Poker News

Online site PartyPoker made some changes to its play money policies during the past week. The site, which has been in the news with  the signing of professional players Kara Scott and Tony G and its purchase of the World Poker Tour, is now putting a clamp down on the dishonest actions taking place at its play money tables.

PartyPoker posted a blog on its site Tuesday briefly explaining the software upgrade and change in play money policies: “We recently implemented a new policy that restricts play money accounts to a maximum number of chips. This decision has the vast majority of our play money players in mind, and is intended to stop the transferring of chips from account-to-account outside of regular hands of poker… Although this may have affected some play money players in the short term, the decision was made in the interest of our play money games and the fair play benefits it will bring. We will not reverse our decision.”

Players who create an account on PartyPoker are first credited with 1,000 play chips. Should they lose those chips, they can replenish their account with 1,000 more chips two more times within a 24-hour period. Under the previous guidelines, players could build their accounts to millions – and even billions – of play chips.

Player-to-player play money chip transfers were never allowed on the site, but players found a way around that rule by sitting down at a table and chip dumping to one another. The practice of purchasing play money chips on sites like ChipEmpire also became common. Players could buy up to one billion chips for $400 on Chip Empire. This resulted in millions upon millions of play chips spreading across the site illegitimately and PartyPoker wanted to put a stop to it.

The new maximum players can have in their account is 250,000 play chips and the change has resulted in backlash from the dedicated play money players on the site. “Party Poker has, without notifying any of the players, arbitrarily taken away everyone’s play chip bank. All we have been allowed to have is 250,000,” said Brigitte Hole, a longtime PartyPoker play money player. “I had almost 82 million in my account; my husband had just over 100 million. All of our chips were not illegally obtained or even purchased, but won over a long time. We took great pride in building up our accounts to this point.

Hole continued, “Now in one fell swoop, in Party Poker’s efforts to get rid of the people who cheat with their chips (get them illegally, etc.), my account is at 250,000. Without warning, I have been ‘bankrupted’ and made to feel like the bad guy. This is not fair, this is terrible PR. And they will not give my chips back.”

Beth Harrington, another regular play money player on PartyPoker, has been less than pleased with the site’s unwillingness to listen to its loyal players regarding the rule change. She told Poker News Daily, “People who have built their bankrolls up over the years have had their accounts reset to 250,000 and even now if you win when you leave the table, you will be reset. We have been e-mailing and calling PartyPoker, but to no avail. They say they can do what they want.”

While the new changes appear to be final, as a gesture of goodwill to its play money players, PartyPoker is going to run a special $1,000 freeroll plus the chance to win an all-expenses paid trip for two to watch this month’s PartyPoker Premier League in Las Vegas. The site will have more details on the freeroll soon.

105 Comments

  1. TheFamousXPapaSmurf says:

    1st of all Bychin dont help people.What needs to be done is PartyPoker to sever ties with the USA and let us play poker again.I would bet 10.000 + would sign up within a couple weeks if not faster.I play Real Money on 4 other sights which ill name if my friends that read this hit me up on hoo lol.

    2nd thing is the 250,000 reset Even they know thats not a fair decision.a 20million cap like most sites would be fair.

    3rd Wanna stop the sellers then get rid of chat on playmoney accounts

    Heres the E-Mail i got from them and it is discrimination againt play money players.

    Dear Player,

    Thank you for sharing your inputs in regards to the 250,000 chip
    restriction. 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 this amount because a very
    small minority of poker players have been disrupting games by betting
    large amounts on any kind of hand. 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.

    We apologise for any inconvenience caused by the capping of play money
    chips but we hope you understand that our sole aim is to ensure that you
    experience better standards of fair play on the tables.

    We also apologise to the players of free money casino games who have
    seen a reduction in the amount of their free money chips – we had to
    impose the cap across the board. The cap on play money chips makes no
    difference to the type or number of games that our customers can play.

    We hope you understand why we have taken this decision – we do not
    tolerate unfair play in any form 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.

