[chipper57AA]

Poker Stars suddenly froze last night around 8:15pm Mountain time. All tournament tables froze then unfroze then froze again over and over.

Finally the Admin made an announcement that there were problems and that they would notify everyone what was going to happen in a few minutes. Still waiting for word.

I'm stuck on a SnG table with just 2 people left. I'm already in the money and in the chip lead and now I might lose my winnings! This bites.....

Anyone else fall victim to the freeze up?

[NanaBanana]

Originally Posted by chipper57AA

Poker Stars suddenly froze last night around 8:15pm Mountain time. All tournament tables froze then unfroze then froze again over and over.

Finally the Admin made an announcement that there were problems and that they would notify everyone what was going to happen in a few minutes. Still waiting for word.

I'm stuck on a SnG table with just 2 people left. I'm already in the money and in the chip lead and now I might lose my winnings! This bites.....

Anyone else fall victim to the freeze up?

I did - but seeing as how it was my first time to log on and actually play - it was no big deal for me. It was frozen when I logged on, and after waiting a bit, I gave up! But, I can see that it would be the pits for anyone in the middle of a game, and in the chip lead! Bummer!!!


BaNaNa

[daveyboy]

I was just registered for a free roll tournament (Monday evening) and could not get in game because of some problems with the site. Bummer man.

[chipper57AA]

Last thing Poker Stars said before going down was:

"We will restart the servers in next 10 minutes; All tournaments will be cancelled and rolled forward - accounting for chip count for each player."

Now the servers are down and message says they are on "scheduled" maintenance until 23:50 Eastern time.

So if any of you think you are going to be out some money - document what you know and send off to support@pokerstars.com

I'm sure they are having their hands full at the moment.

[hunterking]

yeah i was in 1st place in a 3-table sitngo w/12 people left when it froze up... now it's saying 30 minutes and the engineers will have it fixed... yeah right, just like that "few minutes" that turned into an hour before they booted everyone. i was watching the # of people online, and >38,000 folks had logged off before they booted everyone. chipper did you understand the vague statement they gave about moving forward and rolling over the tourneys?

hk

[chipper57AA]

chipper did you understand the vague statement they gave about moving forward and rolling over the tournies?

According to another player that was in my chat window, Poker Stars standard policy for cancelled tournaments is to refund the buy-in.

Don't take that for an answer, especially if you were already in the money!

I sent in screenshots showing standings and chip counts. I asked for a split. One player (3rd place) was already knocked out and he got his money already but the 1st and 2nd place haven't gotten anything yet.

Even though I was a 3-to-1 chip lead on the 2nd place guy I agreed to a split. This is hoping to by-pass the Stars default refund policy and try to get the money I had already qualified for.

Will keep you posted as to what their response is.

[chipper57AA]

Here is Poker Stars Official policy on cancelled tournaments (LONG).

TOURNAMENT CANCELLATION

If PokerStars has to cancel a tournament for any reason, we make a concerted effort to compensate players in the fairest and most equitable way possible. There are three different possible compensation methods, depending on the exact circumstances and timing of the cancellation:

Rollback

In this case, we are "rolling back" the tournament - if you were registered for the tournament, you get your buy-in and fees (including re-buys and add-ons, if any) refunded. Also, the buy-in is refunded in exactly the same format with which you bought in. For instance, if you bought into a tournament using 10 T$ and $15 cash, then you would get back 10 T$ and $15 cash.

The other two scenarios are called "Roll Forward." That means that we are distributing the money from the tournament based at least partially on the results.


Roll Forward (no players in the money)

If a tournament is cancelled and we do a "roll forward" before the players are in the money, we refund each remaining player his entry fee, and then divide up the prize pool based on the following formula:

# 50% of the award pool is distributed evenly among all remaining players
# 50% of the award pool is distributed proportionally according to the chip count

Here's an example:

You were in a ($30+$3) buy-in tournament (with rebuys). There were initially 200 players, and with rebuys, the total prize pool was $9000. Suppose at the time of cancellation there were 100 players remaining, and your chip count was 37,500. The total chips in play were 300,000.

