PokerWhiteboard.com Scandal

[TheTemplar]

I am writing this now because it has come apparent that PokerWhiteBoard.com is officially MIA, and refuses to answer any of it's players.

Many of you probably have never heard of the site. PWB was in beta testing when it opened back in March of 2011. It was suppose to be the brain child of many previous poker industry experts. Whether or not they are/were is beyond me.

Their beta testing model gave benefits to all those who tried their software. Submitting support tickets about bugs, game play, and improvements, all lead you to a higher level. Reaching a higher level means bigger rewards when the site goes live. The initial go live date was set for June 2011. Unfortunately they did not make this date.

Around June 2011, there was approximately 400 players with funds in their real money accounts. Players acquired these funds through Freerolls. At the time around 20 thousand had been given out to the players.

During the months of June and July, the site seemed to be dead. Players were still playing on the site in the cash games and freeroll tournaments, but communication from management was at a stand still. In early August a new Admin showed up on the forum and guaranteed everything was on the up and up. Management used the excuse that with the state of online poker, especially within the USA, they had to stay quiet until things got safe again. Management promised all balances were safe, and that the new live launch date would be September 1st.

Well just like the initial start date the live launch didn't come. We did get word from management that the launch was pushed back to November 1st. In management's words " Because many players have waited so long for the live launch, we are going to add 9 additional free tickets to a 5k event held at the 2012 WSOP ."

Those were the last words from management at PokerWhiteboard.com. Right now they owe approximately 55k in total. Along with 50k in Wsop tournament buyins. 105k isn't a ton of money spread between 400 or so players, but the amount of time many players spent promoting and playing on this site is sickening.

If anyone has any information on who actually ran this site, please reply.

[GrindUnumb]

Were there any updates?

[Dan Druff]

Yeah, very interesting story.

How much was owed to you personally?

Can you post some of your last e-mail correspondences with them?

[TheTemplar]

Someone on another forum found that now PokerWhiteBoard.com changed names and if now trying to open as Poke7.com http://beta.poke7.com/

Rob from PartTimePoker was made aware of this and scheduled a call with them. This is what he got out of the conversation:

I spoke with them for about 45 minutes. The key takeaways:

-They say they have every intention of being fair and honoring responsibilities.
-The specific value package for beta testers will not be honored exactly, however the value of the package will be honored. This is due to logistical changes wrt how they will be handling player promotions and such. They explained this further and I shouldn't go into it, but it made reasonable sense. I told them that this is no problem if indeed the value was honored.
-They expect to launch this summer, but it is not firm enough for them to make an official statement to customers.
-They want RBN to be on board with them. We won't be on board with them unless we are satisfied with how they treat the beta testers.
-There are some ownership changes going on, and until those are resolved at their end we will not be able to sort out details re: the package for beta testers. They say this should be resolved in the next 2 weeks.

The tone of the conversation was sincere, and the lack of communication was explained. However we obviously have a sketchy history here and no firm resolution from the call so take it for what it is - moderate progress.
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PokerWhiteBoard or Poke7 as they are now called, has never fulfilled a promise.

Here are the last 4 emails I have received. I do not actually have the messages I have sent to them. The only way to send correspondence to them was through the website, and the reports section of the PWB website is gone. Luckily when they respond to you, their message shows in your email.
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8/1/11

We are sorry for the late start but we plan on giving you everything you have earned.... With that said you will receive a 2012 World Series of Poker seat totaling $5,000. Thanks for your patience!

Go to your reports:

https://www.pokerwhiteboard.com/reports

Kind regards,
Poker Whiteboard

They sent this to me 3 weeks after I asked them how they planned on compensating the people who should of received a 5k seat for the 2011 WSOP.
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8/16/11

Thanks for all your time and help and your screenshot! We will be making an
exception with you, you will be level 10 when the time comes to go live.
Thanks again for all your efforts! :-)

Go to your reports:

https://www.pokerwhiteboard.com/reports

Kind regards,
Poker Whiteboard

Level 10 is $800 starting bankroll and 100% rakeback for a year.
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10/19/11

Sorry, ......for one I wrote that incorrectly,....... what I meant to say is
I would not like to promise something in the name of PWB and make an ass out
of my name for not being to keep my word in the name of PWD as
Admin......for some situation that is completely out of my control and even
our managements, but is being resolved.

