For the record:

Was this a 2+2 decision or a mutual agreement to part ways?

Pretty crazy. I'm sure WPN was one of their highest paying advertisements.. tells you something.

Seems improbable but fair enough. Any way you look at it pressure was applied by 2+2 & it lead to proper action. Also think much of the negative is due to WPN_REP & actions in the WPN forum/lack of response overall. It was brought on themselves but if they can’t understand that I wouldn’t be surprised.

Losing situation for everyone

2+2 loses money

WPN loses a platform

We the players lose a section to find and provide information


Sometimes it is more of a relief to leave it alone then to deal with it just like stars got ride of it


It was starting to be so negative people posting whatever they wanted without moderation

The magazine and Mason's publisher note is up now:

https://www.twoplustwo.com/magazine/issue159/

Thanks for the update. It sucks it has to be this way but there's so many issues with WPN that until they resolve them this seems to be the right course of action. Thanks for listening to us players Mat and Mason.

2+2 showing a lot of support for the players with this move. I think we all really appreciate 2+2 doing what they can to promote the health and integrity of poker through these types of actions. Thanks for addressing this in as expeditious and equitable manner as possible

They couldn't even be bothered to respond to the 2+2 brass? Yeah, I'd say the right decision was made!

Thank you 2+2 for taking a stand and doing the right thing! It people like yourselves that give the rest of us hope that we all can play in a fair environment. The fact that nobody from WPN would even respond to you tells me two things, that the problem is worse than we can imagine and that Phil Nagy has no respect for the customers of his network. Thanks again 2+2 and everyone that tried to help fix things!

Right?

They tripled down.

I remember one instance during the spring or summer where someone was criticizing WPN and Winning_TD basically said 2+2 is such a small % of their user base they don't care what 2+2 users think. I doubt he pulled that out of thin air.

If they aren't losing $$$, then none of it matters. Recs, degens, and winning players aren't going anymore. They have almost zero competition in blacked out markets.

I don't like how the situation has been handled at all, but guess who's going to be grinding happy hour for Sit & Crush in 10 mins? This guy.

Wow. Amazing decisions, massive respect.
Thank you.

Yea, the true problem was lack of moderation on the forum, not massive cheating on the site.

2+2 got me to click on the magazine for the first time in like 4 years, wpwp. Forgot it existed tbh.

It's inexplicable.

As Mason says in his publisher's note, WPN has at least made changes to late registration to improve game integrity. Other players are reporting having to complete Captcha-style bot detectors recently. And apparently users have been banned recently.

So it's completely baffling that WPN hasn't communicated directly to 2 + 2 and/or Joey that they take these allegations seriously, that they have already taken some steps to improve game integrity, and that they plan to continue to improve their efforts to prevent cheating.

Why won't they even point out the steps they have already taken?
Why aren't they glad to repeatedly communicate to respected members of the poker community that they take these issues seriously?

WPN's rep has made comments in their sponsored sub-forum that they will be seeking outside help with these issues, and that they plan to allow users to issue Captcha-style challenges.

When those statements, buried in threads in their sub-forums, didn't immediately end all questions and concerns, WPN seemingly decided that they had done all that they could - or should - to communicate with their customers via poker media regarding these issues. People said mean things about them, so they are holding their breath until they turn blue? It just makes no sense.

I was thinking this same thing. Surely the same person (Phil Nagy?) who ordered the development team to implement these changes should be telling Customer Service/Marketing/etc. to put the word out (either to the public or at least 2p2 management) that WPN is taking player concerns seriously and has already addressed some of them. I am no PR expert, but I don't see any benefit for them to keep silent.

It's like they've got two completely opposite strategies in place at once: publicly admit there are problems on the site and implement some fixes, but don't advertise that they implemented the fixes, stop most communication with players, and ignore emails from 2p2 management.

Given how this has all played out, I'm happy to see that the subforum has been closed in the meantime, even though it goes against 2p2's financial interest.

what an abortion. DONT WORRY GUYS 2P2 IS ON THE CASE. shut down their subforum that will solved everything smh. I hope you whiny ****s are happy.

There's no need to start blaming 2+2 and the forum members for asking WPN to put a little effort into game integrity. As soon as WPN management start acting professional and treating the poker community with respect I'm sure they will have the opportunity to get their forum back. 2+2 management did what was right even though it wasn't in their financial interests. I, and am sure everybody else, hope that WPN gets their act together so that they can have a fair environment to play poker and a forum to discuss it once again.

LOL WPN has been ducking cheating allegations for years. They only have themselves to blame for negligence.

Could you provide some evidence of this?

The suspect accounts I provided evidence of at unL have actually moved up in stakes, and I haven't seen anyone mention any recent bans.

https://gyazo.com/aa0b7461378afed6379b6e319966326f

those are the crash and stall colluders, have not played a game since the table seating script was amended. I believe they were banned.

Two players that are part of our group were both suspended mid tourney in the last week for different reasons. Both players were frozen for something they had done many times in the past. It was nothing devious, but it could have represented their turning their games over to another player. They had to contact WPN and and answer some questions/provide proof before their player accounts were re-activated. Several other players were frozen mid tourney and I know of one that had his account frozen for several days. A verified US player and by no means anyone that is a big time rake or super savvy player. None of those people have ever had an issue in the past. I would not give those players names up, but at least one of them is a forum member here.

I would think that if WPN is policing, or attempting to do it, then it would be best if they did not announce it as to warn the guilty parties in advance.

Oh what simple thoughts simple minds have. Do you not understand that the majority of rake generated is by the minority of players on the site? So once the high volume players get wind of the reasoning for shutting the forum down WPN will either have to improve things or lose a ton of revenue.

Let's not forget WPNs policy of trying to sweep the issues under the rug goes back to the DoN collusion problems years ago. To this day they haven't admitted there was a problem. When companies take such actions they are playing the customers for fools. Good riddance I say!

to me all of what they do means nothing unless the situation goes full circle

identify the tos breach, fix the tos service breach, update the tos to REFUND players who were cheated by others breaking the TOS

all this stuff is nifty action to me means REFUNDS to players who played fairly w/i TOS

Thanks Mason for getting involved and trying to get some action from WPN

So given the lack of action from WPN, I guess it's finally time to withdraw all my moniez.

Very weird that they went to the effort of changing some things but didn't mention it on their forum and reply back to 2+2 email.

Why didn't they just post in their forum and say, hey guys we introduced captcha, we have also done this and that, and we are also sorting the other stuff, this would have made them look really good, but to just the bring to attention the good work they have done and not even mention it on their forum, and not reply back to 2+2 seems very weird doesn't make sense.