Problems at Empire Poker? Links inside.
 

Just do a search for "Empire" and a bunch more will pop up.... I'm not taking a side here, but just some info for everyone... Draw your own conclusions...


Oh, and I asked for my money Tuesday night, Got it today TP....
Fucking Site.

It sounds as though most of the accounts have already been closed.

If you can login, I assume you're safe, and my account is good :D .

Yeah, Didn't want to start fearmongering, Just wanted to inform. :)

Ive been reading this... kind of worried about it.

I might actually pass on this reload. $100 isnt worth getting my account locked and having to go thru 2 weeks of shit to get my money. Also they have no phone number to call them and talk to them about it.

My account was closed today. 10:30AM. I only have 1 account there and most definitely did bonus whore. Apparently I won't be doing that anymore. (sarcasm to follow) I wish there were other online sites out there, now I can't play anywhere else....

Morons.

BB... did you try to deposit for the bonus then get your account locked or what?

Yes, more details please.

Were you signed up under and affiliate? Did you ONLY bonus whore there? How did you learn your account was closed? It it was via email, can you please post the email? I assume you also have a Party account... any other skins?

I'm not certain this applies, but this is straight from Empire's Promotion Terms and Conditions ():

1. As stated in the , you may have only one (1) account at EmpirePoker.com. The name on your EmpirePoker.com account must match your true and legal name and identity. If you have more than one (1) account or accounts in different names, then you must contact us immediately to have your accounts merged. If you have lost your Account Name or password, please contact us for a replacement. If we discover that you have more than one (1) account, we may close your accounts and confiscate your account balances. This is for security reasons.

Did they confiscate the $$$?

More details
 

I opened my Empire account perhaps a year ago. I already had a Party account and did the account signup from a clean machine as is per the norm.

I basically used Empire soley as a bonus chasing site. Deposit, reap, withdraw. I probably did this 3 to 4 times in the past 6 months.

The only notification I received was an email from this morning, BUT IT WASN'T FROM EMPIRE. The email was from IGM-PayPro indicating that my withdrawl request was in processing.

I made no request.

Even odder still was the amount, $5. I believe I had less than $1 in the account. Last week, I did receive the email about today's 1-day only bonus, so I was quite perplexed.

I went home at lunch and tried to logon and got the messagebox popup indicating my account was frozen and to call a certain number. I have as yet not called, nor do I plan to.

Also, I DID NOT deposit any cash there, however based on the timing of the email from IGM-PayPro, I bet I could have this morning and potentially have been screwed. That however, is just speculation at this point.

Crazy shit.

I was planning on getting Empire's bonus, but from the controversy at 2+2 and now this ... it does even seem worth it.

This seems like the perfect time to open a "NEW" account at EMPIRE.
Never got around to it...

OK. TP, I downloaded from your link and set up an account....
When I finish with the STARS bonus I'll put some cash in to Empire...

Wait, but if you already have an account, you might get burned.

Good luck. Should be interesting to see how this goes.

I wonder what's actually going on. From what BB wrote, sounds like they are out to get the bonus-only people... ie, people who play at Party primariyl, and bonus whore only at empire.

Just a guess.

If I already had an account.

And a pretty good one at that. ;)

I've only ever whored, and had no problem yet.

I took the day off and am halfway to 1000 hands already :D .

Unless the Party account factors in, because I play some hands there daily regardless.

I got booted
 

I've used Empire for a couple of months, only doing bonuses and then cashing out. I tried to log on the other day and was told that "Your account has been temporarily frozen" or something like that. I got the same $5 cashout request thing today (also pretty sure I had less than a dollar in there). So I guess I won't be using Empire anymore.

Good thing you have a cool $50 in your Stars account right now.

. ;)

Well, I only signed up right before the previous reload, so this is only the third time I have whored their site.

As said before though, I have had no problem thus far, and perhaps will simply leave a $100 in there and play a few raked hands from time to time just so I can still take advantage of their bonuses.

I'm sweating a little here, but if they tried to take my $200 + $100 bonus, I'll simply threaten to pull my Party account. I know they won't want to piss me off because I play at least 20 hands there a day and usually carry a balance over $500 on that particular site.

I'll keep everyone posted. I should have this bonus cleared by Thursday or Saturday at the latest, so hopefully I don't run into any problems.

Without sounding like a prick, I don't think your threats to Party will have any weight. Only because they have 60,000 other people playing there. They don't have to cater to anyone's needs.

Bullshit.

I already got comped $50 two different times at Party two different times for complaining.

One was when all of those January bonuses were coming out and I couldn't get any of them to work. I didn't even threaten to pull the account and they comped me.

Then, when Kkirk made the illegal transfer to me and his funds were frozen, I threatened to close my account and they comped me there.

They want to keep people happy.

Yes, they want to keep people happy, but they are also closing accounts (this is certainly not making people happy). I agree with BB. They aren't going to care about a guy who plays 20 hands a day... At an average rake of $1 per hand and 10 players, that's $2 a day out of their pockets (max). I think they'll be ok.

