It's pretty simple to understand. If you are a winning player you will be banned, unless you are part of the inner circle that controls Merge poker policies. Merge allows inner circle winning players to fleece the large pools of remaining lesser skilled poker players. In essence, this site still offers fair games to everyone remaining, however they have hand picked the remaining skilled players that will continue to be long term winners on Merge.

It's a clever ploy if not noticed, and since 99.9% of poker players don't read this thread, it works to perfection. So basically, if you are a new and lesser skilled player just now joining up to Merge to play cash games, you will be welcome. If however you move up in stakes and exhibit even just one months worth of profits there is a very good chance you will be banned or restricted to one table, sometimes one table of a game you don't play. That is their way of not entirely banning a person. They say you can't play holdem any longer but feel free to play any of our other great poker games and casino games.

That's the scam they are pulling these days. Affiliates love everything about the new Merge, that should be a warning in it's own right. Ask any affiliate how much their profit margins per player have gone up since the new management implemented these changes. Also ask them if they themselves have been table restricted or banned for winning. None of them have from what I can tell, and that is probably why they pretend it isn't happening in large numbers, not that there were that many winning players on the small network to ban. So yes, it's true when they say most players aren't banned, but when you ban every non inner circle winning player it is nothing short of a SCAM.

Truth

That's not exactly news though.

I would take this post with a grain of salt.. LOL

Any normal winner is going to be just fine playing on the network.I'd recommend just signing up on Carbon Poker off the bat, there seem to be much less instances of table restrictions on that skin. (some skins auto table-cap you, winning player or not)

It was to the person who just asked. Wouldn't be surprised if over 95 percent of the player pool as no idea.

Are the players getting table number restrictions all cash game players? And once they restrict you, is it both tourneys and cash that the restriction applies to? I only play tourneys on carbon, am winning, have withdrawn few times, and have no restrictions. I was thinking of giving the cash games a try but im scared if winning there would restrict me from mtt's.

I am strictly a MTT player, I am capped at 4 tables for cash/SnGs/MTTs.

disconnect devastation going on right now.

and the carbon thread blows up in 3, 2, 1

just got disconnected getting raised with top set, definitely not my internet either...

about 3 days worth of grinding equity wiped out!

i need to find another profession.

what the **** just happened?

haha, AA otb for me

assuming the nightly $5 and 10$ were cancelled ?

They probably look and see which guys start tables and keeps games running and then decide which regs to ban or table cap. Table cap and ban the leaches , seems good to me.

Thanks for replying John, if I still had my hh's from stars circa 2009 id have so many hands on you! Pretty crazy that theyd restrict you just for being good mtt's but 4 isnt too bad, you can still play the best ones and skip the timbeys. I guess i wont push my luck and stay away from cash games tho.
Damn no high roller tonight?

Yeah, except not. I always started tables and had an active account on the site for five years. It would be a better reason though.

Just too many signs for me to give up on poker post BF. Carbon been freezing off and on since last break while ACR is fine and dandy...and unable to log back in due to "connection failure" when I have ACR+baseball game going...zzzzzzzzzzzzz. My EV is already shattered by the structures, let's just compound it.

Same here, can't reconnect.

Haha even the website is down. Awesome....already planning on no refunds for anything. Time to just give up on them all...they all have major, major issues. Enjoy the fishies, guys...if you ever get to play.

Played till 10:22 est Comcast- Northeast. No issues. Except running QQ into AA and blowing a chance for a seat in the Sunday Big Boy. Damn ego still a leak.

Where shall they go? If American the only site I know of that will allow large sums of cash to be withdrawn in a timely manner is Bovada but they cap at 4 tables. Hard times for American regs these days. Fwiw I was capped at 2 tables after a 20k hand decent run at 50nl and have since left but no good options seem to be available, I can't imagine trying to grind it out as a pro in the current environment.

Anyone ever make a first deposit and then have their accounts locked up? Seemed strange, and have emailed their support. Just wondering if anyone ever had this issue. Literally never even played a single hand on the site.

Sounds like you tripped a security flag. What did live chat have to tell you when you asked them about your account being locked?

--
Kahn

I was unable to even access live chat because of my account being locked. Had to email support a few hours ago, no response yet.

Here is how my sign-up and first deposit process has gone thus far:
Sunday: successfully deposit $100 via credit card (but didn't play at all Sunday/Monday)
Tuesday: receive an email saying that because I hadn't played in 48 hours (since my deposit) that my deposit was being refunded automatically.
Tuesday Night: entirely unable to deposit with the same credit card (and similar cards)
Wednesday Morning: successfully deposited via Western Union Online(but went to bed right after as was gonna play when I woke up)
Wednesday Night: go to log on and play and my account is frozen/disabled


Trying not to get frustrated but sheeeesh. Are they so used to degens that deposit and insta-play that it's super out of the ordinary if I deposit but don't play for a few hours/days? Like I said before, I have yet to play a single hand on the site.

But hopefully support gets back to me soon and it all gets resolved.

This thread is ridiculous. How does carbon get away with banning "winning" players? What is their reasoning when you speak to support?