betrayed by Merge

They've done it, turned a great comp points program into crap!!! Now we have one of those VIP systems that drove me from Ultimate Bet. "We listened to you" they brag. Oh sure, we all wrote and said "please please institute a program that rewards those who play a lot and punishes those who have a life or a job. Take away points each month if we go on vacation or have an illness and can't play as much for that month. Eliminate the great free rolls that brought us to you in the beginning." I am disgusted.

i did like the old freeroll comp points system. it was easy to get in the freerolls, and you got to play for some good prize pools. not sure about the new way. have to wait and see how it goes.

as they say: Be careful what you ask for. you just might get it.

Yeah, I got an email from Carbon gushing about the new VIP points system and all the great benefits it will bring. I think someone should point out to them they are launching it on April Fools' Day - this seems to be appropriate.

I have not seen the details of the new program...but they did have one of the best Comp Programs and easy to qualify Freeroll programs in online poker. Not to mention the qualifier Freerolls have extremely manageable entries.

Yet, I keep wondering why the place is so empty. I have seen some complaints. If I had to guess this would be the next one to go bye bye... Something is definitely wrong when some quality software and decent freeby program does not deliver the masses.

i was curious about what you guys say and i logged into my nordica and carbon accounts but i saw no changes,can you tell me where you see things about this vip program that you talk about?

Carbon sent out an email a few days back, outlining some of the changes. There are also posted on their website here - http://www.carbonpoker.com/features/whatsnew.html

You have to scroll down a bit to find the VIP stuff. The changes are due to come in at 00.00 American time on April 1.

I think all the Merge skins are affected, but I play at Nordica and have received no notification from their side so maybe they will bring it in later.

bleh.... so far i am not impressed. There are no more $0.60 and $1.10 SNGs, the min is $2.20 now... On a network that struggles to attract players, that is a pretty boneheaded move... it's like those guys want to fail or something.

I too was one of the people that used to fight back for the Merge Network because I used to like it a lot, but lately on my Walker account there has been all kinds of shady activity going on, including money missing from my account one second, then 2 hours later it is back(this happened like 5 times in a couple days). So I withdrew all but $5 from there because who knows what the hell was going to happen to it. I kept the $5 in there just in case there was something good going on there some day, but everything else was not worth having disappear.

i don't mined the new set up at carbon. i am just grinding the .2/.4nl tables till i can move up to 10nl. going to see if i can get the 2500 points needed to be at the diamond level. at about 160 points right now, and up about $10.

Have three points to bring up with regards to cashing out at Carbon.
1) When checking their website, it specified the minimum withdrawal was $25 - when trying to cash out, they said the minimum was $100.
2) It seems you can deposit very easy with Visa, but you can't withdraw to your Visa .
3) The charges for withdrawals by cheque have been increased from $15 to $25 - have been able to withdraw from other sites with no charges.

When cashing out at Carbon (and possibly other sites as well), be aware of possible problems - find out the requirements even before setting up an account.

I've just withdrawn all but a small amount from the Merge sites, just left a little on Carbon. I use Moneybookers and the min withdrawal is $50. When you ask to withdraw you get an email saying it will take 72 hours (3 days in my calculation) the withdrawals have taken 6 day, when you ask support what the delay is they can't seem to answer. They say it's probably an ID check problem, but my ID has been checked before. When I told them this they said they don't know why there is a delay and that's all you get. I did finally get the payouts, but I won't be depositing on a Merge site again any time soon.

I had actually considered depositing on Carbon, mainly so I could play in some Cardschat tourneys (and a few other priv. ones... not gonna bs ya's).
I'd heard the micro sngs were pretty good, tried one, didn't like it.

Fortunately I cashed in a few freerolls on there and a couple of priv. tourneys and have never had to deposit but still comfortably rolled to play some priv. games there for awhile.

Personally I don't like the site much. What turns me off the most is the terrible blind structure in the MTTs I've played. Midway thru the tourney it seems like the avg. 'M' value is in or near the RedZone but many keep on HighBlindLimping. Just not my kind of game. It reminds me alot of cheap buyin fast tourneys in casinos.

Sorry Granny,... I didn't realize you were a senior! If you seriously would be interested in some of the player notes I have on ya, I'd be happy to send them your way (after editing them a bit of course). I'm my own worst enemy on the tables... lol.

here is another problem with these vip point system it says in its information that u will get points for real cash games and any multi table tourneys u play in but here is the catch i play alot of private tourneys there anywhere from 1-12 dollar tourney games and i dont get any VIP points for any of that has of today 0 points earned

They re did their system because people were cheating the points system.

If you folded at the stud table for two accounts the rake was .005 per player per hand, while gaining 5 points.

you do this enough and it would cost each account $200 to acquire a $2000 bonus due to their points accumulation.

They had to do something, so I guess this was their solution.

Not exactly clear to me what you are saying...but if this was the case, why not just change the stud points or they way you can receive them. There has to be more to it. Not like stud is tearing up the Carbon cash games. They barely have cash games to begin with.