Merge Network

[Steve-O]

1) Merge decided it was uncomfortable with a tournament series specific to one skin.

This is most likely what is going on. I'm sure the other Merge skins were complaining that Lock was drawing away their players since it was a Lock-only tournament series.Perhaps there was a rule added that players had to "play-through" their initial deposits before withdrawing, which has the potential to keep Carbon, BCP, and Hero players on Lock far beyond the LockOPS.

As for the other stuff, it's unlikely the overlays were going to be an issue: Merge continually changed the guarantees for many of the Poker Maximus series tournaments (upward of course) and left others unchanged. They were spot on in their guarantees, iirc only two or three failed to reach the guarantee and it wasn't by much, so I would assume Lock is using the same algorithim to come up with their guarantees for the LockOPS.

The SCOOP conflict (which there really isnt one, was already explained away: Lock put their tournament during the SCOOP to attract more players, since Euros and such will already be online playing SCOOP events, what's one more tournament for them?

This was announced by Lock Poker early this morning so it's legit. If you visit the LockOPS pages on the Lock website you get hit with the same message that is on their Twitter account.

[ajfsports]

I was skeptical of the whole conflict with stars for another reason all together

Im not suggesting this is true, and it sucks for other sites that i felt this way, but the original reason epic poker gave for the cancellation of their final tournament was that it conflicted with an ept event and they were going to push it back. Of course later we found out that this wasnt the case at all and they turned around and screwed everyone involved

When a site that has had questionable things go on in the past its hard not to wonder about things they do even if it turns out to be legit

[Rollo Tomasi]

it would be foolish to play Lock Poker when Merge has several skins that have no issues
Druff should do a Radio Show just about Lock Poker with several well informed guests/experts debating the Pros & Cons of playing on Lock
playas like Scotty Clark having special deals not offered by Lock to other players need not apply

[Dan Druff]

I have been given some inside information on the situation regarding the cancellation of the LockOps tournament series.

I was told that one of my guesses was correct:

Merge was nervous about the overlay situation, and the potential consequences if Lock couldn't cover it.

For those of you that don't know, the skins do something called "reconciliation" with Merge at the end of each month. The reconciliation process involves the skins balancing their books with Merge, so everything properly equals out. This is necessary because players from all of the skins share common games, and obviously money goes back and forth between players from different skins.

The reconciliation process involves Merge calculating a figure owed to or from each skin. This is calculated with the following formula:

Reconciliation = MoneyOut - MoneyIn
where
MoneyIn = Deposits + Bonuses + (Any Other Money added to the network by the skin)
MoneyOut = (Withdrawals paid directly by the skin) + (Skin's share of rake generated)

So if Reconciliation is a positive number, Merge pays the skin. If it's a negative number, the skin pays Merge.

For example, let's say there's a skin called Shady Poker.

During the month of April, Shady Poker processes $95,000 worth of deposits, gives out $6,500 worth of bonuses, and runs freerolls worth $2,000. ShadyPoker's MoneyIn is considered $103,500 (the sum of these figures).

ShadyPoker also sends out wires to their bigger players, and sent out $45,000 worth in April. In addition, Shady Poker is entitled to $18,000 as their portion of the rake generated by its players on Merge. This means ShadyPoker's MoneyOut would be $63,000 (the sum of these figures).

Therefore, on May 1st, when reconciliation occurs, it would be calculated as $63,000 - $103,500, for a total of -$43,500. This means ShadyPoker would owe $43,500 to Merge.

Now back to the LockOps situation.

If the LockOps actually took place, and if a huge overlay ended up occurring, this would have created a big reconciliation problem, as that overlay would have been charged to Lock's MoneyIn number. Why? Let's say the overlay was a combined $1,000,000. This would put $1,000,000 in extra chips on the Merge network, and all of those chips will have come from Lock. Therefore, Lock would be on the hook for $1,000,000 extra in that month's reconciliation!

But wait! If it's a Lock exclusive tournament, why would they have to reconcile with Merge? Because the winners of the tournaments would be free to use that money to play in any of Merge's network-wide games, and that money could be won and cashed out by members of any of the other skins. Therefore, the overlay is equivalent to Lock adding that amount of money to the network.

If Lock can't cover it, guess who has to eat it?

