RPM Poker, an online poker room on the Merge Gaming Network, closed without warning late last week, leaving concerned players scrambling for answers.
Signs of problems began Thursday night/Friday morning (ET), as even though players were able to login to their accounts, it appeared that the rpmpoker.eu website was no longer up and running. At the same time, some customers received an e-mail from customer support saying that “RPM Poker is no longer operating.”
Friday afternoon, the client services manager of RPM Poker sent out a follow-up e-mail that read, “RPMPoker is an active partner of the Merge Gaming Network and the site is fully operational. I am sure the agent that provided this information was confused with another closed site such as BluffRoom or Feltstars.”
It appears, however, that the second e-mail was simply the manager trying to cover for a customer service rep who let the cat out of the bag too soon. Early Friday evening, rpmpoker.eu came back to life with the following announcement:
RPM Poker has been purchased by a third party. Your funds are safe and you will be playing poker shortly. If you have another account on the Merge network, please advise support@mergegaming.eu and we will have your RPM Poker balance moved there. If not, please choose a Merge preferred partner and follow the steps outlined in the link below:
http://www.mergegaming.com/preferred-partners.html
See you at the tables!
Regards,
Merge Gaming
Those preferred partners are sportsbook.ag, PlayersOnly.ag, and CarbonPoker.ag.
That message on RPM Poker’s website has been the only sort of communication from either the poker room or the Merge Gaming Network on the matter. There has been no official statement explaining the reasons for the closure or, as the message mentions, the purchase by a “third party.”
Members of the internet messages boards such as Two Plus Two have been reporting that funds transfers to other sites on the Merge network have gone just fine and even rakeback deals have been transferred. There is no news as to whether or not loyalty assets such as VIP points will transfer, though initial thoughts are that they will not.
This is yet another hit to a network that has had its problems in the last year. In June 2011, the Merge Gaming Network stopped accepting new customers from the United States because it could not handle the influx of players fleeing from PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker, and UB.com after Black Friday. It re-opened in October and is still one of the few networks that accepts U.S. customers (though some states are blocked). In May 2012, the network’s largest member, Lock Poker, departed and purchased the Cake Poker Network, rebranding it to Revolution Gaming.
In September 2012, Merge CEO Anthony Taylor stepped down after a five year stint at the company. Two more rooms – Bluff Room and FeltStars – called it quits in October just before Merge announced that player-to-player transfers would be no more.
According to PokerScout.com, the Merge Gaming Network is the 20th largest poker network on the internet with a seven day average of 660 cash game players, though that number will fall as post-RPM figures catch up.
