Poker Account Vigilance

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December hasn’t been a great month economically, though I’ll do the final tally tomorrow and post as usual. That said, I’ve had more than decent success in the past 10 days in qualifiers.

Last Saturday, I came second in a qualifier that paid only the top two spots, and I won an entry into the weekly big Sunday tournament. I played, didn’t take notes (which is why I didn’t post), and finished in 484th out of 832. Not a good result.

That same Sunday, I won another qualifier, which only paid the winner. I rarely win tournaments, though I often cash, so winning was very gratifying. Since I already had won a seat for that week, I didn’t check my account for the automatic deposit of TDs (Tournament Dollars), which is what I would use to enter a future event without deducting any cash from my account.

In the few years that I have been playing online poker, I have never had a problem with these automatic credits. They are always there, period. So, on Friday, when I checked for my 215 TDs (each TD represents a real dollar, and the entry fee into the Sunday big one is $215), I was absolutely shocked to see no TDs in my account. I instantly wrote to them, and it took over 24 hours (and another frantic communication from me) to get someone to finally put the TDs in my account.

So, they did the right thing, but if I hadn’t checked, I wouldn’t have known until I needed to use them, and it would likely have been too late for that night (though I’m sure they would have made it right for a future event).

Every few months, they do a fantastic promotion. On the Saturday before the big tourney, they run their usual array of tournaments. However, on the special day (yesterday was one of them!) everyone who makes the final table (top 10 finishers) in 16 different tournaments, gets a free entry into the Sunday big one.

What makes it special, is that you also get the normal cash prize you would otherwise have gotten. Normal qualifiers are just the entry, so you pay to get into the qualifier, and if you win, your entry fee into the qualifier is your entry into the big one.

So, I entered a few of the tournaments during the day. I cashed in three of them, and finished in ninth (final table!) in one of them. So, I made money on the day, as well as winning another entry. Again, I saw no TDs, and I wasn’t automatically entered into the tournament (that had never happened before either!).

So, I wrote again last night. Today, we drove to VA to spend New Year’s Eve with our friends. When we got here, I logged on and saw that they entered me into the tournament. Cool. They did the right thing.

But, before we left NY, our friends said we were having dinner in tonight, so I knew I could play. When we got here, they said we were going for dinner to another couple’s house, so now I wouldn’t be able to play, or I would be anti-social. No problem (I thought). I’ll just unregister, and get the 215 TDs. So, I did.

When I checked my account, no new TDs. Oh oh, here we go again. I immediately wrote to support again, in a bit of a panic, because there was only one hour to the tournament starting time. If yesterday’s deal was use it or lose it, I needed to be reinstated, and be anti-social.

When I checked again five minutes later, I saw that I was credited with $215 in cash! Wow, that’s even sweeter than the TDs, not that I intend to withdraw the cash. Again, the site did the right thing.

Still, the point of this post is to say that you have check your poker account regularly, to make sure that everything that you expect to happen to it is actually happening. In my case, alls well that ends well, but only due to my vigilance!