Yup, Merge itself!

Even worse, Merge won't even find this out until reconciliation time at the end of the month. If there ended up being a huge overlay, Merge would have to hold its breath and hope that Lock can come up with the money at reconciliation time.

And what if Lock couldn't? Well, Merge would pretty much be stuck with Lock until they generated enough rake (or player withdrawals that Lock itself processes) to cover the gigantic overlay amount.

Merge wasn't interested in taking this risk (especially with Lock's lousy track record), so they just denied permission for the whole thing.

This isn't just a theory. I was told the above tonight by an insider.

[Steve-O]

I have been given some inside information on the situation regarding the cancellation of the LockOps tournament series.

I was told that one of my guesses was correct:

Merge was nervous about the overlay situation, and the potential consequences if Lock couldn't cover it.

For those of you that don't know, the skins do something called "reconciliation" with Merge at the end of each month. The reconciliation process involves the skins balancing their books with Merge, so everything properly equals out. This is necessary because players from all of the skins share common games, and obviously money goes back and forth between players from different skins.

The reconciliation process involves Merge calculating a figure owed to or from each skin. This is calculated with the following formula:

Reconciliation = MoneyOut - MoneyIn
where
MoneyIn = Deposits + Bonuses + (Any Other Money added to the network by the skin)
MoneyOut = (Withdrawals paid directly by the skin) + (Skin's share of rake generated)

So if Reconciliation is a positive number, Merge pays the skin. If it's a negative number, the skin pays Merge.

For example, let's say there's a skin called Shady Poker.

During the month of April, Shady Poker processes $95,000 worth of deposits, gives out $6,500 worth of bonuses, and runs freerolls worth $2,000. ShadyPoker's MoneyIn is considered $103,500 (the sum of these figures).

ShadyPoker also sends out wires to their bigger players, and sent out $45,000 worth in April. In addition, Shady Poker is entitled to $18,000 as their portion of the rake generated by its players on Merge. This means ShadyPoker's MoneyOut would be $63,000 (the sum of these figures).

Therefore, on May 1st, when reconciliation occurs, it would be calculated as $63,000 - $103,500, for a total of -$43,500. This means ShadyPoker would owe $43,500 to Merge.

Now back to the LockOps situation.

If the LockOps actually took place, and if a huge overlay ended up occurring, this would have created a big reconciliation problem, as that overlay would have been charged to Lock's MoneyIn number. Why? Let's say the overlay was a combined $1,000,000. This would put $1,000,000 in extra chips on the Merge network, and all of those chips will have come from Lock. Therefore, Lock would be on the hook for $1,000,000 extra in that month's reconciliation!

But wait! If it's a Lock exclusive tournament, why would they have to reconcile with Merge? Because the winners of the tournaments would be free to use that money to play in any of Merge's network-wide games, and that money could be won and cashed out by members of any of the other skins. Therefore, the overlay is equivalent to Lock adding that amount of money to the network.

If Lock can't cover it, guess who has to eat it?

Yup, Merge itself!

Even worse, Merge won't even find this out until reconciliation time at the end of the month. If there ended up being a huge overlay, Merge would have to hold its breath and hope that Lock can come up with the money at reconciliation time.

And what if Lock couldn't? Well, Merge would pretty much be stuck with Lock until they generated enough rake (or player withdrawals that Lock itself processes) to cover the gigantic overlay amount.

Merge wasn't interested in taking this risk (especially with Lock's lousy track record), so they just denied permission for the whole thing.

This isn't just a theory. I was told the above tonight by an insider.

This makes no sense, since they could have just lowered the guarantees. It's been done in the past (PokerStars SCOOP post-Black Friday, Sunday Millions post-Black Friday). Assuming they expressed their concerns to Lock; why would Lock cancel the series instead of simply lowering the guarantees which would have appeased Merge if the above is correct?

If this is what happened than the Merge Gaming Network needs to higher new problem solvers and maybe not agree to things so fast. Honestly, the Network has a really bad track record of approving things and then changing their mind.

Could we at least know where the insider works? Lock Poker? Another Merge Skin? Merge Gaming itself? would add/subtract a lot of credibility to their statement

[Dan Druff]

I have been given some inside information on the situation regarding the cancellation of the LockOps tournament series.