Thanks for your understanding
Admin_Seth

Go to your reports:

https://www.pokerwhiteboard.com/reports

Kind regards,
Poker Whiteboard

I don't really know what this email is in reference to. It kind of came out of the blue, but I think it was an email asking if I could simply cashout my balance. I still don't really understand it fully.
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The server would crash once daily. Yet when it crashed your money would not go back into your account. Sometimes when the server crashed, many people could still login and play. If you had cash on the table, someone would in fact blind you off. You would auto post and fold just like it was a tournament.

11/1/2011

Did you get your money back since, you should have recieved by last tuesday
or wednesday? Let me know.....

Go to your reports:

https://www.pokerwhiteboard.com/reports

Kind regards,
Poker Whiteboard

Of course I never got my money back. I think I had somewhere of $197 on the tables.
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12/23/11

Thanks, I forwarded it to the development team. Hope all is well, on
our side things are busy, getting this project going, our efforts will be
soon rewarded. Keep your fingers crossed. :-)

Cheers

Go to your reports:

https://www.pokerwhiteboard.com/reports

Kind regards,
Poker Whiteboard

This email was a response (after numerous emails) to me telling them that I had not received the money back into my account. This was the last I have ever heard from them.
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Personally I would say that I am owed around 6k. A 5k WSOP seat, $800 for reaching level 10, and the $197 that never found it's way back into my account.

[GrindUnumb]

I also make it to Level 10. Something else to keep an eye on...the Poke7.com domain registration expires on June 10th. It will be interesting to see if they renew that, or try to move to another domain to keep dodging.

[GrindUnumb]

In several attempts by a handful of people to get whats owed by the owners have been a complete failure. They just hostilely say you are delusional, they have nothing to do with PokerWhiteboard, and stop contacting them. Poke7.com domain is still set to expire June 10th, so it seems likely they will change domains again.

[4BET]

Dear 4betuonturn!

10 months have passed since the start of the PWB. Our team has been working
diligently towards our launch. However, the changes in the European legal
structures and competition greatly contributed to the caution of our
investors.

Due to marketing and proprietor strategy changes, our investors, thus our
brand identity has changed a number of times. So far, besides the PWB, we
have built up 2 new brands � which they have not made it to market � and
with new potential investors, we are probably developing yet another brand,
which is necessary if we want to make it to market with the software.

We have purposely guarded our brands and marketing strategies. It was not an
accident that we have remained distant during our brand-switching strategies
� since we could not have offered anything concrete until all aspects were
finalized. We are sending this communication based on the request of one of
our affiliates, in order to ensure due diligence.

Our streamlined team is continuing development, so our product can be the
unique identifier within the industry, and the public can also enjoy as soon
as negotiations with our investors have completed.

We have been criticised by a number of PWB beta testers, for our less than
strict handling of those players which have made questionable and sometimes
unethical advances.

One of our new improvements addresses this exact point! It is based on a
statistical system, which allows us to retroactively determine these types
of players. So far, 27 players are under suspicion. Our decision will be
made after careful analysis, and lockouts and penalties will be awarded
accordingly. We will be in contact with the relevant players after the
investigations are complete.

We hope that we were able to shed some light onto the current situation. We
would like to stress, that WE WILL NOT IGNORE YOUR VESTED EFFORTS INTO
TESTING. We will notify you of the launch date as soon as it is available.



Thank you for your efforts and patience.

PWB Management
They sent me this email today dont have a clue what they are trying to say but I also made level 10 on the site and I think that was worth between 2000 and 3000 but probably much more because of rackback