    We hope you appreciate our efforts to keep a healthy gaming environment
    on our play money games and guarantee an enjoyable experience for our
    players.

    Best Regards,

    Customer Service
    Have Fun and Gamble Responsibly

    Thanks for your time;
    X_PapaSmurf

    To all my friends on PP love you guys…..

  2. upset in usa says:

    u have taken away so much from so many people from disabled and ill … they play and meet people from all over.. we could play for a hour or two and forget our handicaps you took that away from them and me…party poker used to be a top site not any more.. please rethink your new rules any give us back our play chips thank you

  3. What A Joke says:

    What they did was wrong!! Their purpose for the limit on chips is pointless when chip selling and transferring chips still exist. Real money players have no limit on the chips that they win on play money tables……how is that fair????? What is the point in playing on your site if you dont get to keep what you win????? I uninstalled Party Poker and am now playing at PKR.com, along with many others! I hope to see a class action lawsuit soon!!

  4. ANDYPIE111 says:

    To all my true friends on party poker i had fun i will never forget u lot are the best

  5. AL LEFFEW says:

    I HAD NEAR 230 MILLION PLAY MONEY CHIPS AFTER PLAYING AT PARTYPOKER FORA FEW YEARS.WHAT THEY HAVE DONE IS A SHAME AND A DISGRACE.IF YOU HAVE A REAL MONEY ACCOUNT WITH THEM,TAKE SOME GOOD ADVICE AND TAKE YOUR MONEY AND LEAVE.IF THEY WILL BE DISHONEST WITH PLAY MONEY THEY WILL DO THE SAME WITH REAL MONEY.THEY DESERVE TO LOSE ALL OF THEIR LOYAL CUSTOMERS AFTER STEALING ALL OF THE MILLION AND BILLLIONS OF PLAY MONEY CHIPS FROM LOYAL PLAYERS.GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN BECAUSE PARTYPOKER IS GOING DOWN.

  6. Tank says:

    I would contact their online gaming regulators..ecogra.org and gra.gi….im sure pp was part owner of the first couple of chip sellers on their site. and for all the people that never got paid from pp for hitting the jackpots

  7. litseanee says:

    where is my 94 mil??????????

  8. Mia says:

    What a disgrace this is taking everybodys chips.They could have been decent about it and advised people what was going to happen first.We are now suffering the consequences of chip sellers on pp.It would have been alot cheaper for them to go after these idiots, rather then losing all their Loyal players. You cannot hold everyone responsible for these chip sellers..Be fair about it pp Shut down the right people not innocent fans that regulary played on your site

  9. WIZARD says:

    I PLAYED 5 YEARS BUILT UP 342 MIL AND PP WIPED IT OUT ..IF YOU WIN THEY TAKE ANYTHING OVER 250 K
    1 BAD DAY YOU LOSE YOU LOSE IT ALL …WELL WHAT FUN IS THAT WIN 3 WEEKS 1 BAD DAY YOUR A CLICKER ..PP YOUR SRY TO DO WHAT YOU DID..I WOULD ASK YOU WHAT R U THINKING..BUT OBVIOUSLY YOUR NOT THINKING..

  10. Lola says:

    Party Poker’s actions are discriminatory in nature, no 2 ways about it. And, the fact of the matter is there are people out there that do purchase chips. The advertisers that Party Poker let come onto their tables day in and day out made money. I, for one, do not believe for one minute that Party Poker did not profit in some way from those sales. The people who purchase chips, lost something of value. It was taken from them without their consent, without notice. In this day and age, where the economy is sluggish … why would the idiot running this business take such action? The USA patrons are not supposed to be able to be Real Money players … although they can get around it. They sure don’t monitor the creeps on the site … the stalkers, the thieves … no wait … they are among the thieves now. I personally lost about 700 million. Fake chips … yes … but they were my fake chips that I played with, shared with friends in need. If I wanted to blow them I could … they were MINE TO LOSE….I won them. I have played at other sites, and they are not as much fun … but, I guess if they are HONEST, I’ll get used to them. Party Poker can go straight to hell because they don’t deserve to thrive. Cater to real money???? Go ahead. Real money players shouldn’t trust Party Poker either … if they will steal FAKE chips, what’s to stop them from taking the real stuff … maybe they were just practicing on us.