I was told that one of my guesses was correct:

Merge was nervous about the overlay situation, and the potential consequences if Lock couldn't cover it.

For those of you that don't know, the skins do something called "reconciliation" with Merge at the end of each month. The reconciliation process involves the skins balancing their books with Merge, so everything properly equals out. This is necessary because players from all of the skins share common games, and obviously money goes back and forth between players from different skins.

The reconciliation process involves Merge calculating a figure owed to or from each skin. This is calculated with the following formula:

Reconciliation = MoneyOut - MoneyIn
where
MoneyIn = Deposits + Bonuses + (Any Other Money added to the network by the skin)
MoneyOut = (Withdrawals paid directly by the skin) + (Skin's share of rake generated)

So if Reconciliation is a positive number, Merge pays the skin. If it's a negative number, the skin pays Merge.

For example, let's say there's a skin called Shady Poker.

During the month of April, Shady Poker processes $95,000 worth of deposits, gives out $6,500 worth of bonuses, and runs freerolls worth $2,000. ShadyPoker's MoneyIn is considered $103,500 (the sum of these figures).

ShadyPoker also sends out wires to their bigger players, and sent out $45,000 worth in April. In addition, Shady Poker is entitled to $18,000 as their portion of the rake generated by its players on Merge. This means ShadyPoker's MoneyOut would be $63,000 (the sum of these figures).

Therefore, on May 1st, when reconciliation occurs, it would be calculated as $63,000 - $103,500, for a total of -$43,500. This means ShadyPoker would owe $43,500 to Merge.

Now back to the LockOps situation.

If the LockOps actually took place, and if a huge overlay ended up occurring, this would have created a big reconciliation problem, as that overlay would have been charged to Lock's MoneyIn number. Why? Let's say the overlay was a combined $1,000,000. This would put $1,000,000 in extra chips on the Merge network, and all of those chips will have come from Lock. Therefore, Lock would be on the hook for $1,000,000 extra in that month's reconciliation!

But wait! If it's a Lock exclusive tournament, why would they have to reconcile with Merge? Because the winners of the tournaments would be free to use that money to play in any of Merge's network-wide games, and that money could be won and cashed out by members of any of the other skins. Therefore, the overlay is equivalent to Lock adding that amount of money to the network.

If Lock can't cover it, guess who has to eat it?

Yup, Merge itself!

Even worse, Merge won't even find this out until reconciliation time at the end of the month. If there ended up being a huge overlay, Merge would have to hold its breath and hope that Lock can come up with the money at reconciliation time.

And what if Lock couldn't? Well, Merge would pretty much be stuck with Lock until they generated enough rake (or player withdrawals that Lock itself processes) to cover the gigantic overlay amount.

Merge wasn't interested in taking this risk (especially with Lock's lousy track record), so they just denied permission for the whole thing.

This isn't just a theory. I was told the above tonight by an insider.

This makes no sense, since they could have just lowered the guarantees. It's been done in the past (PokerStars SCOOP post-Black Friday, Sunday Millions post-Black Friday). Assuming they expressed their concerns to Lock; why would Lock cancel the series instead of simply lowering the guarantees which would have appeased Merge if the above is correct?

If this is what happened than the Merge Gaming Network needs to higher new problem solvers and maybe not agree to things so fast. Honestly, the Network has a really bad track record of approving things and then changing their mind.

Could we at least know where the insider works? Lock Poker? Another Merge Skin? Merge Gaming itself? would add/subtract a lot of credibility to their statement

Can't give any info on the insider, sorry.

I don't know why they didn't just lower the guarantees. Maybe Merge didn't give them that option and just pulled the plug on the series. Perhaps Merge felt that lowering guarantees would look even worse than cancelling the whole thing, as that kind of defeats the purpose of a guarantee. The story I heard was that Merge saw it going in the direction of a large overlay and freaked out. That would also explain their seemingly abrupt decision to cancel it.

Merge definitely deserves a lot of the blame on this one. They approved it, then decided to reverse their decision.

Lock's bad reputation probably didn't help matters, either. It's no coincidence that seemingly every scandal and frustrating situation on Merge seems to revolve around Lock.

