After being hammered over several of the most popular poker forums in the industry, Lock Poker has taken the unique step of opening up its own poker forum and will no longer be discussing issues that plague the beleaguered room in a public format.
The new forum has some caveats that will keep ‘lurkers’ from being able to see what is being discussed. The forum for Lock Poker is only accessible through a Lock Poker player’s account and the player must have $100 raked in a lifetime to be eligible to use the outlet. Effective early this week, Lock Poker personnel will take to these special forums to keep their customers up to date on the latest news from the site and will no longer have a presence on such poker forums as Two Plus Two or PocketFives.
Lock Poker informed the poker industry of this move through Pokerfuse.com’s Nick Jones. “It became clear to us that a public forum was an ineffective way for us to communicate with our players,” Lock Poker representative Shane Bridges informed Jones. “By creating this private forum, we can communicate in a more direct and efficient way to handle true players.”
Probably the most interesting thing about the new Lock Poker forum is the massive secrecy that they are attempting to put around it. Beyond only allowing Lock Poker players to access it, non-customers and search engines will not be able to tap into the discussions that are going on with the site. Bridges attempts to deflect any controversy that this may create in telling Jones, “We just want (the people on the forum) to be real Lock Poker players.”
Controversy is something that Lock Poker and its network, the Revolution Gaming Network, have been neck deep in for the past year-plus. After Lock Poker left the Merge Gaming Network last May, it purchased Cake Poker and its affiliates and rebranded the new organization as Revolution. Problems almost immediately began for the new company with issues of affiliate payments after some players issued “chargeback” (rejecting a credit card purchase) and Revolution took more than the chargeback monies from the particular affiliates in question. In addition to that, Lock Poker and Revolution failed to come up with the rakeback money for a player promotion after “Black Friday” that was started to draw U. S. players in.
Last summer, the first issues as to cash out problems with Lock Poker and the Revolution Gaming Network began to rear their head. Delays in cash outs being sent in a timely manner, poor customer service and little contact from those in charge of the company only increased the vitriol that began to flow from online poker players who took part of Lock’s offerings. The delays in cash outs, which used to come in a matter of hours, sometimes would take months before a player would receive them.
Earlier this year, the resulting fallout from the multiple issues that befell Lock Poker and Revolution began to take a toll on their powerful roster of sponsored pros. Popular online player and noted live poker pro Chris Moorman and one of the players vying for the 2013 Player of the Year award, Paul Volpe, both announced they were departing the site as sponsored players. On his Twitter feed in announcing his departure, Moorman commented, “I sincerely hope Lock is able to overcome its current problems and, for the sake of online poker, (that) their situation is resolved.” Volpe also took to Twitter to comment on his decision to leave, saying “I hope….they can resolve all the issues they are having.”
Those that have remained with Lock Poker, including Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, Annette Obrestad, Melanie Weisner and Matt Stout, have pleaded with players to give the company time to rectify the issues facing Lock, but have been blasted for their association with the site.
Unfortunately, the “members only” forum prevents the poker community from truly learning what is going on with Lock Poker and the Revolution Gaming Network. Only through discussion in the poker community (which has been shut down by Lock) can issues be discussed and solved in the open, rather than the method chosen by Lock and Revolution.
Lock is a joke, been waiting 4 months now fow cash out
Been waiting since 4-23 to be paid, lock is a joke.
Forums would not be bashing them if they paid their players. They should be sued and shutdown
Sounds like the “Grinder” is a bigger POS then his buddy “Chino”
Strictly controlled. I was informed there would be no cash out discussion on their forums.