  11. JT says:

    The recent downgrade at Party Poker defeats the purpose of free online poker practice as it does NOT follow the rules of Hoyle for Texas Holdem No Limit Poker. Tournament play is the only time limits are set for this poker game. Regular play for No Limit Texas Holdem does not have limits, thus the name of the game. Sit at any live poker table, and you are allowed to play with unlimited amounts, you can even reach into your pocket and put more on the table. They will hold your seat while you run to the ATM. Party Poker is unofficially trying to change the rules of Hoyle. Those that sell fake chips for profit should be addressed in another manner, rather than punish the many for the few.

  12. ROCKMELONS says:

    HOW DISAPPOINTING TO SEE PEOPLE SIGNING UP TO REAL ACCOUNTS JUST TO PLAY PUMPS AN JESTERS SHAME AS YOU ARE FALLING ITNO THE TRAP PAYING TO PLAY WHAT YOU HAD FOR FREE WITH FOOLS LIKE THAT PP WILL NEVER CHANGE AN GIVE IT TIME YOU REAL MONEY PEOPLE WILL FIND IT HARDER TO GET GAMES AS PP IS PUTTING DUMMIES AT TABLES N HAVING LESS TABLES OPEN WHEN THEY DO SAME AS THEY DID TO PLAY ACCOUNTS AN YOU LOSE YOUR REAL MONEY ALL ILL SAY IS HA HA FOOLS FOR SIGNING UP WAKE UP FOOLS YA DONT PAY FOR SOMETHING YOU HAD FREE JUST WHEN YOU GET ROBBED OF YOUR REAL DOLLARS DONT COMPLAIN AS YOU SEEN IT COMING WAKE UP AN SMELL THE ROSES

  13. WIZZLECRUM says:

    INSTEAD OF SIGNING UP FOR REAL MONEY I HAVE BOUGHT SHARES IN PP AS THEY ARE GOING DUE TO ALL THE FOOLS SIGNING UP FOR REAL MONEY SO COME ON I NEED MORE FOOLS TO SIGN YOU KNOW YOUR OUT SO SIGN SIGN SO MY SHARES RISE KEEP UP THE SIGNING YOU FOOLS

  14. Binky says:

    I am totally disgusted that I still see people pumping and transferring within Party Poker. Please stop them!!!!!!!!!

  15. shirl says:

    PP is discriminating against Americans, stealing chips from accounts, and refusing to do anything about it. Dumping chips is still going on people are chipping the 250k in multi accounts and dumping them into real money accounts and the selllers are still advertising on the chat board so what have you accomplished PP? You accomplished making Poker Stars a much stronger site, plus Im having more fun over there, they monitor their play chip site and do not allow harrassment or bad language on the tables and do not allow discriminating or insulting remarks a monitor shows up and cuts off the chats of the offenders They allow transfering chips to friends but do not allow begging for chips from other players. I really enjoy playing Pokerstars. Thanks pp for sending me there. I have deleted party poker software since they deleted my chips. As far as he clickers on Party Poker who complained about chip dumping and stuff… why are you clicking? After a while if you know how to play poker you shouldnt have to click anymore, you are just little whinners and have no skill and want to blame someone else.. wah wah… I have been playing on a new site ever since pp upgraded this last time and took my chips I had to start with very few chips I now have almost a million chips I have won. Thank goodness Poker Stars doesnt limit to 250k

  16. pp player for years says:

    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

  17. pp unfair says:

    i played poker with play chips built them up to a few million, then they were stole from me by party poker.. you are losing alot respect by the people who play poker for real and play.. pp rethink this and put the fun back into party poker..