[Steve-O]

This makes no sense, since they could have just lowered the guarantees. It's been done in the past (PokerStars SCOOP post-Black Friday, Sunday Millions post-Black Friday). Assuming they expressed their concerns to Lock; why would Lock cancel the series instead of simply lowering the guarantees which would have appeased Merge if the above is correct?

If this is what happened than the Merge Gaming Network needs to higher new problem solvers and maybe not agree to things so fast. Honestly, the Network has a really bad track record of approving things and then changing their mind.

Could we at least know where the insider works? Lock Poker? Another Merge Skin? Merge Gaming itself? would add/subtract a lot of credibility to their statement

Can't give any info on the insider, sorry.

I don't know why they didn't just lower the guarantees. Maybe Merge didn't give them that option and just pulled the plug on the series. Perhaps Merge felt that lowering guarantees would look even worse than cancelling the whole thing, as that kind of defeats the purpose of a guarantee. The story I heard was that Merge saw it going in the direction of a large overlay and freaked out. That would also explain their seemingly abrupt decision to cancel it.

Merge definitely deserves a lot of the blame on this one. They approved it, then decided to reverse their decision.

Lock's bad reputation probably didn't help matters, either. It's no coincidence that seemingly every scandal and frustrating situation on Merge seems to revolve around Lock.

Lock is definitely an envelope pusher inside that network, but Merge needs to either reign them in or simply let them push the envelope.. the waffling and pulling the rug out from under their largest skin is making both Lock and the Merge Network look bad. You can't give someone the go-ahead to run a tournament series and then two weeks before say we changed our mind; ditto with the Casino Bonus thing. If you're the Merge Gaming Network you need to do your homework BEFORE you approve these things... it seems like Lock Poker gets Merge drunk, gets them to agree to something, and then they wake up the next day and decide it was a bad mistake.

[Dan Druff]

Can't give any info on the insider, sorry.

I don't know why they didn't just lower the guarantees. Maybe Merge didn't give them that option and just pulled the plug on the series. Perhaps Merge felt that lowering guarantees would look even worse than cancelling the whole thing, as that kind of defeats the purpose of a guarantee. The story I heard was that Merge saw it going in the direction of a large overlay and freaked out. That would also explain their seemingly abrupt decision to cancel it.

Merge definitely deserves a lot of the blame on this one. They approved it, then decided to reverse their decision.

Lock's bad reputation probably didn't help matters, either. It's no coincidence that seemingly every scandal and frustrating situation on Merge seems to revolve around Lock.

Lock is definitely an envelope pusher inside that network, but Merge needs to either reign them in or simply let them push the envelope.. the waffling and pulling the rug out from under their largest skin is making both Lock and the Merge Network look bad. You can't give someone the go-ahead to run a tournament series and then two weeks before say we changed our mind; ditto with the Casino Bonus thing. If you're the Merge Gaming Network you need to do your homework BEFORE you approve these things... it seems like Lock Poker gets Merge drunk, gets them to agree to something, and then they wake up the next day and decide it was a bad mistake.

I agree that with the LockOps, Merge screwed up royally.

However, as far as the Casino Bonus thing goes, I don't think Merge knew about it until it was too late. From what I understand, Lock ran this promotion without Merge's permission (and in direct violation of Merge's rules), got caught (because they stupidly advertised it everywhere), and Merge forced them to either discontinue it or greatly change its terms. Lock then did something really shady by retroactively changing everything to rob players of the bonus they thought they were getting from play already completed. Lock also refused to compensate the affected players for the money they lost, and they blamed it all on Merge, which was totally unfair.

At least Lock actually has some reasonable ground to stand on when they blame Merge this time (which they're already doing, btw.)

Still, this was also Lock's fault, especially given that their prior reputation likely figured into Merge's decision.

[Steve-O]

Lock is definitely an envelope pusher inside that network, but Merge needs to either reign them in or simply let them push the envelope.. the waffling and pulling the rug out from under their largest skin is making both Lock and the Merge Network look bad. You can't give someone the go-ahead to run a tournament series and then two weeks before say we changed our mind; ditto with the Casino Bonus thing. If you're the Merge Gaming Network you need to do your homework BEFORE you approve these things... it seems like Lock Poker gets Merge drunk, gets them to agree to something, and then they wake up the next day and decide it was a bad mistake.

