The uproar over online poker site PartyPoker’s decision earlier this week to limit the maximum amount a person can have in their play money account continues to dominate discussion in the online poker community.
Earlier this week, PartyPoker took the step to cap earnings in the play money games to a maximum of 250,000 chips. When players woke up on Tuesday morning, many people who had built up millions of these chips through years of play found that their accounts had been reset. An earlier story on Poker News Daily this week stated that the PartyPoker wanted to “stop the transferring of chips from account-to-account outside of regular hands of poker,” according to the site’s blog. In the same posting, PartyPoker was adamant about its decision, saying, “We will not reverse our decision.”
Seemingly behind the decision was the selling of play money chips outside of the playing arena on PartyPoker. As detailed in the story on Poker News Daily, some sites offered one billion chips for $400. This, in PartyPoker’s mind, made for inequities in the play money games.
In an e-mail that Poker News Daily obtained from a PartyPoker player, the site went into greater detail about its decision. “For the benefit of the vast majority of our play money players, we have taken the decision to restrict the maximum number of play chips any single player may earn to (250,000 chips) because a very small minority of poker players have been disrupting games by betting large amounts on any kind of hand,” the e-mail stated. “They may think it’s fun but it’s certainly not for other players who understand fair play and enjoy the fun and excitement of playing poker games for free.”
The e-mail continues with a statement that PartyPoker is looking to keep the games fair for all who participate on the play money tables: “We do not tolerate unfair play in any form, whether on our play money or our real money sites. This is for your benefit. This restriction does not affect Real Money accounts as their play money balance remains unchanged from one login to the next.”
The discussion of the move by PartyPoker has resulted in one of the most commented on stories in the history of Poker News Daily. Players related their experiences of how they had built up millions of chips, only to see them disappear in the move by PartyPoker. Several readers have angrily declared that they will no longer be PartyPoker customers.
Poker News Daily reader Troy stated in his comment, “It’s a shame, I really enjoyed the site. 30 Mil gone. So am I. Fortunately there are other sites. I will check back a few times over the next month to see if they re-think their policy otherwise I will never play there again.” Victoria, another Poker News Daily reader, wrote, “I cannot believe PP had done this without warning, it was a fun site. Now I am broke…(It) took me two years to build up my account. I was a loyal player here, not anymore. What a shame.”
Others involved in the Poker News Daily discussion stated that there could be legal action in the works. Reader Sweet Tee opened up this line of action in saying, “It’s a shame. We had to go to the U. S. Attorney General’s office and they recommended a law firm to file a class action suit again PartyPoker since (they) won’t listen. We will shut them down.” An e-mail sent to Sweet Tee was not returned.
According to Poker News Daily reader Frank Bruehl, the decision to strip play chip accounts down to 250,000 hasn’t affected those that have real money accounts on PartyPoker: “Why the real money accounts still got their play chips? (They) are able to build up more without getting reset to 250k?” A majority of the comments seemed to take PartyPoker to task for seemingly discriminating against U.S. players, who cannot play in the cash game tables on the site. Others detailed their enjoyment of the play money games for their camaraderie and physical inability to enter a live casino.
Poker News Daily has contacted PartyPoker regarding their policy change and were told by a spokesperson, “We have not had any real money players in the U. S. since October 2006, when the law changed. All play money players accounts have been capped. The reasons for the move were clearly stated and explained.” PartyPoker has also stated that this policy will not be reversed despite the backlash.
hi partypoker i had 30 millions play chips then when i log in i had 250k then i play with 250k then won 743k but when log out and log back in reset my account to 250k again why???please think give us all people play chips back and ban 3rd party website IM BEGGING U TO RE-THINK
“It’s a shame. We had to go to the U. S. Attorney General’s office and they recommended a law firm to file a class action suit again PartyPoker since (they) won’t listen. We will shut them down.” Total BS. The AG would never “recommend a law firm…” What complete nonsense.
its a shame for thoes of us that DID NOT buy chips we built our chips from 10.000 to millions and in a blink of an eye gone load of bs
I THINK ITS ABSOLUTELY APPALLING THAT PARTY POKER HAS DONE THIS TO ALL THESE PEOPLE WHO DO THE RIGHT THING I LOST 225 MILL BUILT UP OVER 10 YEARS AND NOW ALL GONE I HAVE BEEN AWAY FROM THIS SITE WELL OVER 8 MONTHS AND NOT BEEN BACK TO PLAY 1 CHIP AND I WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO PARTY POKER SHOULD BE CLOSED DOWN PERMANATLY AND IN MY OPINION UR NOTHING BUT A PACK OF ASSSHOLES U MAKE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS FROM THE REAL MONEY PLAYERS AND MANAGE NOT TAKE THEIRS BUT THE U TAKE THE PLAY MONEY CHIPS ITS DISGUSTING
Who cares lmao its play money. ohhh nooo im gonna lose my non-existent chips. who caresssssss
It shows how little they are thinking considering that if you do not log out you keep your play chips so just sit in a empty table deal yourself out minimize both partypoker windows and you will keep all your chips. the other way to do it is as I have someone who lives in the US I just had a uk buddy of mine upgread me to a “cash acct” with like 3 punds in it or so.
In the end its just going to slap them in the face with more and more ppl not loging off it will start to slow up there severs
Bunch of twits playing with phoney $$; get a pair and play with real money.
this morning before you turned the game off i had 50000 chips plus i have just got back into game to find i only have 12000 left why. it appears this is going like zynga chips getting stolen i had no problems untill you shut the game down on us get a grip if you cant get it sorted then scub my name ect and get your emblems ect off my wall.
i have played on party poker for about 2 yearsnow and im very upset , i have lost over 1000000000 in chips since ive been back inthe last couple of months if it keeps happening imnever coming back to thier sight 02/13/11