I know U.B. used to take forever when they were breaking tables. (Seriously, like 5 minutes). That was with their old software, though, before they went to Cerius. Maybe they were trying to avoid these situations, I don't know.
And you still have not answered the question: What site was this at? I serious doubt this was at Full Tilt. But see the rest of my answer to aloser4evr.
UB was horrible. I haven't played their
freerolls in months, not since the new move (I just play the Cardschat and some Omaha cash games). But the first couple breaks were brutal. Suddenly, you'd get this "waiting for 148 tables to finish". You'd think there was no way 1 hand could take 5 minutes.
To make matters worse, you would never know how long it would take, so people get up have a smoke, make a sandwich. Then when the game starts again, no one is back, so wait, wait, wait...
I don't think there's really any logic in the program when they move you. I jumped from table to table 5 hands never getting to play. The screwed up thing about the jumping around was the 5th jump because I ended up exactly at the same table and seat I started from. Told everyone I thought I entered the Twilight Zone.
That's pretty funny, especially when you wind up at the exact
same seat at the table. But better you don't get a chance to play than to be stuck in the blinds with junk 3x in a row.
Actually, there
is logic in the program, at least at Full Tilt there is. When they pull you from a table, it is
because you are in a seat/position that needs to replaced at another table. And they always err in your favor when it's not the exact same seat (i.e. letting you skip the blinds).
The only times you might get unlucky is when it is your own table that is broken up. Not sure the software still looks to stick every player in the same spot - surely it is hard to do when the field gets much smaller. To clarify, I know they do all this at Full Tilt, and probably at
poker stars. Smaller sites might not care as much to ensure their software is that perfectly fair, but I can't say for sure.