Prize pool to be divided equally: $ 9,000.00/2 = $4,500.00
Prize pool to be divided based on chip count: $ 9,000.00/2 = $4,500.00

Your share in money equally divided: $4,500.00/100 = $45.00
Your share based on chip count: $4,500.00 x (37,500/300,000) = $562.50
Your entry fee refunded: $3.00
Total money refunded to your account: $610.50

Note that if you bust out before the tournament is cancelled, you receive no refund.

When we do a "roll forward", all refunds are in cash (not T$ or W$).


Roll forward (players are in the money)

When a tournament is cancelled, and players have already reached the money, we refund each remaining player his tournament fee, and then divide up the prize pool based on the following formula:

# Each player receives the minimum prize not yet awarded at the time of cancellation
# The remainder of the award pool distributed is distributed proportionally according to the chip count

Here's an example:

When the tournament was cancelled, there were 15 players remaining, and your chip count was 37,500. The total chips in play were 300,000. The remaining prize pool was $11,000.00 and the minimum prize was $250.00.

Prize pool to be divided equally: $250.00 x 15 = $3,750.00
Prize pool to be divided based on chip count: $11,000.00 - $3,750.00 = $7,250.00

Your "minimum prize" share: $250.00
Your share based on your chip count: $7,250.00 x (37,500/300,000) = $906.25
Your entry fee refunded: $3.00
Total money refunded to your account: $1,159.25

Note that if you bust out before the tournament is cancelled, you receive no refund of your entry fee. Of course, if you placed in the money before the tournament was cancelled, you keep that money.


Heads-up sit-and-go tournaments

Heads-up sit and go tournaments (HU S&Gs) are handled differently because of their special nature. Particularly if one player stays connected while the other player does not, the first player can effectively win the tournament while the second player is disconnected. For that reason, we reserve the right to do a chip count distribution of any HU S&G that we believe was substantially affected by our site's down time.


Summary

We work very hard to avoid tournament cancellations, but we want to have a reasonable fair plan in place should such a cancellation be necessary. If you have any further questions about the tournament cancellation plan, please contact us at support@pokerstars.com.

So I probably WILL get some money out of this. But I'm still waiting on word.

[hunterking]

well, i was just able to log back in to pstars (finally), and the 2 tables where i was sitting opened up, but i am the only one not sitting out. there is a message that says, "players are now on break." hmmm...

hk

[edit] now it says,"tournament cancelled due to technical reasons," too...
bleh... [/edit]

[edit2] now: "all tournaments that were stopped earlier were cancelled and rolled over. players were credited based on their chip counts." hey they really did that...sweet...[/edit2]

[edit3] in case anyone cares:

PokerStars Tournament #9197678, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $5.00/$0.50
27 players
Total Prize Pool: $135.00
Tournament started - 2005/06/20 - 21:14:00 (ET)

Dear hunterking,

Tournament #9197678 has been cancelled due to technical reasons.

When a tournament is cancelled before players are in the money, we refund
each player their tournament fee, and then divide up the prize pool based
on the following formula:

- 50% of the award pool distributed evenly between remaining players
- 50% of the award pool distributed proportionally according to the chip
count

At the time of cancellation there were 12 player remaining, and your chip
count was 6,046. Total chips in play were 40,500.

Prize pool to be divided equally: $135.00/2 = $67.50
Prize pool to be divided based on chip count: $135.00/2 = $67.50

Your share in money equally divided: $67.50/12 = $5.62
Your share based on chip count: $67.50 x (6,046/40,500) = $10.07
Your entry fee refunded: $0.50
Total money refunded to your account: $16.20

We apologize for the inconvenience.

The PokerStars Team

[/edit3]

[dad604]

That sounds fair.

[hunterking]

Originally Posted by dad604

That sounds fair.

i wouldn't have minded the $50 for 1st place though...

hk