  18. former pp player says:

    what have you accomplished PP? alot of people going to poker star site and other sites..
    party poker was once a great site for us until you took away our chips we won… you should rethink this and be fair.. restate the chips we won. so no limit is a true no limit again please forward this to anyone in party poker who may help thank you,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

  19. Tank says:

    Does anyone at PP have a brain…if you put a cap of 250k why have a maximum buy in of 100k ..I guess after robbing billions nothing bothers you ..and you can take your promotions and shove it where the sun don’t shine…Like i worte earlier im contacting pps on line gaming regulators ecogra.com…the first chip sellers on pp were owned by pp…and i heard pps hasnt paid out some people who won jackpots for real money…

  20. x__BIKER__x says:

    yeah, yeah…….. dont give more than 250K for chipplayer. but if u have a real account

    u can have billions , hahahahahah

    what a great bull chit

  21. Unknown says:

    Where are all the hackers? Surely some of them played PP and have been screwed. Can we have muliple DOS for PP please.

  22. aka.mean "former macro writer" says:

    later party pooper, you have just killed your nice tidy company!

  23. ROOSTERS says:

    I CONGRATULATE CITY ON WITHDRAWING HIS/HER MONEY FROM REAL ACCOUNT IF ALL REAL MONEY ACCOUNT HOLDERS DID SAME IN THE FIRST FEW DAYS AN STOOD UP UP FOR THE REST WE WOULD HAVE HAD OUR CHIPS BACK CONGRATULATIONS CITY YOUR A CHAMPION PITY REST DIDNT FOLLOW YOU NO MONEY MEANS NO BUSINESS WITHDRAW AN THEY FALL THE ROOSTER STILL CROWS

  24. AFWOMM says:

    ARE YES IF IT WASNT FOR PEOPLE LIKE( STARSHIP) WE WOULDNT BE IN THIS MESS

  25. Mycousinvinny says:

    Mamma Mia, Nobody ever prevented you from sitting at a table. So stop peddling your BS Party Poker propaganda. I hope you are a stock holder in that 10 million dollar a day business. Then I can LMFAO at your ridiculous remarks. Sounds to me like you’re crying more than anyone else.

  26. Clean Living says:

    Nl 50/100 was a creation of a whole new poker game. It wasn’t poker but it was something and it was fun. Good bye party poker. Principle.

  27. winwin36 says:

    4 years of fun down the tubes build my account to 10million with fair play. this site stinks like the rest of the world just another way of sticking it to the public

  28. aka.mean "former macro writer" says:

    This just shows how smart PP owners are, they screw up their programming and piss everyone off. when all they had to do is this! sell chips!!! then allow people to make privite tables so their choice of game play will not affect everyone else adversly. I have been writing programs for years that take advantage of their programming and still can, and will! rather than bitch, moan and complain about their new layout, just adapt to it. to all those pumpers out there, start pumping on their small blinds tables. if we can’t have it how we want, make it a bitch for them to conduct their daily bussiness!!!!!!!!!!

    SCREW YOU PARTY POOPER, I will do all I can to hassle you and screw you as you have all us!

  29. partyhardy01 says:

    I hadn’t logged into my partypoker account since before Xmas. I logged in the day before yesterday after I had to reformat my harddrive only to find 450mil (I had been playing since 2006) in play chips were gone from account. I was never a pumper and I never used any macros to get those chips. All were taken from me. I was left with 250,000 in my account. I emailed partypoker to ask what was up, they didn’t even have the nerve to warn any of the registered members of the actions they were taking. This is ridiculous. I’m not even getting any response from them. The only reason they have done this is because they have never been able to get rid of the macro users and now they punish all of us.

  30. partyhardy01 says:

    PS>>>> It is not just Americans they are doing it to, it is also Canadians.