Geoff would have to play for 50 days for them to just break even on a single $100 bonus they give him at Empire.

you're right

You da man.

I disagree.

I said at least 20 raked hands a day. That would normally bubble to over 400 on the weekends, and if I'm not chasing a bonus, I will always play at their site solely.

With that being said, I was also comped by them before. Now it was only $12, but by all means they could have just given me $3 (remember that post). Seems like peanuts, but they DO indeed want to keep their players happy.

When I was comped at the time, they also looked into my bonus status and this is when I was still clearing the April reload at the time. Stacked on top of that was the COMPBONUS which I never should have gotten. They could have easily removed that bonus from my account but instead said nothing about it.

As well, me playing so much on their site, they obviously know I have many other friends playing on that site that would just as quickly pull their money if I was screwed.

Believe me, I use to work in customer service and customers always seem to think this is the case, but they will value 1 customer just the same, and would not want to lose any future business I may bring to their site.

Edited to add: They know the online poker sites are popping up daily, and they have tons of competition. Would they want to lose a player that plays a high volume of hands simply because I am making a couple of bucks from their sister site? I guarantee that answer would be NO.

Maximizing for the house
 

At first I wasn’t very concerned with this, assuming they were weeding out dual account holders and the like. But the 2+2 posts grew and grew, and it has become apparent they closed large number (I wonder what the scale really is – hundreds? thousands?) of accounts of players who simply took advantage of every possible bonus, which is exactly what I do at Party. And that sounds pretty ominous.

If certain promotions cost your money than you make, don’t run ‘em anymore. If you want to run bonuses for some players and not others, make them account specific. That’s fine too. But to close the accounts of loyal customers who have done nothing but take you up on offers that you emailed them in the first place is unfair.

I do believe this may be incorrect.
I don't think they have done anything of the sort.

Well, I wouldn't exactly use the term "loyal", but I was an affiliate for them with a big banner add on my web page.

I still think this is bad business and short term thinking.

It's similar to preventing anybody who's used coupons or rebates from buying retail items.

I don't agree with the move at all. (If indeed this is why they were closing accounts, which it seems it is.)
But, as it stands, this is what is happening....
I am inclined to believe that PartyPoker has had more to do with this than you think (flexing their muscle).

I agree with you Chip.

But why then wouldn't Party close down accounts of whores as well? Makes no sense, they run a reload every month and I'm sure there are a ton of people that only play during that reload period.

Perhaps these accounts being closed has something to do with Party knowing these people have accounts at both sites and these people are merely flip-flopping their money back and forth getting bonuses and not playing in non-bonus period.

Not sure
 

If this is true, and the only people who are having accounts closed do indeed have accounts on both sites, I'm not worried. And it's hard to get upset about that -- while it was great while it lasted, it's not unfair to stop giving people continual reloads on the same money.

But at least some people are saying their accounts were closed solely for playing during the bonus periods only.


If true, that strikes me as bogus -- no fair offering something, and then penalizing people who take advantage of it without advance notice.

Has anyone actually followed up with Empire??
 

I was wondering if anyone had actually contacted Empire regarding this?

I believe there are two people on this string that have had their accounts closed - and both got this message. I have not noticed that anyone has actually called to find out what was going on - badblood specifically said he would NOT call (as a side question - why is that?).

There seems to be more people that have not had their Empire accounts closed that use Empire and Party than have had their account closed.

It also seems as though your money won't get stuck in there, as they pointed out in one email to a fellow that his account was at $0 when it was closed.

I'm not worried about this bonus, but as I said, I think I'll play a few hours a month on their site just so I can still take advantage of these bonuses in the future, even though a 10X bonus is the norm among all sites. I just like the fact it counts the raked hands for you.

I'm sure we'll hear more about this at some time in the near future though, but for now anyone who hasn't been closed yet appears to be safe.

Edited to add: I wonder if COMPBONUS will work there :D ?

Because I already know the answer. I've read the 2+2 forum and bonuswhore.com forums and know exactly what to expect. I feel it would be wasted effort on my part to even try to get at the bottom of this issue. My reason for not calling has nothing to do with any shady practices on my part, just a personal penchant for not wasting time.

I didnt think it was 'shady practices' - i just figured you weren't calling out of frustration or something, was just wondering if there was more to the story.

I think they are using shady practices.

I somehow managed to drop 25 BB in about an hour last night. Thank goodness for the bonus, I should still be able to make a little profit.

i am getting hammered too
 

I have been getting crushed chasing this bonus too.

Empire is lagging
 

Just a comment on Empire. I used to play there ALL THE TIME. I find though that they suck. The MTTs and freerolls and special features are not even close to Party. Now they hassel you, etc.. I see this as spelling the end of Empire. I really think they just do not get it.

Even their bonus is nothing to brag about, 10X. Every other site is like that, except for Party. If anything I think that it should have been Party that got more strict. Makes no sense to me.