I agree that with the LockOps, Merge screwed up royally.

However, as far as the Casino Bonus thing goes, I don't think Merge knew about it until it was too late. From what I understand, Lock ran this promotion without Merge's permission (and in direct violation of Merge's rules), got caught (because they stupidly advertised it everywhere), and Merge forced them to either discontinue it or greatly change its terms. Lock then did something really shady by retroactively changing everything to rob players of the bonus they thought they were getting from play already completed. Lock also refused to compensate the affected players for the money they lost, and they blamed it all on Merge, which was totally unfair.

At least Lock actually has some reasonable ground to stand on when they blame Merge this time (which they're already doing, btw.)

Still, this was also Lock's fault, especially given that their prior reputation likely figured into Merge's decision.

If Merge had no knowledge of the Casino Bonus thing then this look even worse for the Network. There has to be an SOP of what sites are permitted to do and what they are not permitted to do without authorization. If Merge didn't know, then there was obviously a loophole that Lock tried to exploit; etiher way Merge has take some blame for that as well --I blame Lock for the handling of it after Merge nixed it.

The whole network seems to be full of infighting skins ready to stab each other in the back. And Merge appears to be the upper management person who is terrible at their job.They seem to have a survival of the fittest mentality when it comes to their skins, but then they placate to skins that complain about other skins. You also can't give someone free-range to be creative if you don't trust their judgement, which seems to be how they are handling Lock.

How could it have taken them this long to pull the plug on this??? How could they possibly have not known about the Casino Bonus???? Do they not have Google Alerts??????????????? Merge seems about as effective as the Kahnawake Tribe and the AGCC.

[ktx49]

one issue being raised by myself that I think you guys may not have realized or thought of...
the fact that people were gonna figure out just how easy it was to cheat and collude on merge.

reason being? there were quite a few non-Lock grinders from other merge skins who figured out they could simply use another computer to run Lock while still grinding their normal schedule from their skin of choice....
....while some of these grinders were legitimately interested in doing this just to play the Lock-Ops tourneys without having to switch over all their action, i'm sure merge received enough questions and realized the implications.


anyways not saying this is the only reason as druff clearly posted the main reason, but i thought this was something you guys would like to know about and maybe discuss.

it just shows the complete and utter lack of security in place on merge. you can seriously use the same identical ID/info and use 2 different computers to play on 2 different skins and yes, you can enter into the same tourneys...someone did tell me that merge has supposedly stopped allowing the same IP to enter into STT sngs but i'm not even sure this much is true.

[Steve-O]

one issue being raised by myself that I think you guys may not have realized or thought of...
the fact that people were gonna figure out just how easy it was to cheat and collude on merge.

reason being? there were quite a few non-Lock grinders from other merge skins who figured out they could simply use another computer to run Lock while still grinding their normal schedule from their skin of choice....
....while some of these grinders were legitimately interested in doing this just to play the Lock-Ops tourneys without having to switch over all their action, i'm sure merge received enough questions and realized the implications.


anyways not saying this is the only reason as druff clearly posted the main reason, but i thought this was something you guys would like to know about and maybe discuss.

it just shows the complete and utter lack of security in place on merge. you can seriously use the same identical ID/info and use 2 different computers to play on 2 different skins and yes, you can enter into the same tourneys...someone did tell me that merge has supposedly stopped allowing the same IP to enter into STT sngs but i'm not even sure this much is true.

I find this hard to believe, do you have evidence that Merge allows players from the same IP to play the same table on different skins at the same time

[ktx49]

this isnt speculation. i know for a fact you can do this. like i said, they may have recently stopped allowing this in STTs but thats an "at-best" scenario

[Steve-O]

this isnt speculation. i know for a fact you can do this. like i said, they may have recently stopped allowing this in STTs but thats an "at-best" scenario

Could we see the "fact"? What you're alleging is 2005 stuff...

