Pacific Poker Management Sucks

[sjay2k]

Dear Scott,

This is Russell M. from the Operations Department at Cassava (Gibraltar) Ltd.
Cassava (Gibraltar) Ltd operates "Pacific Poker".

I am contacting you in regards to your Pacific Poker account with username
"ScottyJ5".

Our bonus point's scheme in Pacific Poker is a great benefit that
we are happy to present to our members. This scheme is not targeted
towards expert poker players but rather to help the average player
overcome losing streaks.

Please notice that our Bonus Policy states that we reserve the right
at our sole discretion, to deny any bonus or promotion, or rescind
any policy in respect of that user, either temporarily or permanently.
Since you are a very successful poker player (as can be seen from
your total winnings), we have decided to stop bonus points from
being added to your account.

The current bonus points that you have in your account, can be
converted to money and placed into your bankroll until the 25th
of April 2006. From this date onwards, although your points
will keep accumulating, you will not be able to convert them.

Please note that this by no means will hurt any of your other
privileges as a successful player on our site - we congratulate
you on all your winnings and we hope to see you continue to prosper
in our poker community.


Regards,

Russell M.


I replied that I'd lost about $2000 in the past week (true) and asked for my bonus points to be re-instated or I'd leave the site. They replied...

Dear Scott,

I am Sally C from the Operations Department at Cassava Enterprises
Gibraltar Ltd., and I am writing in response to your email.

I can understand that you will be disappointed with our decision to
revoke the privileges concerning your bonus points. Please understand
that this decision has been made by our Managers, and is a business
decision that will not be rescinded. The amounts involved do pale in
comparison to the amount that you have profited from our site. For every
ten dollars that you wager, you receive one bonus point. One hundred
bonus points can be converted back to one dollar. Therefore one point
equates to one cent. For every dollar that you wager on our tables, a
tenth of one cent of this dollar could be converted to real money.

We offer this bonus conversion facility as a helper for our less
successful players. It is a psychological safety net, whereby if they
lose a dollar they are not losing everything, and can convert these
points back to bankroll funds. However it is not the case that you need
this extra incentive to continue with our site, and so we have decided
to remove this privilege from your account.

We do acknowledge that you are a very active member on our site and hope
that you can choose to remain so under these new conditions. Please note
that as we consider the matter closed further correspondence regarding
this issue will not be entered into.

Kind Regards,

Sally C


LOL, so harsh.

[nflchad]

wow.

[bunny]

I left them as soon as I cleared my bonus and I felt as though they ripped me off by not giving me my point converting money.

They more or less sent me same letter. I think if you profit while playing there they remove your extra bonus points. In their letter to me, it said....since I was earning a bonus already and had tripled my deposit, the extra bonus didn't apply to me. Total BS, is you ask me.

[jillaj]

So they basically want good players who produce rake to leave? Sounds like a great business decision. I would consider my account closed there too.

[bunny]

Seems that's what they're doing, but not realizing it. They don't want to give their bonus points which are converted to real money to players already making money. They want to give them to those "losing players" as an incentive to stay and keep playing.

AT least sjak got some money out of it, even if it was for a short time. I received nothing. Had hundreds of points, but wasn't allowed to convert them to money.

[Talking Poker]

Hundreds of points equals what? Cents? Wouldn't 1000 points = $1, according to what was written above? Big freaking deal.

sjay - If I were you, I'd leave. I know there are tons of fish at Pacific (which is obviously what they are trying to do by rewarding the bad players and punishing the good players), but I'd leave based on principle. I'm sure you generate MUCH more rake for them than they were paying you in bonus money, so take your business elsewhere. Party (for example) has tons of fish and very profitable limit games. PM pshabi and see if he can hook you up.

[bunny]

Just went to check my points. It was a few hundred when I started but when I ended and cleared my bonus, I was up to exactly .....9486. Not a big deal of money to convert, but if they promote it why shouldn't I be allowed to receive it?

ps. to TalkingPoker: Ninety four hundred? or Nine thousand 4 hundred... Still not much but it's $9 and it's mine.

[Talking Poker]

Good luck with that.

BTW, 3,000,000 is 30,000 hundreds, but normal people would refer to that as "millions," and not "hundreds."

[GTDawg]

Just to let you guys know, I have Eleventy Threve points and I'm going to be converting them to $Texas by the end of the week.

*back to reading the chalkboard*

[2Tone]

Of all of the weird business practices out there by the various sites, this one strikes me as on the strangest. A conscious and deliberate policy to penalize players who are doing well on your site? How can that strike Pacific as a good idea? No matter how many bonuses you offer losing players, many of them are eventually going to quit, increasing your churn. Meanwhile, by alienating your long-term customers, you've encouraging them to leave as well, costing you real money. Genius!

[bunny]

Oh lordy, you don't say hundreds to refer to millions. LOL

It works (normally) well up until thousands.