…and as much as I love you PokerStars, but Flushdance is not selling today. I do agree – poker IS a skill game, but that’s a different story.
Oh, and to all the rest of you linkfarmers out there, trying to buy your way into this blog: Thanks but no thanks to you also.
/j.
PS: I’m thinking that this is not really a Pokerstars thing, but some Search Engine “Experts” who’ve come up with the idea on behalf of Pokerstars.
Good nite.
PokerStars, Full Tilt, and Cake all specifically announced they would match all player donations made on their sites. According to the Poker Players Alliance, more than 50,000 players donated to the cause, raising over $760,000. With the sites’ matching donations, that means more than $1.5 million will be given to Haiti relief efforts from the poker community.
CardPlayer.com: Poker Players Donate $1,5 Million to Haiti Relief Efforts
The actual figure has to be much bigger, though. Compare it to this quote from Pokerstars:
The official relief effort ended 12 hours ago. When all was said and done, PokerStars players had donated $746,390.26, a figure that PokerStars will match for a total donation of $1,492,780.52 to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Pokerstars.com: PokerStars Haiti appeal tops out near $1.5 million
This is just a quick email to inform you that you have been credited $1.58 from the player ‘MI_Turtle’. He kindly offered to share $1000 amongst all the players that outlasted him in the WBCOOP Main Event. His final finishing position of 635th place meant the $1000 was divided between the top 634 players.
If you have any questions regarding this unusual prize, please let us know.
MI_Turtle, if you’re out there: Thanks for busting out so early, so I’d get a chance to share the wealth!
/j.
All righty! This is it – the big finale, the grand poobah, king of the hill, top of the heap. Yeah, whatever – all I’m lookin for tonight is to NOT bust out early, and – if possible, not embarrass myself with TPTK vs turned straight etc.
Feel free to join me as the event unfolds. I’ll try and keep scores, but I can’t guarantee their accuracy.
Your account has been credited with a ticket which is good for entry into any and all of the tournaments beginning on January 25th. To check that your account has been credited with the ticket, click ‘Requests’ > ‘Tournament Tickets’ in the PokerStars lobby. The ticket is named ‘WBCOOP 2010’.
If there ever was a time for the poker community to truly show its passion for charity, these next few days would be the perfect opportunity.
ESPN Blog: Tournaments created to help victims in Haiti
The other day I was hit by an outage of sorts. When I was finally returned to the game, there were no action buttons on my game screen, so all I could do was to watch myself get blinded out. Actually a button did appear just in time for me to go all-in for 1½ BB.
I mailed PokerStars support to let them know something weird had happened, and they promptly replied that they were investigating. Then I was told, that if I believed my game play had been affected, I was welcome to let them know. So I did, and today I got a reply. You can just read the highlighted parts if you’re on a time budget:
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Thank you for your patience whilst we have been reviewing your refund request.
We have looked into your playing history for the tournament in question and found that your game play was affected during this tournament.
Please understand that we did not suffer any server-side problems or disconnection during this tournament. The problems were caused by a fault with a major Internet provider on the route to our servers, by no control of us or you.
Part of the inherent risk of playing poker on the Internet is the possibility that Internet connections may fail for any number of reasons. From a practical business standpoint, it is impossible for us to be responsible for the Internet connections of our players.
Please note Rule 18 of the tournament rules located at:
http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/tournaments/rules/
“18. By participating in a tournament, a player accepts the risk of Internet disconnection, due to problems with the connection between their computer and the servers, lag or freeze or some other problem in the player’s computer or the Internet.
* a. PokerStars does not accept any responsibility for a player disconnect except in the case of a server crash”.
However, we realize the frustration players endure when these things happen, and we are happy to offer goodwill refunds under circumstances such as these. I have therefore credited your account with the buy-in for this event.
As your original buy-in was awarded in the prize pool and was not taken back from the winner, you may consider this a gift from your friends at PokerStars.
We strive to handle negative circumstances in positive ways, and hope that you will continue to be a valued customer and player here at PokerStars.
Regards,
PokerStars Support Team
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PokerStars, if you’re reading this, I just want to say that you beat the field by several miles! And if you decide to send me a cap and a sweat shirt hoodie (Medium size, black), I’ll be more than happy to sport your colors, anytime!
/j.
In a rare instance of brain fart, PokerStars fubar’d their new rematch system good:
Sayeth F Train in this post:
The rematch feature was quickly removed and accounts were suspended while Stars tried to figure out how to rectify the situation.
Hello ___,
Thank you for contacting us!
One of the ideas behind images at PokerStars is that they will help identify you to other players at the table (similar to User ID). If we allow for constant changes, it will take away from this idea.
We understand that when a player first selects their image, they might not give it much thought. This is why we allow one change. However, in this case we can make an exception. We have updated your account privileges so you may change your image one more time.
To change your Image select “Account” > “Select/Change Image” at the top of the main lobby.
Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.
Regards,
Why thank you, Pokerstars! I’ve come to the conclusion that you rock! Not because you let me change the image, but because you care about my issue.
/j.
Index: 1.522
I felt it was time to make a change today, so I thought why not change my player image on my Pokerstars account.
And here’s what I wanted to change it to:
Yes it looks odd, which is what I want, giving people something to brood over until I recover from my downswing learn how to play poker again.
However, instead of “Your image has been changed and you are now destined for a huge win”, I got this one:
Which frankly pissed me off and promted me to write a letter to Pokerstars:
“Hello,
I wanted to change my image today, but was refused because I already changed it once – like a year ago or something, I cant really remember anymore.
I had no idea there was a limit, and it doesn’t seem to be documented anywhere. Which makes the rule a little unfair to be honest.
I don’t see a problem with players being able to change their images whenever they feel like it. Their screen name are still the same, and if it really is an issue, I urge you to make it clear upfront that there’s a one change limit.
Apart from that, have a happy new year!
/j.
PS: Some weeks ago I got my switch flipped to “Lose”. Could you please flip it back, I need the money? Thank you in advance.”
Honestly, I don’t see the point. If I want to change the image to a poodle or Marcel Marceau or whatever, I should be allowed to do so. Doesn’t change my player name or anything. Just don’t see the problem here…
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In other news: I nearly glued three fingers on my left hand together today. I was handling some of that super quick drying super strong cyanide based superglue, when I must have squeezed the tiny tube too hard. Suddenly I felt stickyness down my fingers.
One of the problems with this type of glue is that it’s nearly invisible, especially since you only use tiny drops, and it took me a few seconds to find out how much had actually slipped out of the tube. It was not until my fingers didn’t come apart that I got an overview, and by that time it was almost too late.
Gluing your fingers together is impractical for a number of reasons. For the time, mainly because I can’t wear gloves and I need to do so theses days. Secondly, I would have to go to the ER to have them unglued, which not only would take a long time but also be embarassing all the while.
Anyway, it didn’t happen, but now my fingertips are full of hardend glue. I peel off small bits now and then, but some of them actually come with small pieces of of skin attached…
/j.
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