  31. Beth says:

    What lies is Party Poker going to come up with now. They say it was the chip sellers that caused the problems and we lost everything. So tell me this Party Poker 2 weeks on and guess what the chip sellers are still chipping, transferring and spamming all tables. Wonder why that is? Love to hear your answer Party Poker

  32. rick says:

    that is because party poker is the ones selling the chips, just my thoughts think about it

  33. tom says:

    ive been playing on this site for years building my play money bankroll. while i had 135 million and all of a sudden i have next to nothing…!!! you bastards i worked and played my ass off to win those play money chips you have no right..!!! go after those bastards selling or trying to sell the chips. give all of us what we earned back..!!! dammit i’m pissed..!!!

  34. donnam says:

    aRE YOU KIDDING ME ….ADVANCE TO GO …COLLECT MORE THAN 250,000 TOO MANY OTHER SITES GREAT JOB PP HOPE THAT EXECUTIVE DECISION GIVES EM ALL A RAISE BETTER- RE-THINK THIS ONE ……..SO LONG PP

  35. Colten says:

    Tuffa Chitta Mama Mia @ You have it right, many were using 3rd party software, macros programs, and cheating the system, and mistreating many players. Now with the game capped out, the game is much more fairer, and now maybe when can see real skill on the tables, and not just pumpers cheating people out of their chips, and robbing the tables to sit there and play with their dishonest earnings. Now that party poker has realized how how bad it was to start with, they finally fixed the system, and many other websites will do the same. So down with the selfish, spiteful, malicious, dirty, greedy people who play poker on these softwares. Its time for fair play.

  36. dastosher says:

    Has everybody gone NUTZ. It’s a friggin game. I had 54 million dollars.

    SO WHAT! IT’S NOT REAL..

    Hell, it isn’t even like real poker. Have any of you played real games against people FACE TO FACE. That is poker.

    Go play some tournaments, or a sit and go. Thats more like real poker….

    Jesus people, GET A FRIGGIN LIFE.

  37. dastosher says:

    One other point.

    PP uses play money games to entice people to play with REAL money.

    You have not, and don’t pay a F’ING DIME to play.. SO SHUTTUP.

    Nothing was stolen from you. Morons.

  38. FeBA says:

    I think this new rule is very stupid. I built my bankroll up to 1.2 Billion in 2 years, and now all is gone.

  39. Jevrem says:

    I have around 40 000 000 chips– there gone… now i will newer make any deposit on that site, maybe that will gone to… unbeliveble…

  40. Mark says:

    I MAD!

  41. WOW! Major Bummer. I had been playing PP since 2005, Had built up 165 mil, just by playing. I’m smart, I know they’re play chips. It was just kind of a status thing among myself and several friends who live in different parts of the country and found a way to play poker together. I never chip dumped or bought chips. I DID win a lot of hands against yahoos who tried to buy the pot every time. Oh well, was time for a new site anyway. Few companies ever recover from blatantly pissing off their customers, I fear PP will join a distinguished list on has-beens and never-mores.
    Thanks for giving me a good reason to change poker sites.

  42. PPsucksD1ck says:

    PP say its for our benefit when it is the exact opposite, and maybe the game is fairer since all accs have equal chips. But the most awesome thing about PP was the high stakes.. 30 million chip pots etc. I never wanted serious poker, I wanted something fun and exciting and PP took it away. There is no fun in having 250k in your account, you would play for a while then lose it all, then you will be having a lot of run-ins with the “Add more Chips” button. If I wanted serious poker, I would go out and play real life tournaments ( and maybe I will ). Oh well… I hope PP enjoys the bad publicity for as long as it survives.

  43. Disturbed says:

    I had an account for about 7-9 yrs accumulating million LEGALLY i might say and now what!!!! I really hope it gets changed…..and soon.

  44. Poker_X_Pro says:

    I made over 30mil in 1 night, then it went to 250k

  45. doughchm says:

    Had a great year, built up 52 mil and joined up with some realy great people. Now PP have screwed it all. They stole without pre warning or pre authorization all from across the world and pissed off their customers. I wonder if the decision makers have still got jobs for that wonderful “SERVICE” decision. I bloody hope not, to lose all those customers is one fell swoop is madness. BiBi PP rot in hell.