[ktx49]

its not speculation, as I said, there were reputable people who were gonna sign up on lock and use another computer/laptop to play the lock ops while they grinded their normal schedules on another, non-Lock, skin. theres nothing to prevent this either, and more importantly, nothing to prevent people from using this to gain an unfair advantage at the tables either. while there are legitimate reasons to allow multiple accounts from a single IP, there needs to be atleast some basic measures in place to flag these accounts or something since not everyone is gonna be so honest.

and furthermore, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

also i discovered something really interesting on sharkscope in regards to freezeouts on merge.....see if you guys can find it too...

also one more thing, you guys know about feltstars and HSMTT regs breaking the ToS by having a VERY STRANGE seemingly non profitable backing arrangement which for some reason only involves tourney tickets as a means to buy into the games....playing all tourneys as freezeouts, even in rebuy/addon tourneys...basically something extremely fishy.

[Steve-O]

its not speculation, as I said, there were reputable people who were gonna sign up on lock and use another computer/laptop to play the lock ops while they grinded their normal schedules on another, non-Lock, skin. theres nothing to prevent this either, and more importantly, nothing to prevent people from using this to gain an unfair advantage at the tables either. while there are legitimate reasons to allow multiple accounts from a single IP, there needs to be atleast some basic measures in place to flag these accounts or something since not everyone is gonna be so honest.

No, it's not speculation, it's an allegation, but the fact remains that you have yet to provide evidence, let alone proof: as in a screen-shot, a link, or anything that says what you are claiming is true.

Allegation: An assertion made with little or no proof.
Evidence: Something used to determine the veracity of a claim.

All you did was follow-up an allegation with the same allegation.

[ktx49]

im not running a website, im posting it for you guys to do that, if you want to verify it do it yourself, if you dont believe me then thats your problem, not mine.

but since i know that im right, im telling you its not speculation, but go ahead and spend hours digging to find out that im correct.

in fact the best way to address this and the other issues ive raised in this thread, is to simply get a merge rep in here. i would absolutely love to speak directly with merge about this and see their responses...since i am still playing on merge, I would really like to see these issues fixed and corrected. i dont want to see merge fail, i believe they have a grand opportunity and until they start to take security concerns seriously it will remain amateur hour at Merge.

[Steve-O]

im not running a website, im posting it for you guys to do that, if you want to verify it do it yourself, if you dont believe me then thats your problem, not mine.

but since i know that im right, im telling you its not speculation, but go ahead and spend hours digging to find out that im correct.

You're the one slinging mud, so if you don't want to post the info and simply want to continue dropping veiled references like the site is on double-secret-probation than why not just post "t33h the pokery is rigged I tell you!" you've made >30 posts and 95% are all anti-merge network, often hinting at some huge conspiracy but always holding back from divulging anything, I call BS

[ktx49]

please dont bother responding then if you think im making this up to sling mud at a network i grind on everyday.
conspiracy?? lol go find and quote a single thing ive said about some grand conspiracy or rigged. in fact im 99% sure i tried to keep that kind of stuff out of this thread but obviously reading comprehension isnt your best asset.


thanks sir for your cooperation, now scoot along.

[Steve-O]

please dont bother responding then if you think im making this up to sling mud at a network i grind on everyday.

thanks sir for your cooperation, now scoot along.

You grind on it every day, yet it's horrible and cheating its players?????? You are the worst Merge Troll in the history of the Internet. You're f'ing up a serious thread with outlandish accusations that haven't occured at any serious online poker site since the mid-2000's and then refusing to provide any proof. What's next, Merge hired Russ Hamilton as head of security??? Merge hired JJProdigy to be their tournament director????

[ktx49]

i started the thread rofl so you really do need to work on you reading comprehension.

second, yes their is a serious flaw on merge, i dont care how long its been since sites had these issues or when you last heard of it, but i keep trying to explain to you that the issue isnt whether or not this is possible, its what merge needs to do about it. its ridiculous how your coming at me by the way and i dont appreciate your tone and insinuations that i'm trying to make merge look bad. again, I GRIND ON HERE EVERYDAY AND YES, I LIVE IN AMERICA SO ITS MY ONLY OPTION BESIDES BOVADA AND YES, I CONTINUE TO PLAY ON HERE DESPITE MY FEELINGS ABOUT THE GENERAL LACK OF SECURITY BECAUSE ITS THE ONLY OPTION THATS WORTH MY TIME AT ALL.

if you want to argue with me, please just PM me because i made this thread to get help fixing these problems not argue with people who have nothing better to do.