Lock Poker has been acting a lot like a broke online poker site lately.
They are taking an inexplicably long time to process all cashouts -- even ones for non-US players that should otherwise be taking no more than a few days.
They are segregating their high and middle limit players from the rest of the network player pool, so as to avoid having to pay the other "skins" on the network when the Lock players lose.
They have put into place a system where good players are not allowed to play bad players, again presumably to stop winning players from rolling up money they will want to withdraw.
They have separated their tournaments from the rest of the network, again to avoid having to pay the other "skins" on the network when the Lock players lose.
But maybe you're still in denial, and think there's a good reason behind all of the above.
Just in case you thought Lock Poker wasn't broke, there's now a new, disturbing scam occurring at Lock Poker:
High limit players' withdrawals are being canceled with flimsy/false reasoning. Lock support/security is completely unresponsive, aside from kicking out form letters. Worst yet, many of these canceled withdrawals are occurring weeks or months after they were submitted and were supposedly "in process".
This all came out when longtime 2+2 user "the juggernaut" posted that his withdrawal of $10,000 was canceled by Lock Poker, and a bogus reason was cited:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/19...-rake-1324070/
He got this e-mail:
The "decision is final" line is my favorite part.Hello thejuggernaut,
Your withdrawal has been rejected due to our strict policy of not allowing the withdrawal of transferred funds. A player is only allowed to transfer funds if they are being sent with the sole intent of the receiver using them to play. The only exceptions ever made are with a true staking account or affiliate earnings. This is reviewed on a case by case basis.
This decision is final.
Best,
Joseph Stone
Lock Poker
Toll free - 1 800 284 5952
The ridiculous thing here is the fact that juggernaut was NOT one of those guys who simply received a transfer and withdrew the money! He submitted this particular withdrawal request months ago, had not made a transfer since, and had played a LOT of poker on Lock since then. He was also a regular player before that.
Shane, the smarmy and double-talking Lock Poker rep on 2+2, showed up in the thread to basically accuse juggernaut of being a manipulator of Lock money trading. See, Lock cashouts are so horrendous that people on 2+2 are selling their Lock money to others at a rate of about 50 cents on the dollar, something Lock allows. Shane claimed that juggernaut was part of a ring of people who are buying up Lock money at 50 cents per dollar, and then "using affiliate accounts" to withdraw quickly at full value.
But hang on. What are "affiliate accounts", and how can they withdraw quickly?
Well, as already stated, players on Lock are experiencing EXTREMELY LONG withdrawal times -- about 4 months right now on average. However, Lock Poker "affiliates" -- the sites that place Lock banners and sign up new players -- are getting their commissions MUCH quicker. Apparently Lock Poker is giving priority to affiliates withdrawing their money from the site. They are doing this because affiliates are bringing new players to the site (i.e. new deposit money), and they know affiliates will drop Lock like a hot potato if they are forced to wait 4 months to get paid. So basically, Lock's attitude has been, "Affiliates get paid quickly, since they bring us new deposit money, but fuck the players who pay thousands of dollars of rake to us. They can wait, because they aren't as immediately valuable."
So back to juggernaut's situation. Shane accused juggernaut of being part of a supposed scam where affiliates are buying up Lock money on 2+2 on the cheap, and then cashing out that money at full value through the priority affiliate cashout system.
Now, of course none of this would be happening if Lock processed cashouts in a timely fashion, or if they weren't giving affiliates unfair priority to cash out.
But let's put that aside for the moment.
There was no evidence that juggernaut, an active Lock high stakes player, was part of this supposed scam. Shane refused to provide any such evidence. In fact, Shane would not name a single affiliate who was actually guilty of this, but just kept claiming that security "recently discovered this scheme", and was canceling cashouts of players who appeared to be involved.
As the 2+2 thread progressed, several others came out of the woodwork with the identical story. Apparently pretty much anyone with a large withdrawal has had it canceled recently, all with this false reason of being part of this likely nonexistent affiliate cashout ring:
Originally Posted by gadolparah
All of these people are longtime 2+2 users and known high limit players on Lock.
Shane then conceded that perhaps the "investigation" into this cashout ring was too overaggressive, and that any innocent parties who were unfairly accused should e-mail Lock Security to investigate.
Everyone above did just that (including juggernaut), but simply got form letters back from security that their withdrawal was canceled due to receiving transfers and not playing enough. None of their points were addressed, and security would not respond to further e-mails about it.
Shane also claims that people need to bet "as much money as received in transfer" in order to cash out, which nobody had ever been told prior to that. However, everyone above easily reached that requirement several times over.
There is currently no resolution to this.
It is clear to me that Lock is canceling these large withdrawals (after making some people wait months, believing their money was coming) because they simply don't have the money to send. This whole "affiliate cashout scam" is nonsense, and I doubt it's actually occurring. Even if it is occurring, it should be very easy to identify the guilty parties without canceling cashouts of legitimate players.
Lock is clearly broke. Do not deposit there. Do not play there.
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