  46. mama says:

    take a look at how many players are now playing at party poker. The maximum number has been around 25,000 with the average around 12,000. A far cry from the 100,000 people playing at any given time prior to stealing back our chips. Party Poker suffered from poor programming of its product. It couldn’t stop the advertising at the tables to buy chips. It couldn’t stop the chipping programs going on at the Omaha tables. It couldn’t stop people from using 3rd party software to cheat the odds of winning. It couldn’t stop players from having multiple table names and properly validating new member’s by sending validation codes to the email addy they were using to sign up with. Put in anyone’s email address and you can get as many accounts as you want. They couldn’t and wouldn’t stop the vulgar language being used at the tables or the open sex act going on at the lower limit tables. But the worse thing was.. when they no longer allowed US citizens to play real money tables, they stopped supporting complaints from US citizens requesting assistance for these problems. Party Poker had no idea what was going on at their poker site. The comment they made about people sharing chips.. is flat bunk.. In fact, many of the top poker sites (ie: poker stars) have a transaction to actually pass some chips to your friends. LOL Again if Party Poker would have invested in the programming of their site the issues could have been avoided all together. It’s OK Party Poker.. you took 73 million chips from me that I earned legitimately. Yes I helped a few of my friends with some chips here and there but its did not justify taking my chips. With all the problems, cheaters and poor programming on the play tables… you would have to be out of your fricking mind to play real money tables there. Try Poker Stars or Pogo.com these are online sites that are well developed and actually listen to their players whether you play for fun or pay to play. They update their sites regularly and tell you what they have done. The joke at party poker with any updates was “What did they break this time”. Party Poker should have sold out when their poker site was worth something because now they just have a “stupid site”

  47. xXxNASxXx says:

    PP is still screwed up and always will be

  48. st4rSh88t3r says:

    i played 10yrs ago and loved the site when it was empire poker i had took a few years off and came back i have made alot of friends and a few great friends that i have on hoo we have become family and love playing together the first time i logged out after play and logged back in to have 250 k of the 45m i won the night prior i thought it was just a glich so i played again got back up to bout the same ammount logged out came back 250k again was like wtf so i asked around saying why do i keep losing my chips and was told pp resets play money accts back to 250k i was like well that sucks guess i will get real money acct then, then i saw where i couldnt get a real acct first of all that is a double FU to me need real acct to keep chips but cant get real acct makes no sense I put up with it though cuz of my friends many times i said i was gonna quit and got begged into staying cuz i have great friends then tonight you took 25m right off the table from me was holding it at table to help my friends since we all struggle with chips now because well obviously you hate us and my friend said no hun thats fine you keep your chips im quitting went to take the chips off the table and the table was gone along with my chips now i dont have to tell you that is bs you know it is unfortunately tonight was my last night at pp i was loyal you were greedy, greed will be your demise,there is so much to say i can sit here and wish you would give me back over 2billion chips you took from me in 4 months but i know you wont i have tried contacting you many times via email to no avail cuz your obviously hiding yourselves cuz deep down inside you know you have wronged many ppl, and this hurts to say but you have sabotaged yourselves and i promis to come up with a program to wipe pp completely out of existence for all the troubles and loss of friends you have caused me fortunate enough though there is a new site coming soon that replicates old version of pp all the same features but you can keep your earned chips so hope to see all my friends again soon at new site, farewell and good riddance pp another fan bites the dust as will many and all when im done………………

  49. oldppfan says:

    PP used to be great, now it sucks. I too used to have over 300 million in play chips that I won over time. Who cares how many chips someone has?? Its play money…
    Another, bigger problem is not having a tool that can block certain players from joining your table. I’m sure that all of us at one point or another has played with rude or vulger players and there should be a way to block them.

  50. kitykat396 says:

    that chick who had the balls to say party poker gave us free chips is an idiot step back and think for a minute they make money on the add’s and real money they take a cut off each pot that chick who said cry cry babies is about as stupid as stupid gets

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