Doyles Poker Room used to be a favorite site of mine back about three years ago until they stopped letting US players on their site. Last year I found out that they were accepting US players again. I signed up again, deposited some money and starting playing. I later found out that some players were blocked by the request of various states in the US.
Doyles Room blocked players by using the IP addresses of that player’s states. This has happened to a couple of my “buddies” at Doyles Poker Room.
Now Doyles Poker has upgraded their software as a result of joining the Cake Poker network. This site also accepts US players.
The transition did not go smoothly for me. I lost my $15.62 balance during the transfer and Dolyes Room was not very helpful in resolving the issue. It is the principal and not the the amount of money.
From January 30th until February 2nd, I sent them four emails requesting that they resolve the issue. They answered me twice and both times with the same answer. “Log in and you will see your balance”. Well, I have logged in at least 10 times since then and each time I see a zero balance. So much for service and dependability. I can take a hint.
Several years ago when Doyles Room blocked US players, they locked me out and took away my balance. I never got it back.
I don’t know why I thought things would be different this time. In spite of having Doyles backing, they have done it again.
What was I thinking?
Even Doyle Brunson said in a book about internet poker, that you should be very careful about the sites that you join. He further said that a player should make a modest deposit and then in a few days, request a modest withdrawal to see how the sites respond. This way, he said, you could protect your mini bankroll at that site.
Well, I bought and read the book a few years ago. A lot of good that did me. It did not cover what can happen when a site joins another poker network.
But from now on, when signing up on a new online site and before depositing any large amounts, I will take the time to make a test deposit of say $50 and a test withdrawal of $25.
In any case, my plan is to maintain no more than three sessions worth of money in any one site at any time. When I earn more than that amount, I will withdraw it to protect myself from these types of challenges. Also, whenever I learn that there is a major change such as what happened to Doyles Room, I have decided that I should request a nearly total withdrawal, leaving $1 just in case. This is a case of do as “Doyle says” and not what I did.
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