule than the VIP situation, but never hurts to try.

tonight now $11 buy in with 10k guarantee. awesome. thanks for improving Carbon.